By A.Jargalmaa

Tsagaan Sar (White Moon or White Month), is the Mongolian New Year festival calculated on the lunar calendar. For more than 2,000 years Mongolians have been celebrating White month, we celebrate it to mark the end of winter and the beginning of spring.
Tsagaan Sar is the celebration of new life and symbolises wealth and prosperity in the family. The holiday runs over three days, on the first day, the eldest and most respected family members are visited. The holiday provides an opportunity for people to gather, and celebrate and exchange gifts.
Families prepare for the holiday a month in advance by making plenty of food and gifts. The eldest family make 1000-3000 buuz (steamed Mongolian dumplings).

By CATE CADELL

Mongolia’s infrastructure was a key point of discussion at the conference, with a lack in transport, mining equipment and water technologies being offered up as prime investment ventures in a country critically under resourced.
Talks explored the issues and proposed solutions in infrastructure, centering particularly on the role of railroads and Mongolia’s proximity to Russia.
“Any mining operation must have good railways” said B.Enkbaatar, Director of Mining Infrastructure investment at World Bank, “any mining operation must have good railways”
Many of Mongolia’s railways are outdated, not only is the overall rail coverage poor, but the tracks themselves are insufficient. Most were built in the Soviet period, and engineers at the time didn’t for see Mongolia’s massive mineral export potential.
Gauge size is part of the problems associated with the country’s railways, an it was heavily discussed at the conference. Plans for a common gauge between Mongolia and China are subject to government approval at the moment. Aside from the gauges being inconsistent with neighbor and prime export target, China, they are also not equipped to carry the sheer weight of coal that they will see in the hear future.

By Cooper Baltis

Had the UB Post been published 754 years ago the headline might have read something like this: Mongol Empire successfully invades Baghdad, ransacks the city, and kills upwards of 1,000,000 in less than 15 days.
Yes, it’s a long title, but this would have been long before modern journalism style guides, yet the title would have gotten the point across.
February 10 marks the 754th anniversary of the Mongol siege by led by Hugalu Khan, founder of the Ilkhanate Mongol forces and brother of then Mongol leader Möngke Khan. The 13th century destruction of Baghdad also marked the end of the Abbasid Caliphate, a dynasty of caliphs that ruled the Sunni Middle East for five centuries.
Sending Hugalu to what is now modern day Iran to discuss Mongol hegemony in the region in 1257, Möngke Khan hoped to establish a firm grip on the lucrative trade location of the Middle East. Before departing, Möngke told Hugalu that if the caliph refused, Baghdad would be the punishing grounds for the entire region.
Like the many who ended in graves quickly at the hands of the Mongol Empire, the caliph rejected Möngke’s the request for suzerainty.
By December 1257, a monstrous army led by Hulagu set out for Baghdad. The army consisted of Mongol and Chinese commanders, various Christian groups, most notably the Georgians, Persians, Armenians, Turkic soldiers, a thousand engineers and artillery experts and a slew of innovative siege weapons; a proverbial 13th century ‘Coalition of the Willing,’ to put it into modern equivocal terms.

By Jessica King

Hedwig, or ‘Heddie’ Waters, has clearly done some thorough research on her investigation into the modern beauty ideals of Mongolian society.
Her lecture, presented at the University of Science and Technology yesterday, gave a whirlwind overview on a yearlong study, concerning who and what is considered beautiful and how feminine body image ideals have changed over centuries.
The audience was given an analysis of the changing face of feminine beauty, from the pre-socialist period to the present day.
Waters began by explaining that throughout history, women who were large or full in figure, symbolised wealth and success, particularly during times of food shortage.