Cheese Making in Nomadic Mongolia
Adrienne
1 min read·
During my visit to Mongolia in the summer of 2019, I had the unique opportunity to watch nomads make cheese using methods passed down through generations. Below, you’ll find a series of photos that capture the entire process—from milking the yaks and preparing the cheese over a stove, to pouring it into cheesecloth, hanging it outside to dry in the sun, and finally enjoying a bowl of soft cheese, scooped up with our fingers. It’s a testament to the traditions of Mongolia’s nomadic people, whose lives are closely intertwined with the land and their herds.
I'm grateful for the opportunity to witness a traditional method of cheese-making firsthand, which deepened my appreciation and admiration for the Mongolian nomads' self-sustaining lifestyle—a way of life largely untouched by modern technology
Further Exploration About Nomadic Life in Mongolia
Part 1 and Part 2 of my blog about my travels to Mongolia where I wrote about land ownership, cultural norms, food and diet, Buddhism and the Naadam festival.
The Jeweled Horse Foundation — a non-profit organization whose board I joined this year — is dedicated to providing aid to Mongolia to promote well-being and help preserve its culture and traditions.
Travel to Mongolia is increasing among millennials.
Mongolia's “big five” herds are yak, sheep, goat, horse, and camel, though there are also reindeer herders in the north.
Traveling to provide healthcare for Mongolian nomads
Collect this post as an NFT.
So -- 12th century Mongolia sucked to be honest Part of the reason Mongolia created nomadic people is the lack of arable land (think endless steppes, super harsh winters, very unforgiving) So people would have to band together to hunt, and to live together by herding smaller animals. So if you were ostracized, you pretty much had no food and couldn't live off of the land. Speaking of which, when Genghis Kahn was around 9 years old, his father, Yesugei, a tribe leader was poisoned by a rival tribe, the Tatars. They get backstabbed by Taichiud (a trusted ally turned betrayer) -- and their whole family gets ostracized from the tribe. From there it turns into a survival horror story -- with his mother Hoelun and his siblings to survive alone on the steppe -- no livestock, no protection, no way to live, essentially. They were reduced to eating wild plants, roots, and small animals. Brutal life. The story goes on obviously but my point is 12th century Mongolia was no joke
good film on GK origin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_(film)
@adrienne wrote about here experience with nomadic cheese makers in Mongolia https://paragraph.xyz/@adrienne/cheese-making-in-nomadic-mongolia
I would love if you wrote some Plutarch's Lives style comparisons of modern and ancient figures. I've been thinking recently how much Elon reminds me of Themistocles.
This is a fun idea!
yeah, that is what makes societies go out and conquer. Same for the vikings. They didn't do it for fun and sport. They did it to acquire better land for farming.
July owes me back an hour of my life. I saw his post about cheese and decided I needed to drop everything and publish a post about the time I watched Mongolian nomads make cheese. @july Please consider this my formal application to be a guest on your cheese show 🙏 @colin @reidtandy New paragraph dashboard and publish flow is 🔥. Great job simplifying 👏
I LOVE THISSSSSSS thank you @july for promoting cheese content
https://warpcast.com/july/0xd91abfcb
Do we know what the longevity folks have to say about cheese?
Amazing And yes cheese please
Wowow, did you just unlock another version of yours which I love. I didn’t know you like this things too, I’m a sucker for this type of contents.
ive never wanted yak cheese so bad in my life
Thank you for the kind words on the new flow :)
I need less cheese in my life 😂