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URBAN LIFE
from Becoming Urban
The first settlement of Ulaanbaatar, Urguu, was founded in 1639 by Mongol nobles to consolidate Mongolian national interests as a reaction to the occupation of Inner Mongolia by the Manchus. Operating as a monastic trading post, the town itself was nomadic for its first 139 years, relocating somewhere between twenty-five and forty times before occupying the area of the current city. 50 Mongolia succumbed to the Qing Dynasty in 1691, and it was this influence, together with the influx of traders and religious figures, which resulted in the formation and growth of more permanent structures in the area.
These eventually developed into the settlement of Ikh Khuree, which was administrated from 1778 to implement Qing policies. During this period, the city evolved into a religious and trade node where Buddhism and commerce thrived. This initiated the creation of more permanent structures within the emerging city. Accounts of the settlement at this time describe a mixture of permanent brick and stone structures mainly associated with religious buildings, some residents living in low-rise mud huts, and expanding areas of ger districts housing traders and monks alike. 51 Traces of this embryonic city remain: the temple structures built between 1834 and 1838 within the Gandantegchlin monastery led to the formation of a ger district around its edges that forms the Gandan area today, the territory inscribed by the district having outlasted the impermanent nature of its building typology.
My wife is a kindergarten teacher, but she’s currently at home looking after our baby son. Because I live in a ger, the first thing I do in the morning is build a fire. Then I prepare the wood and coal for the rest of the day and drop my daughter off at school before heading to work. I spend most of the day working in my studio.
At the moment, I’m focusing on building a house on my plot rather than trying to get an apartment. But the conditions are difficult, like the water for example. To build a house, you have to manually bring the water from the well. Even after you build your house there’s still the problem of heating.
