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不可思議だが素晴らしいモンゴル
たった一度の訪問で筆者が魅了されてしまった国、モンゴル。
13世紀にチンギス・カンが大帝国を築き、国民が今も彼を誇りに思うこの国で、とりわけ筆者の心に深く刻み込まれたのが、広大な草原に放牧された家畜たちが悠然と草をはむ田園地方の風景なのだ。
Mongolia: weird but wonderful
The Earth is full of strange and wonderful places to visit and perhaps no place is stranger or more wonderful than Mongolia. I'm talking about Mongolia the country formerly known as Outer Mongolia, not to be confused with Inner Mongolia, which is a part of China.
Mongolia is an enormous country, about 4 times as large as Japan, but with a population of only 2.7 million people. That makes for a lot of wide-open space, especially when you consider that more than 1 million Mongolians live in the capital, Ulan Bator (Ulaanbaatar).
Genghis Khan, the great leader who united the Mongols by 1206, is known as Chinggis Khaan in the land of his birth. He conquered the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever known. That was quite a while ago but the people of Mongolia still bask in his glory.
Mongolians are immensely proud of Chinggis Khaan, who was a forbidden figure during the 70 years of Communist rule, and have erected a huge seated statue of him in front of the parliament building in Ulan Bator.
The capital looks rather like a provincial Russian town with wide avenues and apartment blocks that look straight out of the former Soviet Union. There is one crucial difference: Ulan Bator is the only city I know where a sizeable portion of the populace lives in tents.
They are not just any tent, but the traditional circular tent of the Mongolian nomad known as a ger, better known to the rest of the world as a yurt.
While summer is the best time to visit, I've made a couple of trips there in the winter. It gets seriously cold, like minus 35 or lower. Add a north wind howling out of Siberia and you will truly understand what cold is about. Inside our ger it was pretty toasty though, heated by a fire made of wood scraps and dried sheep dung.
In summer it is much warmer, and a trip to the countryside can be a calming salve for the soul, with endless vistas and the silence of the rolling steppe broken only by the sounds of the wind, the beat of horses' hooves, and even a plaintive Mongolian song.
It's not hard to imagine oneself in the Wild West before the plains were fenced in. But in place of bison, or herds of longhorn cattle, we see two-humped Bactrian camels lounging on hillsides, and herds of yaks, goats, and sheep grazing placidly.
Anyone wondering what life was like a hundred years ago could get a good idea from a visit to the Mongolian countryside.
If you can't go there soon you can have a look at some photos of Mongolia both modern and timeless at this website:
http://flickr.com/photos/esteamer/sets/72157600512454918/show/
- weird
- 不可思議な
- no place is stranger(than Mongolia)
- (モンゴルよりも)不思議なところはない
- Outer Mongolia
- 外モンゴル(現在のモンゴル)
- Inner Mongolia
- 内モンゴル(現在の中国の内モンゴル自治区)
- Ulan Bator
- ウランバートル
- Genghis Khan
- チンギス・カン(1162頃-1227モンゴル帝国初代皇帝)
- contiguous land empire
- 地続きの帝国
- bask in his glory
- 彼の栄光に浴す
- immensely
- 非常に
- forbidden figure
- 否定すべき存在
- have erected
- 〜を建てた
- seated statue
- 座像
- provincial
- 地方の
- apartment blocks
- 団地
- look straight out of 〜
- そっくり〜をまねたように見える
- sizeable portion of the populace
- かなりの数の一般市民
- circular
- 丸い形の
- nomad
- 遊牧民
- ger
- ゲル
- yurt
- ユルト
- howling
- うなる
- Siberia
- シベリア
- toasty
- 快適な暖かさの
- dung
- ふん
- calming salve
- 心を落ち着かせてくれるなぐさめ
- vistas
- 景色
- rolling steppe
- なだらかに起伏する大草原
- hooves
- ひづめ
- plaintive
- 悲しげな
- were fenced in
- フェンスで囲まれた
- bison
- 野牛
- herds of longhorn cattle
- ロングホーン種の牛の群れ
- see 〜 grazing placidly
- 〜が穏やかに草を食べているのが見える
- two-humped Bactrian Camel
- こぶが2つあるフタコブラクダ
- lounging on 〜
- 〜をぶらぶら歩く
- yaks
- ヤク
- goats
- ヤギ
- timeless
- 時代を超えた