The Mongol Ger
Ger is the Mongol word meaning "home" there is no separate word to describe a yurt as nearly every home is one, to the Mongols the word yurt is frowned upon due to its Russian origin.
The vast grasslands can be likened to a big theatre stagewhere the Mongol people waged wars on horseback and graze their livestock. The most suitable residences for the Mongols are gers (or yurts) They are a cultural mode peculiar to this people and have accompanying them for a very long duration.
The Mongol Yurts have passed a course of evolvement. The ancient ancestors made a cavern by piling wood or stones along the cave wall and then simply laying beams over the above. An opening is made on the top for letting out smoke and letting in light as well as for the passage of air and wind. This later evolved into a door and a roof window of the yurt. This sort of cavern was named " uir wo" at that time. "Uir" meant "to dig" and in modern Mongol refers specifically to the roof felt in the "skylight" of a yurt., with an extended meaning of "home" and "household". In the age of hunting and primitive gathering, the Mongols lived in sheds which had an arch-shaped dome supported by living trees and covered by birch bark. The sheds were simply made and were thus disposable. With the people transferring from gathering tohunting, their activity sphere expanded, and a portion of herbivores were domesticated, which was the embryotic form of animal husbandry. Mobile residenceswere in demand that suited a migration life and construction works such as shacks and sheds came into existence. These later were further transformed into tents in the transitional period in which the nomad life was being substituted for the hunting life. The tent used a wooden framework and was covered with fur. In the nomad age, the replacement of the wooden poles by "Khana" together with the transformation of the roof opening into the "skylight", created the prototype of a yurt. A survey of Hulunbir records: Those average Mongols of Hulunbir lead a nomadic life. They do not have a fixed living place and thus reside in "Qionglu", which is like a canopy of heaven, providing a shelter from foul weather and barring out beasts such as tigers or wolves. "Qionglu" reads "Mongol bo" in Manchu, and "bo" is pronounced "bao". Zhao Liang Si, a poet from Liao kingdom in the early Yuan and late Song dynasty, wrote a poem mentioning "Qionglu" which there indicates a yurt.
An ancient "Ordon" was a yurt that ancient Mongol aristocrats used. It is also called the Chomchog. In comparision with an ordinary yurt, it's characterzied by the following:
First, It had a great capacity. The approximate height of an average yurt is 13-14 feet, and the width, 5-6feet. An ancient ordon was much higher and larger. Lubuluqi narrated, "The tent was made so large that it could sometimes span a space as wide as 30 feet. I once gauged the width between the two furrows left by a wheeled carriage. It read 20 feet. When the tent was placed on the carriage, it stretched at least 5feet farther from each side of the carriage. I also made a count and found that once a carriage employed 22 oxen to pull one tent." Such a Mongol ger tugged by 22 robust oxen was an extremely expressive creation.
Second, an ancient ordon used by aristocrats appeared grander. Xu Huo wrote in A Biographical Sketch of the Darkhad, "Ting arrived in the grasslands and erected a golden tent. It was a felt tent in which the upper and lower parts were wrapped with felt, the middle part had a window woven out of willow, thousands of strings were used for fixing, and both the threshold and the poles were gilded, and hence the name." The Secret History states, " The Khan set up a golden sa tent". The sa tent was actually a type of fine fur cloth and here refers to the splendid and huge tent made of fine fur cloth. Such an ornamented Chomchog was also called "The Golden Ordon".
Third, the structural outline of a Chomchog differs from that of a ger. The poles of a Chomchog was made by inserting the "Uni" into the holes on the " Khalgas" and then erecting the "Khana". They were neck-shaped.
Lubuluqi called the palace of a Mongol Khan a " necked house". According to the Crystal Almanac , " A tent with a dome is called a Chomchog" The upper part of a Chomchog was like a bottle gourd, which was symbolic of being auspicious; the lower part was like a peach, which was made after the shape of the heavenly dome. This sort of structure of a Chomchog can still be seen at the burial place in the Mausoleum of Genhis Khan.
The Chomchog looks magnificent. It's covered by yellow satin and has a top ornamented with bluish green tassels, displaying the very architectural style of the Mongol people.
How to put up a Mongolian Ger
1.Fourteen foot lightweight ger, in coppiced hazel Open the Khana to form circle, lash the sections together. Tie the door frame into place. Adjust the frame to form an exact circle.
2.Tie the tension rope around the outside of the khana, near the top. Fit the roof poles to the top of the khana using the string loops.
3.Lift the crown, and insert the top of the roof poles into the sockets in its outer rim Pull the crown down hard to seat each roof pole.
4.Fit the cover.Putting up the ger takes about 30 minutes for gers up to 14 feet. Larger gers may take an hour or so. Allow a couple of hours for your first attempt. Kazakh yurts take an extra ten minutes or so to put up.
