A herder gathers his sheep and goats in the middle of an early
spring snowstorm. Myagmarchuluun, a herder in northern Mongolia,
takes a break near his friend's ger (yurt). Neighbors help take
down a ger (yurt) on moving day. The family will move from their
winter camp near a rock wall to their spring camp close to a
river. The structure of the ger is so perfectly suited for
nomadic life that its design hasn't been altered in 1,000 years.
Although young men used to be given jade pipes by their fathers,
most herders now smoke cigarettes. A ger (yurt) in the parched
and dusty Gobi landscape near the Tavan Tolgoi coal mine. Many
of the animals in the area have become sick due to the dust that
has kicked up from constant truck traffic shipping coal from the
mine to China. Erdenemunkh, a herder, chats over a plate of
decorated curds and a thermos of suutei tsai, or salty milk tea.
Most herding families depend almost entirely on the meat and
dairy from their animals for sustenance. Here, large stones are
being used