Downward the Ground is Hard; Upward the Sky is Far

Abstract

Abstract This article provides an extended case study of an elder’s journey back to his homeland in Hovd Province after years of absence. The hazards of life mingled with lingering resentment have weakened the ties to the homeland and generate distance from his relatives so much that the return proves to be more complicated than expected. The story that the article tells is used to delineate theoretically a very general figure of prominence present in Mongolian social life that the author calls ‘the ruler’, i.e. a person capable of bringing order to the multiple forces that constitute a Mongolian nutag and able to put them all in line with his own agenda.