We are very grateful for UCAS for organizing the primary and outstanding International Cultural Festival 2018, which gave us a great opportunity to represent our motherland, Mongolia and its nomadic culture, intangible heritage, and life style to our dearest international friends.
Mongolia is located in north-central Asia, between Russia to the north and China to the south. There are 26 students from Mongolia in UCAS and all students energetically and actively participated to be a part of the festival and to make a history together. Our performance divided into four main parts.
1.Booth decoration and interactions with audiences
Our booth posters give broad information about history, culture and current state of Mongolia. At the same time, we have brought many different types of souvenirs from Mongolia that includes colorful t-shirts, cashmere scarfs, wool socks, post cards, ethnic souvenirs, chocolates, wild berry drinks and ethnic puzzle games and so on. The mobility of the nomadic culture and economic means that Mongols have created many portable items. The audiences were very interested in tradition puzzle games and souvenir items and we explained the hidden story and secrets behind them.
In addition, we served the audiences to taste Mongolian dairy products, chocolates, biscuits and wild berry, sea-buckthorn drinks and we have noticed that they really delighted and enjoyed tasting and exploring.
Besides that, we had puzzle questions about Mongolian culture, climate, entertainment and basics toaudiences to entertain and improve their knowledge about Mongolia. The viewers very attentive in that and they had avid interest to explore more about Mongolia.
The traditional clothes (deel) are well designed for the demanding Mongolian climate and environment and the unique nomadic ways of life, social values, and customs that Mongolian people have been followed for centuries. The Mongolian hat symbolizes prosperity and ascent; it pointed top symbolizes sincerity and honesty. The belt symbolizes the consolidation and reinforcement of any disintegrated things. The accessories of Mongolian traditional costumes made from a variety of precious metals and gemstones. Truly, it was very heavy to carry all of them.
Our traditional costumes also caught spectators’ attentions greatly. Many people stopped by to take photos together and they seemed impressed and adored our traditional clothes. The most impressive part is we aspired to show our cultural heritage and all these costumes had brought straight from Mongolia. It was quite stack of work to make many phone calls for shipping and bringing them to Beijing in very limited amount of time. The audiences’ ovation and cheerfulness made us feel very excited and fully worth for accomplishing this hard work.
2.Background video
The life of the nomadic people is clearly dependent upon nature. The nomadic people have a closer relationship with nature than sedentary people do. We tried to show every detail about Mongolia with the help of the background video. The video was splendid as showing territory landscape, natural beauty, nomadic people activity, rare animals, traditional performing arts, livestocks, traditional housing and lastly Modern cities such as architecture of Ulaanbaatar.
To the end, the video shows how the country is transforming from nomadic culture to the modern lifestyle. The capital, Ulaanbaatar, is the home for millions of people and new technological hub for modern society. We really tried to show all the aspects of Mongolian culture in one video and really hope that viewers enjoyed it.
3.Group dance
Mongolian traditional dance has evolved within open space of the Mongolian ger, herder’s community and the wild steppe. During the performance, we tried to express the diverse livelihood, customs, traditions and emotions as well as spiritual practices of nationalities through movements.
4.Traditional song
Mongolian national long song (Urtiin duu) is an outstanding and extraordinary masterpiece of the song and music art of Mongolia that is sang nowhere else in the world. An abundance of ornamentation, an extreme wide vocal range and a free compositional form characterize these songs.
During the performance, Mirage of a Faraway Land (Alsiin gazriin zereglee) has been sang, the lyrics and melodies of the song is thoroughly influences by the Mongolian’s philosophical views, symbolism, respect toward the universe, nature, animals and humanity.
Thanks again to UCAS for giving us opportunity to represent our country and our culture. Also it gave us an opportunity to unite as a Team Mongolian with one mission and vision. It is always welcome to Mongolia and we are inviting you to the land of eternal blue sky. Thank you.
Written by Davaajargal LKHAGVA
