What is a Mongolian Ger and Traditions?
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One of my favorite things about traveling in Mongolia was going inside Mongolian gers. I’m not talking about a Mongolian ger camp that’s been modified for tourism, but a real family’s ger. I was fascinated at how whole families could live in the round structure with no walls. There was absolutely no privacy in a ger. However, there is an abundance of tradition and culture you’ll find in a ger, and that alone is enough reason to go visit Mongolia!
Table of Contents
What is a Mongolian Ger?
Gers have been a distinctive feature of life in Central Asia for at least three thousand years.
In essence – it’s their home. A Mongolian ger is portable, easily assembled and disassembled, and the most natural dwelling on earth.
Is a Yurt Different Than a Ger
A Mongolian ger is mostly the same as a Russian yurt. The main difference is the way the roof is made. The Mongolian ger has a crown that is supported by the two poles in the middle of the tent with wood spokes coming out from the crown. Yurt roofs are typically more pointed as they normally don’t have as big of a crown in the middle, and the crown isn’t supported by poles.
Mongolian food in the Gobi Desert – it’s not what you think
Most people use the terms interchangeably, depending on where they are. Yurt is used more in the western parts of Central Asia. While the term ger is used mainly in Mongolia.
The less steep roof of a ger is useful in Mongolia, where the winds howl across the steppe, making the structure more aerodynamic.
What is a Ger Made Out Of
The round structure is a fascinating lesson in physics. It consists of the crown and wooden spokes coming from the crown that rests on the circular lattice wall. There are two wooden columns in the middle, where the stove sits. The lattice walls are attached together with animal hide and ropes. The walls are wrapped in felt for insulation.
The walls join together at the wooden door. There is only one door and no windows. Doors normally are intricately painted in orange or blue and they are always facing south.
Mongolian Ger Traditions You Should Know Before You Go
Before you go inside a ger – there are a few things you need to know. Luckily, Ger to Ger taught me all of this before I visited any local families else I might have offended a few people unknowingly!
When entering a ger, always step left and walk through it clockwise. And never pass between the two central pillars – that is bad luck!
Be careful where you sit in a ger. Elders are supposed to sit towards the back of the ger opposite the door. Typically the right side of the ger is for women, and the left side of the ger is for men.
In most gers I visited there was one bed, normally the man of the household slept in the bed. Everyone else sleeps on the floor together in one big ‘puddle’! Often large families will all live in one small ger.
Always bring a gift with you to a ger and accept any gifts or things they give you with your right hand.
Read all about my 2 Weeks Traveling Mongolia with Ger to Ger
How do People Live in a Ger?
The whole family lives/sleeps/eats inside the tent with no privacy. There are no walls or places to escape to. There is no plumbing or electricity. However, many of the gers I went to had solar panels, so they were able to get power to charge phones and lights, and a few actually had a TV!
The family and extended family often sleep with big blankets on the floor at night and then roll them up in the morning and cook their meals in the same place.
This way of living with absolutely no privacy is unusual for people like me who are used to homes with walls and doors. I was enthralled with how the families did it.
Heating and Cooling a Ger
Each ger has a stove in the middle with a ‘chimney’ poking out of the top. This stove serves as a heat source and a kitchen. If they want to cool the ger down, they simply roll up the felt at the bottom and let the air blow through the bottom of the ger, cooling it immediately! It’s amazing how fast the tent cools and heats.
Moving a Ger
Often, families will set up their gers close together, and a family will all live within a few km of each other as they all rely on each other in the harsh environment they live in.
Since most Mongolian families are nomadic, two or three times a year, the family takes down the ger, places everything they own on a truck, moves about 5 to 13 km, and sets up the tent again. They told me that it takes about 30 to 60 minutes to take down the ger. And a little longer to set up.
This used to be done on Mongolian horses, but with trucks and motorbikes, the process is a little easier. As I traveled throughout Mongolia, I ran into numerous families moving their gers. I was always tickled to think that everything they owned fit on a big truck.
What is a Mongolian Ger Camp
A ger camp is where most tourists stay when they head into rural Mongolia. It’s a collection of gers set up like a lodge. You’ll have a bed in your ger and some chairs – western world comforts. There is often a shared ger to eat in with a table and chairs, and there is a shared bathroom/shower ger area, too.
These ger camps are meant to give visitors an idea of what it’s really like to stay in a ger, yet they have amenities that most tourists are used to. They are a perfectly fine place to stay, however, I felt I was able to get a much more authentic experience with Ger to Ger where I stayed with local families.
And that, my dear readers, is what a Mongolian ger is all about!
The Gobi Desert – why you should include it in your Mongolia travels
Would you like to stay in a Mongolian ger someday?
PIN IT FOR LATER!
Just don’t call it a yurt.
Ha! That’s the truth! I’m not exactly sure why the Mongolians adopted a different word, do you have any idea?
i wouldve love to seen the interior
Stay tuned – shortly I’ll have some photos on the site of the interior!
The interiors range from plain vanilla to elaborately decorative. Did you see any that had rocks on ropes in the center? In the Gobi, they are more useful (to keep it from blowing away) than the stoves!
I didn’t see any rocks up in the middle in Terelj. However I was in the Gobi two years ago staying with families and did see some then!
That was really interesting!
Thanks.
Nancy & Shawn
Second pic… Is that a solar panel they have there? Cool!
Oh yes – they all have a solar panel – its normally connected to a battery that then provides them light and sometimes even a tv! Melvin – you have to go there sometime!
I love the satellite dish piled on the top of the truck with the house. Nice post, thank you.
I, too, love the wonderful mix of the basic and the technological. Painted doors and a simple stove along with solar panels and a satellite.
I can’t wait to go to Mongolia! It looks so beautiful!
Jade Johnston – http://www.ouroyster.com
Where are the sink, shower and terlet (i.e., basic necessities)?
Those things are handled by mother nature. There is no plumbing in a ger. You simply walk outside anywhere and use the toilet. Most families have holes (drop toilets) dug out somewhere away from the ger that they use. as far as showers – that’s what buckets are for!
And in America we have everything and complain about everything we have. Terrific picts!
Beautiful. I love Mongolia. My photos from Mongolia: http://freepix.eu/tag/mongolia/
In 1995 we were lucky enough to eat a couple of meals in a Ger – the one, a recently widowed lady earned a little money this way. It was comfortable and immaculate and so welcoming. This one was in “the country” a few miles outside of Ulaanbatar
The undersides were like the slats of an umbrella and intricately painted. In the Free Market near Ulaanbatar these kits
could be bought for about a hundred dollars. The felt could be made and of course there was always plenty of wool for insulation, filling the cavity between the felt layers. We were very happy in Mongolia and found it intriguing that the people obviously came from the same stock as our northern people, the Inuit, in Canada with many of the customs similar, such as the throat singing.
Parece que os gers combinam com a solidão desnuda da vastidão mormente nivelada daquela região, respeitando-a. São assim humildes e se tornam pequenos quase desaparecidos para que a grandeza e a imensidão que os circundam sejam sempre a referência à magnitude das obras de Deus…:)
Thanks for telling us about it! I had to do something on this and this was perfect.
Yurt is Turkish not russian! It is not that our are unliterary but purposely fool people just because of your hatred towards Turks!
Ger but could be the same word as Turkish Yet meaning place, some Turks say her or jer.
Some misspellings because of stupid smartphone.
YER is Turkish for place.
Thanks for sharing it.
I just spent two weeks in a yurt with a family in Kyrgyzstan. There, they use the Russian word “yurta” when speaking Russian, but the Kyrgyz word is different. The people I stayed with are semi-nomads, living only in the summer in the mountains with their animals, going back to the village for winter. There is too much snow at 3,000 m asl to live there all year round.
It’s interesting to see the diffrences, like the Kyrgyz yurt does not have the two poles, the stove is on the right hand side.The yurt has no door, just a thick felt curtain, even though modern yurts have a door but it’s not traditional. Many now have a structure made of steel and are imported fro China.
Yurts are so much part of the Kyrgyz culture that they have the crown shown on their flag and on many monuments, fences and decorative objects.