Mongolia: Travels in the Untamed Land

by Jasper Becker

For seventy years Mongolia was all but closed to the west - a forbidden country, shrouded in darkness. Jasper Becker had long dreamed of exploring the sweeping land that lay just beyond China’s Great Wall and when communism disintegrated, he finally did. Setting out from Kublai Khan’s capital, Beijing, Becker was one of the first westerners to cross the border. Tracing the course of the Yellow River, he ventured deep into the heart of Mongolia, witnessing the birth of one of the world’s youngest democracies as well as the deep and tragic impact of the rules of Mao and Stalin on the Mongolian people. Unravelling the history of Mongolia which had for so long been obscured and distorted, Becker traces the rise and fall of the Mongols who emerged from the steppes to forge one of the greatest and most feared empires of all time under Genghis Khan and his successors; he examines the shattering, divisive years of communist rule and explores present-day Mongolia, where poverty and the encroachments of westernisation cause as much damage. He goes in search of the fragile remnants of Buddhism and shamanism; visits Tuva - the lost world of Central Asia - and searches for the tomb of Genghis Khan which has been guarded and hidden by the same family for generations. Listening to the pulse of Central Asian history, Becker adorns his narrative with the stories of past travellers, tyrannical rulers, nomads, monks, missionaries, Russian officials, Mongolian activists and the memories of everyday people to paint a moving and enlightening portrait of Mongolia, a country that against all the odds has survived since the days of Genghis Khan and continues to beat to its own rhythm. This edition features a new Preface by [Becker].

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Asia, History

325 pages, Paperback

First published May 21, 1992

About the author

Jasper Becker is a British journalist who spent 30 years covering Asia including 18 years living in Beijing. His reporting on uprisings, refugees and famine in China, Tibet and North Korea garnered him many awards and he is a popular speaker and commentator on current events in Asia. He now lives in England and has just finished his tenth book, tentatively called The Fatal Flaw. Earlier books such as Travels in an Untamed Land, Hungry Ghosts or Rogue Regime had described the devastating impact of Communism on the peoples of Mongolia, China and North Korea. In City of Heavenly Tranquility, he laments the destruction of old Peking and the building of the new Beijing while The Chinese and Dragon Rising set out to portray the different sides of contemporary China. In Hungry Ghosts, the author had exposed for the first time the true madness and horrors of Mao’s secret famine during the Great Leap Forward. The new work digs into the flawed economic theories which lay behind Communism’s collapse and describes the economic theorists who got it right and the Western economists who believed the bogus statistics put out by Moscow and Beijing. He has also researched family histories of the early Shanghai capitalists who became textile magnates in Hong Kong. Under the pen name Jack MacLean, he has published an engrossing thriller set amid the drone wars in Pakistan and Afghanistan called Global Predator. Four of his earlier books on Asia have just been updated and re-released as kindle books.

Reviews

[Jennifer Chin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in how Mongolia today became the way it is, and in particular the impacts of Soviet, Japanese and Chinese forces on the families there. I think it is also an important read for anyone who claims to hold socialist values....one sees what horrors this idea inflicted in its implementation in China and the Soviet Union.
Becker clearly had some grand adventures to remote areas while on his way to collecting the narratives that he tells here, and he brings the reader along into those places with his own editorializing, while not letting his own story overwhelm that of the people. At the same time, he gives the historical context around the people who are speaking, and shows you what was lost, what is left, and what is in the process of being built.

I come away from this book feeling greatly enriched, with a much better understanding socialism as a concept, of the impact of socialism on the diversity (or lack thereof) of cultures in Asia, and with a richer grasp of how the lives of very rural peoples in both Inner and Outer Mongolia were shaped.

[Mindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good to skip around and read things that are interesting based on where you are traveling.

[Rachel S. Herman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great History of Mongolia. Tried to read as much as possible before our trip to Mongolia. It was quite the experience!!

[Carole · Rating 4 out of 5]

gave up last two chapters as difficult to keep my interest. overall v interesting read though as going to Mongolia soon

[Agustinus Wibowo · Rating 5 out of 5]

really a recommended travel narrative on mongolia. vividly written, well researched, and it really brought my fantasy to explore the wild, untamed Mongolia (which has changed a lot since the capitalism)

[Trine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very thought-provoking and erudite travel book likely to appeal to readers interested in the culture, history, languages and religious diversity of Central Asia and Mongolia, in particular.

[Arthur Rosenfeld · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another research book for me for YANG. A solid and interesting portrayal of what life is like in Mongolia in modern times.