by Ann Mort
The October 3,4,5, 2008 Middfest International will feature the country of Mongolia. Middfest International is a year-long educational program culminating in a three-day cultural event in downtown Middletown, Ohio. Each year, a different country is chosen as the focus of the international friendship project which has been welcoming guests from all over the world since 1981 when Luxembourg was the featured country..
According to Middfest Executive Director Virginia Ritan, “We are in the very early stages of our planning and will be talking to people at the Mongolian Embassy, the Tibetan/Mongolian Center in Bloomington, Indiana and many others to help select projects and featured performers for the next Middfest. It is always an exciting part of the process to gather people from the featured country together to hear their ideas.”
Mongolia, the 19th largest independent country in the world, is smaller than Alaska and, with nearly 3 million people, is the least densely populated country on Earth. The capitol city of Ulaanbaatar is its largest city. Nearly 30% of the people are nomadic. Only 6 of 100 citizens have telephone lines to their homes, but another 19% have wireless phone service. Of the 44 airports in the country, only 13 have paved runways. The completely landlocked country has only one navigable waterway since most rivers and lakes freeze in winter. Less than 1% of Mongolia’s land is useful for growing crops. Much is semi-desert plains, grassy steppes, mountains and the Gobi Desert.
Mongolians must deal with dust storms, grassland and forest fires, drought and “zud” which is described as ”harsh winter conditions.” Fifty per cent of the Mongolian people are Buddhist Lamaist, with another 6% Shamanist and Christian, Muslims make up 4% and 40% claim no religious affiliation.
Formerly called Outer Mongolia (Inner Mongolia is still a part of China), the country is situated in northern Asia between China and Russia. During the 13th Century Chinggis Khan conquered what became the second largest empire in history – second only to the British Empire. After Khan’s death, the empire divided into several Mongol states and broke apart in the 14th century. Eventually, the area now called Mongolia fell under Chinese rule and won independence in 1921, under Russian rule. Finally a coalition government was formed in 2004.
For more information contact Middfest Executive Director Virginia Ritan at 513-425-7707 or email to Middfest@siscom.net. For information on past Middfest feature countries visit www.MiddfestInternational.org
Discuss Mongolian Middfest
