Mongolia’s come to the West End, however you possibly can’t beat the true factor

If you actually lengthy to get away from all of it, the birthplace of Genghis Khan provides the wildest of untamed frontiers to fulfill any self-respecting fashionable pioneer.

Mongolia’s brutal thirteenth Century conqueror, who constructed one of many largest empires in historical past, is immortalised with a statue atop a museum near its capital, Ulaanbaatar. At 130ft tall (40 metres) and silver, it’s a becoming tribute to the larger-than-life warrior statesmen.

The precise website of his grave has by no means been discovered (get on to it, Indiana Jones) and one of many many legends swirling round is that Khan, recognized to Mongolians as Chinggis, promised ‘I’ll be again’ – similar to Arnie Schwarzenegger’s Terminator.

But if he does return, he’ll discover a much more peaceable nation than would have been anticipated after centuries of battle.

This sparsely populated, landlocked nation, sandwiched between Russia and China, has an even bigger land mass than France, Italy, Germany and the UK put collectively – with an extended historical past of being conquered and conquering in flip.

Maureen Paton travels to Mongolia, a landlocked nation sandwiched between Russia and China. Above is a ger, which is a standard dwelling for the nation’s nomadic inhabitants 

During Khan’s reign, its attain unfold throughout Russia. But Mongolia’s different neighbour, China, dominated the nation by means of the seventeenth and 18th Century.

In the Twenties it grew to become a satellite tv for pc state of the Soviet Union, and it wasn’t till 1990, after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Bloc, that it regained its independence. Although the Russian language is now shedding reputation, its affect nonetheless lingers to at the present time. But I’ve come to Mongolia to preview a revival of a 1998 play, The Mongol Khan, about its a lot earlier historical past, upfront of its West End premiere.

Set some 2,000 years in the past in the course of the Hunnu Empire, this epic manufacturing with dance, music and a 70-strong forged opened on Friday at London’s Coliseum. It tells a fictional story of a brutal energy wrestle between two brothers, each combating for succession to the empire of ruler Archug Khan.

But there’s loads of actual historical past on provide in Mongolia past theatrical recreations.

Buddhist altars are nonetheless the centrepiece of most Mongolian houses, though Stalinist purges led to the destruction of a whole bunch of its Buddhist temples again in 1937.

At one of many oldest temples to outlive, the winged-roofed, sixteenth Century Erdene Zuu monastery within the historical Mongol capital of Karakorum, you possibly can watch a ceremony carried out by its resident monks.

And though its cities are fashionable, discovering the true Mongolia is all about venturing into one of many world’s nice wildernesses – the huge grassy plains recognized by their Russian title, steppes.

Thrills and spills: Maureen visits the ‘spectacular’ Red Waterfall (pictured) within the Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape of central Mongolia

And out on the distant steppes, the hardy nomads who quantity one-third of Mongolia’s 3.3 million folks, life has hardly modified in hundreds of years.

These herdsmen and ladies dwell in spherical, wood-framed tents referred to as gers – or yurts, as we would know them.

I am going glamping in gloriously distant areas of the nation. Nearby graze sheep, yaks and a few snooty-looking camels.

The yaks actually dwell as much as their talkative yakkety-yak title as I strategy a herd. One has been saddled up for these of us recreation sufficient to clamber on to this ubiquitous furry and horned beast (and ace provider of milk and yogurt).

Maureen discovers that yaks (pictured) ‘actually dwell as much as their talkative yakkety-yak title’

Here, the notion of quick meals means killing your dinner and cooking it on a range fuelled by wooden or dried cow dung, as we uncover when invited to a goat feast in one of many gers.

Drop-in guests are welcomed by means of the hobbit-sized doorways, although it’s the accomplished factor to carry alongside a bit current reminiscent of sweets for kids.

We tuck into native beer and vodka, which ends with a girl in our group being invited to turn into the second spouse of an excitable younger Mongolian man.

Within the gers, the scent of untamed sage is in every single place – if solely that intoxicating odor might be bottled to promote alongside Mongolia’s covetable cashmeres. The latter, nonetheless, is definitely matched for softness by yak and camel woollens – woven from the animals’ delicate neck hair.

Mongolians cling to a easy life, with part-time nomads from the cities staying in summer time gers and tending flocks that full-time nomad neighbours have minded for them in the course of the harsh winters. Everyone appears to be like out for one another. As our information Bayana, a 55-year-old grandmother, explains, shepherds protecting watch from the hills with monoculars will summon assist if a customer’s 4×4 wants assist getting out of a ditch or a river.

In Mongolia’s capital, Maureen attends the opening ceremony for the Naadam Festival, an annual July celebration of nationhood and the three key Mongolian sports activities: wrestling, horse-racing and archery

‘Mongol nomads desire to journey on horseback, and spend a lot time within the saddle that they’re virtually just like the half-man, half-horse centaurs of Greek mythology,’ writes Maureen. Pictured: Spectators on the Nadaam Festival horse-racing occasion

While in Mongolia, Maureen goes to the preview of The Mongol Khan, a revival of a 1998 play, upfront of its West End premiere

Mongol nomads desire to journey on horseback, and spend a lot time within the saddle that they’re virtually just like the half-man, half-horse centaurs of Greek mythology – though motorbikes are actually typically used to spherical up sheep and goat herds.

Their steeds are quick and durable, a reduction for a rusty rider like me, as I head for the spectacular Red Waterfall within the Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape of central Mongolia. Our different transport is a Toyota Land Cruiser pushed by retired military colonel main Chinbat.

A Himalayan vulture and a black vulture, perched on a grass verge facet by facet only a metre away from us, watch our cross-country progress with eager curiosity.

In Mongolia’s capital, the most well liked ticket is the opening ceremony for the Naadam Festival, an annual celebration each July of nationhood and the three key Mongolian sports activities: wrestling, horse-racing (with riders as younger as six) and archery. It’s a crazily lovely and stirring sight.

Although UK residents don’t want a visa to go to Mongolia, there aren’t any direct flights. Instead you modify at both Frankfurt, Beijing or Istanbul, so it’s nonetheless an undiscovered secret to many.

My week-long journey isn’t lengthy sufficient to cram in Mongolia’s fabled Gobi Desert far down within the south, the place explorers first found dinosaur eggs and which is dwelling to bears and snow leopards in an astonishingly numerous terrain.

Heading again to the airport, I cease for a break and are available throughout a nomad couple providing an area delicacy of their roadside ger: yak pasties. The husband is rolling out the dough and the spouse is dicing the beef-like meat. I duly tuck in, acutely aware that Mongolia has served up an exciting feast.