Photo gallery: Mongolian picnic accident

I worked in Mongolia in 2007 for an NGO. Every year one of the sub groups within our organization hosted a picnic for all the families that took part in their program for animal breeding and vegetable growing.

Arriving at the picnic by truck, Zuunkahra

Program participant, Zuunkhara

The picnic was massive with several hundred people taking part. Groups of men would select and kill a sheep for several families and cook them on a fire in a stainless steel container that works something like a pressure cooker. Inside this are also hot stones and vegetables. Because there’s no way to let out the steam building inside, they do occasionally explode.

The khorkhog process, Zuunkhara

As fruit was distributed and the kids played games, the meat stewed away on small fires in these containers for a few hours. When it was thought to be done, the men returned to the fire to remove the container and open it. One exploded sending hot fatty juices into the air and over two men.

The men covered in manure, Zuunkhara picnic

The men ran down into the river as people offered their advice – get kid’s urine, get sugar or cover yourselves with manure. Taking the latter advice they plunged into a nearby field and returned basted in dung!

Meanwhile a friend got on the phone to a doctor who suggested they return to the river which they did with much smiling and laughter from the watching crowd!