Winter in Mongolia: Dheera Venkatraman’s Photos of Steppe, Ice and Nomads

Mongolia in winter is a land of frozen steppe, ice sculptures and nomadic camps running on solar power. Photographer Dheera Venkatraman travelled through it in the cold season and came back with a quiet, pale set of pictures: a railway crossing white hills, a basketball court left to the snow, a temple in Ulaanbaatar under a low sun and wild horses on open ground.

Winters here are long and severe. Venkatraman’s own notes put typical temperatures between −20 °C and −45 °C, and most visitors arrive in summer instead. Those who come prepared find some of the most striking winter landscapes in Asia, along with a way of life that carries on through the cold.

The Trans-Mongolian Railway and the winter steppe

The line in the first photograph is the Trans-Mongolian Railway. Completed in 1956, it connects Moscow and Beijing and runs straight through the centre of Ulaanbaatar, east to west. For travellers it remains one of the classic overland journeys, crossing Siberia, the Mongolian steppe and the Gobi Desert. Trains from the capital also run south to Erenhot on the Chinese border, a popular shopping trip for Mongolians.

The basketball court tells another side of the season. Outdoor sport largely stops for months, and courts, playgrounds and fields wait under snow until spring.

Ulaanbaatar, the world’s coldest capital

Ulaanbaatar sits in the valley of the Tuul River at the foot of Bogd Khan Mountain, about 1,350 metres above sea level. With an average annual temperature of roughly 0.2 °C, it is the coldest national capital in the world. The mean January temperature is −21.3 °C, calm winter nights regularly fall to between −36 °C and −40 °C, and the record low is −43.9 °C, set in January 1957.

The city began in 1639 as Örgöö, a mobile monastery of felt tents that moved 29 times before settling at its present site in 1778. Today about half of Mongolia’s population lives there. Gandan Monastery, one of the few Buddhist monasteries to survive the destruction of the 1930s, houses a 26.5-metre golden statue of Migjid Janraisig and remains an active centre of Mongolian Buddhism.

Ice sculptures, gers and nomadic life in winter

Because temperatures stay below zero for months, Mongolians make the most of ice. Carved sculptures, arches and frozen displays appear in towns through the winter.

Out on the steppe, herding families still live in the ger, the Mongolian felt tent. Its frame is an expanding wooden lattice wall, called the khana, with roof poles rising to a wooden crown, the toono, that frames the smoke hole. Layers of sheep-wool felt, often covered with canvas, keep out the wind, and a stove burns at the centre. A ger can be taken down and put up again in about two hours, which is exactly what a moving herding family needs. Small solar panels beside many gers now provide electricity far from any power line.

Visitors invited into a ger are usually offered suutei tsai, Mongolia’s salty milk tea, made from water, milk, tea and salt. It is the standard winter drink and a basic gesture of hospitality.

Przewalski’s horses and winter herds

The stocky wild horse in Venkatraman’s series is Przewalski’s horse, known in Mongolian as the takhi. The last wild one was seen in Mongolia in 1969, and for more than 30 years the species was classed as extinct in the wild. In 1992 Mongolian scientists and the Zoological Society of London began releasing zoo-bred horses, and Hustai National Park has received them since 1998. The species is now listed as Endangered, upgraded from critically endangered in 2011, and about 400 horses lived in three free-ranging populations by then.

Winter is the hardest season for the domestic herds that sustain rural Mongolia. In Venkatraman’s series, animals gather on high ground and cattle huddle together on the coldest days.

Visiting Mongolia in winter

Winter travel in Mongolia rewards preparation. Pack proper cold-weather clothing in layers, including insulated boots, a down jacket, mittens and a face cover, and keep camera batteries warm inside your coat. Ulaanbaatar is the base for almost every trip, with trains on the Trans-Mongolian line and day trips to Hustai National Park for the takhi. Book countryside stays with experienced local operators: they arrange heated gers, vehicles and drivers who know the winter roads.

For more winter journeys in the region, read about Hamid Sardar-Afkhami’s Photographs of Dukha Reindeer Herders, ride along From the Netherlands to Mongolia: Pieter and Mandy’s Motorcycle Diary, explore Zahariz Khuzaimah’s travels in Kyrgyzstan or browse our winter landscape selection.

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