Yurt Life…

As a fellow this summer in Mongolia at the American Center of Mongolian Studies, my research took me all over the steppe–visiting nomads and places of worship with my adventurous Mongolian colleagues.

To get to the remote locations we were studying, we had to off-road for hours, sometimes days, and stayed in yurts along the way (no shower, hence the hat!).

A motorcycle greeted us at each yurt we visited–and often a handful of children playing outside too. You wouldn’t believe how many people can sleep in one yurt!

We were always warmly welcomed with sweets and milk products from the livestock upon entering each yurt. I was very lucky this time to get a yurt cooking lesson from some friendly Kazakh women who taught me how to make these noodles.

I was really taken with their colorful textiles too–especially this pink creation! I won’t lie–I was tempted to buy them all but there wasn’t much room in our car (stocked as it was with supplies for weeks on the road).

We were so fortunate to have each step along our research journey (thousands of miles!) be so smooth–and I’m grateful to all the nomads who kindly opened their homes to us and shared with us their way of life.