Ulaanbaatar beyond Water and Grass

Ulaanbaatar beyond Water and Grass PDF Author: M. A. Aldrich
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
ISBN: 9888208675
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Ulaanbaatar beyond Water and Grass is the first book in the English language that takes the visitors to an in-depth exploration of the capital of Mongolia. In the first section of the book, M. A. Aldrich paints a detailed portrait of the history, religion, and architecture of Ulaanbaatar with reference to how the city evolved from a monastic settlement to a communist-inspired capital and finally to a major city of free-wheeling capitalism and Tammany Hall politics. The second section of the book offers the reader a tour of different sites within the city and beyond, bringing back to life the human dramas that have played themselves out on the stage of Ulaanbaatar. Where most guide books often lightly discuss the capital, Ulaanbaatar beyond Water and Grass: A Guide to the Capital of Mongolia reveals much that remains hidden from the temporary visitor and even from the long-term resident. Writing in a quirky, idiosyncratic style, the author shares his appreciation and delight in this unique urban setting—indeed, in all things Mongolian. The book finally does justice to one of the most neglected cultural capitals in Asia. ‘Combining history, ethnography, architecture, city planning, and folklore with a delightful dash of irony and personal opinion, Michael Aldrich’s Ulaanbaatar beyond Water and Grass is an authoritative introduction to Mongolia’s capital city. For first-time visitors or long-term academics, this is quite simply the best book available on Ulaanbaatar.’ —Jack Weatherford, author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World ‘The charm of this superb guide to Mongolia’s mysterious capital is the exuberance and love the author bestows on his subject. Michael Aldrich’s erudition is profound and all embracive, and he is as comfortable discussing abstruse aspects of Buddhism, as he is the city’s history from its pastoral and feudal origins through Manchu suzerainty to Soviet communism to the wild capitalism of the present day. He never misses the opportunity for a colourful and amusing anecdote or tidbit of scandal, to relish an obscure custom, to delight in the spice in a local dish or to pause and admire the beauty of a particular artwork, building or monument. The prose rings with his idiosyncratic personality: knowledgeable, urbane and sceptical (sometimes downright cynical), but always passionate and committed. Carrying this book through Ulaanbaatar’s streets, or curling into its pages on a sofa at home, he is the perfect companion—squeezing stories out of ancient stones, conjuring ghosts and elegantly baring the city’s soul. Ulaanbaatar beyond Water and Grass will become as great a classic of travel literature for Central Asia as J. G. Links’s Venice for Pleasure was for Europe.’ —Adam Williams, author of The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure ‘Destined to become the quintessential introduction to Ulaanbaatar, not only in terms of the wealth of information but also in terms of the sympathetic understanding and humour the author shares with the reader. Genghis Khan would have loved it.’ —Bill Porter, author of Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits and Finding Them Gone: Visiting China’s Poets of the Past ‘Michael Aldrich’s guide to Ulaanbaatar reveals a city of religion, of revolution and, latterly, of bold new experiment. It is both a journey through the city of today as well as an imagining of the historical city now lost to development.’ —Paul French, author of The Old Shanghai A–Z ‘This is an interesting and illuminating book, providing fascinating details on the history and evolution of Mongolia’s capital and largest city. It should definitely be included on the essential reading list for anyone living or working in Mongolia.’ —Jonathan Addleton, Executive Director of American Center for Mongolian Studies; former US Ambassador to Mongolia; author of Mongolia and the United States: A Diplomatic History

Ulaanbaatar beyond Water and Grass

Ulaanbaatar beyond Water and Grass PDF Author: M. A. Aldrich
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
ISBN: 9888208675
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 313

Get Book Here

Book Description
Ulaanbaatar beyond Water and Grass is the first book in the English language that takes the visitors to an in-depth exploration of the capital of Mongolia. In the first section of the book, M. A. Aldrich paints a detailed portrait of the history, religion, and architecture of Ulaanbaatar with reference to how the city evolved from a monastic settlement to a communist-inspired capital and finally to a major city of free-wheeling capitalism and Tammany Hall politics. The second section of the book offers the reader a tour of different sites within the city and beyond, bringing back to life the human dramas that have played themselves out on the stage of Ulaanbaatar. Where most guide books often lightly discuss the capital, Ulaanbaatar beyond Water and Grass: A Guide to the Capital of Mongolia reveals much that remains hidden from the temporary visitor and even from the long-term resident. Writing in a quirky, idiosyncratic style, the author shares his appreciation and delight in this unique urban setting—indeed, in all things Mongolian. The book finally does justice to one of the most neglected cultural capitals in Asia. ‘Combining history, ethnography, architecture, city planning, and folklore with a delightful dash of irony and personal opinion, Michael Aldrich’s Ulaanbaatar beyond Water and Grass is an authoritative introduction to Mongolia’s capital city. For first-time visitors or long-term academics, this is quite simply the best book available on Ulaanbaatar.’ —Jack Weatherford, author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World ‘The charm of this superb guide to Mongolia’s mysterious capital is the exuberance and love the author bestows on his subject. Michael Aldrich’s erudition is profound and all embracive, and he is as comfortable discussing abstruse aspects of Buddhism, as he is the city’s history from its pastoral and feudal origins through Manchu suzerainty to Soviet communism to the wild capitalism of the present day. He never misses the opportunity for a colourful and amusing anecdote or tidbit of scandal, to relish an obscure custom, to delight in the spice in a local dish or to pause and admire the beauty of a particular artwork, building or monument. The prose rings with his idiosyncratic personality: knowledgeable, urbane and sceptical (sometimes downright cynical), but always passionate and committed. Carrying this book through Ulaanbaatar’s streets, or curling into its pages on a sofa at home, he is the perfect companion—squeezing stories out of ancient stones, conjuring ghosts and elegantly baring the city’s soul. Ulaanbaatar beyond Water and Grass will become as great a classic of travel literature for Central Asia as J. G. Links’s Venice for Pleasure was for Europe.’ —Adam Williams, author of The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure ‘Destined to become the quintessential introduction to Ulaanbaatar, not only in terms of the wealth of information but also in terms of the sympathetic understanding and humour the author shares with the reader. Genghis Khan would have loved it.’ —Bill Porter, author of Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits and Finding Them Gone: Visiting China’s Poets of the Past ‘Michael Aldrich’s guide to Ulaanbaatar reveals a city of religion, of revolution and, latterly, of bold new experiment. It is both a journey through the city of today as well as an imagining of the historical city now lost to development.’ —Paul French, author of The Old Shanghai A–Z ‘This is an interesting and illuminating book, providing fascinating details on the history and evolution of Mongolia’s capital and largest city. It should definitely be included on the essential reading list for anyone living or working in Mongolia.’ —Jonathan Addleton, Executive Director of American Center for Mongolian Studies; former US Ambassador to Mongolia; author of Mongolia and the United States: A Diplomatic History

Ulaanbaatar Beyond Water and Grass

Ulaanbaatar Beyond Water and Grass PDF Author: M. A. Aldrich
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789888455157
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 313

Get Book Here

Book Description
Ulaanbaatar beyond Water and Grass is the first book in the English language that takes the visitors to an in-depth exploration of the capital of Mongolia. In the first section of the book, M. A. Aldrich paints a detailed portrait of the history, religion, and architecture of Ulaanbaatar with reference to how the city evolved from a monastic settlement to a communist-inspired capital and finally to a major city of free-wheeling capitalism and Tammany Hall politics. The second section of the book offers the reader a tour of different sites within the city and beyond, bringing back to life the human dramas that have played themselves out on the stage of Ulaanbaatar. Where most guide books often lightly discuss the capital, Ulaanbaatar beyond Water and Grass: A Guide to the Capital of Mongolia reveals much that remains hidden from the temporary visitor and even from the long-term resident. Writing in a quirky, idiosyncratic style, the author shares his appreciation and delight in this unique urban setting--indeed, in all things Mongolian. The book finally does justice to one of the most neglected cultural capitals in Asia.

Tea of Ulaanbaatar

Tea of Ulaanbaatar PDF Author: Christopher R. Howard
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
ISBN: 1609803353
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
National Magazine Award finalist Christopher Howard's debut novel, Tea of Ulaanbaatar, tells the story of disaffected Peace Corps volunteer Warren, who flees life in late-capitalist America to find himself stationed in the post-Soviet industrial hell of urban Mongolia. As the American presence crumbles, Warren seeks escape in tsus, the mysterious "blood tea" that may be the final revenge of the defeated Khans—or that may be only a powerful hallucinogen operating on an uneasy mind—as a phantasmagoria of violence slowly envelops him. With prose that combines Benjamin Kunkel's satiric bite, William Burroughs’s dark historical reimagining, and a lush literary beauty all his own, Christopher Howard in Tea of Ulaanbaatar unfolds a story of expatriate angst, the dark side of globalization, and middle-class nightmares—and announces himself as one of the most inventive and ambitious of the new generation of American novelists.

Blue Sky Bulletin UNDP Mongolia 1997 to 1999

Blue Sky Bulletin UNDP Mongolia 1997 to 1999 PDF Author: David South, Editor
Publisher: DSConsulting
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 117

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Book Description
First launched in 1997, Blue Sky Bulletin was the monthly newsletter for the United Nations mission in Mongolia.

Blue Sky Bulletin UNDP Mongolia 1997 to 1999: Internal Newsletter of UNDP's Partnership for Progress in Mongolia

Blue Sky Bulletin UNDP Mongolia 1997 to 1999: Internal Newsletter of UNDP's Partnership for Progress in Mongolia PDF Author: David South, Editor
Publisher: DSConsulting
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 117

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Book Description
First launched in 1997, Blue Sky Bulletin was the monthly newsletter for the United Nations mission in Mongolia.

Geography of World Peoples

Geography of World Peoples PDF Author: Wallace Robert McConnell
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : Rand McNally
ISBN:
Category : Geography
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description


A Korean Odyssey

A Korean Odyssey PDF Author: Michael Gibb
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781788692229
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Michael Gibb embarks on an eccentric odyssey around the wind-swept islands off the coast of South Korea in search of life beyond K-pop, high-tech gadgetry, and nuclear missile tests. With well over three thousand islands to choose from, there was no shortage of destinations, all connected by the indomitable ferries that ply these choppy waters. From the fog-bound isles within hailing distance of North Korea to the charms of the southern archipelagos and the rocky outcrops deep in the lonely East Sea, Gibb discovers a region of Asia unjustly ignored by travelers. Gibb, a Korean speaker, encounters a cast of fascinating characters on his voyages: villagers who call these far-flung islands home, gnarled sea dogs crewing the ferries, gambling grannies, conscripts on desolate outposts, fishermen, rampaging tourist hordes, and poetry-loving taxi drivers. The journey packs in enough stories from maritime history, myths, culture, literature, and poliitics to fill a ship's cargo holds. A former Seoul-based journalist and author of A Slow Walk Through Jeong-dong, a history of one of Seoul's most intriguing neighborhoods, Gibb reveals a country that is both rapidly changing but firmly rooted in tradition and the past, one that's often in the news but rarely understood.

A Monastery on the Move

A Monastery on the Move PDF Author: Uranchimeg Tsultemin
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824885708
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
In 1639, while the Géluk School of the Fifth Dalai Lama and Qing emperors vied for supreme authority in Inner Asia, Zanabazar (1635–1723), a young descendent of Chinggis Khaan, was proclaimed the new Jebtsundampa ruler of the Khalkha Mongols. Over the next three centuries, the ger (yurt) erected to commemorate this event would become the mobile monastery Ikh Khüree, the political seat of the Jebtsundampas and a major center of Mongolian Buddhism. When the monastery and its surrounding structures were destroyed in the 1930s, they were rebuilt and renamed Ulaanbaatar, the modern-day capital of Mongolia. Based on little-known works of Mongolian Buddhist art and architecture, A Monastery on the Move presents the intricate and colorful history of Ikh Khüree and of Zanabazar, himself an eminent artist. Author Uranchimeg Tsultemin makes the case for a multifaceted understanding of Mongol agency during the Géluk’s political ascendancy and the Qing appropriation of the Mongol concept of dual rulership (shashin tör) as the nominal “Buddhist Government.” In rich conversation with heretofore unpublished textual, archeological, and archival sources (including ritualized oral histories), Uranchimeg argues that the Qing emperors’ “Buddhist Government” was distinctly different from the Mongol vision of sovereignty, which held Zanabazar and his succeeding Jebtsundampa reincarnates to be Mongolia’s rightful rulers. This vision culminated in their independence from the Qing and the establishment of the Jebtsundampa’s theocractic government in 1911. A groundbreaking work, A Monastery on the Move provides a fascinating, in-depth analysis and interpretation of Mongolian Buddhist art and its role in shaping borders and shifting powers in Inner Asia.

Asia

Asia PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Asia
Languages : en
Pages : 1002

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Book Description


On the Trail of Genghis Khan

On the Trail of Genghis Khan PDF Author: Tim Cope
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408825058
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 529

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Book Description
The personal tale of an Australian adventurer's tragedy and triumph that is packed with historical insights. On the Trail of Genghis Khan is at once a celebration of and an elegy for an ancient way of life. Supported by an epic Australian and New Zealand Tour.