Christravelblog

5.00 Netherlands - 03-Jun-24 -

VISIT: LATE NOVEMBER 2023

Mongolia in winter? It was not my initial plan, but when my business trip to Beijing got rescheduled from early October to late November, I had no choice. Ok, I had a choice, but I wanted to visit Mongolia. Period. Mongolia is a huge country, and visiting the various WHS in one trip would take a lot of time, so I decided to visit two in a total of 3 days (plus, of course, arrival and departure days): the Orkhon Valley and the Deer Stone Monuments. The Deer Stone Monuments were inscribed in 2023, and their locations were well documented with good maps at UNESCO. There are many more Deer Stones in Mongolia, though. From the 3 locations, the Uushigiin Övör site would be easy if driving west from Ulaanbaatar, and the other two, Jargalantyn Am (two sites) and Khoid Tamir Valley, from Tsetserleg. In summer, Jargalantyn (actually the most important for locals) would be easy, but in winter, it's too far from Tsetserleg, so I chose Khoid Tamir Valley. I didn't know what to expect as information online is very scarce.

The only way to get to the Deer Stones is by private transport. In winter, do not attempt it solo (in summer it is easy), and take a local with you. It's best to go with two cars in winter to save time if you get stuck, which happened twice to me. So really take care if you go in winter. From Ulaanbaatar to Karakorum, the highway is paved and cleared of snow, but it will take more time after fresh snowfall. The same applies from Karakorum to Tsetserleg, but it's less often cleared. It took a full day to get to Tsetserleg with a visit to Orkhon Valley. I stayed 2 nights in Tsetserleg. From Tsetserleg, one has to drive to Ikh-Tamir first, which is paved except for the mountain pass. The latter is problematic as it simply closes if there is too much fresh snow. I was lucky it opened around 10 AM to pass. In Ikh-Tamir (get to about here: 47°35'37.1"N 101°12'48.3"E), it is about 15 kilometers off-road along the river. (NOTE: the road continues, partially paved now as well, to Jargalantyn Am, which in summer could be done as a very long day trip, but in winter, it is impossible and also no real option to stay anywhere).

The first 10 kilometers were very smooth, and the last 5 could have been if I hadn’t taken the wrong turn. (at 47°40'18.3"N 101°18'41.4"E keep RIGHT, do not go left between the mountains in winter!!! In summr is OK). The road follows the valley river on the left side, and before the Deer Stones location, there is a mountain on the left. Behind that mountain is another valley. In summer, one can take a left before the mountain and just drive around. In winter, this was a bad choice. At some point, the road tracks were difficult to follow. I had to make new tracks, which ended up in a ditch, and got completely stuck with the car. After trying to get out, which didn’t work, the best option would have been to walk to the nomad camp that was just a kilometer or two away. Luckily, a car driving the same way saw me and came to the rescue. It was a police officer, and he helped get the car free.

It took another 30 minutes to finally reach the first Deer Stone (you have to get to here: 47°44'45.1"N 101°21'37.1"E). Yes, the first, as there are about two dozen at the Khoid Tamir valley (see the map on the UNESCO site; the dots and points are accurate). You cannot miss them as they are clearly visible in the landscape. These Deer Stones deserve to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site. They are beautifully carved with amazing colors and figures, I had several wow moments there. I didn't see any actual deer, but the nomads who made this must have! There are also various burial mounds that surround the Deer Stones, these piles of rocks are clearly visible once there. Up the mountain, there must be some rock art as well but as this would be covered in snow I did not even try to find it.

After two or three hours exploring the area, it was time to leave and go back. This was easier, as I knew the way now.

I do not regret going there in winter as it made this visit to the middle of nowhere very special.

Read more from Christravelblog here.

Astraftis

5.00 Italy - 02-Oct-20 -

Disclaimer: at first I was convinced I had visited exactly one of the three sites of this TWHS, but then, after better checking, it seems that in mid-August 2018 I was at a smaller field of deer stones of which I can't remember the name between Khatgal (the town on the Khövsgöl lake) and Mörön and near to the Erkhel lake (Эрхэл нуур), not far from the proposed one of Uushgiin övör (Уушгийн өвөр). It was off the beaten track and not so easy to find, but still not so distant from the main road (and of course absolutely no signs). Since the deer stones there are of the same kind as in the other sites and in the same area, I think I can count this as a "visit".

In fact, the official proposal as it stands now probably tries to limit the wealth of such monuments, that one finds scattered in all of Northern Mongolia, just to the most iconic and extended groups. I think, though, that it would make a lot of sense and also benefit the proposal to list other minor, but not less interesting nor significant, sites. It would also give a better sense of the magnitude of this heritage.

That said, I am absolutely favourable to the inscription of deer stone (= буган чулуу/bugan chuluu) monuments in the definitive WHS list, and I think that there are quite good possibilities now that it has been nominated for 2020 (if some kind of WHC session will ever take place this year... and in that case we might already know what has been decided when this review comes out). For me personally, the artistic value of these stelae might outweigh their already conspicuous historical value. These sinuous, running, flaming deers are incredibly evocative in their timeless design, and it seems clear that they were drawn as works of art beyond their symbolic importance. You can imagine these animals springing out and running in the vast valleys an over the hills around the stele, and the ancient nomads chasing after them and maybe following the best exemplars as divine messengers. There are other symbols, too, like moons or more abstract motifs, but it is really the deers that catch the eyes (there were no human faces in the field I saw). And by the way, it is notable that such monuments have survived the centuries: in these lands with unforgiving weather, constantly roamed by populations ("Central Asia is an ocean made out of land where populations are the waves", Fosco Maraini, a famous Italian ethnologist, more or less wrote), where bigger and smaller cities have risen and fallen leaving no or little trace (Karakorum was not the only one), many deer stones still resist and are clearly readable. And so we come also to their historical value: whereas in other places (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and on till Europe...) there are many burial mounds of such "animal style cultures" and wonderful jewelry has been found, here in Mongolia you find these markings of sacred or important places, something visible, full of life, for the living ones, exactly where they have always been, and maybe where everything has started. I don't know if the identities of these people are really known: we can barely reconstruct much more recent movements, such as those of Turks and Mongols in the 1st millennium CE, and the original relations between them, so I suspect that Bronze Age is out of reach. Deer stones are among the few witnesses of this era and guard landscapes of great natural beauty.

The proposed sites date back to the Bronze Age, but here and there there are also later stone monuments like the "man stones" or balbal (хүн чулуу, балбал): I don't know if their inscription is warranted or would be just "too much", but they would fit well with the overall theme. On the other hand, other monumental sites like that of Kül Tegin and Bilge khaan "near" Kharkhorin are really just too distant in time and goal.

In most cases, there is awareness of these monuments, so that many "clusters" are kept in a good state and seem to be respected in some sense. The one I visited was fenced, there was a decorative entering wooden arch, and even an outhouse in its proximity (I found this very nice). To reach them, you need your own transportation and local drivers. As always in Mongolia, it might be tricky to find them if you don't know where to look, but I recommend to anyone passing in the northern/western regions, especially Khövsgöl, Arkhangai, Bulgan, to organize the trip so as to include major or minor deer stone sites, as they are highlights of long, possibly uneventful transfers. One strategy can be to just ask local people: most probably, they can point you to some. Have a good exploration!