Mongolians Still Living In Tents

Press, Volume C, Issue 29599, 23 August 1961, Page 21

Mongolians Still Living In Tents

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter)

CLARE MeDERMOTT)

[By

ULAN BATOR (Mongolia).

Mongolia shares with many other nations the problem of a shortage of modern living accommodation. But she also has an unique problem which is all her own—reluctance on the part of many of those who do obtain modern quarters to give up the tent life of their nomadic ancestors.

For hundreds of years Mongolians have lived in “yurts”—easily transportable circular tents of canvas or cowhide, open to the sunshine in the warm summer months but lined with felt and cloth to keep out the freezing winter coid. Communication and modernisation are bringing changes in the old way of life. The establishment of industries and commerce requires that more people live settled in cities, towns and villages. The sweeping changes are readily visible in the capital city of Ulan Bator, where there are streets of smart new blocks of flats erected

by the Monogolian Government. often with the help of Russian and Chinese experts and workers. But while the city is being rebuilt and blocks of flats are spreading along the wide new avenues leading away from the central square, Ulan Bator’s older districts and outskirts are still fenced-in colonies of “yurts” or crumbling mud houses. Summer Camps Officials say that about 60 per cent, of the city’s population of 164,000 still live in “yurts.” This figure increases in the summer, when hundreds who have obtained new flats move out again to live in sunshine and fresh air on the green hills which sufround the city. Their yurts give the hillsides the appearance of large caravan camps. In the country, the “yurt” is a simple tent, built round a light wooden frame, with a low cone set on top. In summer the cone is opened to in the sun and air. Thick layers of felt and cloth line the inside in winter and a coal stove provides warmth and cooking facilities. In the city, the “yurts” have gone modern. They are grouped behind high wooden fences, which reduce the force of chill winds. Most have wooden floors, electricity for lighting, and radio sets. Often, they have modern furniture, decorations and sewing machines. Water is close at hand, although sanitary facilities remain primitive. One of the great advantages of life in a “yurt” is that there is no rent to pay, either in the country or in the city. A young couple getting married may buy. or build a new “yurt” which will last a lifetime, for about 1200 to 1500 tugriks—about .£lOO to £125 at official rates representing, for the average city worker, only two or three months’ wages. The new town flats are sturdily built, well painted and fitted with all utilities.

Even in flats several years old, there are no signs of the crumbling, cracking and lack of paint which characterise so much of China’s rapidly-built new housing. Steam from the Ulan Bator power plant, at the big “Industrial Combine” on the city’s southern outskirts, is carried in huge pipes across the fields to heat public buildings and many flats. Rent for a two-room flat, with separate kitchen and bathroom, and considered large enough for a married couple with one or two children, is about 30 Tugriks '(about £2 8s) a month ft may be even less if the flat is provided for an employee by a factory or office. New Housing

. Official statistics show that Mongolia built about 500,000 square yards of new housing from 1956 to 1960. Most of this is in Ulan Bator. The city’s rapid growth has complicated the building problem. x

Mr Khishigt, an architect who is a member of the Town Planning Commission, said that in 1953 planners expected Ulan Bator would have a population of 138,000 by 1976. It has already reached 164,000 New plans call for a population of 250.000 in 25 years with most persons housed in new four and five-storey blocks of flats and some eight and ten-storey towers. He showed me a big relief map of the city, illustrating how reconstruction is being carried out in circles round the central square, where new Government buildings, state theatres, cinemas and hotels have been built.

Under the new five-year [dan, the central part of the city should have been entirely rebuilt by 1965, with all “yurts” and shacks removed. Many parks and boulevards are already being planted.

Another Government official told me that housing is one of the country’s biggest long term problems. “It is not possible to set a target, say ten or 25 years, for the elimination of this problem,” he said. “We are trying our best to meet demands. But we are building solid flats, with all utility services, light, water and telephones.” Prefabricated housing processes will lead to faster progress in the city. “But,” the official said, “the progress is not so rapid in the countryside as in Ulan Bator, niere. it is a burning question. It is difficult to provide homes for peasants and herdsmen, so most country people are still living a nomadic life. “The Government and *■ the party are giving careful consideration to the question of a settled life for country people. To settle them, to build modern towns and villages, is'one of our great problems at present”

“I went regularly every week in the mild seasons down to Coney Island . . . which I had all to myself, and where I loved, after bathing, to race up and down the hard sand, and declaim Homer or Shakespeare to the surf and seagulls by the hour.”— Walt Whitman.