The Jewish Nation of Mongols

by Boris Zubry

  The most significant component of the country was the desert-like prairie or the steppes with somewhat limited natural fresh water resources in most areas. That was one of the reasons why the Mongols were Nomads for thousands of years. They would stay in one place only for as long as the area could support them and their animals. When the game, fish, grass, water, and the trees went down to a dangerous level, they would move on. There always were places left alone for long enough to regenerate the natural resources, and every tribe protected its own territory. That was the self-preservation technique employed ever since the beginning. One had to know precisely where the water wells and the grass were before starting an adventure. Every tribe had a guide whose job was to lead. The professional guides were driving the caravans through the Silk Road and the Mongolian steppes often because of that knowledge. They knew the places and understood the clues better than anyone else. Agreements between the tribes and regulations were followed religiously if one wanted to survive the trade and not to be traded for survival. Death and often violent were not strangers in the Mongolian steppes, and the punishments for violations were always severe. That was the lesson to the others as well. The local customs had to be obeyed with no questions asked. Yet, questions were often asked, and that usually led to the armed conflicts. Thus, many had died when that happened.

  Environment, hardship, nature, armed conflicts, climate, and the self-preservation controlled the average age of survival, automatically limiting the levels of the population. Before the urbanization, the average age was higher than after, and population grows was just 1.43%. The policies of the former Communist regime promoted the rapid urbanization and the industrial growth throughout the country that had extremely adverse effects on the environment. Things were changing too fast for the Mongols to adopt and the society suffered. Burning of soft coal in multiple power plants and the lack of environmental regulations (while in place) enforcement severely polluted the air in Ulaanbaatar and other cities. Deforestation, overgrazing, water overuse, and the converting of virgin land to agricultural production had increased the soil erosion from often winds and rain. The Mongolian steppes were chocking lacking fresh air and water. And, the desertification and mining activities had a deleterious effect on the environment; thus, quality of life in the cities and the steppes. Mongolia was changing its face and the attractiveness for the Mongols rapidly. Tough was becoming tougher and fast. Many were immigrating, and even more, were planning to do so.

  Present Mongolia consisted of twenty-one aymguud (provinces) and one hot (municipality). They are Arhangay, Bayanhongor, Bayan-Olgiy, Bulgan, Darhan Uul, Dornod, Dornogovi, Dundgovi, Dzavhan, Govi-Altay, Govi-Sumber, Hentiy, Hovd, Hovsgol, Omnogovi, Orhon, Ovorhangay, Selenge, Suhbaatar, Tov, Ulaanbaatar (municipality), Uvs. The flag is three equal, vertical bands of red (hoist side), blue, and red. Centered on the hoist-side red band in yellow is the national emblem – “soyombo” (a columnar arrangement of abstract and geometric representation for fire, sun, moon, earth, water, and the yin-yang symbol). The population of Mongolia is about 2.2 million people, with about 60% living in towns and cities. And the towns mostly look like the Soviet era poorly ran developments, and one must see it to appreciate the statement. Even though it’s a small country with minimal resources, they improve the leftover Soviet horror with speed often matching the desire.

  Soon, the Mongolian identity would be fully restored throughout the country. Even though the Mongols may keep a few ugly things just to remind how great it was in the Socialist camp and Socialism should never be again. The Soviet Union was the biggest Union of them all, and one could still see it here and there. After being forced to unite for so long, everyone was enjoying the liberation much even if they were still poor. The real Mongolian identity is not there yet, but the entire country was working very hard to establish it. The small beginnings of it could be seen already here and there, mostly there, but its growing, spreading out. The whole country and the whole people were experiencing pains of being born and growing again. It was not easy, but the Mongols wanted to ascertain their lives using the experiences and the traditions of the ancestors multiplied by the coefficient of the present and modern practices. They may still have the know-how, even if only on the genetic levels. Genes were such a powerful device. In short, Mongols wanted to be Mongols. That is why they wanted freedom and fought for it unselfishly. Do they have to be as the rest of the world? Maybe all you should be is yourself. That could be the best, but then, we do not really know.

  This little country was permanently squeezed between the mighty power of Russia and the overpopulated power of China. There was a time when small Mongolia ruled both, but that time was gone. Russia and China went through some ups and downs and came out as even greater powers than before. And, Mongolia came out of centuries of fighting and dictating the world as a little country squeezed between the mighty powers. For five hundred years, they ruled half of the known world, and now, they had problems governing even themselves. What a sad story for Mongolia and the Mongols, and what a glorious tale for Russia and China. The giant prevailed again. Bleeding profusely, they won in the end. What was left for Mongolia after the centuries of dividing? No significant waterways were leading in or out of Mongolia. Mongols did not enjoy access to the sea or the ocean ports. They could not move freely around the world or even to the neighboring countries. There only was and continued to be the Silk Road and the still booming economy along its way. Why is the Silk Road? Why it has been so permanently attached to the Mongols, and still is so vital for the economy of Mongolia?

  The region unraveling China and the Indochina from Europe and Western Asia was not the friendliest and the most hospitable territory in the world. Much of it was permanently claimed up by the Taklimakan desert. That is a vast region of the sand desert that stretches out over several hundred thousand square miles sitting in the depression between two high, rugged mountain ranges in the Xinjiang Region of Northwest China. The Taklimakan desert is one of the most hostile environments on our planet, and we have a few. There was very little, almost non-existent, vegetation there and virtually no rainfall. A few drops a year did not count. It was not a very good place to be. The sandstorms were very common there and have claimed the lives of countless people attempting to travel there over the centuries. The locals have very high respect for this “Land of Death,” and only a few travelers in the past have had anything good to say about it. What good was there? Nothing was there, but sand and more sand. It covers a vast area, through which only a few roads pass. Caravans of traders, warriors, and the dignitaries throughout history preferred to skirt its edges, from one remote oasis to the next.

  The climate there was harsh and very dry. In the summer, the daytime temperatures were in the 40's C. Temperatures greater than 50 degrees Centigrade often measured in the sub-sea leveled basin of Turfan (the landmark Buddhist center before being converted to Islam in the 8th century). In winter, the temperatures dip below -20 degrees Centigrade and are accompanied by the all-penetrating mighty wind. The wind is strong, continuous, and full of power. Desert-like temperatures soar in the sun but drop very rapidly at dusk. The shift in temperatures is quite noticeable and very demanding, and one cannot hide from it. The sandstorms there are very common, and particularly dangerous due to the lengths of storms, the strength of the winds, and the nature of the surface. The surface is rock, clay, and more sand that offers very little protection. It is hard to hide from the sand storm, and breathing presents an issue due to the strongest wind filled with the sand. Unlike the Gobi Desert, where there were a relatively large number of oases and water could be found not too far below the surface, the Taklimakan has much sparser resources and less hospitable accommodations. If you did not know precisely where to look for water, you might never find it. It was not really hiding it; it just did not have it.

  The land adjacent to the Taklimakan Desert was equally daunting. To the northeast of the Taklimakan, lies the Gobi Desert, almost as unforgiving in cli
mate and the conditions as the Taklimakan itself and, on the remaining three sides of the Taklimakan, lay some of the highest mountains in the world. To the South of the desert were the Himalaya, Karakorum, and the Kunlun ranges providing an effective barrier separating Central Asia from the Indian sub-continent. That’s what affects mostly the weather conditions in the region. If not for those mountains and their height, it could be a paradise. Only a few known icy passes cross these mountain ranges, and they are some of the most difficult in the world to overtake, but so desired. These passes typically are to be found over 5000 meters in altitude and are dangerously narrow and slippery, with precipitous drops into deep ravines. To the north and the west, one will find the Tian Shan, and Pamir mountain ranges. Though greener and not as high, the passes crossing these natural barriers have still provided more than enough problems for the adventurous travelers of the past. Lives were challenged, and lives were lost yet, many were still trying. For some, it was a matter of survival, a question of life, and for the others, it was just a game. The least difficult entry to this vicinity is from the east along the “Gansu Corridor,” a relatively fertile strip of land running along the base of the Qilian Mountains. This corridor is separating the great Mongolian plateau and the Gobi from the Tibetan High Plateau. It’s a hard rout, but it could be managed with fewer demands than the others. The others mostly could not be managed at all. If one comes from the west or the south, the only way in is over the dangerous and most difficult passes. It was a tough place to visit, and it was not much easier to leave.

  The region, for centuries, was controlled by the Chinese Empire on the East and by the Persian Empire on the West. In 330 B.C., Alexander the Great of Macedonia finally conquered and occupied the Iranian Empire and the surrounding territories. He colonized this region superimposing the culture of the Greeks of the time on the Asians. Did it work? Some say yes and very much so. Although he ruled the area only until 325 B.C., the effect of the Greek invasion was quite considerable. The Greek language was brought to the region and somewhat enforced. Greek mythology and customs were introduced and widely accepted. The aesthetics of Greek art were merged with the ideas coming from the Indian kingdoms. Thus, a separate and quite notable local school of art emerged. The new culture was in the making. By the third century B.C., the area had already become the crossroads of Asia, where best of the Persian, Indian, and the Greek ideas met and quickly flourished. It is believed by many, but not proven yet, that residents of the Hunza valley in the Karakorum district were the direct descendants of the army of Alexander. It very well may be. It also may apply to some other areas as well. Have you seen the blue and the grey eyes of so many? Have you seen the facial features of men and women there? Yes, the Greeks could make a considerable deposit to the bloodline of these people, and most likely they did. Who can really tell what happened, when, and where? Still, so many things did happen. The Karakorum Highway on its long journey from Pakistan over to Kashgar now trails this valley, and it clearly indicates how close to the Taklimakan Alexander may have gotten. He could’ve been right in the midst of it. We know that he was leaving the Greek garrisons along the way, and they stayed there for years. Alexander did come to this neighborhood, left a deep impression on people residing there, and that’s a historical fact. We do not argue that at all? We just do not know the real depth of that impression. It could be even more profound than we ever thought. Alexander the Great and the Greeks were remembered there as the ancestors, who modified, if not created, the agriculture, architecture, art, and most of the modern crafts. It is known that art in this region was minimal before Alexander’s exploits. It was not developed to any artistic degree yet. Back then, even the Buddhist Gods had not attributed the human characters and the human features yet. Their faces were not human; however, not divine already. They were still the pure gods that could not be understood at all. Only the human characteristics of the Gods could provide some insides. Buddha did not have the face or the body until then, and he was present everywhere being everything at the same time. Some statues of Buddha we see now may bear a great resemblance with Hercules, Achilles, and/or Alexander of Macedonia, or any other Greek of that time. That was very likely because, in sculptures, Buddha looks more European than Asian. And, his clothes… Look at it closely. Is he wearing the Greek toga? Was Alexander the Buddha God for the locals? He very well could be. He was powerful enough, and the imagination could add the rest. War or no war, invaders or not, they were full of imagination. Get closer, closer, and look at the statue again. Put your glasses on. What do you see? The curly hair, the straight Greek nose, the toga-like clothes - Buddha does not really look like a Hindu or anyone living down the Silk Road. He is not a Hindu or a Chinese, or a Mongol. Buddha was not like so many people in Central Asia. Then, did he really come from there? No, Buddha was not from anywhere here. He looks more European or, let us say, Greek. The philosophy attributed to him was not purely Hindu. Was all that the most profound impression, the understanding, of the Greeks?

  This ancient “crossroads” region, covering the area to the south of the Hindu Kush and Karakorum ranges, now Pakistan and Afghanistan, was overrun time and time again by many different tribes, armies, and peoples. After the Greeks, the tribes from Palmyra, in Syria and then Parthia to the east of the Mediterranean, fought overtaking the region as a price. Fighting and wars were the way of life back then, but is it much better now. These people were less sophisticated than the Greeks, but as demanding, if not more. And, nonetheless, they adopted the Greek culture, language, and the coin system in this province introducing their own limited but strong influences in the fields of architecture, sculpture, crafts, and art. The novel mixed culture was born in pain of bloody conflicts, and it was flourishing fast.

  Close (what is a few hundred years for the history of the ancient land) on the heels of the Parthians, came the Yuezhi people from the Northern borders of the Taklimakan. The Yuezhi had been driven from their traditional home on the North by the powerful Xiongnu tribe. The Xiongnu tribe was later known as the Huns that finally ignored the Yuezhi and the other local attractions and shifted their attention towards Europe and then, settling in Northern India. Their colorful descendants became the Kushan people, and in the first century A.D., they moved into this crossroads area, bringing their adopted Buddhist religion with them. Like the other numerous tribes before them, the Kushan people espoused much of the Greek system that resided in the region already and soon, were absorbed by the neighborhood melting pot. Oh, the melting pot was going strong often, boiling over. The product of this marriage of such different cultures was the Gandhara society situated in what is now known as the Peshawar region of Northwest Pakistan. This fused Greek and the Buddhist art into a unique form of the heavily Germanized Buddhism that was in some cases, more Greek than Buddhism. The more one studies Buddhism, the more one can see the roots and the similarities. And, the Greek culture was older and more forceful or influential. It was well established and mature when Buddhism was just a baby. The Kushan people were the first to show Buddha in the human form building monasteries with statues and monuments of Buddha. Before this time, the Buddhist artists had preferred symbols such as the footprints Stupas. The Buddhist monuments traditionally containing relics of Buddha or the tree of enlightenment. It was done either out of the sense of sacrilege or merely to avoid the persecution (that existed at the time and still exist even now), or it could be the lack of artistic skills, imagination, and/or the concepts. Art without ideas is only a craft. In short, Buddha was not a person before the Greeks arrived and changed the mental landscape of the locals. Still, the Greek influence was so strong that the change started to happen relatively fast. Buddha was humanized within just a few years after the Greek invasion, and maybe that was the real reason for the new religion to become popular and spread out that fast.