CULTURE
Contemporary cultural life
in Mongolia is a unique amalgam of traditional elements—the
heritage of centuries—and a growing modern element.
Mongolia did not achieve a
cohesive culture until the 20th century, when it became an independent
nation. Only a few remnants of ancient cultures exist, including
Stone Age campsites, and much of Mongolia’s traditional
folklore has been lost with succeeding generations. The Republic
of Mongolia has tried to establish a national culture and has
sponsored drama, art schools, and a state theater of music and
drama. Mongolian literature is rich and epic in form.
Mongolian literature evolved
a wealth of traditional genres: heroic epics, legends, tales,
yurol , and magtaal , as well as a host of proverbial sayings.
These genres are infused by what Mongols regard as a national
characteristic—a good-humoured love of life, with particular
fondness for witty sayings and jokes, particularly evident in
the image of Dalan Khuldalchi, the hero of humorous folktales,
and in the stories about the badarchins, clever but wily wandering
monks. The baatar—the popular hero of folk legend—is
also a symbolic figure. Khurchins—folk poets and singers—carried
down the oral epics and ballads; and their mime and gesture gave
rise to the popular trenchant satirical vaudevilles, Sumya Noyon
and Dunkher Da-Lam. The religious mysteries, tsam and maidari,
were formerly staged as mass spectacles. Other folk arts include
the making of shirdeg, richly ornamented felt carpets noted as
adorning the entrances to yurts by 13th-century European travelers.
The Mongolian form of chess, shatar, with a stern khan for king,
a dog—the cattle breeder's traditional honoured friend—as
queen, and a camel as a bishop, has very deep roots and has produced
some finely carved chess sets.
