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"Golden Age" is trope commonly applied to periods of outstandino prosperity. Concerning Mongolia, it is likely to conjure up images of Genghis Khan the Mongol Empire, and the Pax Mongolica. Surprisingly, though, there exists (at least so far) no globally recognized Mongolian equivalent to such widely established concepts as the Danish, the Polish, the British, or the Dutch Golden Age. At the same time, however, it has recently become popular for political observers and journalists alike to predict the coming of Golden Age, since Mongolia economy, due to its abundance of natural resources, currently features one of the highest growth rates in the world. The motif Golden Age had found its way into Mongolia as early as in the 5th 6th century through eschatological literary texts of Chinese and Indo-Tibetan origin. Their partly apocalyptic images, and the inherent ideas of unceasing decline that accompany them, would in the 20th century largely vanish under socialist rule. Yet, even then evoking Golden Age proved to be convenient for legitimizing political authority. In postsocialist Mongolia today, the designation Golden Age (altan uye) is explicitly applied to an epoch that from typical Westerner perspective would hardly qualify for the awarding of such grandiose label. This essay offers a brisk gallop through changing representations of the trope Golden Age in different Mongolia-related contexts. By experimentally identifying narratives and language-games against the backdrop of shifting perspectives in historical and prophetic thinking, intend to explore what possible kinds of motivation keep inspiring its use.

When it comes to education for mobile pastoralists, Mongolia is an exceptional case. Until fifty years ago, herders comprised the majority of the Mongolian population. Although a satellite of the Soviet Union, the Mongolian People's Republic was a state in which mobile pastoralism was not challenged, and herders were not constructed as social outcasts. Equally exceptional was the country's modernisation, witnessed in its decided alignment with equal opportunities. In Mongolia, it was not 'nomadism' that was associated with backwardness, but illiteracy. Policy-makers aimed to combine spatial with social mobility by building schools further and further out in the grasslands, employing locals as teachers, and fostering interplay between modern formal education and extensive animal husbandry. Yet after 1990, when development discourse pigeon-holed post-socialist Mongolia as a Third World country, the so-called shock therapy led to severe cuts in education. Herders were essentialised as 'nomads', which caused donor-driven policies of educational planning to construe pastoralists as challenges. Ironically, during the initial decade of Education for All, the younger generation had—for the first time in Mongolia's history—less educational opportunities than their parents. This article discusses narratives of inclusion and the political consequences of ascribed social identities.

When it comes to education for mobile pastoralists, Mongolia is an exceptional case. Until fifty years ago, herders comprised the majority of the Mongolian population. Although a satellite of the Soviet Union, the Mongolian People's Republic was a state in which mobile pastoralism was not challenged, and herders were not constructed as social outcasts. Equally exceptional was the country's modernisation, witnessed in its decided alignment with equal opportunities. In Mongolia, it was not 'nomadism' that was associated with backwardness, but illiteracy. Policy-makers aimed to combine spatial with social mobility by building schools further and further out in the grasslands, employing locals as teachers, and fostering interplay between modern formal education and extensive animal husbandry. Yet after 1990, when development discourse pigeon-holed post-socialist Mongolia as a Third World country, the so-called shock therapy led to severe cuts in education. Herders were essentialised as 'nomads', which caused donor-driven policies of educational planning to construe pastoralists as challenges. Ironically, during the initial decade of Education for All, the younger generation had - for the first time in Mongolia's history - less educational opportunities than their parents. This article discusses narratives of inclusion and the political consequences of ascribed social identities. (author's abstract)

"In der Mongolei der Gegenwart hat weniger die real existierende mobile Weide-viehwirtschaft als das Motiv eines mythischen 'Nomadischen' Konjunktur. Der Beitrag behandelt Beziehungen zwischen räumlicher und sozialer Mobilität sowie politische Dimensionen kultureller Repräsentation." (Autorenreferat)

"Golden Age" is a trope commonly applied to periods of outstanding prosperity. Concerning Mongolia, it is likely to conjure up images of Genghis Khan1, the Mongol Empire, and the Pax Mongolica. Surprisingly, though, there exists (at least so far) no globally recognized Mongolian equivalent to such widely established concepts as the Danish, the Polish, the British, or the Dutch Golden Age. At the same time, however, it has recently become popular for political observers and journalists alike to predict the coming of a Golden Age, since Mongolia's economy, due to its abundance of natural resources, currently features one of the highest growth rates in the world. The motif "Golden Age" had found its way into Mongolia as early as in the 15th-16th century through eschatological literary texts of Chinese and Indo-Tibetan origin. Their partly apocalyptic images, and the inherent ideas of unceasing decline that accompany them, would in the 20th century largely vanish under socialist rule. Yet, even then evoking a Golden Age proved to be convenient for legitimizing political authority. In postsocialist Mongolia today, the designation "Golden Age" (altan üye) is explicitly applied to an epoch that from a typical "Westerner's" perspective would hardly qualify for the awarding of such a grandiose label. This essay offers a brisk gallop through changing representations of the trope "Golden Age" in different Mongolia-related contexts. By experimentally identifying narratives and language-games against the backdrop of shifting perspectives in historical and prophetic thinking, I intend to explore what possible kinds of motivation keep inspiring its use. (Asien/GIGA)

Die Autorin zeigt in ihrem Beitrag, wie das Vorhandensein eines autochthonen Konzeptes dem Symbol des roten Sowjetsterns bei dessen Import in die Mongolei zu großer Popularität verhalf. Sie beschreibt die Entstehungsgeschichte des Sowjetsterns und die Bedeutung von Symbolen, die bei der Schaffung des sozialistischen Konzeptes ein bevorzugtes Medium zur Artikulation des angestrebten Wandels waren. Während bestimmte ikonographische Entitäten der sowjetischen Bildersprache, wie z.B. Hammer und Sichel oder Zahnräder und Ährenkränze, in der primär über nomadische Weidewirtschaft organisierten mongolischen Gesellschaft der 1920er Jahre keinen Widerhall fanden, erfreute sich der fünfzackige rote Stern innerhalb kurzer Zeit großer Beliebtheit. Am Beispiel seines Transfers in die Mongolei lassen sich die Konkurrenzkämpfe von Repräsentationen und der Wandel semantischer Interessenlagen ebenso verdeutlichen wie die Prozesse der Translokation, Assoziation und Hybridisierung. Die Autorin diskutiert in diesem Zusammenhang die Frage, ob die kulturelle Unvertrautheit durch aktive Sinnverleihung mit Hilfe lokaler Attributionsmuster zu einer emblematischen Repräsentation des Eigenen werden kann. Die Mongolisierung des Sowjetsterns weist nach ihrer Analyse zwar auf eine multilaterale diskursive Konventionalisierung hin, aber es blieb bis zum Ende der sozialistischen Ära letztlich unentschieden, wessen Weltsicht hier symbolisiert wurde. (ICI2)

Until 1990, the beginning of the transformation process, the Mongolian education system was widely acknowledged as exemplary with regard to ensuring access and quality for a nomadic, mobile population. When the socialist system collapsed, Mongolia experienced an economic breakdown, and as a result, was classified as a developing country. This study analyses the impact of the status loss from "Second" to "Third" world on the education of nomads. The focus is on the changing paradigms of external assistance that accompanied the shift from "internationalist" to "international" cooperation. In addition, this article traces various educational reform policies of the 1990s, and analyzes the puzzle why the education of nomads remained an anathema for the international donor and loan communities. The author suggests an interpretative framework used to explain both, the particular "need for externalization" of the Mongolian Ministry of Education and the "transfer vacuum" that international organizations faced with regard to nomadic education. (DIPF/Orig.)