Black Gold Hotel by Michele Palazzi

Black Gold Hotel FotoVisura Tuvshinbayar Sugirsuren is one of the last nomads of Omongov, Mongolia’s largest province. Together with his family he keeps ancient traditions that are disappearing. He breeds camels in a land where there is about no grass left. Erdenchimeg, his wife, takes care of the animals, the food,... Michele Palazzi http://c0875922.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/55072.medium.jpg http://www.fotovisura.com//user/Michele/view/black-gold-hotel 08/23/12 Tuvshinbayar Sugirsuren is one of the last nomads of Omongov, Mongolia’s largest province. Together with his family he keeps ancient traditions that are disappearing. He breeds camels in a land where there is about no grass left. Erdenchimeg, his wife, takes care of the animals, the food, the children. Tuvshinbayar is proud of the life he leads with his family. He wouldn’t change it, he feels free, even if he also is aware of the transformation that is disturbing the country form more than fifteen years. The climate is changing in Gobi, and seventy years of pro-Soviet Communism are not even a memory. In Mongolia mineral resources of gold and coal have been discovered. Due to corruption and misgovernment, almost 50% of the extractor corporations are foreign-owned. Especially from China, but also from Australia and Canada the multinational companies devastate the population and the land. John McLeod, manager of MacMahon Mongolia, says that the livestock dies because of powders that settle on the surrounding territory. Deprived of the only means of support and driven by the request of labor, the nomads take down their tents for the last time, in the hope of finding a job in the few villages that are developing quickly around the mines. Saikhana lives in Tsogttsestiie, a district fifteen kilometers form the mine Tawan Tolgoi, from when he was four. He saw the population accommodate other nomads and grow. Now they are about 10 thousand. In 2020 about 40 thousand inhabitants are predicted, in one of the provinces with the lowest population density in the world. There are banks, hotels, telephone companies. This is progress for him, who works in the tourism industry. No longing for rain anymore, no time spent looking for missing horses. They have television, karaoke, import cars. There is free time, which is a change for those who come from nomadic traditions. There is no water, no infrastructures, no meeting points. There is unemployment and poverty. Few years of modernity are wiping away an ancient culture. Young people cannot feel this emptiness as they dream about wealth and social climbing but find themselves entertained by television and alcohol more and more every day. The future is not a desert any longer, but a village overlooking on nothing. Small plots of land with gers in messy lines take the place of boundless areas. What in Mongolia is now called progress is a quick elite development. It is poorly paid work and a cruel and difficult urban poverty condition. An irreversible process, too young to be analyzed, that erases ancient but fragile traditions. The footprints of the last nomads are being covered with dust.

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Mongolia, Gobi, Omongovi, 2012 Tuvshinbayar is walking across the desert during a sand storm

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Mongolia, Gobi, Omongovi, 2012 Tuvshinbayar is tying his horses to avoid them to escape during the storm

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Mongolia, Gobi, Omongovi, 2012 The “ger” where the family lives

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Mongolia, Gobi, Omongovi, 2012 Erdenchimeg, the mother, is washing the clothes while Ariunzaya combs her hair

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Mongolia, Gobi, Omongov, 2012 Tuvshinbayar is sleeping with his son Tuvshintugs after a working morning with his camels

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Mongolia, Gobi, Omongovi, 2012 Munkhdul is resting while drinking camel milk tea

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Mongolia, Gobi, Omongovi, 2012 Tuvshinbayar while filling the cans from the water well that is some miles from their “ger”

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Mongolia, Gobi, Omongovi, 2012 The Sugirsuren family is moving looking for a better place for their camels

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Mongolia, Gobi, Omongovi, 2012 Munkhdul is going to move the camels herd in a better pasture place.

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Mongolia, Gobi, Tsogttsestiie sum, 2012 The Tsogttsestiie sum is fast growing and the most part of the village is under construction

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Mongolia, Gobi, Tsogttsestiie sum, 2012 The Black Gold restaurant and hotel

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Mongolia, Gobi, Tsogttsestiie sum, 2012 A waitress is working at the Broadway restaurant, the only restaurant for foreigners in the sum "Broadway restaurant"

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Mongolia, Gobi, Tsogttsestiie sum, 2012 A drunk guy is sleeping on the ground. The alcoholism is one of the main social problems in the Gobi desert and in the all Mongolia

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Mongolia, Gobi, Tsogttsestiie sum, 2012 A mason is smoking a cigarette while resting from work

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Mongolia, Gobi, Tsogttsestiie sum, 2012 A child playng in the sum

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Mongolia, Gobi, Tsogttsestiie sum, 2012 Two friends are singing with karaoke. In Mongolia, as in the all Asia, the karaoke is a successful entertainment

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Mongolia, Gobi, Tsogttsestiie sum, 2012 A miner lokking at the flood consequences

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Mongolia, Gobi, Tsogttsestiie sum, 2012 A child runs with the bike after the flood that inundated the district

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Mongolia, Gobi, Omongovi, 2012 A mass of detrituses coming from the coal mines of the area. The dust coming from this dump often lies on the ground and it makes hard for the animals to survive

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Mongolia, Gobi, Omongovi, 2012 Truckdrivers are standing in line to load the coal to transport it from the mine to China

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Mongolia, Gobi, Omongovi, 2012 The Tavan Tolgoi coal mine

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Mongolia, Gobi, Tsogttsestiie sum, 2012 Young boys are playing in the only public place in the village: the basket field of the public school.

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Mongolia, Gobi, Tsogttsestiie sum, 2012 In the Tsogttsestiie sum there is one only paved street, the other streets are unpaved and the dust is always around

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Mongolia, Gobi, Tsogttsestiie sum, 2012 A miner’s daughter inside her “ger”. Before working as a miner, her father used to live in the desert with his family and he was a camel breeder.

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Mongolia, Gobi, Tsogttsestiie sum, 2012 Saikhana is wrestling with one of his friends

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Mongolia, Gobi, Tsogttsestiie sum, 2012 A group of people outside the shop market

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Mongolia, Gobi, Omongovi, 2012 A training horses race for the Naadam competition

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Mongolia, Gobi, Omongovi, 2012 Tuvshinbayar with his children during a sand storm

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Mongolia, Gobi, Omongovi, 2012 Erdenchimeg is going to pull down the “ger” to move it in a better pasture place for the camels.

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Mongolia, Gobi, Omongovi, 2012 The nomad family is loading the tent and his belongings on the jeep and it is going to leave.

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Mongolia, Gobi, Omongovi, 2012 A young nomadic girl is resting after shearing the camels.

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Mongolia, Gobi, Omongovi, 2012 The nomadics cut an ear part of their camels to recognize them.

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Mongolia, Gobi, Omongovi, 2012 Hovorerden is playing with his sister during the sand storm.

Tuvshinbayar Sugirsuren is one of the last nomads of Omongov, Mongolia’s largest province. Together with his family he keeps ancient traditions that are disappearing. He breeds camels in a land where there is about no grass left. Erdenchimeg, his wife, takes care of the animals, the food, the children. Tuvshinbayar is proud of the life he leads with his family. He wouldn’t change it, he feels free, even if he also is aware of the transformation that is disturbing the country form more than fifteen years. The climate is changing in Gobi, and seventy years of pro-Soviet Communism are not even a memory.

In Mongolia mineral resources of gold and coal have been discovered. Due to corruption and misgovernment, almost 50% of the extractor corporations are foreign-owned. Especially from China, but also from Australia and Canada the multinational companies devastate the population and the land. John McLeod, manager of MacMahon Mongolia, says that the livestock dies because of powders that settle on the surrounding territory. Deprived of the only means of support and driven by the request of labor, the nomads take down their tents for the last time, in the hope of finding a job in the few villages that are developing quickly around the mines.

Saikhana lives in Tsogttsestiie, a district fifteen kilometers form the mine Tawan Tolgoi, from when he was four. He saw the population accommodate other nomads and grow. Now they are about 10 thousand. In 2020 about 40 thousand inhabitants are predicted, in one of the provinces with the lowest population density in the world. There are banks, hotels, telephone companies. This is progress for him, who works in the tourism industry. No longing for rain anymore, no time spent looking for missing horses. They have television, karaoke, import cars. There is free time, which is a change for those who come from nomadic traditions. There is no water, no infrastructures, no meeting points. There is unemployment and poverty. Few years of modernity are wiping away an ancient culture. Young people cannot feel this emptiness as they dream about wealth and social climbing but find themselves entertained by television and alcohol more and more every day.

The future is not a desert any longer, but a village overlooking on nothing. Small plots of land with gers in messy lines take the place of boundless areas. What in Mongolia is now called progress is a quick elite development. It is poorly paid work and a cruel and difficult urban poverty condition. An irreversible process, too young to be analyzed, that erases ancient but fragile traditions. The footprints of the last nomads are being covered with dust.