For the moment this is not going to be a dissertation on the history of the Gypsies--instead I want to explore the idea of the wanderer and what that means in terms of our ancient roots linking us to mother earth and how this way of life is being driven out by our grasping modern world.
If you have camped or traveled in a camper you can understand the allure of the open road, the idea of being completely and utterly free. In the olden days, if I can use that term, there was a method to this madness in that the nomadic way of life was geared to changing weather and living conditions that came from those patterns. In the Mongolian steppes the people still live in this way, moving their animals according to the seasons. Unfortunately change is on the way: 'For millennia, pastoral herders have lived on the Mongolian steppe,
moving with their livestock according to the seasons. They still live in
traditional felt tents, subsisting on the meat and milk of their
animals, and living “as free as the country is wide.”
But today, Mongolia is on the fast track for change: desertification
and climate change are threatening pastures and herds, while some of the
world’s largest reserves in coal, copper, and gold are positioning
Mongolia to become one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
Nomads now face a choice that will shape the future of their country:
withstand new threats on the steppe, or give up herding in search of new
opportunities.
The Vanishing Cultures Project traveled to Mongolia in 2012 to
document the ancient traditions of nomads and to understand their
current struggles. Packed with first-person interviews, perspectives,
and anecdotes from herders, Mongolia’s Nomads reveals what
ancient nomadic philosophies and traditions are still practiced by
herders, where these customs come from, why they are so important, and
how they may be altered forever by shifting climates, development, and
new ways of life.' (excerpt from http://www.vcproject.org/mongolias-nomads/ )
And so the nomadic way of life that has existed for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years will die out, replaced with what? Will towns spring up around the mining that will soon be underway? What will this mean for the fragile eco-systems or the people? When people live in harmony with the land everything thrives. Without this interconnectedness the desert will turn dry and barren, blowing away in the winds and removing the precious top-soil that has sustained the creatures who live there.
Would this be considered progress? Not for the Nomad who can no longer keep his herds, not for the eco-system that will be destroyed as the land is ripped up to search for copper and silver, not for the creatures who have subsisted here. And yet there seems to be no way to stop it.
next time: the gypsy way of life in present day.
