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While walking to the Ulaanbaatar museum, I noticed that many of the elderly women were wearing essentially the same thing. There were subtle differences, of course, like color, but they pretty much looked like the same thing that they had all decided to wear to a senior-citizens' flash mob or something. They wore a sort of loose gown that covered their entire body, and a piece of cloth wrapped around the waste to serve as a belt and to bring it snugger to the body. They looked unflattering but exceptionally warm as most were made of wool. They were also pretty baggy. They almost completely enveloped and hid their physique, except for their feet. I eventually worked up the nerve to ask one of the women why all the old ladies weren't wearing normal clothes. She first told me that it was the traditional garb of Mongolia. I then informed her that that didn't seem like a very good reason to wear something so (ugly, uncool, bathrobe-like)...unflattering. She then decided to sit down as if she was going to stay a while, and she proceeded to unload this clothing's history onto me. she said it was called a del, with two e's, a deel. It was so popular among the elderly women due to its ease of putting on and its versatility. She said that a person could do just about everything in this, from house-work to sleeping and everything in between, some of which you might not suspect. I inquired as to what these peculiar abilities might be, and, most notably, she said, "Shitting!" followed by an outburst of laughter. I was slightly taken aback from both her sense of humor but mostly from what she had just told me. I said, "when would you ever need to use it for that when there's a bathroom in every building?" She pointed out to me that most of Mongolia is miles of country-side, and that a farmer doesn't always have access to a toilet especially if he doesn't have a vehicle. In addition, the people of old would use their deel as a base of dressing and as a blanket, which are both still present in Mongolian country culture.In the cold winter, deel-wearing people will either put on warmer clothes over the deel, or they will upgrade from the basic fabric "dan deel" to a lightly padded "tergel" or to the winter deel, which is padded with wool. In places more faithful to the deel traditions, the only real differences are gender based: dull colors and a wider size for men and slimmer, brighter deels for women. there are also special deels for holidays which are normally light blue or green, or made of silk. Another winter deel additive is the deel coat, or khurim, which is also put on over the deel. The traditional clothing set would also include hard leather boots,called gutals, in-lined with felt. These traditionally have no real sole, like rubber, so they can be put on either foot. Most people wear thick, heavy, quilted socks with these boots. They kind resemble cowboy boots what with the pointed and curled toes of the gutals. This fashion line would also include a hat, similar to a pilot's hat. It has the side flaps which are tied down in the cold and tied up on top of the hat in the short summer. the hat comes to a point at the top to represent Mount Sumber, legendary origin of the Mongols. A knot is placed at the tip of the point to represent national untiy (of nomads, which is kind of a big deal since, well, they're nomads, their lives don't really require a government). Some hats also have red ribbons, a symbol of the sun. Of course, like with all these articles of clothing, they would traditionally vary in fine-detailed decoration according to social status and regional identity.
After looking through the museum, which you can see if you take a tour of Mongolia, I saw a wedding ceremony taking place. I heard singing coming from the ceremony and decided to see how the ceremony went, so I watched from outside the main crowd. The first type of singing I heard was some kind of throat singing. At some points of the song, it sounded like there must have been more than just one singer because he was making like 5 different sounds at once. I have a video of it above. These throat songs were rather sort, though, in comparison wityh the next song. The next singer did a more conventional type of singing, except the song was like 20 minutes long. I was able to mine some information from one of the other witnesses. He told me that the throat singing is called Khoomi, also spelled khoomei. He also told me that this type of singing along with the "square cello", the Morin Khuur (horse head fiddle), are supposed to represent the landscapes and animals of Mongolia. The morin Khuur has horse's head carved at the end and two strings along with a fiddle bow. Another instrument is the Yagta, the other instrument in the video, it's like a guitar or banjo. The more conventional song is a type of singing called Urtyn Duu, meaning "long song". Obviously, they are supposed to be longer in length. He informed me that most "long songs" are about love or the land.
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