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Choijin Lama Temple Museum grounds with fresh snow, Ulaan Baator, Mongolia
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Choijin Lama Temple Museum grounds with fresh snow, Ulaan Baator, Mongolia

Ulaan BaatorMongoliaChoijin Lama Temple Museumhigh riseconstructionfall leavesbare treessnow

  • Young girl, Ulaanbaatar<br /> <br /> I was walking along a street in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia yesterday when I felt a tug on my sleeve and this small girl, who seemed to be dressed up for a party, wanted me to take her picture. I was happy to oblige.<br /> <br /> 30/09/14 <a href="http://www.allenfotowild.com">http://www.allenfotowild.com</a>
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  • Mongolian singer in traditional dress<br /> <br /> I went to a performance of traditional Mongolian entertainment in Ulaanbaatar and paid the camera fee so I could take some pictures of the colourful performers. Their costumes were spectacular!<br /> <br /> John Owen asked about the long sleeves, and I noticed the same thing in other women's costumes during the performance and during my visit to a traditional costume shop, so it is a cultural tradition. I found a reference to their practical use to keep their hands warm in the winter like the Western muff, and to function as 'gloves' to pick up very cold objects such as chunks of ice. The tapered turned back cuffs are supposed to represent horses hooves.<br /> <br /> I had to spend a day in Beijing due to flight delays and found that large segments of the internet appear to be 'embargoed', so glad to be home where I have normal access.<br /> <br /> 10/10/14 <a href="http://www.allenfotowild.com">http://www.allenfotowild.com</a>
  • Woman in traditional dress playing a shudraga, Ulan Baator, Mongolia<br /> <br /> The shudraga (also called shanz) is a stringed instrument with a sound comparable to that of a banjo. It is basically is a long-necked spiked lute with an oval wooden frame with snake skin covering stretched over both faces. The three strings are fixed to a bar, which is inserted in the body. The instrument is struck or plucked with a plectrum made of horn or with the fingers. As the tones do not echo, every note is struck several times (description thanks fo <a href="http://www.face-music.ch/instrum/mongolia_instrum.html">http://www.face-music.ch/instrum/mongolia_instrum.html</a>).<br /> <br /> I always love learning new stuff and new techniques. Recently I bought a Wacom Intuos pen tablet and yesterday afternoon I tried to learn how to use it. After several hours of frustration I managed to get it set up to work with Photoshop, and this was my first attempt at using it to select an image and do some work on the background. The original background was dreadfully overexposed and frankly ugly, so I added a red to black circular gradient and then faded it to let some of the original background show through. <br /> <br /> 07/11/14 <a href="http://www.allenfotowild.com">http://www.allenfotowild.com</a>
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  • Pryzwalski's horse<br /> <br /> It was a treat to see a herd of Pryzwalski's horses (Equus ferus przewalskii), also called takhi, a rare and endangered species of wild horse from the steppes of Asia. This photo is of a typical individual. <br /> <br /> The horses were first described by the explorer and naturalist Pryzwalski in1881. The horses went extinct in the wild around the mid-1960's, and was reintroduced to the wild in a large park outside Ulaanbaatar where they are protected around the clock from predation and from interbreeding with domestic horses. The reintroduced stock was bred from a few captive individuals descended from animals captured from the wild around 1900. It is a true wild horse that has never been domesticated, and the only wild horse still in existence (the wild mustangs in the USA are feral domestic horses). It is stockier and has shorter legs than the domestic horse, with an erect mane and a thick neck.<br /> <br /> 12/10/14 <a href="http://www.allenfotowild.com">http://www.allenfotowild.com</a>
  • Construction worker, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia<br /> <br /> Ulaanbaator is constructed according to no obvious city plan, with the modern mixed with the ancient, the poor with the rich, and the cared for with the dilapidated in the seemingly random manner of many Asian cities. <br /> <br /> This editorial-style photo of a smiling construction worker was taken (at his request) on a torn up dirt road in the middle of the downtown. It shows some of the new construction, with nice reflections in the glass facade of the rear building that caught my eye.<br /> <br /> 14/10/14 <a href="http://www.allenfotowild.com">http://www.allenfotowild.com</a>
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  • Monument to 'Maamyy Haaw NP' song<br /> <br /> Maamyy Haaw is a famous children's song in Mongolia, translated as 'Come Along my Little Buddy', composed i 1956. I found it strange to find a monument to a song in downtown Ulaan Baator.
  • Mongolian shop girl holding up a chashmere scarf, Ulaan Baator, Mongolia<br /> <br /> Cashmere is a very popular purchase in Mongolia, which has large populations of Cashmere goats tended by nomadic herders. The herders manually comb out the goats in the spring to obtain the cashmere fibers, after the long, harsh Mongolian winter.
  • Street scene with the National Drama Theatre (pink building), Ulaan Baator, Mongolia
  • Street scene with reflections, Ulaan Baator, Mongolia
  • Street scene with construction, Ulaan Baator, Mongolia<br /> <br /> There was a large amount of construction going on in Ulaan Baator. A lot of the building was done by the Russians in the days of the Soviet Union (they still use Russian script for their letters), but now China and Korea seem to be primarily involved in putting up new buildings. Whole streets in the downtown were dug up.
  • Warped glass with distorted reflections, Ulaan Baator, Mongolia<br /> <br /> Notice the three people at the bottom standing outside a coffee shop.
  • The new and the old<br /> <br /> Choijin Lama temple next to a skyscraper under construction (no glass yet, so no reflections)
  • Roof detail, Choijin Lama Temple Museum, Ulaan Baator, Mongolia<br /> <br /> This hidden gem is behind a wall right in the center of the city. According to Lonely Planet "It was the home of Luvsan Haidav Choijin Lama (‘Choijin’ is an honorary title given to some monks), the state oracle. Construction of the monastery commenced in 1904 and was completed four years later. It was closed in 1938 and probably would have been demolished had it not been saved in 1942 to serve as a museum, demonstrating the ‘feudal’ ways of the past (I found this interesting!). Although religious freedom in Mongolia recommenced in 1990, this monastery is no longer an active place of worship."
  • Doorway in the wall surrounding the Choijin Lama Temple Museum showing some of the old paintings that decorates the structure.
  • Choijin Lama Temple Museum grounds with fresh snow, Ulaan Baator, Mongolia
  • Construction workers, Ulaan Baator, Mongolia.<br /> <br /> These workers were working on the new buildings next to the Choijin Lama Temple complex.
  • Sukhbaatar Square at sunrise (best larger)<br /> <br /> This is the main square in the centre of Ulaan Baator, Mongolia. An equestrian statue of Damdin Sükhbaatar, one of the leaders of Mongolia's 1921 revolution, is in the center of the square. The building with the colonnades behind the square is the monument to Genghis Khan, the great 13th century Mongolian conquerer. The city lies in a bowl surrounded by hills, which can be seen in the distance.<br /> <br /> Other photos of downtown Ulaan Baator can be seen here: <a href="http://goo.gl/eSiUnt">http://goo.gl/eSiUnt</a><br /> <br /> 09/12/14 <a href="http://www.allenfotowild.com">http://www.allenfotowild.com</a>

  • johnchapmanphotographer

    on April 27, 2015

    Hi, this is great.

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