By Australian journalist Philip Luker

Sandwiched between the powerful Communist-turned-Capitalist dictatorships of Russia and China, Mongolia has an active parliament that nominates candidates for President, who is chosen by popular vote every four years. But Mongolia ensures its dealings with Russia and China are cordial.

A warm welcome, despite no common words

This family I photographed in its capital, Ulaanbaatar, on my way by train from Beijing to St Petersburg, did their best to welcome me to their city without us having any common words.

Let us call the father Altan (meaning golden), the mother Bayarmaa (mother of joy), their son Batu (loyal) and their daughter Badma (lotus).

Most Mongolians are nomads

Ulaanbaatar’s population of 1,300,000 is almost half of Mongolia’s and most Mongolians living outside the capital are nomads, moving their gers or yurts and herds of horses, sheep and goats from pasture to pasture.

Mongolia is the most sparsely-populated country in the world after Greenland.

It also has one of the world’s widest range of temperatures, from 40deg C in summer to minus 40deg C in winter.

Typical Mongolian family and life in a ger

Each ger contains a sink, electric stove and often a refrigerator, radio and television sets and electric lights using solar power and batteries.

Nomads contact each other by mobile phone.

A typical family comprises parents, two horses, 20 cows, 50 sheep, eight children and 16 grandchildren

A fire in the centre of the ger is for comfort and cooking.

The smoke escapes through a hole in the roof. Beds are around the walls and also a shrine and display of family photos.

Mongolian literacy rate

Nomadic families send their children to school in the cities and towns (Mongolia has a 98 per cent literacy rate) and often the children stay in the city and eventually their parents and grandparents build “granny gers” in their childrens’ gardens.

But the smoke from gers in Ulaanbaatar has made it one of the world’s most polluted cities and some suburbs have become ger slums.

The family I photographed was walking on a Sunday in Genghis Kahn Square, named after Mongolia’s founder and national hero.

Founder of the Silk Road

He united the nomadic tribes of Central Asia and in 25 years conquered more land in what is now China, Korea, Siberia and Central Asia than the Romans conquered in 400 years.

Genghis founded the Silk Road trade route, pioneered a mail service on horseback but was a muirderous dictator and his life from 1162 to 1227 was full of conspiracies and betrayals.

He sounds like many modern dictators. Genghis had 12 wives, 500 “secondary” wives and concubines but one special wife, Borte, whose sons with him were his heirs.

A lesson to religious leaders

One of his abilities that the whole world should copy was religious tolerance.

He followed the ancient Tengrism religion but he was interested in learning philosophical and moral lessons from other religions and consulted with Buddhist monks, Muslims and Christian missionaries.

What a lesson to the leaders of all modern religions! Half of Mongolia’s people are Buddhist but 38 percent have no religion.

Mongolian horse culture

There are 13 horses for every Mongolian and horse culture is the nomads’ passion.

Some of their children learn to ride before they learn to walk. Nomads in winter meet on horseback for traditional eagle hunters’ festivals.

The riders — their faces weather-beaten by the cold — carry pet eagles on their arms and the eagles, with wing spans of up to two and a half metres, swoop on rabbits, foxes and wolves and are rewarded with some of their preys’ flesh.

What happened to Inner Mongolia?

Mongolia before the Second World War was divided between Inner and Outer Mongolia.

Inner Mongolia was taken over by China after the war and Outer Mongolia became plain Mongolia.

First China increased its influence over Russia, then Russia wrote off Mongolia’s state debt and naturally Mongolia now has good relations with the grizzly Russian Bear.