Climate Change, Mobile Pastoralism, and Cultural Heritage in Western Mongolia

Abstract

This chapter addresses the impact of climate change on the cultural production of Kazakh mobile pastoral herders in the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia. It highlights the body of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) that herders express in their music, instruments, textiles, and heritage actions such as work patterns and social gatherings. Extreme weather events, loss of water sources, and desertification have deeply impacted herders and this is expressed in their cultural forms. The study engages with rangeland and climate science and draws on the author's fieldwork with Kazakh herders in Mongolia.