From Childhood Trains to Minecarts Imaginaries and Realities of Railway in Mongolia

Abstract

This paper explores the historical and contemporary railroad constructions in Mongolia and socio-cultural transformation due to the infrastructural changes. In order to transport the minerals to markets in and above all outside Mongolia, especially China and Russia, states and private companies invest in rail and road transport (plans). When the first long distance railway was built as ‘a gift from Stalin’ between 1947 and 1949, herders who never had seen engine techniques, imagined the railway as a ‘metal snake’ (tomor) that drilled mountains and crossed rivers. Today many people have high hope of this infrastructural modernization and expect better economic development and quality of life as result of the railway expansion. Until now most of the planned new infrastructures such as “The Steppe Road” exist on paper and in the minds. In this research, we are investigating recently realized railway projects in Selenge province in northern Mongolia. The presentation of this infrastructure focuses on the social encounters of and the cultural impact on involved workers, herder families and the natural landscape (including spirit beings). Which economic, ecological and sociocultural changes go hand in hand with the development of the railway? The investigation, based on fieldwork in the years 2017–2019, includes studies on material and visual culture using primary and secondary sources.