For foreign visitors, the warm hospitality of Mongolia’s centuries-long nomadic tradition is alive and well in 2023. Beneath the surface, however, there is tension; the country is at a crossroads. As a guest entering a ger, the traditional circular tent, in the countryside a few hours’ drive from Ulaanbaatar, I am directed to sit next to the head of the family, justice minister Nyambaatar Khishgee, who wears a dark navy-blue robe, a black fedora and knee-high riding boots.
We share bumps of tobacco powder, poured from his glass bottle on to a tiny silver spoon. From porcelain bowls we drink airag — fermented horse milk — and whisky chasers from glass tumblers. Food is carried in — a small mountain of roast lamb and a stack of khuushuur, crispy meat-filled dumplings — with cigarettes and more airag.
Appetite satisfied, Nyambaatar, the top lieutenant of Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene, talks. He takes me on a journey though the country’s transition from central planning to the market economy in the 1990s, to today’s crackdown on corruption and plans to entice more western mining companies to exploit Mongolia’s vast deposits of copper, uranium and rare earths.