Naadam

After all the excitement and delay, we arrived in Dadal at the exact moment the Nadam open ceremony was kicking off. The town has a garrison of border guards, the soum, district to you, being about 80 km from the Russian border.

 

The guard unit includes women. In fact, Dadal is unique in Mongolia by being the only soum entirely run by women.

 

The speaker, the governor (pictured here in the purple suit), and entire Dadal soum committee are all women.

I suspect all these senior citizens are members!!!! The people who live here are a minority group in Mongolia….the Byriad and do not have a matriarchal tradition which makes this governing body even more remarkable. It was soon apparent that apart from one other Japanese gentleman, Gek and I were the only non-Mongolians in the soum. This Nadam was by and for the people of Dadal and the surrounding area. That made it very special and a privilege for us to be a part of it.