http://www.philly.com/r?19=960&32=3796&7=-1&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2F Robert McCracken of the Pennsylvania Academy of Natural Sciences and colleagues search for climate change in central Asia. en-us Mon, 01 Aug 2011 04:00:54 GMT 2011-08-01T04:00:54Z en-us http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=125238219&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FWhen-dogs-cry-wolf.html In Mongolia there is a traditional greeting which literally translates to “have you tied up your dog?” The expression has real meaning in the countryside where every herding family has at least one such animal, often as many as six. They provide protection and early warning of approaching strangers. Dogs are not pets here. They are never allowed inside the gers. They are all working animals that have amazing abilities to spot anything out of the ordinary and set off an alarm. Mon, 01 Aug 2011 04:00:54 GMT 5eb35e50c0d54c28a1b887b179c538c6 Robert McCracken Peck 2011-08-01T04:00:54Z http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=126412568&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FSaving-a-Wild-Horse-.html After six weeks and thousands of miles of driving through Mongolia’s vast territory, I am struck by both the timeless qualities of the country and the changes it has gone through since my first visit in 1994. Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:23:33 GMT 6742322cdcdd92281dded00033b4e8c5 Robert McCracken Peck 2011-07-29T18:23:33Z http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=126183003&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FMeeting-monks-who-are-avid-76ers-fans.html The people who tabulate the demographics of Philadelphia’s sport fans may have missed the monks of the Danzandarjaa Khiid monastery in Moron, Mongolia. I met three of them in a small café just a few yards from the monastery’s central temple during my final day in Hovsgol Aimag. “Where are you from, and where are you going?” asked one with a characteristic greeting when I entered the room. Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:22:19 GMT a48018f529c2476ed1d9d89e6c526342 Robert McCracken Peck 2011-07-26T16:22:19Z http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=126182083&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FWe-do-not-lead-our-animals-They-lead-us.html On a trip like this there are many things one misses – running water, cold drinks, familiar food. But there are other absences that contribute to the positive aspects of being here. One is the absence of artificial light. Although most gers now have solar panels that generate electricity to fuel a single, high efficiency light bulb, these are used sparingly and are always inside the windowless gers. Thus, even where there is a human presence on the steppe, itself a rarity, there is still no light to compete with the dazzling display of stars that wash the sky with an intensity impossible to experience in a more urbanized place. Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:13:40 GMT e7102882f5e285238b67fd80a87114cc Robert McCracken Peck 2011-07-26T16:13:40Z http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=125845013&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FYoung-rider-at-Naadam.html Tue, 19 Jul 2011 22:09:12 GMT 374406cdddf31467799b04f98df45367 Robert McCracken Peck 2011-07-19T22:09:12Z http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=125844773&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FWrestlers-at-the-Naadam.html Tue, 19 Jul 2011 22:05:39 GMT 93ce4396f0c25c380658a2d919a58f2d Robert McCracken Peck 2011-07-19T22:05:39Z http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=125777143&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FThe-revenge-of-the-winking-goat.html After almost a month of visiting herding families and eating whatever I have been offered in cups, bowls, and plates of doubtful sanitation, it was inevitable that the risks of local eating would finally catch up with me. Tue, 19 Jul 2011 22:01:03 GMT 4f3032a93847788f677d34f62283d21a Robert McCracken Peck 2011-07-19T22:01:03Z http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=125844228&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FNaadam-A-mix-of-the-ancient-and-the-modern.html The once spontaneous gatherings in which nomads come together to eat, drink, and pursue the “three manly sports” of horse racing, wrestling, and archery, was formally declared Mongolia’s national holiday in 1922. Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:59:59 GMT cfd5327ec21e73ddbe54ddf7e0c390ba Robert McCracken Peck 2011-07-19T21:59:59Z http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=125717658&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FMeeting-friends-on-an-unlikely-grass-and-dirt-track.html Mongolia is an enormous country – about the size of Western Europe – but in some ways it has all of the best characteristics of a small town. On our way from Hatgal to Ulaan Uul, a hard but spectacularly beautiful nine-hour, 145-kilometer drive over a winding grass and dirt track, we passed a total of four vehicles : three motorcycles and a Russian van. It turned out we knew the riders in or on half of them. Sun, 17 Jul 2011 21:10:52 GMT a2feb066069aba78b137b474bbb91fe9 Robert McCracken Peck 2011-07-17T21:10:52Z http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=125095129&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FHerder-hospitality-.html We are now about 20 kilometers from the University of Pennsylvania PIRE research camp and fifty kilometers from the Russian border in a river valley that, like Dalbai, runs perpendicular to Lake Hovsgol and the north-south road connecting Hatgal to Khank. Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:41:15 GMT ad9ce79cb77dd9d38b45095a270d1898 Robert McCracken Peck 2011-07-11T09:41:15Z http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=125094619&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FWhy-Mongolia-Why-not-Colorado-for-climate-change-research.html From a distance, the wide, u-shaped river valley that runs east to west into Lake Hovsgol looks like any of the half dozen or so valleys along the eastern shore of the lake. But the Dalbai valley has one unusual feature. Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:39:52 GMT 8fe1eb7e5c57b621c02c5c50b5f925d4 Robert McCracken Peck 2011-07-11T09:39:52Z http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=125095374&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FThe-weather-is-changing-here--.html The Academy's Clyde Goulden is gathering data on how the changing nature of Mongolia’s weather is affecting the people who depend on it for their livelihoods. Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:38:34 GMT ae554ba93748f3f4b38643af645408af Robert McCracken Peck 2011-07-11T09:38:34Z http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=125093649&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FA-reunion-and-memories-of-1994.html Less than an hour north of Hatgal, we stopped at a beautiful part of Lake Hovsgol’s shoreline called Alagstar. It was here, looking across to the snow-capped Horidol Saridag mountains, that Clyde Goulden and I camped during our first visit to the lake in 1994. Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:37:39 GMT 815d2dd5434a5ecae2c22db00e628ac0 Robert McCracken Peck 2011-07-11T09:37:39Z http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=125237824&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FBathing-with-fish.html We have no easy access to hot water here. And so, when our travel schedule permits, I have been bathing in Lake Hovsgol and the streams that feed it. You have to be pretty dirty to want to bathe. The lake water is only a few degrees above freezing. The streams are only slightly warmer. With air temperatures that come close to freezing at night and a wind chill that makes it feel even colder, it takes a while to muster my courage to get in the water. Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:59:16 GMT 5be43d059360e38f3ff2a604e8c7caa6 Robert McCracken Peck 2011-07-08T20:59:16Z http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=124864974&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FImagine-the-worst-dirt-road-you-have-ever-been-on--.html The road north from Hatgal, at the southern tip of Lake Hovsgol, to Dalbai, our research area 45 miles up the lake’s eastern shore, is considered by drivers who have traveled widely here to be the worst in Mongolia. That’s saying a lot. In wet weather it is a gooey mud track that can cling to cars and trucks like glue, or suck them down like quicksand. When the mud hardens, as it has in time for our drive, every rut, gully, hole and mound created by a previous vehicle hardens into a cement-like obstacle course that must be navigated over, around or through. Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:53:57 GMT a723c3803c6524a73c8c23310f2f73b4 Robert McCracken Peck 2011-07-01T16:53:57Z http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=124864749&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FGasoline-and-water-Two-of-Mongolias-rarest-commodities.html The hour and fifteen minute prop plane flight north and west from Ulaan Bataar to Moron, a bustling provincial capital of about 40,000 people, is much like a flight anywhere until we come within a few miles of Moron. Then the pilot announces that the runway is closed for repairs. Not to worry, he reassures us, he can land on the grass nearby – and so he does, quite smoothly. From Moron we drive north on a rough dirt track. Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:48:58 GMT 6634bd71c4ef9597c0a501c301118b49 Robert McCracken Peck 2011-07-01T16:48:58Z http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=124718639&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FThe-grass-is-dry-and-stunted.html Here is a photo from our interview with a herder named Badamdorj. We are near Dadal in northern Hentie Aimag. As we talk outside his cabin over cups of milk tea, he explains that there has not been a significant rainfall in the area since April. The grass is dry and stunted, just at a time it should be putting on its greatest summer growth. Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:04:45 GMT d228ba21254321126d54b1188e737902 Robert McCracken Peck 2011-06-29T17:04:45Z http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=124676829&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FGenghis-Kahns-spring----once-sweet-now-drying.html There are many myths surrounding the life of Genghis Kahn, yet despite his fame and near universal reverence in Mongolia, few facts about his life can be verified. Historians do not even know exactly where he was born or died. Inspired by the great stash of treasure that is assumed to be buried with him, several American and Japanese-financed expeditions have attempted to discover his last resting place, so far without success. Tue, 28 Jun 2011 22:09:28 GMT e73094e809e8c7396923fd94a030a7ef Robert McCracken Peck 2011-06-28T22:09:28Z http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=124569294&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FNorth-to-Dadal.html We are now as far north in Hentie Aimag as we will go on this trip. We have reached the small town of Dadal on the edge of Onon Balj National Park. We are about 80 kilometers -- or 50 miles -- from the Russian border. To go farther north would require special permission from the government (there is a border patrol post here), but the document granting us that permission is still in Ulaan Bataar due to a bureaucratic delay. Still, there is plenty to see and do in Dadal. We think of Mongolia as either Gobi Desert or grassland steppe, but there is a narrow section along the northern border of the country that is characterized by taiga forest. Taiga is the Russian word for forest; it is dominated by coniferous trees. In Canada, this kind of ecosystem is called the boreal forest. Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:14:19 GMT d669dee5850c9d584fc5808e7485adc2 Robert McCracken Peck 2011-06-28T15:14:19Z http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=918629&44=124510334&32=3796&7=924874&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fmongolia%2FFirst-you-take-some-dried-yogurt-curd.html Here is a photo of one of our nomadic hosts. She is making Aral, a traditional cheese dish made from dried yogurt curd and sugar. It is balled up, sliced into disks, and dried in the sun for several days. Fri, 24 Jun 2011 20:34:57 GMT 5548d6962573d9f1165460c8eabf495e Robert McCracken Peck 2011-06-24T20:34:57Z