Otgo rounding up horses against sunset

It's a crisp autumn on the Mongolian grasslands.

01.00.00.00

On a specially chosen day according to tradition, nomadic herders round up horses and their foals and ready them for branding.

Branding

By marking the young horse's rump, old Jamts spells out to fellow herdsmen that the foal belongs to him. Not so long ago, all animals were the property of the state.

While Mongolia lay in the grip of Communism, nomadic herders like Jamts and his family were relegated to surrogate owners; mustered into collectives or negdels which provide all their needs, while keeping them powerless.

Jamts

Jamts: During the negdel system we were breeding negdel livestock and in return we weren't getting very much. Now with the market system, we are getting many benefits from our livestock. The wool, milk, we are selling it freely on the market. That's the difference, we are selling our own things.

01.15

Jamts rounding up horses

Under Communism Jamts was only allowed to keep 50 head of livestock. Now, his herd of horses alone exceeds 500.

01.48

He breeds sheep, goats and cattle too, providing the family with all their needs, all year round.

Ten times every year, they move to new pasture ... the animals sustenance as important as their own.

Milk being poured

Inside their traditional ger home, Dorj, Jamts wife, prepares the days fresh milk and cream.

02.20

Dorj and Jamts have 13 children, all well-fed and clothed. She welcomes the freedom to own more livestock but since the end of communism

friends and neighbours around her haven't been as fortunate.

Dorj

During the old system, it seemed easy to bury things. But now, prices are getting very high. If we didn't have livestock it would be difficult for such a large family.

02.45

Goats and sheep

For almost a thousand years, Mongolia has been a nation of nomadic herders; even now, half the population of two million lives this way.

02.59

But as the country heads for full-blown capitalism, can the simple existence of the nomads continue as it has?

To these people, livestock is the only currency they've ever known ... but in the market economy it won't be as simple. In fact many herders have already failed. Only the ones who adjust to the new system can survive and prosper.

Batbold: Economic adviser to the Mongolian PM

Batbold: There is an inexorable social change taking place.

03.34

You can criticize it, but you can't really slow it down or influence it. The best strategy is to adapt to changes and deal with it with more benefit to you and your country. So if it takes changing their way of life to get a better income and better future for their children, everyone will agree.

Jeep comes up over hill

Mendshaikhan: Jamts lives just behind this hill.

04.20

Grandma: Yes, and the road is in a very bad condition.

Mendshaikhan driving jeep

Jamts's nephew Mendshaikhan has a new Russian car. He's taking a family friend and Jamts's daughter Pagma back to the countryside for the weekend.

04.26

singing

Mendshaikhan was raised in the countryside; and worked as a crop specialist under the Communists.

Now he's a trader; a lifeline for Jamts, selling his produce in the city and bringing Jamts what he wants from the urban markets.

Greetings

Jamts: Hello, how was your trip?

Mendshaikhan: I hope your animals are fattening up nicely?

Jamts: Please come into the ger.

Jamts's daughter Pagma quickly slips back into the countryside chores. She milks the horses, the main ingredient for Mongolia's favourite drink - fermented mare's milk or airag, an integral offering in Mongolian hospitality.

05.19

Like some of her siblings, she's chosen to reject the herders' lifestyle. In a few days time she'll return to the city to begin a degree in medicine.

Milking mares

Pagma: I've been dreaming of becoming a doctor from when I was a 6th class schoolgirl. I watched a movie about a doctor and I really liked that. Then I decided to become a physician ... from the sixth class.

Does that make you feel sad that one of your children has rejected the lifestyle of the herders.?

Jamts

Jamts: There's nothing to feel sad about. It's better to have some of our children in the city and some in the country. If we have some in the city, it'll be more convenient for us, for example, to receive medical treatment. I have 13 children, 9 of them are working with livestock, two are studying. One is at home. So most of them are still in the countryside.

Boldbayer killing sheep

Now the visitors have arrived, Jamts son Boldbayer kills a sheep, squeezing the aorta to stop blood flowing to the heart.

06.51

The animal dies quickly and serenely. There's very little mess, to keep the wool clean and the internal organs fresh because nomadic herders use every part of the animal.

Dorj

Dorj: In Mongolia, we say, a person who has livestock always has a greasy mouth. If we don't have livestock, we would spend all our money to buy meat. Livestock is very useful. We get milk, wool and many things and we are surviving thanks to the livestock.

Jamts helping children mount horses

In honour of the city guests, a race is organized. Children of the neighbourhood will have a chance to show off their riding prowess.

07.37

Mendshaikhan fells the excitement too. The businessman in him sees this race as something more than child's play.

Mendshaikha sitting with Jamts

Horse race

Mendshaikhan: My intention is to have a stable of race horses. In the old times, Mongolians used to sell horses. Even now, it's still good business. It'll be my business.

Mendshaikhan: In this little race, my race horse won. It was ridden by my six year old daughter. My daughter hasn't had any riding experience, so the horse started the race late, after the others ... so I'm very happy.

It's just a bit of fun. The real purpose of his visit is business.

08.40

Last year, Mendshaikhan helped Jamts buy a truck, giving the old herder a competitive edge in selling his goods in the city market.

Jamts paid in kind; seven thousand kilos of wool and 100 live sheep.

Lifting sheep onto jeep

Today, Mendshaikhan wants to buy some of Jamts's sheep, only this time he wants cash.

Mendshaikhan: You said 35 but I've come from far away, so I want to offer you 30.

Jamts: It's the local rate and everything has become expensive.

Mendshaikhan: I've come here many times and we've become good partners and we'll co-operate in further business.

Mendshaikhan jumps in truck and they drive away

Mendshaikhan heads for the city. In front of him, a dusty 120 kilometre ride over grass to the capital Ulaan Baatar where he'll try to get a good price for Jamts' sheep skins.

09.47

Disco

Ulaan Baatar is Mongolia's only real city. It's a city in a new swirl of capitalism, after more than seventy years in a socialist cloud.

10.12

Pagma the herder's daughter is happy to be back in the city, the place she likes best.

She and her friends celebrate the start of the student year in a nightclub for Mongolia's new rich ... light years away from a daily routine of milking mares and gutting freshly killed sheep.

Pagma dancing

Pagma: I have a lot of free time. I do different things in my free time. First, I like to sleep a little, then I go to the cinema with my friends and sometimes I go to bars.

10.43

Q: Is city life more fun than milking cows?

Pagma: Of course it's more interesting. Milking mares is a boring thing.

Q: Do you like mares milk?

Batbold: Oh, I can't live without it.

The Government's new economics adviser doesn't want to end his supply of rural nourishment, but he believes that progress and the nomadic lifestyle will inevitably collide.

11.09

Batbold

Batbold: Their way of life will change. In a sense they'll be using more electricity, they'll be relying on more and better choice of consumption goods.

Suburbs

The economic transition has drawn scores of herders to the city fringe, eager for a piece of the action. They live in makeshift suburbs - the beginning of the end of the nomadic existence. Many can't afford city prices, and become the urban poor ... squandering the few animals they have to stay afloat.

11.33

They return to the countryside empty handed. But not Mendshaikhan.

Mendshaikhan walking through market

He's come to the central hide market to sell Jamts's sheep skins.

Mendshaikhan throwing skins on floor

It's been a good day and he's got the price he wanted for Jamts's skins.

Q: Do you think the herders will survive in the market economy?

Mendshaikhan

Mendshaikhan: Yes they can. If they can take good care of their livestock; it's the right time to be a herder now. If they don't do that, they will be servants of rich herders.

Mendshaikhan on truck

Mendshaikhan moves easily between city traders and the herders, valuable link between them and one he uses to his advantage.

12.35

Mendshaikhan: Mongolians say that, if you're not rich by the time you're 40, you'll never be rich in your life. So I'll do my best to become rich before I reach 40.

Jamts with horses

Back on the land, there's always work to do. Jamts and his household cannot rest on the little wealth they've already created. The law of the Steppe decrees that nature can take back as much as it provides.

13.08

But Jamts is confident the herders will always be Lords of the land, roaming the expense  and providing Mongolia's stumbling economy with much needed income.

Jamts

Jamts: Our way of life won't be destroyed at all, because for many years, this has been the way for Mongolians to live. Property has been given to the owners. We now have to pay a lot of attention to our livestock and if we look after the, numbers will increase every year.

13.36

Evening

For now the portable homes of the nomads hold their ground, but market forces in the city will begin to re-shape the vista of Mongolia's grasslands. The strong, like Jamts's and his family, will likely survive for generations.

14.06

Horses in sunset

The weak will wither, ready for the spring seeds called progress to take root and grow.

ENDS

14.42