Short Term Mission to Mongolia

1. Short Term Mission to Mongolia

2. Mongolia 101 - Name • Country Name • When Gengis Kahn united Mongolian tribes in 1206, he named the country Mongolia which means ‘brave’ or ‘eternal river.’ • Chinese calls Monolia ‘Mongo (蒙古)’ which means Degenerated and Uncivilized.

3. Mongolia 101 - Geography • Geographical Facts • Mongolia is a landlocked country in East-Central Asia, between Russia and China. • Mongolia is 19th largest country in the world, slightly larger than Spain, France and Germany combined. • There are the Altai Mountains in the west, the Gobi desert which covers 21% of the country in the southeast and grassland in central and east area.

4. Mongolia 101 - Climate • Climate • The weather is dry and can change drastically but the temperature is different in every area • The average temperature in the hottest month July is 12-20 degrees, in the coldest month January the temperature drops to -15 degrees or colder. • On 170-190 days a year the average day temperature is 0 degrees. • The yearly rainfall is about 233mm (1/5 of that in Seoul), of which 65-78% falls during summer. • In the case of Ulaanbaatar the extreme temperature change is -35 - -40 degrees in winter and 30-35 degrees (90-95 F) in summer, which is the biggest temperature range in the world.

5. Mongolia 101 - economy • Economy • Mongolia’s economy is mainly centered on agriculture and especially mining. • Mongolia has rich mineral resources, and copper, coal, molybdenum, tin, tungsten, and gold account for a large part of industrial production. • The majority of the population outside urban areas participates in subsistence herding; livestock typically consists of sheep, goats, cattle, horses, and Bactrian camels • Agricultural crops include wheat, barley, potato, vegetables, tomato, watermelon, sea-buckthorn and fodder crops. GDP per capita in 2006 was $2,100 • Domestic food production, especially packaged food production has been increasingly coming up with speed with investments from foreign companies.

6. Mongolia 101 - population • Population • Current population is between 2.6 – 2.7 million people. 940,000 live in the capital, UlaanBaatar. • The rate of increase in population is becoming lower due to market economy. During the socialist period it was not a problem to have a big family or to get a job, but because of the capitalism raising a child became a big burden. This resulted into a decrease in birthrate • In 2002 the number of nomad families was 236,000, but in 2003 this number dropped to 7000. • The average number of animals in their herd was 105. In Mongolia someone with a herd counting more than 1000 animals can be called a rich man. But 85.5% of the nomads own less than 200 animals. • The Mongolian population can be divided into smaller populations of Khalkh Mongol (90%), Kazakh, Tuvan , Tungus, Chinese and Russians.

7. Mongolia 101 - religion • Religion • Tibetan Buddhism, Islam and Shamanism are main religions in Mongolia, but Mongolia tolerates all religions and so far there 186 religious organizations are registered (2002). • John Gibbens started missionary work for Christianity and through the missionary work from America and South-Korea. And the number of Christians is still rising. (Dec 2003, est. 35.000) • Throughout much of the twentieth century, the communist government ensured that the religious practices of the Mongolian people were largely repressed. KhorloogiinChoibalsan complied with the orders of Joseph Stalin, destroying almost all of Mongolia’s over 700 Buddhist monasteries and killing thousands of monks. • The end of religious repression in the 1990s also allowed for other religions, such as Islam and Christianity, to spread in the country. • The number of Christians grew from just 4 in 1989 to around 40,000 as of 2008.