Biography

Since 2012, Oyungerel Tsedevdamba has been the Mongolian Minister of Culture, promoted from her previous position as a non-staff advisor to the President of Mongolia.

Minister Tsedevdamba was educated as an undergraduate in Planning Economy at the university of Sverdlovsk (now Ekatheringburg) Institute of National Economy, Union of the Soviet, Socialist Republics (USSR). She later completed an MBA in International Business from Moscow School of International Business before taking on an MA in International Policy Studies at Stanford University. In 2006, she was made a Yale World Fellow and has since been published several times. 

Politically engaged, she is currently the President of the Democratic Women’s Union and a member of the National Consultative Committee of the Democratic Party.

"Nomadic Fascination: Opportunities & Challenges facing Creative Industries and Tourism in Mongolia"

A Lecture by Minister Oyungerel Tsedevdamba, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Mongolia

Thank you very much for having me here and thank you Ambassador Davaadorj Baldorjto come and join us today on my presentation. What you just saw, is a much abbreviated version of the cultural industry in Mongolia for the last 2,222 years. The costumes may seem to be made based on the creativity of Hollywood designers, but it is not it is creativity we found in archaeological findings and from the history and art that was inherited to us from five or six nomadic empires that sometimes ruled over the territory of Mongolia. One of the most famous people in the world is Genghis Khan who ruled 810 years ago. He was succeeded by his sons and grandsons. The last costumes you saw were the costumes from hundred years ago of the last religious leader of Mongolia, Bogd Khan, which were exactly the same costumes of him and his queens. They are now displayed in the Mongolian museum of Bogd Khan. This is just a glimpse of the creativity of the hands, of the costumes the kings and queens of many generations wore, of all the nomadic countries and of the inheritance of the beautiful nomadic culture. So, I am very happy to talk about the nomadic culture today, because you, students, researchers and academicians, are now studying really hard to make a better world, especially using cultural diplomacy. I appreciate that very much, because in order to build a better society, a better world, we really need to understand each other’s culture. Without that, it is very hard to make any other diplomacy work.

Nomadic cultures and other fascinating corners in the world integrate diplomacy in their everyday life. When we are talking about a nomadic lifestyle, we are actually talking about a huge common land, posture. If the posture is not big enough, there is no nomadic culture. So they use a land that is nobody’s possession so that everyone can use it. In every city we have a common, we have a park whereas in Mongolia we maybe have the biggest common. It is about 1.5 million square kilometres of common land that can be used by everybody who would like to raise livestock in the traditional nomadic way. Actually according to our land privatisation law, we have privatised land to every person in Mongolia, but we can only privatise 2% of our land and 97% of it is common land. Since Mongolia was established 2,220 years ago, land was always a common property, land was always a posture and nomadic culture was the main economy, the main cultural and economic basis in the foundation of Mongolia. The 1990 Democratic Revolution in Mongolia and the adoption of the new Constitution in 1992 guarantees that posture will never be privatised and that it will always be used for nomadic reasons, nomadic culture.

When we are talking about this big land of posture, we are talking about  freedom of movement, of life and of household. They can move to any place where there is better vegetation or better water sources any time of the year. This freedom of movement creates, conditions a relationship that everybody has to understand each other’s actions without fighting with each other. So it conditions a lot of unwritten rules and laws according to which a nomadic family can move from one place to another without harming the other families. It actually brings lots of cultural impact and diplomacy between the households and between the economies inside Mongolia. In the late 1990s, people born  in Western countries came to Mongolia and did not understand this unwritten diplomatic rules and they thought that there was a big empty piece of land. They always thought that as there was no family living there, it was nobody’s land so that they could dig anywhere and could claim any well and any mountain. So it led to many misunderstandings with the Mongolian population. Certainly, people started boycotting the mining and people started blaming the Western people for not considering the needs of the Mongolian people. But when the Western people started to study the culture of the Mongolian nomadic lifestyle, it was easier for them to have a better relationship with the local people, because they now know that there is a land that is nobody’s land in Mongolia. Actually, every land is everybody’s land. That is why we have to negotiate with so many people in order to secure friendship in different places of the common land. If somebody asks you where is the biggest fenceless land, reply that it is located in Mongolia, because people hate fences, especially the nomadic cultures. There is no need for fences. So, all land is open space for everybody. The freedom of movement of this economy creates its own very special culture too.

What usually happens on a big mountain is that there is one family living on one side of the mountain and a second family on the other side of the mountain. They live separated. For millions of tourists, it is very hard to comprehend what is happening in Mongolia, because we are very few families, very few people and a very scattered population. Mongolia is the most scattered country, because it has less than 3 million people. It would be a big success for Mongolia if it reached 3 million people within this year. We still need 70,000 people to reach a population of 3 million people. We are going to have 3 million horses this year at the same time. Mongolia has always been a one horse per person country. The horse population and the human population always compete. So this year we want to generate peace between the two populations to reach the 3 million mark. We also have 54 million livestock in total. Different caucuses are formed in the Gobi desert, in river bases, in the mountains and in the forests, because of the ecology, the ecosystems that are dictating the moment of the herders. Every ecosystem creates a little niche for every culture. The songs, dances, food and the clothing are different in every little niche. It creates a very interesting cultural heritage for us. Because of nature and the ecosystems, the survival skills differ very much. When we talk about Mongolia, I was just looking at the Seychelles; it is a country that probably markets itself as a paradise. Mongolia is certainly not a paradise, because we have four seasons which actually test human survival skills, because we have hot summers with temperatures that can sometimes reach up to 35 degrees and we have cold winters that can reach -30 to 40 degrees. Before I left in Ulan Bator for Berlin, it was -20 degrees. Because of this variety of temperatures and seasons, there are many ways to survive, not only as an individual human being, but also as a group, a culture and a family with all your herds and animals. That creates a lot of space for dramas and all kind of other things. Of course, Mongolian culture enjoys having this nomadic culture. Our films, our paintings and our art are inspired by nomadic culture.

A recent study on tourism of our key market showed that 90% of the tourists come to Mongolia to experience the nomadic lifestyle, horse riding and camel riding, to milk a cow or to taste something that is made of milk. Enjoying nomadic lifestyle is something that city dwellers and especially adventure lovers want to try once in their life. Sometimes, they come back again and again, because Mongolia is a big territory so you cannot see everything in one holiday. In the Gobi desert you will see something very different from what you see in the northern lake areas. In the Orkhon Valley you will see historic archaeological sites whereas in Ulan Bator you will see legendary places where the Mongolian Empire of Genghis Khan was born. Mountains, lakes, deserts and steps all give you a different experience. So people come back over and over again. Those who like adventure and like to experience the countryside, especially free and open spaces come to Mongolia repeatedly.

What are the challenges and the opportunities for us because of our nomadic cultures. We have many opportunities to give a good income to our herders if we develop our tourism together with the local people. In the early days of tourism development, Mongolia very recently opened for international tourism. Before 1990, we were a closed country like North Korea is today. Nobody could enter Mongolia. Politically, Mongolia was a closed country, but after 1990 we started opening the country little by little. Because our tourism industry is new, very few people benefitted from tourism industry, only those, probably elites, who spoke foreign languages. English was a politically prohibited language before 1990 so very few people spoke English so very few people could take advantage of the tourism industry after Mongolia opened. Nowadays, more and more young people speak foreign languages and more and more democratisation is taking place in Mongolia and given to local people. Especially the incorporation of the nomadic population in tourism business is expanding. That brings along big opportunities for Mongolia and gives us a big ambition to announce ourselves as a partner country  of ITB next year, because we are eager to generate more interest in adventure to a new generation of tourist who would like to experience the nomadic lifestyle while having a good service in Mongolia.

Our government was actually formed two years ago and I was appointed a new position. There was no Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism before. Culture was part of the Ministry of Education, tourism was part of the Ministry of Environment and sport was part of the Ministry of Health. When I first started serving as a minister, I actually was fascinated how culture and tourism were more connected than education and culture. Without learning our culture, especially the deep nomadic culture, we cannot make tourism successful. When we understand the cultures, especially cultures between provinces and communities, we started understanding how Mongolian tourism should grow. Actually, we started finding ourselves only after we understood the roots of our culture. It is very important to know why certain cultures are very sensitive in some areas and certain cultures can be capitalised in another part of Mongolia. There is one example I would to tell you. It is an example that explains why culture is important when you want to invest in Mongolia. For example, there was a successful Western company that wanted to do good business with Mongolian leather. As soon as a Western person hears about the number of livestock Mongolia has, 54 million livestock, they immediately think that it is the best leather provider and that Mongolia can be a good source of leather business. They would like to produce a good leather product together with the Mongolian population. As soon as they came to Mongolia and searched for Mongolian leather, they only found defect, adult, sick leather on the market. They would say why do you not provide us a thin, good leather of baby animals please? When they asked that no Mongolian wanted to do business with him. The Mongolians said that they do not kill baby animals and that they do not eat baby animal meat so that they cannot provide leather of baby animals. The Western person explained that it is such a good market, that it is an expensive market, that they could make profit and that they could make money. The Mongolian herder replied that he does not need money, because he needs his baby animal, because he loves it. For him a baby animal is a family member. Nobody wants to eat baby animal meat instead they prefer though meat, thick skin, thick leather whether it is defected or not and less money instead of killing their baby animals. This is a big cultural shock for Western people when they see the number of livestock. That is why we ask Western people coming to Mongolia to study the nomadic culture. Without knowledge of the culture, they will only do business with you in the short term. In the long term it will create political unrest. In some places people get into trouble when they do not know the local boundaries of where to get water or dump waste. Our tourism businesses also get into trouble without knowing local customs.

There  existed one exploitation of Mongolian nomadic culture one day. A lonely planet of the mid 1990s, there was an explanation of Mongolian nomadic taboos and hospitality. Many issues of the lonely planet where explained to young adventure travellers saying that Mongolia is the best place to go and travel for free, because every nomadic family will feed you for free, give you a bed for free and give you a gift for  coming to their homes. That is a Mongolian custom. There were so many backpackers coming to Mongolia who started exploiting the nomadic good tradition of hospitality, because it is the custom to treat people well. Then people like me, I was an author of a book of 2007 before I became a Minister, I had to write a book to teach herders how to charge money from a guest, because especially nomadic herders in the steps never ask money from a guest. If the guest gives you money, you can take it, but you cannot ask it according to the good old tradition. I had to teach that they could ask 10 dollars or 20 dollars for things. I also taught them which sentence, which words to use in order to politely ask for money for their services. This is now becoming quite a routine especially in more touristic areas. It is still a challenge for the sustainability of tourism, because we do not want too many exploiters, but we want more sustainable tourists. That is why it is still one of the challenges. How can we incorporate a decent pay in local hospitality and how can local people encourage tourism. My aunt is a herder and two years ago she killed a whole sheep for two backpackers from abroad to host them. She almost never hosted guests. They ate and took some meat with them and went away, but did not pay anything. My aunt said that it is the Mongolian tradition that when somebody kills a sheep for you, you would eat and would sometimes give a gift, but you would not take meat with you. Somehow these two backpackers misunderstood this. Even if hospitality is written in the lonely planet, it was not explained to what measure hospitality should be used. This is actually improving because of the openness of information in contrast with the widespread misunderstandings. We are aggressively educating our people how to deal with tourism seriously and to not provide everyday hospitality. At the same time, local governors and authorities are trying to organise events where local people can sell their products instead of giving everything away for free. There are many traditional events in Mongolia. One of the most famous events is called Naadem. If you google Naadem, you can see all kinds of sport events, horse racing, wrestling, archery and other cultural event pictures. This is actually the oldest festival, the oldest sport event in Mongolia. It has taken place for 2,000 years. This event usually takes place everywhere in Mongolia during the summer months, from the 7th of July until the end of July. Every year, the most important dates of the festival are the 11th and the 12th of July. The state provides the funding for the organisation of Naadem. It is very strange that Naadem has always taken place even during any hardship, whatever time it was, whether it was Genghis Khan Time or whether it was communist time or democracy Naadem always took place. The state always provided funding for the festival. I will give you some statistics about the festival. All over Mongolia from the 7th of July until the 20th of July, there will be at least 22,400 wrestlers. At one event there are at least 60 wrestlers. At big events there are 512 wrestlers. All over the country at least 105,000 will be racing with children riding them and at least 9,500 archers will be shooting their arrows for local spectators. In many places of Mongolia you can see Naadem.

Mongolia is also historically very tolerant to all religions. Maybe it will be the first country to make a law on religious tolerance. Every religion is appreciated here. It is a very egalitarian culture. Children and adults are alike and women and men are alike, so everything is quite egalitarian. Historically, there are not so many hierarchies, especially when you are in the countryside your biggest counterpart is the weather, the climate, but not a human being. That is why Mongolia has a culture of treating each other equally from childhood on. That is why children are quite straightforward. I would like to give some advice to those who want to visit Mongolia about what they can expect from Mongolia. First of all, you should expect very straightforward, honest and friendly people. Probably, you are going to come to Mongolia on a very sunny day, because 300 of the 365 days of the year are sunny. Another thing most tourist do is going to the countryside to find yourself in places where you can see horizon after horizon and feel liberated from your crowded city life. These three things will always be guaranteed here in Mongolia. There are also other, different adventures for different tourists. I would like you to not prepare a very meticulous planning, because Mongolia is a different place where a lot of things happen spontaneously. That is why those who like a strict planning are faced with the natural flow of Mongolia. If you plan to go out by 8, you might go out by 9, because a nomadic herder might say that he needs to bring his horses back, because his horses or his camels do not know the time to arrive home and that he will take care of you after that. There are a lot of natural delays. However Mongolia is a very exciting place for those who like spontaneous adventures. Especially in Ulan Bator, the city life, we try to stick to a time schedule, but in the countryside everyone should enjoy them and enjoy the spontaneity of the nomadic lifestyle. This can also be a very fascinating experience. That is why the slogan of the tourism of Mongolia is Mongolia, nomadic by nature. So I would like to welcome those who love nature and the nomadic lifestyle to come to Mongolia.