• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.155-163
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• 1997

The Mongolian ger is ideally suited to the mongol's steppe climate and the nomadic way of life. This is a multipurpose dwelling which can be easily collapsed, transported to another place and put up again fully preserving its original shape. The pastoral nomadic ger has two key components: the wooden framework and the felt cover. The wooden parts are the walls(khana), the long poles(un), the smoke escape(toono) and its supports(bagana). One wall consists of 10-15 branches of willow tree. each about 1.5m high bound together in a way making it possible to fold it for transportation and then unfold it like an accordion. The unfolded walls are connected to form a circle. The long poles(un) are fastened to the upper part of the walls, with the other end passed through the toono hole, the only sky window and smoke escape through it from the ger. The toono is propped up by two posts, called bagana. All this forms the wooden framework of the ger, which is covered with felt. When the herders fire up their metal stoves, the temperature inside the ger becomes quite comfortable. Because the nomads live in a climate where there is only one growing season in a year, they do not make long migrations to new pastures. Livestock subsist on standing vegetation for eight months of the year. The basic pasture migration strategy is to leave enough standing vegetation at the end of the growing season in September to suffice until the new growth appears the following May. Mongolians use a type of compressed tea leaf that is called "brick" tea in English because it is rock solid and roughly the shape of a brick. And they consume a larger percent(88%) of fat from animal products such as meat, milk, butter, and cheese than any other people in the world. Milk products made from the milk of sheep, yak, and goats are major foods in the nomad's diet, but they are produced mainly in summer when all the animals are lactating. Mongolians made their special nomadic food culture on the steppe.