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Letter from Jack Weatherford
 Dear Macalester Alumni and Friends,
In the summer of the year 1206, thousands of people from across the steppes of Inner Asia gathered
together to proclaim the forty-four year old Temujin as their leader with the title of Chinggis Khaan,
or Genghis Khan as he became known to us. He then created a new union of all the tribes, and he
gave his new country the name of the Great Mongol Nation. This happened nearly a decade before the
English had the Magna Carta and nearly six centuries before the founding of the United States and,
Genghis Khan’s nation of Mongolia still survives today as one of the oldest nations and cultures on
earth. Yet, it is still one of the most remote and least visited.
In the summer of 2006, the Mongolians will celebrate the 800th anniversary of the creation of their
nation. The summer will be filled with the traditional sports of horse racing, archery, and wrestling as
well as Mongolian song and dance. The yellow-robed lamas will chant and pray, the colorfully dressed
shamans will twirl and beat their drums. The Mongolians will be celebrating not only their past but
also their newfound freedom and their great hopes for a better century than the last one.
This country of 2.6 million people and their 30 million animals still live much as they did in the time
of their founder. Outside of the city, the people herd their animals, make their dairy products, and live
in their felt tents, called a ger in Mongolian. As a visitor from so far away who comes to their country
for this special occasion, you will be paying honor to their history and to them, and they, in turn, will
reciprocate that honor with invitations to visit them in their ger and share the “white foods” of summer,
as they call their dairy products of sour yogurt, heavy cream, dried cheese, and mare’s milk.
This is a unique moment to visit Mongolia. It will not be the easiest trip you have made and it is
doubtful you will find a single international franchise to remind you of home. But this will easily be
the most memorable trip that you will make, and you will have a wealth of images and experiences to
ponder and enjoy for the rest of your life.
May the Golden Light of the Eternal Blue Sky guide you and protect you as you undertake the trip of
a lifetime.
Sincerely,
Jack Weatherford
DeWitt Wallace Professor of Anthropology
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