W. They call me al tangere up. Open where my ancestors were nomads or even for 20 years i have lived with my own family and the staff herding our cattle. To beat me especially our music is about mongolian history and our customs and these are our never ending sources in the song but just to. Go school on different kinds. My shaman name is much. But ever since i was a child ive had visionary abilities and could sense the spirits of nature. Jenny through mongolia and its capital and past her who stars in the mountainous north of the country will follow the tracks of the Trans Mongolian Railway self cross the vastness of the step and after about 800 kilometers reach the gobi desert and the buddhist home our money straight. Or. A television station our 1st stop art from a communist past emerges with contemporary advertisement. Planned economies once held sway here today its the free market. Downturn is the 3rd largest city in mongolia it was built in 1961 with massive support from the former soviet union and its name is no coincidence. Means blacksmith and reflects the importance of the city for metal and heavy industry. In was even. Tourists are rarely seen in this big city is train station. The no frills building was designed for commuters and travelling merchants in the metropolis with its hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. Darshan is a transport hub that connects regional routes with the trance Mongolian Railway towards iran barter and further on to the chinese border. Anyone taking this train to the capital however should allow plenty of time. The train takes over 7 hours to cover the almost 250 kilometers because of the many stops along the way. Moreover the Railway Infrastructure is not up to european standards. The train attendants where christie uniforms they are responsible for checking the tickets directly at the carriage door and they take their jobs extremely seriously. In mongolia respect and all thorazine are important principles that must be observed. Meanwhile its announced over a loudspeaker that it is strictly forbidden to take any marmots including dead ones on the journey because the fear of the mongolian delicacy usually harbors finance which are regarded as carriers of the play. Only about 3000000 people live in mongolia a country more than 4 times the size of germany. Its huge distances and vastness can be sensed through the train window. You also physically notice mongolias altitude a quarter of the country is between 2003000 meters above sea level. Travelers should therefore allow themselves a little time for climate has ation. Halfway between their heart and lumbar the 1st hills of the 20 mountains begin. The mountain ranges considered the birthplace of the greatest mongolian of all times genghis khan. Abroad the name genghis khan is mostly associated with conquests brutality and virility but here in mongolia it mainly stands for political savvy. The founder of the mongolian empire is considered to have been a patron of trade education arts and culture. Freedom of religion as one of his most important legacies even today christians buddhists muslims and adherents to mongolian shamanism practice their religions peacefully side by side. What sharman ism is the oldest religion in mongolia. All. Ancient symbols such as the swastika or sun we all want to end all supposed to pave the way for the shaman to reach the spirits. This religious decoration which was hijacked by. Germany as a symbol of the nazis can be found in its original sense as a spiritual symbol of luck everywhere mongolia. But. Not. Really in the way of my transfer so i made contact with the spirits of the mountains on the water. Good that they have found my ways to be good im just. That that therefore they do me the honor of showing me the right path and hour to go get your dicks about. Mongolian shamanism combines medicine and the worship of nature and ancestors as sherman is responsible for the welfare of their tribe. Through contacting the spirits and speaking with the voice of the deceased while entranced they try to show their community the right path for the future. Not. The battle of. Pearl where the ancestors really speak through the shell and remains a question of faith it was like with every religion. But the bus home but on a bus or not everyone can be a sham and granted if you do not appoint yourself as a shaman and just do something this would send people on a wrong path and detach the soul from the body all false romanism is therefore even harmful. For all but unfortunately it happens quite often what they will be seeing as those are to move in with the next day when. Sacrificial rituals such as the milk sacrifice on men to appease the gods. For shannon is a balance between man and nature must be preserved and the growing economic interests in mongolia are a dangerous aberration. Madhur higher. Up than i present people are digging in the air of all over they dont even care about sacrificial mounds theyre not respected and theyre not even being rebuilt warranting theres no people are drilling digging and destroying thanks its very difficult everywhere. I want to go i travel through western mongolia and saw that many creeks and rivers there have disappeared that dried up. This is because people do not respect the earth which is probably why we shamans are also there to save nature and at least thats my belief that power cuts took us to soon but. We followed the line further towards. The train is usually the faster and more comfortable choice in mongolia. Roads here are not comparable with asphalt streets in europe vast areas of the country have not yet been developed at all. On the other hand there is a very good chance of meeting herds of free range cattle. Over distances of several kilometers the animals often alone without their nomadic owners search for the best grazing grounds in the barren landscape. They have to build up their body weight as much as possible during the few summer months the hard mongolian winter often begins in august already when the 1st. Snow frequently falls. 60. Travel times among early are very long even on the train the Railway Infrastructure and many of the vehicles are decades old. Despite the beautiful landscape after a good 7 hours ride from dar han to the capital and bus our passengers tend to be pleased to finally arrive. At. The big city lackluster concrete buildings welcome the guests even though cool say you cant help but love mongolia but you can only endure. We learn but our Central Station is the largest Railway Station in the country and was opened in the 1938. To this day it remains an important hub for national and International Traffic in the heart of mongolia. The train is the most important means of transport in the country not only for tourists and commuters local retailers also use the affordable rail connections to neighboring countries such as russia and china. That it is not much to god it. Was. After a very long Shopping Trips hundreds of them arrive with new goods in a non bars are every day. From here they transport their purchases to the shops and kiosks in the capital where they will sell them. Almost half of mongolias population about 1500000 people lives in orlando. The Economic Center of this land rich in Natural Resources is currently experiencing an enormous boom. In the metropolis is considered a symbol of the wealthy growth oriented mongolia. In recent years hundreds of thousands of people have come here to try their luck. Few have become successful. And yes he is experiencing the greatest rule exodus has ever seen. Young people in particular dont want to be inferior to the west but they also dont want to be inferior to their asian neighbors. Here consider traditional nomadic life as a viable future. If you just have already talked about beginning and the new john good that we have a song that deals with rapid Technological Progress and in particular reflects a moment when too much technological optimization has occurred here to you to get back to you good at this point what humans look for a place to slow down and return to nature and the origins of life. This is an Important Message that we want to give to the people he said especially to the Mongolian Youth so wealthy or is it to. Look at most of symmetry in the middle of. The band john its a backdrop that symbolizes an entire generation spheres for the future. This songs deal with Environmental Protection unemployment and also the danger. This of Runaway Technology is ation. However they find a musical means in the old legends traditions and its characteristic sounds of a mongolian culture. Junkie to give. The name john often is closely connected with the history of the horse head fiddle goalie a National Instrument called. The mongolians a boy said that there was a very kind hearted man who owned a black horse named john not that you will say who isnt it modern that when it died one day when he wanted to honor it and built the 1st horse head fiddle and its image would sing yes. Used to the tail and mane and he smithy waited not. That it whenever the longing seized him but he played on it and he remembered his black horse john on hard money no citizenship. The musicians represent a young and confident mongolia internationally as well as members of a young generation who went in search of their own cultural identity and found their place in the world. Gave her. Mom a woman that. Would lead the. Country was a. Ball of down on the ends of the day of judgment we hope that in the future people will remember our band of joan for successfully having passed through. Mongolian music on to younger generations in a profound way for us it was just this a bad negative. A so much of because that is our wish to remind you that is what we hope our musical achievement will be. On the ticket would be the days to get to. The 2nd leg of our journey takes us from the capital and on bastar along the Trans Mongolian Railway to the city of chere 250 kilometers away in the heart of the mongolian step. With her Central Station 7 am. A real hero is waiting for the train to chair. Dead is the only mongol so far who has travelled into space. Since his spaceflight in 1981 he has been treated like a superstar in his country. The retired air force Major General was also the countrys minister of defense until 2004. However most mongols see him 1st and foremost as a heroic cosmonaut. A. Liberal and something for the 1st place followed by a mongolian was a significant moment for our people and will stay a part of mongolian history as an important event these days young people learn about it from newspapers and magazines from radio and television from their parents and relatives and siblings with as a result mongolians are etched it firmly into their memories. On the. Seeing him. Even in retirement the Major General still has very little free time. He regularly speaks at events on military history about his experiences as a Research Cosmonaut on the soviet so use 39 Space Mission and about his 8 day stay on this are you 6 space station good actor or just dead to me dean was awarded the title cosmic hero of mongolia to honor his career hes the only living mongolian to hold that. They will be. Done with the nickel to go with his brother 3 more well i try not to get myself so much importance. What have i done so far its one of my achievements many about the joy of the game but i dont really think about myself that way or ask those types of questions so im thinking about the think its not the sex that matters to me is that i want to remain the same person i was before i went into space i thought of the said theyd get back there on mars spaceship commander and friend freddy mir out xander average trying to back off said to me after space travel youll have many new friends but you please dont forget your old ones. Forget i still think about his words to this day but its not on which is why i want the public to see me as are really out there somewhere. If. The cosmonaut is a role model for his fellow countryman someone they respect even though they recognize that his feats were idealized in soviet propaganda. His ride on the train has been announced the entire train crew and even the cook know the famous space traveler will be on board. The cook is actually a star chef who was assigned just for this journey. It will be up to him to make a top quality meal in the few square music itchin on the wobbling train. Music will be serving delicious dumplings and potato salad to the cosmic hero. Dumplings are filled with beef and tasty modern town who should make fantastic dumplings. The chef does not pass up the opportunity to serve his hero the food in the dining car personally. The potato salad served is actually made according to a german recipe. Its a calendar leftover from the times of International Friendship between mongolia and east germany. The transponder in express takes a good 3 hours to get a chair in the province of god his number deep in the mongolian step. Dimity and is no stranger to the city until the early 990 s. Both soviets and Mongolian Air force bases were located in the region around so the station was strategically important to the retired cosmonaut knows it well. A problem from all this is why the station staff invited their celebrity guests to join them they proudly record this historic moment. To do you know. Nowadays the 72 year old increasingly looks back not only on his achievements but also on his roots as a simple known that. He had not the most of us on the mongols have actually been watching the skies in space from very early on so well so at him if he took our long history shows that weve used celestial bodies to navigate by for thousands of years. Moreover to survive as a pastoral nomadic people. We have to be able to foresee the vagaries of the weather and thats why the mongolians always directed their gaze and thoughts toward the celestial bodies and so. Long. While the trance Mongolian Railway continues on its meandering course towards the chinese border. We stay a little longer in the wild blooming step the ranch or. I. I for centuries nomadic castle breeding has been the mainstay of the entire region. Camel herts roamed the Natural Environment for. Us 2 horses sheep goats. The step landscape around mount cinder about 50 kilometers from church is known for its fertile ground. This is where all tangere l. Has settled for most of the year the nomads horses live wild they have to withstand winters with temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees celsius as well as wolves which the horses can severely injured or even kill with one kick. The cattle herd is family lives with their horses following the rhythm of nature wearing a watch would be a superb fearless luxury. We get up early and were out all day until dark. We had the cattle and move them from here to there. Since were around all day long we dont need to ask what time it is for us there is morning. Afternoon and the movement of the sun. I always keep an eye on the sun after all its the only thing you can keep in view here because its the sun that is always determined whether it is day or night. Where. The ancient songs of the nomads tell of their longing for their beloved homeland the endless expanses of the step and the deep blue mongolian sky. That. While her husband takes care of the horses and in a suit turns the rich milk from their goats and sheep into quark yogas and cheese. These are staple food stealing the summer months. The youngest daughter still lives with her father and mother her older siblings are already attending school and live with their grandparents in the city. A daily walk to school through the step would be much too arduous and too far. To them the facility not to be teased at that we have never really thought about living in the city if we have work to do in the city we take the train as it usually runs at night. That way we are there early in the morning before work starts and then you can get a lot done in a day yes. I do and herders arent interested in material wealth they see possessions as additional ballast but the number and conditions of their animals on the other hand are extremely important to them because they show their diligence and skill and one another little bowl of them well we get over 200 kilograms of kashmir wall sometimes even 300 kilograms from 700. And the money we earn from the wool trade is enough to cover all the expenses that come up over a year. With hootie and the other school fees in order to pay for the 2. 00 or 3 workers who help us. Pays for anything important that crops up in the year and we also prepare the meat from our cattle to feed ourselves in winter. But we also sell some of it so we live from the immense productivity of animals. Of the. Order mining has dramatically increased and. All sorts of things are being done to the soil which is having a negative effect on the bodies of water and pasture land. With we now get very little water from our wells. And it hardly rains anymore although someone is when i look back on my childhood it often rained continuously for 3 or 4 days and i was. In. Mongolia sits on huge deposits of Natural Resources. And around one of the countrys largest and most important centers of mining iron ore and lignite is growing. However mongolian Mining Companies on profiting from the countrys wealth of Raw Materials nearly as much as Big International investors and energy giants. Still the development is good for mongolias railways the next work is growing and jobs are being created. Oh goodness so we should. All think the economy has a major influence on the expansion and development of the real race and vice versa. The Mongolian Railway is currently expanding the locomotives and real cars are becoming more advanced just sort of the rail network and the entire real logistics are currently being revamped. Traffic in particular is increasing. So the future of our railways looks really promising so. For the. Most traumatic. Aerials are exposed to neighboring countries china however uses a different gauge of track to mongolia where the network is based on the russian broad gauge that means all the wagons must be reloaded on the chinese border which is a huge additional cost factor. A lot of the locomotive also of russian origin. One of the. Almost so there are currently 31. 00 of these russian locomotives among. But you can see weve been using this one since 20 time you know almost the. Op well polished. Air which. You can call up to 5000. 00 tons and its 2 engines have a total of 7212. 00 horsepower engine. Bottom of the course she went through a long trial period and has proven she can survive the long distances and the hard mongolian winters very well or stay with us in. The heavy diesel engines and seemingly endless lines of wagons move effortlessly through the lonely step landscape day and night. Even as darkness falls the station in church stays very busy. As a vital transports have it is growing in parallel with the economy. Mongolias history and therefore that of its railway is closely into words and with that of its russian neighbor. With the founding of the socialist peoples republic of mongolia 921. 00 the soviet union sided with its economically weaker. Engineers in moscow designed the lines and forced laborers was sent from russian prison camps to reinforce the mongolian track with has to drive this gigantic project through. The 1111 kilometers of track through the most difficult terrain gave mongolia a big boost. It was a Great Success for the soviets to do. We do it by the wealth of mineral resources. Military considerations also played a major role in the fraternal relief action. The trance mongolian rail link from the russian border in the north to china and the south is still the backbone of all rail traffic in mongolia today. Because of the enormous distances many passenger trains run overnight sleeping cars are the best way to weather the long journey times. Is also on the roofs of the socalled deal or trains most of the passengers on board are mongolian merchants on their way to their chinese neighbors. There they buy goods that are lace is sold at a profit in their shops back home. To a large part of the mongolian population now lives from this trade including some women from a city in northern central mongolia. About us of. Here we are on a train for 4 days. But if you include all the shopping in beijing or even further away then you get to a total of at least 10 days on the road thing is. Everyone both retailers and wholesalers takes the train to travel between the 2 countries other pigeon why. Because the train is safe for people and also for the transport of goods. And you can almost live your life in a train that passengers can sleep and eat and drink and relax on board on the 12th and. Many of the mongolian commercial travellers have come from other professions. But then get up studied mongolian. Literature and the 970 s. And her husband is an artist. Among the thing he just said just now in 1902 there was a political inversion and we moved to a market economy society. Suddenly it was all if you drink from their cup you also have to follow their customs. A lot was privatized 1st and state owned enterprises were broken up into Small Businesses many people including academics became unemployed and wages were very low but since then weve become socalled saddlebag of similar. Saddlebag is an old mongolian term referring to nomadic merchants who used to tie their goods to the saddles of their horses and ride off to sell them. It seems the historical reference makes it a bit easier for present commercial travellers to accept their life circumstances which are frequently difficult. Even if its hardly had dream job 60 year old boddam got out does not complain. His order was i have no other option. And even if we are only Small Businesses were still important for society for our families our children and our grandchildren. We pay for college rent and food advice and yes more than half of all mongolians finance their lives through Small Businesses 1. 00 of them is me just. From the same shand rail station it takes another 5 hour. To reach the chinese border. Just how much the landscape has changed only becomes apparent in daylight. When youre. Moving. The rich green step landscape has given way to the ok colored infinity of the gobi desert. Covering some 1000000 300000 square kilometers it is the largest desert in asia. The desert city of same sound is about 250 kilometers southeast of chair and long the Trans Mongolian Railway almost 40 kilometers has further run in the eastern gobi desert we come to from our monastery which the mongolians also call how marine heat. The 900 century complex is an important center for mongolian but as im. Going to marry is a Buddhist Monk who travels on the night train from milan bastar several times a month. He says its an escape from the confines of the city and that it was only here in this barren and empty expanse that he became aware of the connection between freedom and mongolian identity its true that the word freedom for me means responsibility and if we have freedom we must deal with the responsible in there to the yes im free to say im a chink. But instead of pumping my chest im trying to remember that the world is more. That sure i consider myself a mongol but i dont. Others as foreigners. And im a Buddhist Monk so i have responsibilities to get with. Every hundreds of pilgrims and believers from all over mongolia meet in hama our monastery. A ritual book through the stony desert around the monastery grounds is said to drive away bad omens and renew the life energy of each individual. Mongolian believe the whole energy pools in this atmospheric place. The colorful troop makes its way about 2 kilometers into the desert to send her. To. A holy places that refer to the mythical city of the same name where legend says the accumulated knowledge of buddhism will outlast time itself. It is a dance on rocky i was a buddhist lama as important in mongolia as the current dalai lama into bess. He personally chose this place to build a monastery in 1820 for over 100 years to come our ministry was one of the most important Buddhist Centers of faith in mongolia. And it gave it an intimate 930. 00 s. Mongolias communist government turned against but as a monks were condemned as anti stalinist elements thousands were imprisoned all killed and monasteries were destroyed. This is not out on them so. The 1st arrests and executions of buddhists took place on september the 10th 1937 of them said future generations must learn about it would be that is why on this day we call on the whole world to prevent such evil deeds from happening again he departed no person should be excluded persecuted or murdered because of his or her beliefs or opinions i do anything with it she said that we are gathered here today so that these atrocities will never be repeated and with its. Good people must. That was diminishing has become part of mongolias intangible Cultural Heritage and buddhists from all over the world celebrate the resurrection of the monastery and their faith in the boundless expenses of the gobi desert. Was it. A. Calmer monastery symbolizes a commitment to freedom and independence for all mongolians. The hope is that its story can teach future generations to look at head with hope self confidence and self determination. Was. In the united with the world though my whole lifes journey is dedicated to a happy and Bright Future to the alps one of them so my train of life that i was traveling towards optimism for everyone everywhere with. Our journey through mongolia is joined to a close. Theres much more that could be told. As an old mongolian proverb knows seen once is better than head a 1000 times. To women from 3 countries with one name theyre fighting for their rights and their children. In brazil against violence and from assad indiana for the right to play. In sudan with visible success only showing new freedoms. W. A new era has become. The age of fire going to feel that mum has been fame up. Oh im such a piece of her. Blazers stood there for a piece of. Flames to consume forests and entire residential areas. Forcing temperatures of water shortages land clearance theres an abundance of flammable material but once again i did theres no stopping the fires mum heavy equipment the full color sludge isnt world going up in smoke lagoon conflagration the world on fire starts august 12th on d w we have trying to fight it back in and dance with the big. Play. Play. Play play. This is good news live from berlin the fighting rages in eastern afghanistan troops battling bhaumik state militants attacking a prison where some of their fighters are behind bars prisoner stage of the past breakout well get the latest from kabul. Also coming up. Washed out. To the american asked