Tsaatan or Dukha people of Mongolia
Extreme north of Mongolia, resides a tribe called the Tsaatan, or the Dukha people. Tsaatan means people of the Reindeer. True to the name, their life revolves around their Reindeers.
They say that if the Reindeer dies, so will their culture along with them.
These nomads move around based on the season and are in tight-nit communities. The Reindeers serve the purpose of The families I met during my cultural expedition of the forgotten tribes of Mongolia, were quite skeptical about how much longer their culture will remain, as the younger generations are all moving out to the cities for a better 'settled' life.
The kids, I envied them, for they had the whole Taiga as their home, their playground, their school and also their work.
They would wade in the flowing stream by their tents, walk the Reindeers to the mountains, run behind the two dogs that they had, feed the young ones of the Reindeer, and then settle down by sunset in their cozy warm tents.
Definitely a tough life, to keep moving from place to place, and now with the younger lot moving to the cities, looks like another culture on the brink of dying out. Now that more and more people want to go meet them, I hope that their culture stays and the tourism takes care of their daily needs and resources. A catch-22 situation though.
Following are some flora and butterflies and critters that I came across in that region. By the way, you should see the last one.. the size of the mosquitoes there I tell you!!