Mongolia

Mongolia's Altai mountains and Hovd province are home to a large number of clans each with their unique culture and traditions. For the nomadic herders who inhabit the Altai range, this includes a traditional form of musiccal performance art that defies the imagination. Khoomi (from the Mongolian word for throat), or throat singing, is a remarkable singing technique in which the singer produces two distinct tones simultaneously. One tone is low and drawn out, while the other is a series of higher harmonics that resonate so they may resemble the wind or the hoofbeats of a horse. Khoomi is widely practised only in Tuva (in Russian Siberia), and in Western Mongolia, and is at the same time a part of an ancient culture that relates to the sounds of pastoral nomadism and an artifact of the acoustics of the human voice. Khoomi is a performace art at risk, as more and more of the young population leaves home to attend school, and the ways in which khoomi singers achieve these sounds were almost undocumented until the 1990s, when Tuvan and Mongolian music began to reach a worldwide audience. On this trip you will not only view the total eclipse of the sun from one of the best land-based locations in the world, you will also attend a khoomi (throat singing) performance and stay at the home of one of Western Mongolia's khoomi teachers, who is keeping alive the tradition of khoomi by teaching it to young Mongolians.

We have established long lasting partnerships with families from many ethnic clans throughout Mongolia, particularly with those that are contributing to keeping alive ancient traditions and art forms, from hunting with Golden Eagles to making felt carpets and khoomi (throat singing). As part of every trip we arrange visits and overnight stays with local families. You benefit by having access to experiences that are rarely available to the casual visitor, and your appreciation of traditional cultural practices and art forms contributes to their continued survival. We also source as many of our services from local suppliers as possible, including renting horses and pack animals, buying produce, meat, and dairy products, hiring local guides, and arranging for special performances or demonstrations of local skills and crafts. We will be sourcing our supplies and hiring local drivers out of Hovd and Bulgan towns. By traveling with us you will help support people who keep alive and contribute to the livelihoods of herders and trades people in rural Mongolia.

Because of our committment to responsible travel, all guides on our trips are Mongolians. The guide is after all the person you will spend the most time with on your trip, and we believe it is important that your guide be a local person in order to give you the best possible sense of Mongolian culture, traditions, and customs, as well as first hand knowledge about the environment, wildlife, economics, or whatever your interest may be. We invest a great deal into our guide training program in order to enable our team to function at a professsional level that allows us to give staff opportunities for promotion, and our staff is paid well above national average wages.