Mongolian Throat Singing

Mongolian throat singer drinkning vodka in a ger, close to Kharchoriin, Mongolia.

Surprised I read an article in today's Svenska Dagbladet (Swedish Daily News) and find out that one cultural tradition acknowledged by the United Nation's UNESCO is Mongolian throat singing as a Chinese cultural tradition. I can almost hear what my Mongolian friends would say about that.

Of course Mongolian throat singing does not only occur in the Mongolian Republic, but also in Tuv (in Russia, formerly annexed during the Soviet era) and in Inner Mongolia ( a province of the People's Republic of China). You could always discuss if it is the practice of the tradition in itself that is important to have as a cultural tradition internationally acknowledged or if it should be attached to a specific country.

Nevertheless Mongolians are extremely proud of their cultural heritage, of which the throat singning is an important part. Here below is a translation of the text of what Mongolians call a long song:

"... with wide open landscape

with beautiful long song

with horse fiddle sound

it's native land of Mongolia

with pearly white gers

with five precious treasures

with five kinds of livestock

it's the steppe of Mongolia."

Note: I am not quite sure if the Buryat people, in Russia, north of Mongolia, by the Baykhal Lake, practice throat singing. But it is possible.