Mongolia is Awesome: Names Edition

After Mongolia became the Mongolian People’s Republic in 1924, they renamed the capital “Ulaanbaatar Xot.” Ulaanbaatar is technically two words, and Ulaanbaatar Xot literally means “Red Hero City.” It’s named after Sükhbaatar, the national hero who led the independence movement against China. Because he led a communist revolution, he was dubbed the Red Hero, and the city was named after him.

But “baatar” occurs in names that don’t involve nationalist leaders, too. It’s commonly found in people’s names; I’ve met a “Chuluunbaatar” (Stone Hero) and at least three “Ganbaatars”; “gan,” like Bold, is a word for steel, so Ganbaatar means Steel Hero. (This country rocks.)

Although having a bunch of Heroes running around is pretty Awesome on its own, Sükhbaatar himself probably takes the cake for the best compound of Hero.”“Sükh” is Mongolian for ax, so Sükhbaatar is simply Ax-Hero. I like to think that this is the equivalent of “George Washington Flamethrower,” or a presidential candidate named “M16 DESTROYER.” Hell, I’d vote for him.

And the moral of this Names Edition? If you are Holding Out for a Hero, get on the next plane to Mongolia.

Mongolia is Awesome: Names Edition

I’ve mentioned illegal gold mining briefly before, but I didn’t include the most important detail of the movement. In some areas, illegal miners are referred to as “ninjas,” which is pretty cool, I guess. But why they are called ninjas launches this into some of the sheerest Awesomeness yet encountered.

You see, they often mine at night, and have to climb out with their great green bowls strapped to their backs. (The bowls/buckets are for panning, maybe?) Because of their resemblance to giant turtles, and their midnight activities, they were nicknamed (if you know where this is going, I love you) “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and called “ninjas” for short.

That’s right, the TMNT are real and operating in the outskirts of Mongolia. Does this make the mining companies Shredder?

 Mongols or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Does it matter?

Mongolia is Awesome: Names Edition

Bold is common enough to make it into my Mongolian book as the first boy’s name featured, and my guidebook even classifies it as a generic Mongolian name. “But wait,” you might be thinking, “That name is an English word, so you can’t count it as an Awesome purely Mongolian name.” It IS an English word (and a good one), and if that were the only Awesome feature of the name Bold, that would still be pretty Awesome.

But “bold” is also the Mongolian word for “steel,” and is a popular name for boys because of the strength and enduring power of steel. Thus, not only is there a Mongolian Max Steel, but the country is positively CRAWLING with them. Awesome.

Mongolia is Awesome: Names Edition

On the plane ride here, examining my guidebook map, I noticed in the very north of Mongolia, surrounded (in my mind) by cliffs and pine trees and also maybe desert somehow, a region called “Darkhad Depression.” I immediately wanted to go and see this terrifying and melancholic region for myself. I looked up how to get there, and it just didn’t seem practical given my time and resources, which was almost as depressing as Darkhad itself.

Later I found out that it’s not Dark-Had Depression, which is awesome, but rather “Dar-Khad,” with the Kh being the same as the sound in “Khan,” that is, generally just pronounced as a heavy “H-” sound. (Think chutzpah.) It’s even spelled Darhad in some transliterations. So that’s not quite as Awesome…

But nonetheless, it is still listed in my book as “Darkhad Depression,” and circumstances have come together to take me there. This morning, I’ll be leaving UB (and internet access for a couple weeks) to discover if Darkhad Depression is as Awesome as its ominous name suggests. Till then, bayartai!

Mongolia is Awesome: Names Edition

Before I came, I read in my guidebook that there are souvenir shops just about anywhere you look, selling t-shirts, tacky (probably Made-in-China) novelty items, and postcards. Of course, most people who know me know that I was on the lookout for postcards from just about when I touched down. But my first couple days, I was dismayed to see not a single postcard or souvenir shop in sight. It occurred to me that this was probably because I don’t exactly live in a touristy district. And having explored the centre of the city, I was confused as to where exactly the tourist district was.

 Then I noticed a particular street on the map: “Tourist St.” Oh. That’s right, the Mongolians have unabashedly named one of their streets “Juulchin Gudamj,” literally translated as “Tourist Street.” Well, they know how to tell it like it is…

Mongolia is Awesome: Names Edition

The Secret History of the Mongols was “discovered” only recently, in 1866 in Beijing. I’ve heard that it is the only work that survived because the Chinese destroyed a lot of Mongol sources, but this copy was written in Chinese characters, so it slipped past their radar. This discovery is significant for a lot of reasons, but it is relevant to this post because guess who discovered it…

Archimandrite Palladius. “Awesome” could very well have been his middle name, and it would have fit in just fine.

Mongolia is Awesome: Names Edition

I read in my guide about a mad Russian named Baron Ungern von Sternberg who served as quasi-dictator of Mongolia for a few years, and I thought “Whoa. That is an Awesome name.” As I read more about Mongolia, I realized that quite a few characters/places/things in Mongolia and its history have Awesome names (not all of them Mongolian). And so the Names Edition of “Mongolia is Awesome” was born.