In
The Name of Allah The Almighty
Mongolia
(11 July: National Day)
Dr Sajid Khakwani
Mongolia, country located in north-central Asia.. Mongolia is
bounded on the north by Russia
and on the south by China.
It located deep within the interior of eastern Asia
far from any ocean. It occupies an area of 604,000 square miles. Its measuring
1,486 miles from west to east and, at
its maximum, 782 miles from north to south . Mongolia has a marked continental
climate, with long, cold winters and short, cool to hot summers. Its remarkable
variety of scenery consists largely of upland steppes, semi deserts, and
deserts, although in the west and north forested, high mountain ranges
alternate with dry, lake-dotted basins. The Gobi
is a typical rock-floored desert with gravel cover; only the extreme east has
small areas of sandy desert. Mongolia
is highland country, with an average altitude of 5,200 feet above sea level. Nearly four-fifths of Mongolia's area
consists of pasturelands, which support immense herds of grazing livestock; the
remaining area is about equally divided between forests and barren deserts,
with only a tiny fraction of the land in crops. The capital, Ulaanbaatar, by far the largest and most
important urban centre, has a population of one-fourth of the population of the
entire country. It lies on the north-central portion of Mongolia. The
country With a total population of
slightly more than two million, Mongolia
has one of the lowest population densities of any country in the world.
However, since the 1950s the country has had one of Asia's
highest rates of natural increase.
The Mongols constitute one of the
principal ethnographic divisions of Asian peoples. Their traditional homeland
is centered in Mongolia,
a vast plateau in Central Asia now divided
politically into an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (Inner Mongolia)
and the independent country Mongolia
(Outer Mongolia), which lies at the eastern
end of what was a great corridor of migration between Northeast
China (Manchuria) and Hungary
throughout history. Nineteenth-century physical anthropologists introduced the
terms Mongol and Mongolian as descriptive of “racial type” even though the
Mongols exhibited a wide range of physical characteristics. Today the Mongols
are recognized as a group of peoples bound together by a common language and a
common nomadic tradition.
The Mongols have a long prehistory and a
most remarkable history. Their ancestors were the Huns, a people who lived in Central Asia from the 3rd to the 1st century BC. A single
Mongolian feudal state eventually was formed in the early 13th century AD from
nomadic tribal groupings. Its leader, Genghis Khan, and his successors in the
13th century controlled a vast empire that included much of China, Russia, and Central
Asia. From its independence from China on July 11, 1921, , Mongolia was
closely tied to the Soviet Union until the end
of the 1980s. It received technical, economic, and military assistance from the
Soviet Union and generally followed Soviet
guidance in political and cultural matters, both domestic and international.
Symbolic of the profound changes in culture and society was the replacement in
the 1940s of the traditional Mongolian alphabet with a new one based on the
Cyrillic letters of the Russian alphabet. In the period 1990–92, however, Mongolia moved
away from a monopoly of political power by the communist party to free
multiparty elections, a coalition government, a new constitution, greater
cultural and religious freedom with more emphasis on national Mongol
traditions, and a neutral position in international relations, as well as
toward some elements of a market economy. In the 1990s the traditional script
was once again taught in schools, and store signs appeared in both Cyrillic and
traditional forms.
Human beings have long been in evidence in
this part of what is sometimes called High Asia; and the ruins of
long-abandoned cities, as well as archaeological remains dating back to the
earliest days of prehistory, have attracted the attention of Mongolian and
international scholars. The northern forests harbour lynx, Asiatic red deer, elk, roe deer,
musk deer, brown bears, snow leopards, wolverines, wild boars, squirrels, and
sables. Domesticated animals include sheep, camels, cattle, the hairy highland
yak, goats, dogs, and the famous Mongolian horses. Birdlife includes larks,
partridges, cranes, pheasants, bustards, and falcons in the steppes; geese,
ducks, gulls, pelicans, swans, and cormorants in the rivers and lakes; the
snowy owl, the golden eagle, and the condor, which frequent some areas.
Anthropologically,
the
Mongols are quite homogeneous,
belonging to the classic physical type to which they lent their name. Within Mongolia,
Khalkha-speaking Mongols constitute almost four-fifths of the population. Other
Mongolian groups—including Dörbed, Buryat, Bayad, and Dariganga—account for
about one-eighth of the population. By tradition the Mongols have been
Buddhists. Much of the rest of the population consists of Turkic-speaking
peoples, mainly Kazaks, who traditionally have been
Muslims; located mainly in the western part of the country, they have been
granted an autonomous area. A small but significant number of Russians live
mainly in the cities. The Chinese, who were formerly important in cities,
trade, and finance, have largely left the country.
In the early
1990s Mongolia
experienced great economic difficulties as it moved from a command economy to a
system with elements of a market economy. About one-third to one-half of the
budget had previously come from the now-defunct Soviet
Union. Mongolia's
international debt was extremely high. The low national income per capita sank
even lower as the population grew rapidly. Mongolia possesses mineral
resources. Geologic surveys have confirmed the existence of large deposits of
coal and iron, tin, copper, gold, and silver ore and a number of lesser known
minerals.
Livestock
raising—based on millions of head of sheep, goats, cattle, and horses and
including a large number of camels—accounts for about 70 percent of the value
of agricultural production. Livestock are widely distributed throughout the
entire country. The number of horses and cattle reach their greatest
concentrations in the wetter north-central regions, whereas goats and camels
are proportionately more numerous in the drier west and south. Most of the
livestock belong to agricultural cooperatives. The principal manufactured
products are processed foods (meat, beverages, dairy products, and flour);
articles of clothing and footwear made from wool, hides, skins, and furs; and
lumber, paper, matches, and furniture. About half of the industrial employment
is in Ulaanbaatar,
which is the centre of light industry. Heavy industry is concentrated in
Darhan, and forest products are processed in Sühbaatar.
Mongolia's most important
transportation artery is the Trans-Mongolian Railway,
which runs north-south through the central part of the country; it links Mongolia to Russia and to China and provides
the shortest overland route between Moscow
and Peking. Camels are still used in the
sparsely populated desert areas of the south, and yaks and oxen still haul some
goods in the rugged mountains of the west. Air service is particularly suitable
for passenger movement in Mongolia because distances between population centers
are great, population density is low, and weather conditions generally are favorable
for flying. Ulaanbaatar
has an international airport, and the capital has regularly scheduled service
to the province centers. Special medical and veterinary flights also are
arranged.
From the founding of an independent Mongolia on July 11, 1921, the country
followed Soviet leadership for nearly seven decades; it was the first Soviet
satellite and remained the longest. The Soviet army became Mongolia's main
defense force, and party and governmental structures closely followed the
Soviet models of a one-party political system. The economy was transformed
gradually into a communist command economy with government ownership of the
means of production and with an emphasis on mining and industry.
During
the 1980s the party leadership underwent change. And in March 1990; there were
multiparty elections in July 1990, and subsequently a coalition government was
formed. A new constitution became effective on February 12, 1992, and was amended in 2001.
Power is divided among independent legislative, executive, and judicial organs,
with human rights guaranteed by law, with separation and mutual noninterference
of state and religion, and with the authorization of private ownership of land,
except for pastures used by nomadic herders. The land (except that given to the
citizens of Mongolia
for private possession), water, forests, fauna, and underground resources are
the property of the state, which also regulates the economy.
The
constitution provides for a strong, directly elected president, who nominates
the prime minister and who has the power to veto legislation. The requirement
that the president must be at least 45 years old places the position out of the
reach of young reformers. The constitution also created a unicameral
legislature, the State Great Horal, with 76 members
elected for four-year terms. Parliament by a two-thirds vote can overturn a
presidential veto. The country is divided administratively into 22 provinces,
including the capital city, Ulaanbaatar,
which has independent administrative status. Further local subdivisions include
districts and villages. Justice
is administered through an independent system of courts: Supreme Court,
province courts (including a capital city court), and district courts. Special
courts such as criminal, civil, and administrative ones may be formed. Matters
relating to the interpretation of the constitution are decided by an
independent Constitutional Court.
Amendments to the constitution require a three-fourths vote of members of the
Great Hural.
Mongolia maintains only limited
military forces, consisting of infantry divisions and support aircraft. Soviet
troops were withdrawn in the early 1990s. The 1992 constitution prohibits the
presence of foreign troops. From the foundation of the modern state,
educational development has been regarded as important. Education is compulsory
for 10 years, beginning at age six. Illiteracy has been almost eradicated. The Academy of Sciences coordinates research
institutions, experimental stations, and other scientific establishments and
supervises scholarly work.
Islam in Mongolia is mainly practised by
the ethnic Kazakhs and Khovd, living primarily in the western Mongolia. In
addition, a number of small Kazakh communities can be found in various cities
and towns spread throughout the country. Some of the major population centres
with a significant Muslim presence include the national capital Ulan Bator.
Islam first gained the notice of the Mongols, after Genghis Khan had
conquered into Afghanistan. In 1222 he, on his way back to Mongolia, he visited
Bukhara in Transoxiana where it was believed he inquired about Islam. The
earliest evidence of Islam in Mongolia is dated to 1254, when two mosques were
built. Therefore, historians date the arrival of Islam to Mongolia to between
1222 and 1254. By AD 1330's three of the four major khanates of the Mongol
Empire had become Muslim. The Yuan Empire also embraced Muslim.
As a result
of historically high birth rates, the Muslim population in Mongolia increased
between 1956-1989. However, there was a decline in the Muslim population in
1990-1993 due to the large wave of repatriation of ethnic Kazakhs to Kazakhstan
following the break-up of the Soviet Union. Islam is freely practised in the
country since Mongolia became a democracy in 1990.
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