Mongolia conjures up images of Genghis Khan, nomadic lifestyles and some of the world’s best polo players, but what is less well known is that the Mongols are one of only a handful of communities in the world that have evolved to be almost entirely carnivorous. In Asia, they are the only one.
To find out more about how the country’s traditional nomadic families eat, we visit the Genghis Khan Retreat, located in the Orkhon Valley about 320km (200 miles) west of the capital Ulaanbaatar, in the Mongolian steppes.
It takes us over six hours to drive there from our starting point, the Shangri-La Ulaanbaatar, the last hour of which involves a bumpy off-road ride.
Greeting us on arrival is D’Artagnan Giercke, co-owner and manager of the Genghis Khan Retreat and a descendant of one of the valley’s nomadic families, who grew up between Mongolia and Nepal.
“Growing up was very different from my friends as I spent nine months of the year in [the Nepali capital] Kathmandu, where we have our family home, and then for three months during the summer I would be here,” he says.
“Nomadism means that you don’t have a lot of money. What you don’t have in the bank account, you have in animals. So your animals and your herd are your wealth.”
