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Mongolia;
Mongolian script The classical or traditional Mongolian script, also known as the , was the first writing system created specifically for the Mongolian language, and was the most widespread until the introduction of Cyrillic in 1946. It is traditionally written ...
: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a
landlocked country A landlocked country is a country that does not have territory connected to an ocean or whose coastlines lie on endorheic basins. There are currently 44 landlocked countries and 4 landlocked de facto states. Kazakhstan is the world's largest ...
in
East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both Geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The modern State (polity), states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. ...
, bordered by
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, making it the world's most sparsely populated sovereign nation. Mongolia is the world's largest landlocked country that does not border a closed sea, and much of its area is covered by grassy steppe, with
mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually highe ...
s to the north and west and the Gobi Desert to the south.
Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar (; mn, Улаанбаатар, , "Red Hero"), previously anglicized as Ulan Bator, is the capital and most populous city of Mongolia. It is the coldest capital city in the world, on average. The municipality is located in north ce ...
, the capital and largest city, is home to roughly half of the country's population. The territory of modern-day Mongolia has been ruled by various nomadic empires, including the
Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 20 ...
, the
Xianbei The Xianbei (; ) were a Proto-Mongolic ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. They originated from the Donghu people who splintered into th ...
, the Rouran, the First Turkic Khaganate, and others. In 1206, Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous land empire in history. His grandson Kublai Khan conquered
China proper China proper, Inner China, or the Eighteen Provinces is a term used by some Western writers in reference to the "core" regions of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China. This term is used to express a distinction between the "core" regions pop ...
and established the
Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fift ...
. After the collapse of the Yuan, the
Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...
retreated to Mongolia and resumed their earlier pattern of factional conflict, except during the era of
Dayan Khan Dayan Khan ( mn, Даян Хаан; Mongol script: ; ), born Batumöngke ( mn, Батмөнх; ), (1472–1517) was a khagan of the Northern Yuan dynasty, reigning from 1479 to 1517. During his rule, he reunited the Mongols under Chinggisid sup ...
and
Tumen Zasagt Khan Tumen ( zh, 图们) may refer to one of the following. Places *Tumen River, a river in China, North Korea, and Russia *Tumen, Jilin, a city in China People *''Tumen'', Bumin Khan, Turkic Khagan *Tümen Jasagtu Khan, a Khagan of Mongolia in the ...
. In the 16th century,
Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...
spread to Mongolia, being further led by the Manchu-founded
Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...
, which absorbed the country in the 17th century. By the early 20th century, almost one-third of the adult male population were Buddhist monks. After the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Mongolia declared independence, and achieved actual independence from the Republic of China in 1921. Shortly thereafter, the country became a
satellite state A satellite state or dependent state is a country that is formally independent in the world, but under heavy political, economic, and military influence or control from another country. The term was coined by analogy to planetary objects orbitin ...
of the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
, which had aided its independence from China. In 1924, the
Mongolian People's Republic The Mongolian People's Republic ( mn, Бүгд Найрамдах Монгол Ард Улс, БНМАУ; , ''BNMAU''; ) was a socialist state which existed from 1924 to 1992, located in the historical region of Outer Mongolia in East Asia. It w ...
was founded as a
socialist state A socialist state, socialist republic, or socialist country, sometimes referred to as a workers' state or workers' republic, is a sovereign state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. The term '' communist state'' is of ...
. After the anti-communist
revolutions of 1989 The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Nat ...
, Mongolia conducted its own peaceful democratic revolution in early 1990. This led to a
multi-party system In political science, a multi-party system is a political system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national elections, and all have the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in ...
, a new constitution of 1992, and transition to a market economy. Approximately 30% of the population is
nomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...
ic or semi-nomadic;
horse culture A horse culture is a tribal group or community whose day-to-day life revolves around the herding and breeding of horses. Beginning with the domestication of the horse on the steppes of Eurasia, the horse transformed each society that adopted it ...
remains integral.
Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...
is the majority religion (51.7%), with the nonreligious being the second-largest group (40.6%). Islam is the third-largest religious identification (3.2%), concentrated among ethnic Kazakhs. The vast majority of citizens are ethnic Mongols, with roughly 5% of the population being Kazakhs,
Tuvans The Tuvans ( tyv, Тывалар, Tıvalar) are a TurkicOtto Maenchen-Helfen, Journey to Tuva, p. 169 ethnic group indigenous to Siberia who live in Russia ( Tuva), Mongolia, and China. They speak Tuvan, a Siberian Turkic language. They are a ...
, and other ethnic minorities, who are especially concentrated in the west. Mongolia is a member of the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
, Asia Cooperation Dialogue, G77, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank,
Non-Aligned Movement The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide. The movement originated in the aftermath o ...
and a
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
global partner. Mongolia joined the
World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and ...
in 1997 and seeks to expand its participation in regional economic and trade groups.


Etymology

The name Mongolia means the "Land of the
Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...
" in Latin. The origin of the Mongolian word ''"Mongol"'' () is of uncertain etymology, given variously such as the name of a mountain or river; a corruption of the Mongolian ''Mongkhe-
tengri Tengri ( zh, 騰格里; otk, 𐰚𐰇𐰚:𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, Kök Teŋri/Teŋiri, lit=Blue Heaven; Old Uyghur: ''tängri''; Middle Turkic: تآنغرِ; ky, теңир; tr, Tanrı; az, Tanrı; bg, Тангра; Proto-Turkic *''teŋri / ...
-gal'' ("Eternal Sky Fire"); or a derivation from
Mugulü Mugulü () was a legendary warrior and chieftain in the Mongolian Plateau during the period when it was under the rule of tribes and peoples originating from the fragmentation of the failed and crumbling Xianbei confederation. The term "Mongo ...
, the 4th-century founder of the Rouran Khaganate. First attested as the 'Mungu',Svantesson, Jan-Olov & al. ''The Phonology of Mongolian'', pp. 103–105. Oxford Univ. Press (Oxford), 2005. ( Chinese: ,
Modern Chinese Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern standar ...
''Měngwù'',
Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
''Muwngu''), a branch of the Shiwei in an 8th-century
Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...
list of northern tribes, presumably related to the Liao-era ''Mungku'' ( Chinese: ,
Modern Chinese Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern standar ...
''Měnggǔ'',
Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
''MuwngkuX''Baxter, Wm. H. & Sagart, Laurent. '' ''. 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2011.). After the fall of the Liao in 1125, the
Khamag Mongol Khamag Mongol ( mn, Хамаг монгол, Khamag mongol, lit=the whole Mongol; ) was a major Mongolic tribal confederation (khanlig) on the Mongolian Plateau in the 12th century. It is sometimes considered to be a predecessor state to the ...
s became a leading tribe on the
Mongolian Plateau The Mongolian Plateau is the part of the Central Asian Plateau lying between 37°46′-53°08′N and 87°40′-122°15′E and having an area of approximately . It is bounded by the Greater Hinggan Mountains in the east, the Yin Mountains to ...
. However, their wars with the Jurchen-ruled Jin dynasty and the
Tatar confederation Middle Mongol: , conventional_long_name = TatarNine Tatars , common_name = Tatar , , era = High Middle Ages , status = Nomadic confederation , empire = Turkic Khaganate , status_text = , today = MongoliaCh ...
had weakened them. The last head of the tribe was
Yesügei Yesugei Baghatur or Yesükhei ( Traditional Mongolian: ; Modern Mongolian: Есүхэй баатар, ''Yesukhei baatar'', ; ) (b. 1134 – d. 1171) was a major chief of the Khamag Mongol confederation and the father of Temüjin, later known as ...
, whose son
Temüjin ''Chinggis Khaan'' ͡ʃʰiŋɡɪs xaːŋbr /> Mongol script: ''Chinggis Qa(gh)an/ Chinggis Khagan'' , birth_name = Temüjin , successor = Tolui (as regent)Ögedei Khan , spouse = , issue = , house = Borjigin , ...
eventually united all the Shiwei tribes as the Mongol Empire (''Yekhe Monggol Ulus''). In the thirteenth century, the word Mongol grew into an umbrella term for a large group of Mongolic-speaking tribes united under the rule of Genghis Khan. Since the adoption of the new Constitution of Mongolia on 13 February 1992, the official name of the state is "Mongolia" (''Mongol Uls'').


History


Prehistory and antiquity

The '' Khoit Tsenkher Cave''Eleanora Novgorodova, Archäologische Funde, Ausgrabungsstätten und Skulpturen, in ''Mongolen (catalogue)'', pp. 14–20 in
Khovd Province Khovd ( mn, Ховд, Howd, ) is one of the 21 aimags (provinces) of Mongolia, located in the west of the country. Its capital is also named Khovd. The Khovd province is approximately 1,580 km from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia's capital. It take ...
shows lively pink, brown, and red ochre paintings (dated to 20,000 years ago) of
mammoths A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, i ...
, lynx,
bactrian camel The Bactrian camel (''Camelus bactrianus''), also known as the Mongolian camel or domestic Bactrian camel, is a large even-toed ungulate native to the steppes of Central Asia. It has two humps on its back, in contrast to the single-humped dro ...
s, and
ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds of the genus ''Struthio'' in the order Struthioniformes, part of the infra-class Palaeognathae, a diverse group of flightless birds also known as ratites that includes the emus, rheas, and kiwis. There ...
es, earning it the nickname "the
Lascaux Lascaux ( , ; french: Grotte de Lascaux , "Lascaux Cave") is a network of caves near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne in southwestern France. Over 600 parietal wall paintings cover the interior walls and ceilings of ...
of Mongolia". The Venus figurines of Mal'ta (21,000 years ago) testify to the level of Upper Paleolithic art in northern Mongolia; Mal'ta is now part of Russia. Neolithic agricultural settlements (c. 5500–3500 BC), such as those at Norovlin, Tamsagbulag, Bayanzag, and Rashaan Khad, predated the introduction of horse-riding nomadism, a pivotal event in the history of Mongolia which became the dominant culture. Horse-riding nomadism has been documented by archeological evidence in Mongolia during the Copper and Bronze Age
Afanasevo culture The Afanasievo culture, or Afanasevo culture (Afanasevan culture) (russian: Афанасьевская культура ''Afanas'yevskaya'' kul'tura), is the earliest known archaeological culture of south Siberia, occupying the Minusinsk Basin a ...
(3500–2500 BC); this
Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
culture was active to the Khangai Mountains in Central Mongolia. The wheeled vehicles found in the burials of the Afanasevans have been dated to before 2200 BC. Pastoral nomadism and metalworking became more developed with the later
Okunev culture Okunev culture (russian: Окуневская культура , lit=Okunev culture, translit=Okunevskaya kul'tura, label=ru) was south Siberian archaeological culture of pastoralists of the early Bronze Age dated from the end of the 3rd millen ...
(2nd millennium BC), Andronovo culture (2300–1000 BC) and
Karasuk culture The Karasuk culture (russian: Карасукская культура, Karasukskaya kul'tura) describes a group of late Bronze Age societies who ranged from the Aral Sea to the upper Yenisei in the east and south to the Altai Mountains and the T ...
(1500–300 BC), culminating with the Iron Age
Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 20 ...
Empire in 209 BC. Monuments of the pre-Xiongnu Bronze Age include deer stones, keregsur kurgans, square slab tombs, and rock paintings. Although cultivation of crops has continued since the Neolithic, agriculture has always remained small in scale compared to pastoral nomadism. Agriculture may have first been introduced from the west or arose independently in the region. The population during the Copper Age has been described as mongoloid in the east of what is now Mongolia, and as europoid in the west. Tocharians (
Yuezhi The Yuezhi (;) were an ancient people first described in Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defeat ...
) and
Scythians The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...
inhabited western Mongolia during the Bronze Age. The mummy of a Scythian warrior, which is believed to be about 2,500 years old, was a 30- to 40-year-old man with blond hair; it was found in the Altai, Mongolia. As equine nomadism was introduced into Mongolia, the political center of the Eurasian Steppe also shifted to Mongolia, where it remained until the 18th century CE. The intrusions of northern pastoralists (e.g. the Guifang, Shanrong, and Donghu) into China during the
Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and ...
(1600–1046 BC) and
Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by ...
(1046–256 BC) presaged the age of nomadic empires. Since prehistoric times, Mongolia has been inhabited by nomads who, from time to time, formed great confederations that rose to power and prominence. Common institutions were the office of the Khan, the Kurultai (Supreme Council), left and right wings, imperial army ( Keshig) and the decimal military system. The first of these empires, the
Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 20 ...
of undetermined ethnicity, were brought together by
Modu Shanyu Modu, Maodun, Modun (, from Old Chinese (220 B.C.E.): *''mouᴴ-tuən'' or *''mək-tuən'', c. 234 – c. 174 BCE) was the son of Touman and the founder of the empire of the Xiongnu. He came to power by ordering his men to kill his father in 209 B ...
to form a confederation in 209 BC. Soon they emerged as the greatest threat to the
Qin Dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin state (modern Gansu and Shaanxi), ...
, forcing the latter to construct the
Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic gro ...
. It was guarded by up to almost 300,000 soldiers during Marshal
Meng Tian Meng Tian (c. 250 BC – 210 BC) was a Chinese inventor and military general of the Qin dynasty who distinguished himself in campaigns against the Xiongnu and in the construction of the Great Wall of China. He was the elder brother of Meng Yi. ...
's tenure, as a means of defense against the destructive Xiongnu raids. The vast Xiongnu empire (209 BC–93 AD) was followed by the Mongolic Xianbei empire (93–234 AD), which also ruled more than the entirety of present-day Mongolia. The Mongolic Rouran Khaganate (330–555), of
Xianbei The Xianbei (; ) were a Proto-Mongolic ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. They originated from the Donghu people who splintered into th ...
provenance was the first to use "Khagan" as an imperial title. It ruled a massive empire before being defeated by the Göktürks (555–745) whose empire was even bigger. The Göktürks laid siege to
Panticapaeum Panticapaeum ( grc-gre, Παντικάπαιον , from Scythian , "fish-path") was an ancient Greek city on the eastern shore of Crimea, which the Greeks called Taurica. The city lay on the western side of the Cimmerian Bosporus, and was found ...
, present-day
Kerch Kerch ( uk, Керч; russian: Керчь, ; Old East Slavic: Кърчевъ; Ancient Greek: , ''Pantikápaion''; Medieval Greek: ''Bosporos''; crh, , ; tr, Kerç) is a city of regional significance on the Kerch Peninsula in the east of t ...
, in 576. They were succeeded by the
Uyghur Khaganate The Uyghur Khaganate (also Uyghur Empire or Uighur Khaganate, self defined as Toquz-Oghuz country; otk, 𐱃𐰆𐰴𐰕:𐰆𐰍𐰕:𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣, Toquz Oγuz budun, Tang-era names, with modern Hanyu Pinyin: or ) was a Turkic empire that e ...
(745–840) who were defeated by the Kyrgyz. The Mongolic
Khitans The Khitan people (Khitan small script: ; ) were a historical nomadic people from Northeast Asia who, from the 4th century, inhabited an area corresponding to parts of modern Mongolia, Northeast China and the Russian Far East. As a people desce ...
, descendants of the Xianbei, ruled Mongolia during the
Liao Dynasty The Liao dynasty (; Khitan language, Khitan: ''Mos Jælud''; ), also known as the Khitan Empire (Khitan: ''Mos diau-d kitai huldʒi gur''), officially the Great Liao (), was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that exi ...
(907–1125), after which the
Khamag Mongol Khamag Mongol ( mn, Хамаг монгол, Khamag mongol, lit=the whole Mongol; ) was a major Mongolic tribal confederation (khanlig) on the Mongolian Plateau in the 12th century. It is sometimes considered to be a predecessor state to the ...
(1125–1206) rose to prominence. Lines 3–5 of the memorial inscription of
Bilge Khagan Bilge Qaghan ( otk, 𐰋𐰃𐰠𐰏𐰀:𐰴𐰍𐰣, Bilgä Qaγan; ; 683 – 25 November 734) was the fourth Qaghan of the Second Turkic Khaganate. His accomplishments were described in the Orkhon inscriptions. Names As was the custom, his ...
(684–737) in central Mongolia summarizes the time of the Khagans:


Middle Ages to early 20th century

In the chaos of the late 12th century, a chieftain named
Temüjin ''Chinggis Khaan'' ͡ʃʰiŋɡɪs xaːŋbr /> Mongol script: ''Chinggis Qa(gh)an/ Chinggis Khagan'' , birth_name = Temüjin , successor = Tolui (as regent)Ögedei Khan , spouse = , issue = , house = Borjigin , ...
finally succeeded in uniting the Mongol tribes between
Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...
and the Altai Mountains. In 1206, he took the title Genghis Khan, and waged a series of military campaigns – renowned for their brutality and ferocity – sweeping through much of Asia, and forming the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous land empire in world history. Under his successors it stretched from present-day
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
in the west to
Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
in the east, and from parts of
Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...
in the north to the Gulf of Oman and
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
in the south, covering some , (22% of Earth's total land area) and had a population of over 100 million people (about a quarter of Earth's total population at the time). The emergence of
Pax Mongolica The ''Pax Mongolica'' (Latin for "Mongol Peace"), less often known as ''Pax Tatarica'' ("Tatar Peace"), is a historiographical term modelled after the original phrase ''Pax Romana'' which describes the stabilizing effects of the conquests of the ...
also significantly eased trade and commerce across Asia during its height. After Genghis Khan's death, the empire was subdivided into four kingdoms or Khanates. These eventually became quasi-independent after the
Toluid Civil War The Toluid Civil War was a war of succession fought between Kublai Khan and his younger brother, Ariq Böke, from 1260 to 1264. Möngke Khan died in 1259 with no declared successor, precipitating infighting between members of the Tolui family ...
(1260–1264), which broke out in a battle for power following
Möngke Khan Möngke ( mn, ' / Мөнх '; ; 11 January 1209 – 11 August 1259) was the fourth khagan-emperor of the Mongol Empire, ruling from 1 July 1251, to 11 August 1259. He was the first Khagan from the Toluid line, and made significant reform ...
's death in 1259. One of the khanates, the "Great Khaanate", consisting of the Mongol homeland and most of modern-day China, became known as the
Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fift ...
under Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan. He set up his capital in present-day
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
. After more than a century of power, the Yuan dynasty was overthrown by the
Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...
in 1368, and the Yuan court fled to the north, thus becoming the
Northern Yuan dynasty The Northern Yuan () was a dynastic regime ruled by the Mongol Borjigin clan based in the Mongolian Plateau. It existed as a rump state after the collapse of the Yuan dynasty in 1368 and lasted until its conquest by the Jurchen-led Later Ji ...
. As the Ming armies pursued the Mongols into their homeland, they successfully sacked and destroyed the Mongol capital
Karakorum Karakorum (Khalkha Mongolian: Хархорум, ''Kharkhorum''; Mongolian Script:, ''Qaraqorum''; ) was the capital of the Mongol Empire between 1235 and 1260 and of the Northern Yuan dynasty in the 14–15th centuries. Its ruins lie in th ...
and other cities. Some of these attacks were repelled by the Mongols under Ayushridar and his general
Köke Temür Köke Temür (; Mongolian: ᠬᠥᠬᠡᠲᠡᠮᠦᠷ, Köketemür, Хөхтөмөр; died 1375), sinicized name Wang Baobao (), was a prominent general of the Yuan dynasty of China. History He was born in Henan province. His paternal line ori ...
. After the expulsion of the Yuan rulers from
China proper China proper, Inner China, or the Eighteen Provinces is a term used by some Western writers in reference to the "core" regions of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China. This term is used to express a distinction between the "core" regions pop ...
, the Mongols continued to rule their homeland, known in historiography as the Northern Yuan dynasty. The next centuries were marked by violent power struggles among various factions, notably the Genghisids and the non-Genghisid Oirats, as well as by several Ming invasions (such as the five expeditions led by the Yongle Emperor). In the early 16th century,
Dayan Khan Dayan Khan ( mn, Даян Хаан; Mongol script: ; ), born Batumöngke ( mn, Батмөнх; ), (1472–1517) was a khagan of the Northern Yuan dynasty, reigning from 1479 to 1517. During his rule, he reunited the Mongols under Chinggisid sup ...
and his
khatun Khatun ( Mongolian: хатан; otk, 𐰴𐰍𐰣, katun; ota, خاتون, hatun or قادین ''kadın''; fa, خاتون ''khātūn''; ; hi, ख़ातून ') is a female title of nobility and counterpart to " khan" or " Khagan" promine ...
Mandukhai reunited the entire Mongol nation under the Genghisids. In the mid-16th century, Altan Khan of the Tümed, a grandson of Dayan Khan – but not a hereditary or legitimate Khan – became powerful. He founded Hohhot in 1557. After he met with the
Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current D ...
in 1578, he ordered the introduction of
Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...
to Mongolia. (It was the second time this had occurred.) Abtai Khan of the
Khalkha The Khalkha (Mongolian script, Mongolian: mn, Халх, Halh, , zh, 喀爾喀) have been the largest subgroup of Mongols, Mongol people in modern Mongolia since the 15th century. The Khalkha, together with Chahars, Ordos Mongols, Ordos and Tum ...
converted to Buddhism and founded the Erdene Zuu monastery in 1585. His grandson Zanabazar became the first
Jebtsundamba Khutughtu The Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, , ; zh, c=哲布尊丹巴呼圖克圖, p=Zhébùzūn Dānbā Hūtúkètú; bo, རྗེ་བཙུན་དམ་པ་ཧུ་ཐུག་ཐུ་, Jetsün Dampa Hutuktu; "Venerable Excellent incarnate lama" ar ...
in 1640. Following the leaders, the entire Mongolian population embraced Buddhism. Each family kept scriptures and Buddha statues on an altar at the north side of their ger (yurt). Mongolian nobles donated land, money and herders to the monasteries. As was typical in states with established religions, the top religious institutions, the monasteries, wielded significant temporal power in addition to spiritual power. The last Mongol Khan was
Ligden Khan Khutugtu Khan ( mn, Хутагт Хаан; ), born Ligdan ( mn, Лигдэн; ), (1588–1634) was a khagan of the Northern Yuan dynasty, reigning from 1604 to 1634. During his reign, he vigorously attempted to reunify the divided Mongol Empire, a ...
in the early 17th century. He came into conflicts with the
Manchus The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...
over the looting of Chinese cities, and also alienated most Mongol tribes. He died in 1634. By 1636 most
Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
n tribes had submitted to the Manchus, who founded the
Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...
. The Khalkha eventually submitted to Qing rule in 1691, thus bringing all of today's Mongolia under Manchu rule. After several
Dzungar–Qing Wars The Dzungar–Qing Wars ( mn, Зүүнгар-Чин улсын дайн, ) were a decades-long series of conflicts that pitted the Dzungar Khanate against the Qing dynasty and its Mongol vassals. Fighting took place over a wide swath of Inner A ...
, the
Dzungars The Dzungar people (also written as Zunghar; from the Mongolian words , meaning 'left hand') were the many Mongol Oirat tribes who formed and maintained the Dzungar Khanate in the 17th and 18th centuries. Historically they were one of major tr ...
(western Mongols or Oirats) were virtually annihilated during the Qing conquest of Dzungaria in 1757 and 1758. Some scholars estimate that about 80% of the 600,000 or more Dzungar were destroyed by a combination of disease and warfare. Outer Mongolia was given relative autonomy, being administered by the hereditary Genghisid khanates of Tusheet Khan, Setsen Khan, Zasagt Khan and Sain Noyon Khan. The
Jebtsundamba Khutuktu The Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, , ; zh, c=哲布尊丹巴呼圖克圖, p=Zhébùzūn Dānbā Hūtúkètú; bo, རྗེ་བཙུན་དམ་པ་ཧུ་ཐུག་ཐུ་, Jetsün Dampa Hutuktu; "Venerable Excellent incarnate lama" ar ...
of Mongolia had immense ''de facto'' authority. The Manchu forbade mass Chinese immigration into the area, which allowed the Mongols to keep their culture. The Oirats who migrated to the Volga steppes in Russia became known as Kalmyks. The main trade route during this period was the Tea Road through Siberia; it had permanent stations located every , each of which was staffed by 5–30 chosen families. Until 1911, the Qing dynasty maintained control of Mongolia with a series of alliances and intermarriages, as well as military and economic measures. Ambans, Manchu "high officials", were installed in Khüree,
Uliastai Uliastai ( mn, Улиастай; ), also spelled Uliyasutai or Oulia-Sontai, and sometimes known as Javkhlant, is a city in Mongolia located in the western part of the country and from the capital Ulaanbaatar. Uliastai is the capital of Zavkhan P ...
, and Khovd, and the country was divided into numerous feudal and ecclesiastical fiefdoms (which also placed people in power with loyalty to the Qing). Over the course of the 19th century, the feudal lords attached more importance to representation and less importance to the responsibilities towards their subjects. The behaviour of Mongolia's nobility, together with
usurious Usury () is the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is ch ...
practices by Chinese traders and the collection of imperial taxes in silver instead of animals, resulted in widespread poverty among the nomads. By 1911 there were 700 large and small monasteries in Outer Mongolia; their 115,000 monks made up 21% of the population. Apart from the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, there were 13 other reincarnating high lamas, called 'seal-holding saints' (''tamgatai khutuktu''), in Outer Mongolia.


Modern history

With the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Mongolia under the Bogd Khaan declared its independence. But the newly established Republic of China considered Mongolia to be part of its own territory.
Yuan Shikai Yuan Shikai (; 16 September 1859 – 6 June 1916) was a Chinese military and government official who rose to power during the late Qing dynasty and eventually ended the Qing dynasty rule of China in 1912, later becoming the Emperor of China. H ...
, the President of the Republic of China, considered the new republic to be the
successor Successor may refer to: * An entity that comes after another (see Succession (disambiguation)) Film and TV * ''The Successor'' (film), a 1996 film including Laura Girling * ''The Successor'' (TV program), a 2007 Israeli television program Musi ...
of the Qing. Bogd Khaan said that both Mongolia and China had been administered by the Manchu during the Qing, and after the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, the contract of Mongolian submission to the Manchu had become invalid. The area controlled by the Bogd Khaan was approximately that of the former Outer Mongolia during the Qing period. In 1919, after the
October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...
in Russia, Chinese troops led by
warlord A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...
Xu Shuzheng Hsu Seu-Cheng or Xu Shuzheng (; ) (11 November 1880 – 29 December 1925) was a Chinese warlord in Republican China. A subordinate and right-hand man of Duan Qirui, he was a prominent member of the Anhui clique. Early life Xu was born in ...
occupied Mongolia. Warfare erupted on the northern border. As a result of the
Russian Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Russian Civil War , partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I , image = , caption = Clockwise from top left: {{flatlist, *Soldiers ...
, the
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
Russian
Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...
Baron Ungern led his troops into Mongolia in October 1920, defeating the Chinese forces in Niislel Khüree (now Ulaanbaatar) in early February 1921 with Mongol support. To eliminate the threat posed by Ungern,
Bolshevik Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
decided to support the establishment of a communist Mongolian government and army. This Mongolian army took the Mongolian part of
Kyakhta Kyakhta (russian: Кя́хта, ; bua, Хяагта, Khiaagta, ; mn, Хиагт, Hiagt, ) is a town and the administrative center of Kyakhtinsky District in the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located on the Kyakhta River near the Mongolia–Rus ...
from Chinese forces on 18 March 1921, and on 6 July, Russian and Mongolian troops arrived in Khüree. Mongolia declared its independence again on 11 July 1921. As a result, Mongolia was closely aligned with the Soviet Union over the next seven decades.


Mongolian People's Republic

In 1924, after the Bogd Khaan died of laryngeal cancer or, as some sources claim, at the hands of Russian spies, the country's political system was changed. The
Mongolian People's Republic The Mongolian People's Republic ( mn, Бүгд Найрамдах Монгол Ард Улс, БНМАУ; , ''BNMAU''; ) was a socialist state which existed from 1924 to 1992, located in the historical region of Outer Mongolia in East Asia. It w ...
was established. In 1928,
Khorloogiin Choibalsan Khorloogiin Choibalsan ( mn, Хорлоогийн Чойбалсан, spelled ''Koroloogiin Çoibalsan'' before 1941; 8 February 1895 – 26 January 1952) was the leader of Mongolia (Mongolian People's Republic) and Marshal (general chief com ...
rose to power. The early leaders of the Mongolian People's Republic (1921–1952) included many with Pan-Mongolist ideals. However, changing global politics and increased Soviet pressure led to the decline of Pan-Mongol aspirations in the following period. Khorloogiin Choibalsan instituted
collectivization Collective farming and communal farming are various types of, "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member- ...
of livestock, began the destruction of the
Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
, and carried out
Stalinist purges The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...
, which resulted in the murders of numerous monks and other leaders. In Mongolia during the 1920s, approximately one-third of the male population were monks. By the beginning of the 20th century, about 750 monasteries were functioning in Mongolia. In 1930, the Soviet Union stopped Buryat migration to the
Mongolian People's Republic The Mongolian People's Republic ( mn, Бүгд Найрамдах Монгол Ард Улс, БНМАУ; , ''BNMAU''; ) was a socialist state which existed from 1924 to 1992, located in the historical region of Outer Mongolia in East Asia. It w ...
to prevent Mongolian reunification. All leaders of Mongolia who did not fulfill
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
's demands to perform Red Terror against Mongolians were executed, including Peljidiin Genden and
Anandyn Amar Anandyn Amar ( mn, Анандын Амар; 1886 – July 10, 1941) was the head of state of the Mongolian People’s Republic from 1932 to 1936 and twice served as prime minister from 1928–1930 and again from 1936–1939. A widely respected p ...
. The Stalinist purges in Mongolia, which began in 1937, killed more than 30,000 people. Choibalsan died suspiciously in the Soviet Union in 1952. Comintern leader
Bohumír Šmeral Bohumír Šmeral (25 October 1880 in Třebíč, Margraviate of Moravia – 8 May 1941 in Moscow) was a Czech politician, leader of the Czech Social Democratic Party, and one of the founders of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Early life ...
said, "People of Mongolia are not important, the land is important. Mongolian land is larger than England, France and Germany".''History of Mongolia,'' 2003, Volume 5. Mongolian Institute of History After the Japanese invasion of neighboring Manchuria in 1931, Mongolia was threatened on this front. During the Soviet-Japanese Border War of 1939, the Soviet Union successfully defended Mongolia against Japanese expansionism. Mongolia fought against Japan during the
Battles of Khalkhin Gol The Battles of Khalkhin Gol (russian: Бои на Халхин-Голе; mn, Халхын голын байлдаан) were the decisive engagements of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese border conflicts involving the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Ja ...
in 1939 and during the
Soviet–Japanese War The Soviet–Japanese War (russian: Советско-японская война; ja, ソ連対日参戦, soren tai nichi sansen, Soviet Union entry into war against Japan), known in Mongolia as the Liberation War of 1945 (), was a military ...
in August 1945 to liberate
Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
from Japan and
Mengjiang Mengjiang, also known as Mengkiang or the Mongol Border Land, and governed as the Mengjiang United Autonomous Government, was an autonomous area in Inner Mongolia, formed in 1939 as a puppet state of the Empire of Japan, then from 1940 being ...
.


Cold War

The February 1945
Yalta Conference The Yalta Conference (codenamed Argonaut), also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the post ...
provided for the Soviet Union's participation in the Pacific War. One of the Soviet conditions for its participation, put forward at Yalta, was that after the war Outer Mongolia would retain its independence. The referendum took place on 20 October 1945, with (according to official numbers) 100% of the electorate voting for independence. After the establishment of the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, both countries confirmed their mutual recognition on 6 October 1949. However, the Republic of China used its Security Council veto in 1955, to stop the admission of the
Mongolian People's Republic The Mongolian People's Republic ( mn, Бүгд Найрамдах Монгол Ард Улс, БНМАУ; , ''BNMAU''; ) was a socialist state which existed from 1924 to 1992, located in the historical region of Outer Mongolia in East Asia. It w ...
to the United Nations on the grounds it recognized all of Mongolia —including Outer Mongolia— as part of China. This was the only time the Republic of China ever used its veto. Hence, and because of the repeated threats to veto by the ROC, Mongolia did not join the UN until 1961 when the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
agreed to lift its veto on the admission of Mauritania (and any other newly independent African state), in return for the admission of Mongolia. Faced with pressure from nearly all the other African countries, the ROC relented under protest. Mongolia and Mauritania were both admitted to the UN on 27 October 1961. (see
China and the United Nations China is one of the charter members of the United Nations and is one of five permanent members of its Security Council. One of the victorious Allies of the Second World War (the Chinese theatre of which was the Second Sino-Japanese War), the ...
) On 26 January 1952,
Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal ( mn, Юмжаагийн Цэдэнбал, ''Yumzhaagiin Tsedenbal'' ; russian: Юмжагийн Цэдэнбал, translit=Yumzhagyn Tsedenbal ; 17 September 1916 – 20 April 1991) was the leader of the Mongolian Peop ...
took power in Mongolia after the death of Choibalsan. Tsedenbal was the leading political figure in Mongolia for more than 30 years. While Tsedenbal was visiting Moscow in August 1984, his severe illness prompted the parliament to announce his retirement and replace him with
Jambyn Batmönkh Jambyn Batmönkh ( mn, Жамбын Батмөнх, ; 10 March 1926 – 14 May 1997) was a Mongolian communist political leader and economics professor. He was the leader of Mongolia during its transition into democracy in 1990. Early life Bat ...
.


Post-Cold War

The
fall of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
in 1991 strongly influenced Mongolian politics and
youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Yo ...
. Its people undertook the peaceful Democratic Revolution in January 1990 and the introduction of a
multi-party system In political science, a multi-party system is a political system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national elections, and all have the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in ...
and a market economy. At the same time, the transformation of the former Marxist-Leninist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party to the current social democratic
Mongolian People's Party The Mongolian People's Party (MPP) is a social democratic political party in Mongolia. It was founded as a communist party in 1920 by Mongolian revolutionaries and is the oldest political party in Mongolia. The party played an important role ...
reshaped the country's political landscape. A new constitution was introduced in 1992, and the term "People's Republic" was dropped from the country's name. The transition to a market economy was often rocky; during the early 1990s the country had to deal with high inflation and food shortages. The first election victories for non-communist parties came in 1993 (presidential elections) and 1996 (parliamentary elections). China has supported Mongolia's application for membership in to the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD),
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC ) is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economies in the Pacific Rim that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
(APEC) and granting it
observer status Observer status is a privilege granted by some organizations to non-members to give them an ability to participate in the organization's activities. Observer status is often granted by intergovernmental organizations (IGO) to non-member parties and ...
in the
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation russian: Шанхайская Организация Сотрудничества , image = , caption = , logo = SCO logo.svg , logo_size = 160px , map = Shanghai Cooperati ...
.


Geography and climate

At , Mongolia is the world's 18th-largest country (after
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
). It is significantly larger than the next-largest country,
Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
. It mostly lies between latitudes 41° and 52°N (a small area is north of 52°), and longitudes 87° and 120°E. As a point of reference the northernmost part of Mongolia is on roughly the same latitude as Berlin (Germany) and Saskatoon (Canada), while the southernmost part is on roughly the same latitude as Rome (Italy) and Chicago (USA). The westernmost part of Mongolia is on roughly the same longitude as Kolkata in India, while the easternmost part is on the same longitude as Qinhuangdao and Hangzhou in China, as well as the western edge of Taiwan. Although Mongolia does not share a border with
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
, its westernmost point is only from
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
. The geography of Mongolia is varied, with the Gobi Desert to the south and cold, mountainous regions to the north and west. Much of Mongolia consists of the Mongolian-Manchurian grassland steppe, with forested areas accounting for 11.2% of the total land area, a higher percentage than Ireland (10%). The whole of Mongolia is considered to be part of the
Mongolian Plateau The Mongolian Plateau is the part of the Central Asian Plateau lying between 37°46′-53°08′N and 87°40′-122°15′E and having an area of approximately . It is bounded by the Greater Hinggan Mountains in the east, the Yin Mountains to ...
. The highest point in Mongolia is the
Khüiten Peak Khüiten Peak ( mn, Хүйтэн оргил, Hüiten orgil, ; "cold peak"), also known in China as Friendship Peak (), is the highest peak with 4,356 m above sea level and a permanent snow cap in the Altai Range, the international border ...
in the Tavan bogd massif in the far west at . The basin of the Uvs Lake, shared with
Tuva Republic Tuva (; russian: Тува́) or Tyva ( tyv, Тыва), officially the Republic of Tuva (russian: Респу́блика Тыва́, r=Respublika Tyva, p=rʲɪˈspublʲɪkə tɨˈva; tyv, Тыва Республика, translit=Tyva Respublika ...
in Russia, is a natural
World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
.


Climate

Mongolia is known as the "Land of the Eternal Blue Sky" or "Country of Blue Sky" ( Mongolian: "Mönkh khökh tengeriin oron") because it has over 250 sunny days a year. Most of the country is hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter, with January averages dropping as low as . A vast front of cold, heavy, shallow air comes in from Siberia in winter and collects in river valleys and low basins causing very cold temperatures while slopes of mountains are much warmer due to the effects of
temperature inversion In meteorology, an inversion is a deviation from the normal change of an atmospheric property with altitude. It almost always refers to an inversion of the air temperature lapse rate, in which case it is called a temperature inversion. Nor ...
(temperature increases with altitude). In winter the whole of Mongolia comes under the influence of the Siberian Anticyclone. The localities most severely affected by this cold weather are Uvs province ( Ulaangom), western Khovsgol ( Rinchinlhumbe), eastern Zavkhan ( Tosontsengel), northern Bulgan (Hutag) and eastern Dornod province (Khalkhiin Gol). Ulaanbaatar is strongly, but less severely, affected. The cold gets less severe as one goes south, reaching the warmest January temperatures in Omnogovi Province (
Dalanzadgad Dalanzadgad ( mn, Даланзадгад; ) is the capital of Ömnögovi Aimag in Mongolia. It is located south of the national capital Ulaanbaatar. The altitude of the city center is 1,470 meters (4,823 feet). As of 2011, its population is 19,3 ...
, Khanbogd) and the region of the Altai mountains bordering China. A unique microclimate is the fertile grassland-forest region of central and eastern Arkhangai Province ( Tsetserleg) and northern Ovorkhangai Province ( Arvaikheer) where January temperatures are on average the same and often higher than the warmest desert regions to the south in addition to being more stable. The Khangai Mountains play a certain role in forming this microclimate. In Tsetserleg, the warmest town in this microclimate, nighttime January temperatures rarely go under while daytime January temperatures often reach to . The country is subject to occasional harsh climatic conditions known as ''
zud A zud, dzud ( mn, зуд) of dzhut, zhut, djut, jut ( kz, жұт, ky, жут, russian: джут) is a disaster in steppe, semi-desert and desert regions in Mongolia and Central Asia in which large numbers of livestock die, primarily due to starv ...
.'' Zud, a natural disaster unique to Mongolia, results in large proportions of the country's livestock dying from starvation or freezing temperatures or both, resulting in economic upheaval for the largely pastoral population. The annual average temperature in Ulaanbaatar is , making it the world's coldest capital city. Mongolia is high, cold and windy. It has an extreme continental climate with long, cold winters and short summers, during which most of its annual precipitation falls. The country averages 257 cloudless days a year, and it is usually at the center of a region of high atmospheric pressure. Precipitation is highest in the north (average of per year) and lowest in the south, which receives annually. The highest annual precipitation of occurred in the forests of
Bulgan Province Bulgan ( mn, Булган) is one of the 21 aimags (provinces) of Mongolia, located in northern Mongolia. Its capital is also named Bulgan. Geography The aimag is surrounded by Russia (Buryatia) in the north, the aimags Khövsgöl in the no ...
near the border with Russia and the lowest of occurred in the Gobi Desert (period 1961–1990). The sparsely populated far north of Bulgan Province averages in annual precipitation which means it receives more precipitation than Beijing () or
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
().


Environmental issues


Wildlife

The name "Gobi" is a Mongol term for a desert steppe, which usually refers to a category of arid rangeland with insufficient vegetation to support
marmot Marmots are large ground squirrels in the genus ''Marmota'', with 15 species living in Asia, Europe, and North America. These herbivores are active during the summer, when they can often be found in groups, but are not seen during the winter, ...
s but with enough to support camels. Mongols distinguish Gobi from desert proper, although the distinction is not always apparent to outsiders unfamiliar with the Mongolian landscape. Gobi rangelands are fragile and easily destroyed by overgrazing, which results in expansion of the true desert, a stony waste where not even
Bactrian camel The Bactrian camel (''Camelus bactrianus''), also known as the Mongolian camel or domestic Bactrian camel, is a large even-toed ungulate native to the steppes of Central Asia. It has two humps on its back, in contrast to the single-humped dro ...
s can survive. The arid conditions in the Gobi are attributed to the
rain shadow effect A rain shadow is an area of significantly reduced rainfall behind a mountainous region, on the side facing away from prevailing winds, known as its leeward side. Evaporated moisture from water bodies (such as oceans and large lakes) is carrie ...
caused by the Himalayas. Before the Himalayas were formed by the collision of the Indo-Australian plate with the Eurasian plate 10 million years ago, Mongolia was a flourishing habitat for major fauna but still somewhat arid and cold due to distance from sources of evaporation. Sea turtle and mollusk fossils have been found in the Gobi, apart from well-known dinosaur fossils.
Tadpole shrimps The order Notostraca, containing the single family Triopsidae, is a group of crustaceans known as tadpole shrimp or shield shrimp. The two genera, ''Triops'' and ''Lepidurus'', are considered living fossils, with similar forms having existed since ...
(''Lepidurus mongolicus'') are still found in the Gobi today. The eastern part of Mongolia including the
Onon Onon may refer to: * Onon (river), river in Mongolia and Russia * Onon, Khentii, town in the Khentii Province of Mongolia * Onon (crater), crater on Mars named after the river {{disambig ...
and Kherlen rivers and
Lake Buir Buir Lake ( mn, Буйр нуур, Buir nuur; ) is a freshwater lake that straddles the border between Mongolia and China. It lies within the Buir Lake Depression. The Chinese city of Hulunbuir is named after both this lake and Hulun Lake, which ...
form part of the Amur river basin draining to the Pacific Ocean. It hosts some unique species like the Eastern brook lamprey, Daurian crayfish (''cambaroides dauricus'') and Daurian pearl oyster (''dahurinaia dahurica'') in the Onon/Kherlen rivers as well as Siberian prawn (''exopalaemon modestus'') in Lake Buir. Mongolia had a 2019
Forest Landscape Integrity Index The Forest Landscape Integrity Index (FLII) is an annual global index of forest condition measured by degree of anthropogenic modification. Created by a team of 48 scientists, the FLII, in its measurement of 300m pixels of forest across the globe ...
mean score of 9.36/10, ranking it sixth globally out of 172 countries.


Demographics

Mongolia's total population as of January 2015 was estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau to be 3,000,251 people, ranking around 121st in the world. But the
U.S. Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other ...
Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs In the United States Government, the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (EAP, originally the Office of Chinese Affairs) is part of the United States Department of State and is charged with advising the Secretary of State and Under Secre ...
uses the United Nations (UN) estimations instead of the U.S. Census Bureau estimations.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) is part of the United Nations Secretariat and is responsible for the follow-up to major United Nations Summits and Conferences, as well as services to the United Nations Ec ...
Population Division estimates Mongolia's total population (mid-2007) as 2,629,000 (11% less than the U.S. Census Bureau figure). UN estimates resemble those made by the Mongolian National Statistical Office (2,612,900, end of June 2007). Mongolia's population growth rate is estimated at 1.2% (2007 est.). About 59% of the total population is under age 30, 27% of whom are under 14. This relatively
young Young may refer to: * Offspring, the product of reproduction of a new organism produced by one or more parents * Youth, the time of life when one is young, often meaning the time between childhood and adulthood Music * The Young, an American roc ...
and growing population has placed strains on Mongolia's economy. The first census in the 20th century was carried out in 1918 and recorded a population of 647,500. Since the end of socialism, Mongolia has experienced a decline of
total fertility rate The total fertility rate (TFR) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if: # she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through her lifetime # she were t ...
(children per woman) that is steeper than in any other country in the world, according to recent UN estimations: in 1970–1975, fertility was estimated to be 7.33 children per woman, dropping to about 2.1 in 2000–2005. The decline ended and in 2005–2010, the estimated fertility value increased to 2.5 and stabilised afterwards at the rate of about 2.2–2.3 children per woman. Ethnic Mongols account for about 95% of the population and consist of
Khalkha The Khalkha (Mongolian script, Mongolian: mn, Халх, Halh, , zh, 喀爾喀) have been the largest subgroup of Mongols, Mongol people in modern Mongolia since the 15th century. The Khalkha, together with Chahars, Ordos Mongols, Ordos and Tum ...
and other groups, all distinguished primarily by dialects of the Mongol language. The
Khalkha The Khalkha (Mongolian script, Mongolian: mn, Халх, Halh, , zh, 喀爾喀) have been the largest subgroup of Mongols, Mongol people in modern Mongolia since the 15th century. The Khalkha, together with Chahars, Ordos Mongols, Ordos and Tum ...
make up 86% of the ethnic Mongol population. The remaining 14% include Oirats, Buryats and others.
Turkic people The Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West Asia, West, Central Asia, Central, East Asia, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose memb ...
s ( Kazakhs and
Tuvans The Tuvans ( tyv, Тывалар, Tıvalar) are a TurkicOtto Maenchen-Helfen, Journey to Tuva, p. 169 ethnic group indigenous to Siberia who live in Russia ( Tuva), Mongolia, and China. They speak Tuvan, a Siberian Turkic language. They are a ...
) constitute 4.5% of Mongolia's population, and the rest are Russian, Chinese, Korean and American nationalities.


Languages

The official language of Mongolia is Mongolian, and is spoken by 95% of the population. A variety of
dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
s of Oirat and Buryat are spoken across the country, and there are also some speakers of Mongolic Khamnigan. In the west of the country, Kazakh and Tuvan, both
Turkic languages The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia ( Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic l ...
, are also spoken. Mongolian Sign Language is the principal language of the deaf community. Today, Mongolian is written using the
Cyrillic alphabet , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = Gr ...
in Mongolia, although in the past it was written using the
Mongolian script The classical or traditional Mongolian script, also known as the , was the first writing system created specifically for the Mongolian language, and was the most widespread until the introduction of Cyrillic in 1946. It is traditionally written ...
. An official reintroduction of the old script was planned for 1994, but has not taken place as older generations encountered practical difficulties. Schools are reintroducing the traditional alphabet. In March 2020, the Mongolian government announced plans to use both Cyrillic and the traditional Mongolian script in official documents by 2025.
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
is the most frequently spoken foreign language in Mongolia, followed by
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
, although English has been gradually replacing Russian as the second language.
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...
has gained popularity as tens of thousands of Mongolians work in South Korea.


Religion

According to the 2010 National Census, among Mongolians aged 15 and above, 53% were Buddhists, while 39% were
non-religious Irreligion or nonreligion is the absence or rejection of religion, or indifference to it. Irreligion takes many forms, ranging from the casual and unaware to full-fledged philosophies such as atheism and agnosticism, secular humanism and ant ...
.
Mongolian shamanism Mongolian shamanism ( mn, Бөө мөргөл — ''Böö mörgöl''), more broadly called the Mongolian folk religion, or occasionally Tengerism, refers to the animistic and shamanic ethnic religion that has been practiced in Mongolia and i ...
has been widely practised throughout the history of what is now Mongolia, with similar beliefs being common among the nomads of central Asia. They gradually gave way to
Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...
, but shamanism has left a mark on Mongolian religious culture, and it continues to be practiced. The Kazakhs of western Mongolia, some Mongols, and other Turkic peoples in the country traditionally adhere to Islam. Throughout much of the 20th century, the communist government repressed religious practices. It targeted the clergy of the Mongolian Buddhist Church, which had been tightly intertwined with the previous feudal government structures (e.g. from 1911 on, the head of the Church had also been the Khan of the country). In the late 1930s, the regime, then led by
Khorloogiin Choibalsan Khorloogiin Choibalsan ( mn, Хорлоогийн Чойбалсан, spelled ''Koroloogiin Çoibalsan'' before 1941; 8 February 1895 – 26 January 1952) was the leader of Mongolia (Mongolian People's Republic) and Marshal (general chief com ...
, closed almost all of Mongolia's over 700 Buddhist monasteries and killed at least 30,000 people, of whom 18,000 were lamas. The number of Buddhist monks dropped from 100,000 in 1924 to 110 in 1990. The
fall of communism The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Nat ...
in 1991 restored public religious practice.
Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...
, which had been the predominant religion prior to the rise of communism, again rose to become the most widely practised religion in Mongolia. The end of religious repression in the 1990s also allowed for other religions to spread in the country. According to the Christian missionary group
Barnabas Fund The Barnabas Fund is an international, interdenominational Christian aid agency based in Coventry, in the West Midlands of England that supports Christians who face discrimination or persecution as a consequence of their faith. It was established ...
, the number of Christians grew from just four in 1989 to around 40,000 . In May 2013,
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...
(LDS Church) held a cultural program to celebrate twenty years of LDS Church history in Mongolia, with 10,900 members, and 16 church buildings in the country. There are some 1,000 Catholics in Mongolia and, in 2003, a missionary from the
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
was named Mongolia's first
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
bishop. In 2017
Seventh-day Adventists The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and i ...
reported 2,700 members in six churches up from zero members in 1991.


Government and politics

Mongolia is a
semi-presidential A semi-presidential republic, is a republic in which a president exists alongside a prime minister and a cabinet, with the latter two being responsible to the legislature of the state. It differs from a parliamentary republic in that it has a ...
representative democratic republic with a directly elected
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
. The people also elect the deputies in the national assembly, the State Great Khural. The president appoints the prime minister, and nominates the cabinet on the proposal of the prime minister. The constitution of Mongolia guarantees a number of freedoms, including full
freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recog ...
and
religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
. Mongolia has a number of political parties; the largest are the
Mongolian People's Party The Mongolian People's Party (MPP) is a social democratic political party in Mongolia. It was founded as a communist party in 1920 by Mongolian revolutionaries and is the oldest political party in Mongolia. The party played an important role ...
and the Democratic Party. The non-governmental organisation Freedom House considers Mongolia to be free. The People's Party – known as the People's Revolutionary Party between 1924 and 2010 – formed the government from 1921 to 1996 (in a
one-party system A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties ...
until 1990) and from 2000 to 2004. From 2004 to 2006, it was part of a coalition with the Democrats and two other parties, and after 2006 it was the dominant party in two other coalitions. The party initiated two changes of government from 2004 prior to losing power in the 2012 election. The Democrats were the dominant force in a ruling coalition between 1996 and 2000, and an almost-equal partner with the People's Revolutionary Party in a coalition between 2004 and 2006. An election of deputies to the national assembly on 28 June 2012 resulted in no party having an overall majority; however, as the Democratic Party won the largest number of seats, its leader,
Norovyn Altankhuyag Norovyn Altankhuyag ( mn, Норовын Алтанхуяг, Norowiin Altanhuyag, ; born 20 January 1958) is a Mongolian politician who was the Prime Minister of Mongolia from 2012 to 2014 and a Member of Parliament. Democratic Party's National Co ...
, was appointed
prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
on 10 August 2012. In 2014, he was replaced by Chimediin Saikhanbileg. The
MPP MPP or M.P.P. may refer to: * Marginal physical product * Master of Public Policy, an academic degree * Member of Provincial Parliament (Ontario), Canada * Member of Provincial Parliament (Western Cape), South Africa * ''Merriweather Post Pavilio ...
won a landslide victory in the
2016 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2016. Africa Benin Republic * 2016 Beninese presidential election 6 March 2016 Cape Verde * 2016 Cape Verdean presidential election 2 October 2016 Chad * 2016 Chadian presidential election 1 ...
and the next
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
was
MPP MPP or M.P.P. may refer to: * Marginal physical product * Master of Public Policy, an academic degree * Member of Provincial Parliament (Ontario), Canada * Member of Provincial Parliament (Western Cape), South Africa * ''Merriweather Post Pavilio ...
's
Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh (, ; born 14 June 1968), also referred to as Khürelsükh Ukhnaa, is the 6th and current president of Mongolia, beginning his term on June 25, 2021 after winning the 2021 Mongolian presidential election. He was prime mi ...
. In June 2020, MPP won a landslide victory in the
election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
. It took 62 seats and the main opposition DP, 11 of the 76 seats. Before the elections the ruling party had redrawn the electoral map in a way that was beneficial for MPP. In January 2021, Prime Minister Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh resigned after protests over the treatment of a coronavirus patient. On 27 January 2021, Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene of MPP became new prime minister. He represents a younger generation of leaders that had studied abroad. The
President of Mongolia The president of Mongolia ( mn, Монгол Улсын Ерөнхийлөгч, ''Mongol Ulsyn Yerönkhiilögch'') is the executive head of state of Mongolia.Montsame News Agency. ''Mongolia''. 2006, , p. 42 The current president is Ukhnaagiin ...
is able to veto the laws made by parliament, appoint judges and justice of courts and appoint ambassadors. The parliament can override that veto by a two-thirds majority vote. Mongolia's constitution provides three requirements for taking office as president; the candidate must be a native-born Mongolian, be at least 45 years old, and have resided in Mongolia for five years before taking office. The president must also suspend their party membership. After defeating incumbent
Nambaryn Enkhbayar Nambaryn Enkhbayar ( mn, Намбарын Энхбаяр; born 1 June 1958) is a Mongolian politician. He served as the Prime Minister of Mongolia from 2000 to 2004, as Speaker of the Parliament from 2004 to 2005, and as President of Mongoli ...
,
Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj (, ''Cahiagín Elbegdorj'' ; also referred to as Mongolyin Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj and Tsakhia Elbegdorj; born 30 March 1963) is a Mongolian politician who served as President of Mongolia from 2009 to 2017. He previously ser ...
, a two-time former prime minister and member of the Democratic Party, was elected as president on 24 May 2009 and inaugurated on 18 June that year. The ruling
Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (2010) The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party ( mn, Монгол Ардын Хувьсгалт Нам, Mongol Ardyn Khuvsgalt Nam) was a political party in Mongolia which was founded in 2010 by Nambaryn Enkhbayar. The party received approval to u ...
( MPRP)nominated Batbold Sukhbaatar as new Prime Minister in October 2009. Elbegdorj was re-elected on 26 June 2013 and was inaugurated on 10 July 2013 for his second term as president. In June 2017, opposition Democratic Party candidate Khaltmaagiin Battulga won the presidential
election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
. He was inaugurated on 10 July 2017. In June 2021, former Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, the candidate of the ruling
Mongolian People's Party The Mongolian People's Party (MPP) is a social democratic political party in Mongolia. It was founded as a communist party in 1920 by Mongolian revolutionaries and is the oldest political party in Mongolia. The party played an important role ...
(
MPP MPP or M.P.P. may refer to: * Marginal physical product * Master of Public Policy, an academic degree * Member of Provincial Parliament (Ontario), Canada * Member of Provincial Parliament (Western Cape), South Africa * ''Merriweather Post Pavilio ...
), became the country's sixth democratically elected president after winning the
presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pre ...
. Mongolia uses a
unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multi ...
legislature A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...
, the State Great Khural, with 76 seats, which is chaired by the Speaker of the House. Its members are directly elected, every four years, by popular vote.


Foreign relations

Mongolia's foreign relations traditionally focus on its two large neighbors,
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
and the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. Mongolia is economically dependent on these countries: China receives 90% of Mongolia's exports by value and accounts for 60% of its foreign trade, while Russia supplies 90% of Mongolia's energy requirements. Mongolia's most important trading partner is China, and the government has been trying to stay out of the current US-China confrontation. It has begun seeking positive relations with a wider range of other nations especially in cultural and economic matters, focusing on encouraging foreign investments and trade. Mongolia has been pursuing a third-neighbor foreign policy since early 1990s to build deeper relations and partnerships with countries beyond its two neighbors.


Embassies

Mongolia maintains many
diplomatic missions A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...
in other countries and has
embassies A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...
in the following world capitals: *
Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...
*
Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...
*
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
*
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
* Brasilia *
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
*
Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
*
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
* Canberra *
Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...
*
Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.
* Jakarta *
Kuala Lumpur , anthem = ''Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , sub ...
* Kuwait City *
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
*
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
*
New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...
*
Nur-Sultan Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmola Region, tho ...
* Ottawa *
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
*
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
*
Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populat ...
*
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
*
Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...
*
Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
*
Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...
* Stockholm *
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
*
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
*
Vientiane Vientiane ( , ; lo, ວຽງຈັນ, ''Viangchan'', ) is the capital and largest city of Laos. Vientiane is divided administratively into 9 cities with a total area of only approx. 3,920 square kilometres and is located on the banks of ...
*
Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
*
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...


Military

Mongolia supported the
2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...
, and has sent several successive contingents of 103 to 180 troops each to
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
. About 130 troops were deployed to
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
. 200 Mongolian troops are serving in
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...
on a UN mandate to protect the UN's Special Court for Sierra Leone, special court set up there, and in July 2009, Mongolia decided to send a
battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions a ...
to Chad in support of
MINURCAT The United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) was a United Nations peacekeeping mission established by the United Nations Security Council on September 25, 2007 to provide a multidimensional presence of up to 350 po ...
. From 2005 to 2006, about 40 troops were deployed with the Belgian and Luxembourg contingents in
Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
. On 21 November 2005, George W. Bush became the first-ever sitting U.S. president to visit Mongolia. In 2004, under Bulgarian chairmanship, the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, pro ...
(OSCE) invited Mongolia as its newest Asian partner.


Legal system

The judiciary of Mongolia is made of a three-tiered
court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in acco ...
system:
first instance A trial court or court of first instance is a court having original jurisdiction, in which trials take place. Appeals from the decisions of trial courts are usually made by higher courts with the power of appellate review (appellate courts). Mos ...
courts in each provincial district and each Ulaanbaatar district; appellate courts for each province and also the Capital Ulaanbaatar; and the court of last resort (for non-constitutional matters) at the
Supreme Court of Mongolia The Supreme Court of Mongolia is the highest court in the judicial system of Mongolia, and is generally the court of last resort for non-constitutional matters. It is established by Article 48(1) of the Constitution of Mongolia. The Constitution ...
. For questions of constitutional law there is a separate
constitutional court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...
. A Judicial General Council (JGC) nominates judges which must then be confirmed by the
parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
and appointed by the President. Arbitration centres provide alternative dispute resolution options for commercial and other disputes.


Administrative divisions

Mongolia is divided into 21 provinces (aimags) and subdivided into 331 districts (sums). The capital
Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar (; mn, Улаанбаатар, , "Red Hero"), previously anglicized as Ulan Bator, is the capital and most populous city of Mongolia. It is the coldest capital city in the world, on average. The municipality is located in north ce ...
is administrated separately as a capital city (municipality) with provincial status. The ''aimags'' are: * Arkhangai * Bayan-Ölgii * Bayankhongor * Bulgan * Darkhan-Uul * Dornod * Dornogovi * Dundgovi *
Govi-Altai Govi-Altai ( mn, Говь-Алтай / , ) is an aimag (province) in western Mongolia. Transportation The Altai Airport (LTI/ZMAT) has one paved runway and is served by regular flights to Arvaikheer, Bayankhongor and Ulaanbaatar. The new arriva ...
* Govisümber * Khentii * Khovd * Khövsgöl * Ömnögovi * Orkhon * Övörkhangai * Selenge * Sükhbaatar * Töv * Uvs * Zavkhan


Major cities

About 40% of the population lives in Ulaanbaatar (Ulan Bator), and in 2002 a further 23% lived in Darkhan,
Erdenet Erdenet ( mn, Эрдэнэт, literally "with treasure") is the third-largest city in Mongolia, with a 2018 population of 98,045, and the capital of the aimag (province) of Orkhon. Located in the northern part of the country, it lies in a valley ...
, the
aimag An aimag (, ; xal, әәмг, ), originally a Mongolian word meaning 'tribe', is an administrative subdivision in Mongolia, Russia, and in the Inner Mongolia region of China. Mongolia In Mongolia, an aimag is the first-level administrative ...
centers and sum-level permanent settlements. Another share of the population lives in the sum centers. *Under Ulaanbaatar administration


Economy

Economic activity in Mongolia has long been based on herding and agriculture, although development of extensive mineral deposits of copper, coal, molybdenum, tin,
tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isol ...
and gold have emerged as a driver of industrial production. Besides mining (21.8% of GDP) and agriculture (16% of GDP), dominant industries in the composition of GDP are wholesale and retail trade and service, transportation and storage, and real estate activities. The informal economy is estimated to be at least one-third the size of the official economy. , 68.4% of Mongolia's exports went to the
PRC China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, and the PRC supplied 29.8% of Mongolia's imports. Mongolia is ranked as a lower-middle-income economy by the
World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...
. Some 22.4% of the population lives on less than US$1.25 a day. In 2011, GDP per capita was $3,100. Despite growth, the proportion of the population below the poverty line was estimated to be 35.6% in 1998, 36.1% in 2002–2003, and 32.2% in 2006.Statistical Yearbook of Mongolia 2006, National Statistical Office, Ulaanbaatar, 2007 Because of a boom in the mining sector, Mongolia had high growth rates in 2007 and 2008 (9.9% and 8.9%, respectively). In 2009, sharp drops in commodity prices and the effects of the global financial crisis caused the local currency to drop 40% against the U.S. dollar. Two of the 16 commercial banks were taken into receivership. In 2011, GDP growth was expected to reach 16.4%. However, inflation continued to erode GDP gains, with an average rate of 12.6% expected at the end of 2011. Although GDP has risen steadily since 2002 at the rate of 7.5% in an official 2006 estimate, the state is still working to overcome a sizable trade deficit. The ''Economist'' predicted this trade deficit of 14% of Mongolia's GDP would transform into a surplus in 2013. Mongolia was never listed among the
emerging market An emerging market (or an emerging country or an emerging economy) is a market that has some characteristics of a developed market, but does not fully meet its standards. This includes markets that may become developed markets in the future or wer ...
countries until February 2011 when Citigroup analysts determined Mongolia to be one of the " global growth generating" countries, which are countries with the most promising growth prospects for 2010–2050. The
Mongolian Stock Exchange The Mongolian Stock Exchange (MSE) (Mongolian language, Mongolian: Монголын Хөрөнгийн Бирж/''Mongolyn Khöröngiin Birj'') is Mongolia's sole stock exchange. It is based in Ulaanbaatar and was established in January 1991 by the ...
, established in 1991 in Ulaanbaatar, is among the world's smallest stock exchanges by
market capitalisation Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by t ...
. In 2011, it had 336 companies listed with a total market capitalization of US$2 billion after quadrupling from US$406 million in 2008. Mongolia made a significant improvement in the ease of doing business in 2012, ranking 76th compared with 88th the previous year in the "Doing Business" report by the
International Finance Corporation The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is an international financial institution that offers investment, advisory, and asset-management services to encourage private-sector development in less developed countries. The IFC is a member of ...
(IFC).


Mineral industry

Minerals represent more than 80% of Mongolia's exports, a proportion expected to eventually rise to 95%. Fiscal revenues from mining represented 21% of government income in 2010 and rose to 24% in 2018. About 3,000 mining licences have been issued. Mining continues to rise as a major industry of Mongolia as evidenced by the number of Chinese, Russian and Canadian firms starting mining businesses in Mongolia. In 2009, the government negotiated an "investment agreement" with
Rio Tinto Rio Tinto, meaning "red river", may refer to: Businesses * Rio Tinto (corporation), an Anglo-Australian multinational mining and resources corporation ** Rio Tinto Alcan, based in Canada ** Rio Tinto Borax in America *** Rio Tinto Borax Mine, ...
and Ivanhoe Mines to develop the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold deposit, the biggest foreign-investment project in Mongolia, expected to account for one-third of Mongolia's GDP by 2020. In March 2011, six big mining companies prepared to bid for the
Tavan Tolgoi Tavan Tolgoi ( mn, Таван толгой, also Tavantolgoi, Tavantolgoy, "Five Hill") is one of the world's largest untapped coking and thermal coal deposits, located in the Ömnögovi Province in southern Mongolia. It has a total estimated r ...
area, the world's largest untapped coal deposit. According to Erdenes MGL, the government body in-charge of Tavan Tolgoi,
ArcelorMittal ArcelorMittal S.A. is a Luxembourgian multinational steel manufacturing corporation headquartered in Luxembourg City. It was formed in 2006 from the takeover and merger of Arcelor by Indian-owned Mittal Steel. ArcelorMittal is the second la ...
, Vale,
Xstrata Xstrata plc was an Anglo-Swiss multinational mining company headquartered in Zug, Switzerland and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It was a major producer of coal (and the world's largest exporter of thermal coal), copper, ...
, U.S. coal miner Peabody, a consortium of Chinese energy firm Shenhua and Japan's
Mitsui & Co is one of the largest ''sogo shosha'' (general trading companies) in Japan; it is part of the Mitsui Group. History The company was established in 1876 with 16 members including the founder, Takashi Masuda. As Japan's international trading w ...
, and a separate consortium of Japanese, South Korean and Russian firms are the preferred bidders. In September 2022, Mongolia built and launched a 233-km direct rail link to China, which is a milestone in Mongolia’s plan to become China’s leading supplier of high-quality coal from the Tavan Tolgoi mine, which has more than six billion tonnes of coal reserves.


Agriculture


Infrastructure


Communications

Postal services are provided by state-owned Mongol Post and 54 other licensed operators.


Energy


Transportation

The
Trans-Mongolian Railway , map_name = , map_state = collapsed , embedded = The Trans-Mongolian Railway follows an ancient tea-caravan route from China to Russia and connects Ulan-Ude, on the Trans–Baikal Railway, Trans–Baikal (Trans–Sib ...
is the main rail link between Mongolia and its neighbors. It begins at the
Trans-Siberian Railway The Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR; , , ) connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway line in the world. It runs from the city of Moscow in the west to the city of Vladivostok in the ea ...
in Russia at the town of
Ulan-Ude Ulan-Ude (; bua, Улаан-Үдэ, , ; russian: Улан-Удэ, p=ʊˈlan ʊˈdɛ; mn, Улаан-Үд, , ) is the capital city of the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located about southeast of Lake Baikal on the Uda River at its confluence wi ...
, crosses into Mongolia, runs through Ulaanbaatar, then passes into China at
Erenhot Erenhot ( mn, ; , commonly shortened to Ereen or Erlian) is a county-level city of the Xilin Gol League, in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, located in the Gobi Desert along the Sino-Mongolian border, across from the Mongolian town of Za ...
where it joins the Chinese railway system. A separate railroad link connects the eastern city of Choibalsan with the Trans-Siberian Railway. However, that link is closed to passengers after the Mongolian town of Chuluunkhoroot. Mongolia also has a 233 km-long cargo rail link from the Tavan Tolgoi coal mine to Chinese border. Mongolia has a number of domestic airports, with some of them having international status. However, the main international airport is Chinggis Khaan International Airport, located approximately south of the capital Ulaanbaatar. Direct flight connections exist between Mongolia and South Korea, China, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Russia, Germany, and Turkey. MIAT Mongolian Airlines is Mongolia's national air carrier, operating international flights, while air carriers such as Aero Mongolia and Hunnu Airlines serve domestic and short international routes. Many overland roads in Mongolia are only gravel roads or simple cross-country tracks. There are paved roads from Ulaanbaatar to the Russian and Chinese borders, from Ulaanbaatar east- and westward (the so-called Millennium Road), and from Darkhan to Bulgan. A number of road construction projects are currently underway. Mongolia has of paved roads, with of that total completed in 2013 alone.


Education

During the state socialist period, education was one of the areas of significant achievement in Mongolia. Before the
People's Republic People's republic is an official title, usually used by some currently or formerly communist or left-wing states. It is mainly associated with soviet republics, socialist states following people's democracy, sovereign states with a democratic- ...
, literacy rates were below one percent. By 1952, illiteracy was virtually eliminated, in part through the use of seasonal boarding schools for children of nomadic families. Funding to these boarding schools was cut in the 1990s, contributing to slightly increased illiteracy. Primary and secondary education formerly lasted ten years, but was expanded to eleven years. Since the 2008–2009 school year, new first-graders are using the 12-year system, with a full transition to the 12-year system in the 2019–2020 school year. , English is taught in all secondary schools across Mongolia, beginning in fourth grade. Mongolian national universities are all spin-offs from the National University of Mongolia and the
Mongolian University of Science and Technology The Mongolian University of Science and Technology (MUST; mn, Шинжлэх Ухаан, Технологийн Их Сургууль) was founded in 1959 as a part of the National University of Mongolia and started training the Industrial Econo ...
. Almost three in five Mongolian youths now enroll in university. There was a six-fold increase in students between 1993 and 2010. Mongolia was ranked 58th in the
Global Innovation Index The Global Innovation Index is an annual ranking of countries by their capacity for, and success in, innovation, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization. It was started in 2007 by INSEAD and ''World Business'', a British ma ...
in 2021, down from 53rd in 2019.


Health


Culture

The symbol in the left bar of the national flag is a Buddhist icon called Soyombo. It represents the sun, moon, stars, and heavens per standard cosmological symbology abstracted from that seen in traditional
thangka A ''thangka'', variously spelled as ''thangka'', ''tangka'', ''thanka'', or ''tanka'' (; Tibetan: ཐང་ཀ་; Nepal Bhasa: पौभा), is a Tibetan Buddhist painting on cotton, silk appliqué, usually depicting a Buddhist deity, scene, ...
paintings.


Visual arts

Before the 20th century, most works of the fine arts in Mongolia had a religious function, and therefore Mongolian fine arts were heavily influenced by religious texts.
Thangkas A ''thangka'', variously spelled as ''thangka'', ''tangka'', ''thanka'', or ''tanka'' (; Standard Tibetan, Tibetan: ཐང་ཀ་; Nepal Bhasa: पौभा), is a Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhist painting on cotton, silk appliqué, usuall ...
were usually painted or made in
appliqué Appliqué is ornamental needlework in which pieces or patches of fabric in different shapes and patterns are sewn or stuck onto a larger piece to form a picture or pattern. It is commonly used as decoration, especially on garments. The technique ...
technique. Bronze sculptures usually showed Buddhist deities. A number of great works are attributed to the first
Jebtsundamba Khutuktu The Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, , ; zh, c=哲布尊丹巴呼圖克圖, p=Zhébùzūn Dānbā Hūtúkètú; bo, རྗེ་བཙུན་དམ་པ་ཧུ་ཐུག་ཐུ་, Jetsün Dampa Hutuktu; "Venerable Excellent incarnate lama" ar ...
, Zanabazar. In the late 19th century, painters like "Marzan" Sharav turned to more realistic painting styles. Under the
Mongolian People's Republic The Mongolian People's Republic ( mn, Бүгд Найрамдах Монгол Ард Улс, БНМАУ; , ''BNMAU''; ) was a socialist state which existed from 1924 to 1992, located in the historical region of Outer Mongolia in East Asia. It w ...
,
socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is c ...
was the dominant painting style, however traditional ''thangka''-like paintings dealing with secular, nationalist themes were also popular, a genre known as " Mongol ''zurag''". Among the first attempts to introduce
modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
into the fine arts of Mongolia was the painting ''Ehiin setgel'' (''Mother's love'') created by Tsevegjav in the 1960s. The artist was purged as his work was censored. All forms of fine arts flourished only after " Perestroika" in the late 1980s. Otgonbayar Ershuu is arguably one of the most well-known Mongolian modern artists in the Western world, he was portrayed in the film "ZURAG" by Tobias Wulff.


Architecture

The traditional Mongolian dwelling is known as a ''ger''. In the past it was known by the Russian term ''yurt'', but this has been changing as the Mongolian term becomes better known in English-speaking countries. According to Mongolian artist and art critic N. Chultem, the ''ger'' was the basis for development of traditional Mongolian architecture. In the 16th and 17th centuries, lamaseries were built throughout the country. Many of them started as ''ger''-temples. When they needed to be enlarged to accommodate the growing number of worshippers, the Mongolian architects used structures with 6 and 12 angles with pyramidal roofs to approximate to the round shape of a ''ger''. Further enlargement led to a quadratic shape of the temples. The roofs were made in the shape of marquées. The trellis walls, roof poles and layers of felt were replaced by stone, brick, beams and planks, and became permanent. Chultem distinguished three styles in traditional Mongolian architecture: Mongolian, Tibetan and Chinese as well as combinations of the three. Among the first quadratic temples was Batu-Tsagaan (1654) designed by Zanabazar. An example of the ''ger''-style architecture is the lamasery Dashi-Choiling in Ulaanbaatar. The temple Lavrin (18th century) in the Erdene Zuu lamasery was built in the Tibetan tradition. An example of a temple built in the Chinese tradition is the lamasery Choijing Lamiin Sume (1904), which is a museum today. The quadratic temple Tsogchin in lamasery Gandan in Ulaanbaatar is a combination of the Mongolian and Chinese tradition. The temple of Maitreya (disassembled in 1938) is an example of the Tibeto-Mongolian architecture. Dashi-Choiling monastery has commenced a project to restore the temple and the sculpture of Maitreya.


Music

The music of Mongolia is strongly influenced by nature, nomadism, shamanism, and also Tibetan Buddhism. The traditional music includes a variety of instruments, famously the
morin khuur The ''morin khuur'' ( mn, морин хуур, morin khuur), also known as the horsehead fiddle, is a traditional Mongolian bowed stringed instrument. It is one of the most important musical instruments of the Mongol people, and is considered ...
, and also the singing styles like the urtyn duu ("long song"), and throat-singing ( khoomei). The "tsam" is danced to keep away evil spirits and it was seen as reminiscent of shamanism. The first rock band of Mongolia was
Soyol Erdene Soyol Erdene ( mn, Соёл Эрдэнэ, ) is the first rock band of Mongolia. Name "Soyol Erdene" is the name of a melodious popular song of 1920s which the band played on an electric guitar. The approximate meaning is "Cultural jewel". Hi ...
, founded in the 1960s. Their Beatles-like manner was severely criticized by the communist censorship. It was followed by Mungunhurhree, Ineemseglel, Urgoo, etc., carving out the path for the genre in the harsh environment of communist ideology. Mungunhurhree and Haranga were to become the pioneers in the Mongolia's heavy rock music. Haranga approached its zenith in the late 1980s and 1990s. The leader of Haranga, famous guitarist Enh-Manlai, generously helped the growth of the following generations of rockers. Among the followers of Haranga was the band
Hurd GNU Hurd is a collection of microkernel servers written as part of GNU, for the GNU Mach microkernel. It has been under development since 1990 by the GNU Project of the Free Software Foundation, designed as a replacement for the Unix kernel, an ...
. In the early 1990s, group Har-Chono pioneered Mongolia's folk-rock, merging elements of the Mongolian traditional " long song" into the genre. By that time, the environment for development of artistic thought had become largely liberal thanks to the new democratic society in the country. The 1990s saw the development of rap, techno, hip-hop and also boy bands and girl bands flourished at the turn of the millennium.


Media

Mongolian press began in 1920 with close ties to the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
under the Mongolian Communist Party, with the establishment of the ''Unen'' ("Truth") newspaper similar to the Soviet ''
Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...
''. Until reforms in the 1990s, the government had strict control of the media and oversaw all publishing, in which no independent media were allowed. The dissolution of the Soviet Union had a significant impact on Mongolia, where the
one-party state A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties ...
grew into a
multi-party In political science, a multi-party system is a political system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national elections, and all have the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in coa ...
democracy, and with that, media freedoms came to the forefront. A new law on press freedom, drafted with help from international NGOs on August 28, 1998 and enacted on January 1, 1999, paved the way for media reforms. The Mongolian media currently consists of around 300 print and broadcasting outlets. Since 2006, the media environment has been improving with the government debating a new
Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act * ...
, and the removal of any affiliation of media outlets with the government. Market reforms have led to an annually increasing number of people working in the media, along with students at journalism schools. In its 2013 World Press Freedom Index report, Reporters Without Borders classified the media environment as 98th out of 179, with 1st being most free. In 2016, Mongolia was ranked 60th out of 180. According to 2014 Asian Development Bank survey, 80% of Mongolians cited television as their main source of information.


Mongolian cuisine


Sports and festivals

The main national festival is Naadam, which has been organised for centuries and takes place over three days in the summer, consisting of three Mongolian traditional sports, archery, cross-country horse-racing, and wrestling, traditionally recognized as the Three Manly Games of Naadam. In modern-day Mongolia, Naadam is held from July 11 to 13 in the honour of the anniversaries of the National Democratic Revolution and foundation of the Great Mongol State. Another very popular activity called Shagaa is the "flicking" of sheep ankle bones at a target several feet away, using a flicking motion of the finger to send the small bone flying at targets and trying to knock the target bones off the platform. At Naadam, this contest is popular among older Mongolians.
Horse riding Equestrianism (from Latin , , , 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding (Commonwealth English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, driving, and vaulting. This broad description includes the ...
is especially central to Mongolian culture. The long-distance races that are showcased during Naadam festivals are one aspect of this, as is the popularity of trick riding. One example of trick riding is the legend that the Mongolian military hero
Damdin Sükhbaatar Damdin Sükhbaatar ( mn, Дамдины Сүхбаатар, Damdinii Sühbaatar, ; February 2, 1893 – February 20, 1923) was a Mongolian communist revolutionary, founding member of the Mongolian People's Party, and leader of the Mongolia ...
scattered coins on the ground and then picked them up while riding a horse at full gallop.
Mongolian wrestling Mongolian wrestling, known as Bökh (Mongolian script: ; Mongolian Cyrillic: Бөх or Үндэсний бөх), is the folk wrestling style of Mongols in Mongolia, Inner Mongolia and other regions where touching the ground with anything other th ...
is the most popular of all Mongol sports. It is the highlight of the Three Manly Games of Naadam. Historians claim that Mongol-style wrestling originated some seven thousand years ago. Hundreds of wrestlers from different cities and aimags around the country take part in the national wrestling competition. Other sports such as basketball,
weightlifting Weightlifting generally refers to activities in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells or barbells. People lift various kinds of weights for a variety of different reasons. These may include various types of competition; promo ...
,
powerlifting Powerlifting is a strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift. As in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, it involves the athlete attempting a maximal weight single-lift effo ...
, association football, athletics, gymnastics, table tennis,
jujutsu Jujutsu ( ; ja, link=no, 柔術 , ), also known as jiu-jitsu and ju-jitsu, is a family of Japanese martial arts and a system of close combat (unarmed or with a minor weapon) that can be used in a defensive or offensive manner to kill or subdu ...
, karate,
aikido Aikido ( , , , ) is a modern Japanese martial art that is split into many different styles, including Iwama Ryu, Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shuren Kai, Shodokan Aikido, Yoshinkan, Renshinkai, Aikikai and Ki Aikido. Aikido is now practiced in aroun ...
, kickboxing, and
mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, inc ...
have become popular in Mongolia. More Mongolian table tennis players are competing internationally.
Freestyle wrestling Freestyle wrestling is a style of wrestling originated from Great Britain and the United States. Along with Greco-Roman, it is one of the two styles of wrestling contested in the Olympic Games. American high school and men's college wrestli ...
has been practised since 1958 in Mongolia. Mongolian freestyle wrestlers have won the first and the most Olympic medals of Mongolia. Naidangiin Tüvshinbayar won Mongolia's first ever Olympic gold medal in the men's 100-kilogram class of judo. Amateur boxing has been practised in Mongolia since 1948. The Mongolian Olympic boxing national team was founded in 1960. The Communist government of Mongolia banned boxing from 1964 to 1967 but the government soon ended the ban. Professional boxing began in Mongolia in the 1990s. Mongolia national basketball team enjoyed some success recently, especially at the
East Asian Games The East Asian Games was a multi-sport event organized by the East Asian Games Association (EAGA) and held every four years from 1993 to 2013. Among those who competed included athletes from East Asian countries and territories of the Olympic ...
. Association football is also played in Mongolia. The
Mongolia national football team The Mongolia national football team ( mn, Монголын хөлбөмбөгийн үндэсний шигшээ баг, ''Mongolyn khölbömbögiin ündesnii shigshee bag'') represents Mongolia in international football and is controlled by t ...
began playing national games again during the 1990s; but has not yet qualified for a major international tournament. The
Mongolia Premier League The Mongolian National Premier League ( Mongolian: ''Монголын Үндэсний Дээд Лиг''), also known as the Hisense Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is the top-tier professional football league of Mongolia. It is contest ...
is the top domestic competition. Several Mongolian women have excelled in
pistol shooting Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms ( firearms and airguns, in forms suc ...
:
Otryadyn Gündegmaa Otryadyn Gündegmaa ( mn, Отрядын Гүндэгмаа; born 23 May 1978), is a Mongolian sport shooter. She competed in 10 m and 25 m pistol events at the 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman ...
is a silver medalist of the 2008 Olympic Games, Munkhbayar Dorjsuren is a double world champion and Olympic bronze medal winner (now representing Germany), while
Tsogbadrakhyn Mönkhzul Tsogbadrakh Mönkhzul ( mn, Цогбадрахын Мөнхзул; born February 28, 1981, in Ulaanbaatar) is a Mongolian sport shooter. She won a gold medal in the women's sport pistol at the 2007 ISSF World Cup series in Bangkok, Thailand, acc ...
is, as of May 2007, ranked third in the world in the 25-metre pistol event. Mongolian sumo wrestler Dolgorsürengiin Dagvadorj won 25 top division tournament championships, placing him fourth on the all-time list. In January 2015, Mönkhbatyn Davaajargal took his 33rd top division championship, giving him the most in the history of sumo. Bandy is the only sport in which Mongolia has finished higher than third place at the
Asian Winter Games The Asian Winter Games (AWG) is an international multi-sport event held every four years for members of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) which features winter events. The Japanese Olympic Committee first suggested the idea of holding a winter ...
, which happened in 2011 when the national team captured the silver medal. It led to being chosen as the best Mongolian sports team of 2011. Mongolia won the bronze medal of the B division at the
2017 Bandy World Championship Seventeen or 17 may refer to: *17 (number), the natural number following 16 and preceding 18 * one of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017 Literature Magazines * ''Seventeen'' (American magazine), an American magazine * ''Seventeen'' (Japanese ...
after which the then
President of Mongolia The president of Mongolia ( mn, Монгол Улсын Ерөнхийлөгч, ''Mongol Ulsyn Yerönkhiilögch'') is the executive head of state of Mongolia.Montsame News Agency. ''Mongolia''. 2006, , p. 42 The current president is Ukhnaagiin ...
,
Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj (, ''Cahiagín Elbegdorj'' ; also referred to as Mongolyin Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj and Tsakhia Elbegdorj; born 30 March 1963) is a Mongolian politician who served as President of Mongolia from 2009 to 2017. He previously ser ...
, held a reception for the team. Ulaanbataar holds an annual marathon in June. 2015 will have the sixth marathon that has been organized by Ar Mongol. The race starts at Sukh Bataar Square and is always open to residents and runners who come especially for this event. Mongolia holds other traditional festivals throughout the year. The Golden Eagle Festival draws about 400 eagle hunters on horseback, including the traveler (), to compete with their birds. The Ice Festival and the Thousand Camel Festival are amongst many other traditional Mongolian festivals.


See also

*
Index of Mongolia-related articles Articles (arranged alphabetically) related to Mongolia include: ''Individual administrative districts are listed in Sums of Mongolia.'' 0–9 * 1932 armed uprising (Mongolia) * 1990 Mongolian democratic revolution A * Achit Nuur * Adasau ...
* Outline of Mongolia


Notes


References


Further reading

*
''Mongolia''
, Encyclopædia Britannica
Mongolia
. ''
The World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is availabl ...
''.
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

''Background notes on Mongolia''
, US Department of State
Mongolia: Growth, Democracy, and Two Wary Neighbors
(Q&A with Alan Wachman, May 2012)


External links

; Government
Official website of the Government Organizations of Mongolia

Mongolia Government Overview


; General information
Mongolia
''
The World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is availabl ...
''.
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

Mongolia Travel Guide

Mongolian tourism website


at ''UCB Libraries GovPubs'' *
Mongolia profile
from the
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

Mongolia
at ''Britannica.com'' * *
Wrestling Roots


{{Authority control Mongol states Countries in Asia East Asian countries Eurasian Steppe Inner Asia Landlocked countries Member states of the United Nations Northeast Asian countries Republics States and territories established in 1911 Russian-speaking countries and territories