During our sample collection we would cut the hair pulled from the horses’ tail to about 20cm so that it would fit in to the envelope and would be easy for me to handle in the lab. The excess hair was collected so that it could be burnt. This is a ritual; horse hair is never left to just degrade I realised that when I get back to the lab I would also have to burn the excess hair out of respect. We decided that we would find an urn to put the ashes of the horse hair into once they had been cremated.
Setting off down the main street to the local department store I felt very comfortable and welcome. For a city containing 1.5 million people being a pedestrian is not as overwhelming as you would think. I found a beautiful delicate and intricate urn. I think it’s intended purpose was for burning incense but this didn’t matter; I felt horse hair ash is equally as sacred as incense.
In the evening we drove to the southern edge of the city and walked up the hill to the Zaisan memorial statue. This memorial honours the Mongolian and Soviet soldiers killed in WW2 and depicts the scenes of Soviet support for Mongolia’s independence declaration in 1921 and victory over Nazi Germany. I was therefore surprised to see a swastika on the mural but now know this is because the symbol originally represented spirituality in East Asian religions. It was humbling to realise that I really am very ignorant about the history of the east. The lights of Ulaanbaatar lit up the sky in complete contrast to the countryside but equally as pretty.
