The Mongolian Ger - Everything You Need To Know — Transcript

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1. 0:05[Music]
2. 0:17Okay, so this is your typical Mongolian
3. 0:20gare. On the outside of the gare, we
4. 0:22have the outside layer of cotton and
5. 0:24it's held down in place with horseair.
6. 0:26Uh they weave this uh every year. They
7. 0:30use a different type of horseair. This
8. 0:32is a good braided one that's thick. And
9. 0:34underneath the first layer there's the
10. 0:37wool. This is uh been rolled out on the
11. 0:39step. And it's just sheep wool and a
12. 0:42little bit of grass sometimes mixed in.
13. 0:44It's very thick. And this is the the
14. 0:46walls or the the main structure of the
15. 0:48outside of the gur. And it's just a
16. 0:50lattice work of wood. And it's pretty
17. 0:52strong because they have it so tightened
18. 0:53up on here like this. Um, also on the
19. 0:56outside of the gears nowadays, almost
20. 0:58always you'll see solar panels. So,
21. 1:01those are obviously powering the TVs,
22. 1:04uh, maybe electronics, any other kind of
23. 1:06things they have inside, which is
24. 1:08actually really common nowadays. Um, the
25. 1:10outside of this scare here, you can see
26. 1:11a typically painted
27. 1:15fir. Uh, these are just designs. Each
28. 1:18family has a different design. And of
29. 1:21course, now you see less horses and
30. 1:24maybe more motorbikes. Almost every
31. 1:26family has a bike. Take it into town,
32. 1:27get fuel, get
33. 1:29supplies. And
34. 1:34yeah, when you enter a g, you're
35. 1:37supposed to not step on the threshold
36. 1:38cuz that represents stepping on the
37. 1:40host's throat, which is not good. So,
38. 1:42you step over the
39. 1:45threshold, and you should always walk to
40. 1:47the left. And the men sit on the left
41. 1:50and generally the and there's always uh
42. 1:52some meat hanging on the left and often
43. 1:54the horse uh rains and saddle and the
44. 1:58women sit on the right with the
45. 2:00kitchen which is where grandma is
46. 2:03now. And generally uh this is the altar
47. 2:07here with like the um most prized
48. 2:10possessions maybe photos of the family
49. 2:12and the honored guest would sit here
50. 2:14usually the host the man. Um, in between
51. 2:17here is uh the main support beams and
52. 2:21they represent
53. 2:23um earth and sky and you're never
54. 2:26supposed to pass things between them or
55. 2:28walk between them. Um, usually when you
56. 2:32first come to Aur, you sit down and the
57. 2:34family will bring some sort of offering,
58. 2:36maybe uh cheese and bread and milk and
59. 2:40you always accept everything with your
60. 2:42hand like this except with your right
61. 2:43hand and put your left hand underneath.
62. 2:46Um, and there's a stove in the center.
63. 2:49So in the winter time you can warm up
64. 2:51the gur. It can be really warm in here.
65. 2:53And the gers are lined with this cotton
66. 2:57on the inside. And in between the two
67. 2:59layers of cotton, there's a lay layer of
68. 3:02felt made with sheep's wool. And it
69. 3:04keeps it really warm. In the winter
70. 3:05time, maybe they have two or three
71. 3:07layers of sheep's wool. Um, nowadays,
72. 3:10most gers have a TV like this one over
73. 3:13here. So the uh Mongolian step families
74. 3:18are amazingly informed about world
75. 3:20politics because they're always watching
76. 3:22TV, international
77. 3:24news. And here's some more meat over
78. 3:26here hanging. So they hang lots of meat
79. 3:29so that in the winter time they have a
80. 3:30lot of backup. Uh most of the work in
81. 3:32the gurr and on the farm is done during
82. 3:36the summertime and in the winter time is
83. 3:38their time of relaxation when they can
84. 3:40just eat the meat that they've dried,
85. 3:42stay in the g
86. 3:46warm. Um yeah, and these are the support
87. 3:50beams on the roof and they're often
88. 3:53painted. This one is painted just
89. 3:54orange. Um, when a baby is born, if it's
90. 3:58premature, if it's 5 days premature,
91. 4:01they will hang the baby in a net, like a
92. 4:04cradle, uh, in a hat, sorry, a cradle
93. 4:07like a hat, but they use it as a cradle.
94. 4:09And if it's 5 days premature, they hang
95. 4:11it one day, one day here, one day here,
96. 4:13one day here, one day here, five times
97. 4:15on five different poles. And that makes
98. 4:17it so that the baby is no longer
99. 4:19premature. Um, however, if it's 10 days
100. 4:22premature, they hang it for 10 days in a
101. 4:24hat.
102. 4:29So that's about it.
103. 4:33Come outside. Sure.
104. 4:42Okay, we're going to leave her to finish
105. 4:44dishes.
106. 4:51And that's it. That's a Mongolian girl.
107. 5:02We just finished driving for about 8
108. 5:04hours and we stopped at this uh gear
109. 5:05camp and they're building a G right now
110. 5:07which is kind of cool. So hopefully we
111. 5:10can show you a time lapse of what it
112. 5:11looks like from start to finish.
113. 5:23Now they're just putting on the final
114. 5:24touches of the gear. The top white tart.
115. 5:27They put on a plastic overlay so it
116. 5:29doesn't get soaking wet inside when it's
117. 5:30raining like this. And they're just
118. 5:32putting on a white sheet on top.
119. 5:54Hey, lady.
120. 6:06Okay, and that's it. Uh, the finished
121. 6:09product. Not too hard. Took him about
122. 6:12took him about 1 hour to set it up from
123. 6:14start to finish. And now the gear is
124. 6:16ready.