Mongolian life customs

Greet each other when you meet, even strangers. When colleagues meet acquaintances, they usually ask "Hello, Saibai Nu". When you meet your elders or people you meet for the first time, you should ask, "Tasai White Slave." (hello).

Hospitality to travelers (whether they know it or not) is a traditional virtue of Mongols, who attach great importance to etiquette and rules in reception. For example, if you eat mutton, you usually give the sheep's pipa bone with meat and four long ribs to the guests. If you entertain guests with beef, give them a spine with meat, half a rib and a fat sausage.

When you are a guest in a Mongolian family, you must respect your host. After entering the yurt, you should sit cross-legged on the carpet around the stove, but the west of the stove is the owner's residence, so you can't sit casually when the owner is not sitting. Guests generally drink milk tea sent by their hosts, and it is impolite not to drink it; The host asks for dairy products, and the guests should not refuse, otherwise it will hurt the host's heart. If it's inconvenient to eat more, just eat a little.

Offering Hada is also a noble courtesy of Mongols. When offering Hada, the giver hands it down to the other party, and the recipient also takes it with both hands or lets the giver hang Hada around his neck to express his gratitude.

Mongolian people should avoid riding too fast when riding and driving near yurts, so as not to disturb the herd; If there is a fire in front of the door or a sign such as a red cloth strip is hung, it means that there are patients or parturients in this family, and outsiders are not allowed to enter; Guests can't sit on the west kang, because the west is the direction of Buddha worship; Avoid dead animal meat and donkey meat, dog meat and white horse meat; Avoid red and white for funerals and black and yellow for weddings; Avoid baking feet, shoes, socks and pants on the brazier; Smoking, spitting, touching utensils, classics, Buddha statues and making loud noises are prohibited when visiting temples, and hunting near temples is not allowed;

Dietary customs

Mongolian herders regard sheep as the guarantee of life and the source of wealth. Three meals a day, every meal is inseparable from milk and meat. Food made of milk is called "Chaganyide" in Mongolian, which means holy and pure food, that is, "free food"; Food made of meat is called "Ulan Yide" in Mongolian, which means "red food". In addition to the most common milk, Mongolians also eat goat's milk, horse's milk, deer's milk and camel milk, some of which are used as fresh milk drinks, and most of them are processed into dairy products.

Mongolian meat is mainly beef and mutton, followed by goat meat and a small amount of horse meat, and yellow mutton is also hunted during the hunting season. There are more than 70 kinds of traditional ways to eat mutton, such as all-sheep banquet, tender all-sheep banquet, all-sheep banquet with wool, roast sheep, roast sheep heart, stir-fried sheep belly and stewed dishes with sheep brain. The most distinctive ones are Mongolian roasted whole sheep (peeled and roasted), oven roasted whole sheep with skin or Alashan roasted whole sheep, and the most common one is grasping sheep by hand.

Fried rice is a unique Mongolian food, which occupies the same important position as red and white food in daily diet. Mongolians in the western region also have the custom of "bumping people" with fried rice. There are more and more foods made of flour in Mongolian daily diet, the most common ones are noodles and pancakes. They are good at making distinctive Mongolian buns, Mongolian pies and stuffed Mongolian cakes.

Mongolian people can't live without tea every day. In addition to drinking black tea, almost everyone has the habit of drinking milk tea. The first thing in the morning is to boil milk tea. Milk tea is best boiled with clear water. After boiling, pour into a clean pot or pot filled with tea powder and boil for 2-3 minutes. Then, mix fresh milk and salt and boil. Mongolian milk tea sometimes adds butter, or milk skin, or fried rice. , fragrant and salty, is a nourishing drink containing many nutrients. Some people even think that it's okay not to eat for three days and not to drink milk tea for one day.

Mongolians also like to cook milk tea with fruits, leaves and flowers of many wild plants. Boiled milk tea has different flavors, and some can prevent and treat diseases.

Most Mongolians can drink alcohol, mostly white wine and beer, and some areas also drink milk wine and koumiss wine. Every holiday or when friends and relatives get together, there is a habit of drinking a lot. Koumiss is fermented from fresh koumiss without distillation.

Typical food: There are many distinctive Mongolian foods here, such as roast sheep, roast whole sheep with skin, hand-pulled mutton, fried sheep, roast leg of lamb, milk tofu, Mongolian buns, Mongolian pies and so on. There are also folk: thin cream; Milk skin; Mao Mao sheep feast; Cooked roast sheep; Chinese cabbage and mutton rolls; Xinsu cake; Dry the rice.