The ger & nomadic life
How a ger is built
Toono, uni, khana, pillars, felt: a family can put it up or take it down in a few hours.
Origins
The ger (called a yurt in Russian and in much English writing) is the portable round dwelling of Mongolian herding families. It is designed to be taken apart, loaded on camels, yaks or today a truck, and rebuilt at the next seasonal camp, while standing up to strong spring winds and deep winter cold. In 2013 UNESCO inscribed the "traditional craftsmanship of the Mongol ger and its associated customs" on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, noting that making a ger is a household or group enterprise: men carve the wooden parts, while men and women together paint, sew and make the felt. Skills pass from senior craftspeople to apprentices, and children learn by helping their parents dismantle and reassemble the family home.
How it is built
A ger is made from a small number of standard parts, and the design is broadly the same across the country:
- Khana: folding lattice wall sections, traditionally of pliable wood such as willow, tied at the joints with leather. The number of khana sets the size of the ger; herders' gers commonly have five or six.
- Uni: long, straight roof poles that rest on the top of the lattice and rise to the centre.
- Toono: the round wooden crown at the top, into which the roof poles slot. It lets in light, lets out smoke from the stove pipe, and can be covered with a felt flap in bad weather.
- Bagana: two central pillars that support the crown, standing either side of the stove.
- Door: a wooden frame and door, often brightly painted, facing south.
Over the frame go layers of felt made from sheep's wool, then a canvas outer cover. Ropes of animal hair and a tension band tie everything together, and the weight of the covers holds the structure firmly in compression. Depending on its size and the number of helpers, a ger can be put up or taken down in anything from about half an hour to a few hours.
Inside the ger
The interior follows a fixed plan. The stove stands in the centre beneath the crown. Opposite the door is the khoimor, the place of honour, with the family altar and photographs. The west side holds men's items such as saddles and bridles; the east side holds the kitchen and food. Beds and chests line the walls and double as seating.
What visitors should know
Most tourist ger camps use the same structure as family gers, with beds and a wood or coal stove. A stove fire heats the space quickly but dies down overnight, so on cold nights keep warm layers close by and ask camp staff how the stove is managed. Look up at the toono and painted roof poles: the decoration is part of the craft UNESCO recognised. Do not lean on the pillars or hang things from the roof poles.