Yearbook 1999
Mongolia. Visit Countryaah official website to get information about the capital city of Mongolia. The economic shift has led to severe political convulsions in Mongolia. In July, the government under Janlavijn Narantsatsralt was forced to resign after a conflict over the privatization of the copper mine Erdenet, owned by 51% of the Mongolian state and 49% of the Russian. The opposition questioned the Prime Minister’s legal right to approve a Russian private company purchase of the Russian stake, which would have made it difficult for Mongolian interests to increase their ownership. The Government Narantsatsralt took office as late as December 1998 after a five-month crisis triggered by a contentious bank merger.
- Also see Abbreviationfinder.org to see the acronym of MNG which stands for Mongolia and other definitions of this 3-letter abbreviation.
Former Prime Minister Rintjinnjamijn Amarjargal was appointed new Prime Minister. Like the representative, he belonged to the bourgeois Mongolian Democratic Union (Mongolyn ardtjilsan cholboo evsel). He promised to stimulate foreign investment, restructure the heavily subsidized energy sector and privatize the large state-owned companies.
The impatience of the poor population with the new system was hinted at by the reformed Communist Party victory in local elections in three provinces in June. Parliamentary elections will be held in 2000.
In order to reduce the budget deficit, the government reintroduced customs duties on a number of import goods and reduced government spending. However, an important explanation for the deficit was said to be that many newly privatized companies ignore the fact that they pay taxes. A new law on freedom of the press meant that a number of state media were privatized.
The new and old capital – Ulan Bator and Karakorum
Ulan Bator means red hero. The city was renamed Urga after the country was declared a People’s Republic in 1924. The first impression of Ulaanbaatar on the banks of the Tuuljoki River is confusing: thousands of yurts flash between concrete houses built during socialism. The nomadic and cheap way of life remains in the city as well. The country’s largest functioning monastery, Gandantegchinlen, is the center of the Lama religion and the country’s most significant pilgrimage site. Around mid-July, naadam festivals are held in Ulaanbaatar, during which the descendants of the Canaanite warriors can compete with each other in wrestling, archery and horse racing. Of the latter two species, women can also participate.
The great Genghis Khan himself founded Karakorum as a camp for his soldiers in 1220. The fertile valley of the Orkhon River provided plenty of food for men and horses. Kaan’s son Ögedei made the camp a major trading center, where, among other things, shrines of different religions operated side by side. The Chinese burned Karakorum so thoroughly in the late 15th century that only two stone turtles have remained reminiscent of the place where the capital of the world’s largest empire once stood.
When Lama Buddhism settled permanently in Mongolia in the late 16th century, the Erdene Zu Monastery was built on its ruins in the ruins of the former Karakorum. During the heyday of the Lama, more than a thousand monks served under the shelter of the White Walls. The political cleansing of the 1930s would almost sweep the monastery and its servants as they went: only four of the more than 60 temples remained standing. Today, however, Erdene Zuu works again.
