[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 63 (Tuesday, May 4, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E838-E839]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     HONORING EMMA JANE BLOOMFIELD

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. GARY L. ACKERMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 4, 1999

  Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor and congratulate Emma Jane 
Bloomfield, who recently won an award from the Concord Rotary Club for 
her paper on Mongolian Culture. This paper was brought to my attention 
by her proud grandmother, Blanche Bloomfield, who resides in my 
district in Kings Point, NY. This essay contest demonstrates how our 
communities can work with our schools to further the educational goals 
of all of our nation's children. I hope all of my colleagues will have 
an opportunity to review this insightful and cogent essay and I would 
once again like to congratulate Emma on her outstanding work.

       Under the control of Genghis Khan, the Mongolian people 
     once had a forceful army, exploding with wrath and rage. 
     However, the mounting tension between other countries and the 
     Mongolians, caused by so many battles, resulted in the 
     shattering of the Mongol empire. Since the 1300s, they have 
     struggled to rebuild their society. Now that the strength and 
     anger have faded from their community, many Mongols today 
     believe in a strong emphasis on politeness and hospitality. 
     Mongols live on the seeping grasslands of Asia and they use 
     their environment to satisfy many needs. In the rural areas 
     of Mongolia, many men are herdsmen who supervise the wild 
     horses and yaks that roam the Mongols' homeland. The history 
     of the Mongolian people has influenced their present culture, 
     and their beliefs, styles of life, and natural environment 
     are still contributing to the formation of their society and 
     identities.
       Mongolian history is traced back to the days of power when 
     Genghis Khan ruled the Mongol empire. Genghis Khan was a wild 
     horseman and a strong warrior who inspired the bravery of his 
     people. He had great accuracy and distance when shooting a 
     bow and arrow, and he had a keen mind that conjured up 
     strategies he used to win battles. Khan was widely known for 
     ruthlessly attacking towns and cities for the rewards of 
     victory. Genghis Khan conquered more territory than anyone in 
     Mongolian history, and he imposed his reputation on the 
     world. Despite the cruelty that Khan showed toward other 
     countries, the Mongols praised him and viewed him as the 
     founder of their nation, creator of their people. The Mongols 
     called Genghis Khan the ``Supreme Ruler Over the Ocean'' and 
     ``Emperor of Emperors.''
       A large portion of Khan's success was due to his solid 
     armies, both his soldiers and his horsemen. Genghis Khan's 
     armies were vast, and he grouped his men into units of tens, 
     hundreds, thousands, and ten-thousands, so they could move in 
     to battle quickly. Khan's powerful armies were often forced 
     to over 225 miles of land within a day. Most of the warriors 
     were horsemen, and they each owned three to twenty horses, 
     which they alternated daily to give each horse sufficient 
     time to rest. Weapons carried by the warriors were strong 
     bows, lances, and swords. The soldiers wore heavy leather 
     called lamellar to shield them from the fierce swipe of a 
     sword.
       Many of Genghis Khan's words provoked a feeling of force 
     and fury. ``The greatest pleasure is to vanquish your enemies 
     and chase them before you rob them of their wealth and see 
     those dear to them baked in tears, to ride their horses,'' he 
     once said. Khan was fueled by experiences of the many bloody 
     battles that his armies fought. Genghis Khan relished seeing 
     those inferior to him suffer, and he fought only to claim 
     power and to satisfy his dreams. Khan's dream was to 
     establish a network of riders, used as a spy system, all over 
     Asia. His armies did succeed in taking over parts of China, 
     Middle Asia, and Europe. Khan's empire stretched from Europe 
     to Russia in the north, and from Vietnam to Iraq in the 
     south. With their equipment, strength, and intelligence, the 
     Mongol Umpire led by Genghis Khan seemed immortal.
       Unfortunately for Mongolian society, the red heat of their 
     empire soon faded to a cowering pink. Because they fought so 
     many battles, the rivalries and conflicts between Mongolia 
     and other countries brought misfortune and an unexpected end 
     to the Mongol Empire. At that time, Russia and China began to 
     expand and they claimed most power that the Mongols had once 
     held. The collapse of the Mongol empire in 1505 scarred its 
     people and society. The power supplied by Genghis Khan was 
     humiliated, and the next centuries were filled with tragedy 
     and struggle. While the Mongols tried to rebuild their 
     economy, Russia and China prevailed over them and took parts 
     of Mongolia under their control. In 1990, the break-up of the 
     Soviet Union provided a blessing to the Mongols, and it 
     offered freedom to some. However, problems still remain in 
     Mongolia. To survive, the people have been forced to roam 
     the grasslands, hunting with bow and arrow, taming horses, 
     and raising livestock. The Mongols' strength has only re-
     emerged through their formation of a government while they 
     have squirmed out of the reach of Russian and Chinese 
     power.
       Having rebuilt their society, natural and spiritual things 
     now claim a higher rank among the Mongols. Mongolians believe 
     that heaven, a home to the gods, holds an abundance of power. 
     The Mongols honor heaven and all of nature under it. In fact, 
     earlier Mongol tribes blessed and proclaimed their leaders as 
     the ``sons of heaven.''
       In their households, Mongols have always strongly emphasize 
     politeness and hospitality. In pre-modern times the Mongols' 
     homes were spread out all over the Mongols' land. This caused 
     many people to travel from camp to camp, who would need a 
     home for one night. Mongols provided shelter for visitors who 
     later would face a hike across the windswept grasslands. With 
     the arrival of a guest at a Mongolian's home, the host would 
     traditionally offer a hospitality bowl, which would hold 
     chunks of pungent cheeses, sugar cubes, candies, and bordzig 
     pastries deep fried in yak and mutton fats. Using the 
     hospitality bowl was the style in which the Mongols welcomed 
     their guests. Mongolians believed in treating visitors as old 
     and beloved friends, and in turn, the guest of a household 
     would offer kind words to the hosts, and would express 
     respect and gratitude by accepting foods at the table with 
     customary gestures.
       The traditional religion observed by the people of Mongolia 
     is Tibetan Buddhism. Pedestals, in a Mongol's home, hold 
     statues of Buddha, a symbol that is prominent in Tibetan 
     Buddhism. After freedom of religion was introduced to 
     Mongolia in 1990, Buddhism became the most commonly practiced 
     religion. The government of Mongolia offered money to support 
     the restoration of a sacred Buddhist Monastery.
       Religion holds importance to the Mongols, yet it only 
     occupies one level of Mongolian life. In the rural areas of 
     Mongolia, the people's lives revolve around hunting or 
     herding livestock. The semi-wild horses who graze in the 
     mountains that enclose the grasslands, are for riding and 
     training purposes. A Mongolian horse herdsman typically makes 
     decisions as to where to let the horses graze, and when to 
     move them to the next camps. Herders of any animal must 
     eventually sell or butcher the livestock. Herdsmen 
     efficiently use parts of the animals for fuel, warmth, and 
     shelter. The job of a herdsman may also be to breed rarer 
     animals, and sell them.
       Traditionally, hunting occupies a large portion of 
     Mongolian life. Many Mongol hunters use ancient archery 
     techniques to hunt birds. Keen dogs and cheetahs are also 
     used to track down a hunter's game. Occasionally, in earlier 
     times, large-scale hunts would be organized where beaters 
     would drive entire herds of antelope into the lurking 
     hunters' bows. Falcons, too, were used to lead large game to 
     the hunters.
       In the rural places of Mongolia, the rural life of a Mongol 
     is chiefly filled by the needs of the flocks of sheep, goats, 
     herds of horses, cattle, or camels. Springtime is the season 
     in which herdsmen have the most commitments to the livestock. 
     The births of animals occupy great spans of time, and often 
     an entire family comes to the fields and helps the herder 
     with a difficult birth. Herdsmen scurry around tending to the 
     needs of animals, trying to establish a health start to the 
     herding season. Summertime is less busy, for herds of animals 
     resort to pasture land and the livestock doesn't demand 
     assistance from herdsmen. Yet in the summertime there is 
     still some work to attend to: sheep are shorn for their dense 
     wool and camels and goats are combed for their velvety 
     under-wool. The autumn winds dry the moisture from the 
     grasslands, and as winter approaches groups of herdsmen 
     collect their livestock. The animals are confined to graze 
     in small pens and barns, and hay becomes their main diet. 
     In late autumn equipment and tools are replaced or mended 
     for the new births of livestock in the springtime. 
     Mongolian winters come to the land quickly and last for a 
     long amount of time. Temperatures stay low for weeks, 
     which make each day harder for Mongols to endure. Herdsmen 
     stay loyal to the penned animals and help them through the 
     months of winter, so the cycle can repeat.
       On the grasslands outside of Ulan Bator, the capital of 
     Mongolia, the Mongols live in tent-like gers (see appendix 
     D). These homes have rounded walls that slope upward to form 
     a point at the top. These traditional homes provide the 
     Mongolian people with warmth and protect them from blizzards 
     that may storm the grasslands. Gers are covered with felt, 
     usually made by women. The process of felt-making typically 
     takes two weeks for enough cloth to cover an entire ger. 
     Because many Mongols are followers of animal herds, the ger 
     satisfies the needs of their culture, for the ger is easy to 
     dismantle and is designed to be transported from place

[[Page E839]]

     to place. A ger is most commonly moved by a team of camels or 
     oxen, the strongest animals that can support a heavy weight. 
     The placement of a ger has been influenced by Mongols' 
     traditions. Throughout Mongolian history, the door of the ger 
     has always faced southeast. Mongols believe that because 
     winds gust from the southeast and the sacred sun rises in the 
     east, gers that face in this direction are blessed.
       The most common animal to be seen roaming the land of 
     Mongolia is the yak. Mongols use the abundance of these 
     animals to benefit their culture by herding them and using 
     the animals as a source of trade. The Mongolian people also 
     dine on meat from yaks and use their fat to fuel stoves. The 
     Mongolian government trades yaks to other countries for oil, 
     manufactured goods, and machinery, which are all conveniences 
     that Mongols cannot process themselves.
       The Mongols' land is a tangle of many different 
     environments. A portion of Mongolia includes a vast mountain 
     range locking in bleak and rocky grasslands. The most 
     prominent mountain range is the Altai. This cluster of 
     mountains holds the only glaciers in Mongolia, which makes 
     for a nipping, frigid climate. The Mongolian grasslands also 
     border the Gobi Desert, where the climate is arid and hot. 
     Mongol culture, therefore, has adapted to living among 
     extreme temperatures, but it revolves mostly around the more 
     temperate grasslands. The Mongols have proven, in the 
     survival of their culture, that to this day they still have 
     the spark and the strength that the great Genghis Khan 
     possessed.

     

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