High in the taiga of northern Mongolia, the Dukha people, known in Mongolian as the Tsaatan, still herd reindeer and live in conical tents of poles and birch bark. Photographer Pascal Mannaerts rode for days on horseback to reach one of their summer camps in June 2014, and his portraits show a family's daily life among more than 100 reindeer.
Who are the Dukha, the Tsaatan reindeer herders?
Tsaatan is the Mongolian name for them; the community calls itself Dukha. They live in Tsagaannuur district of Khövsgöl Province, close to the Russian border, and are the only people in Mongolia who herd reindeer.
Their roots lie in Tuva, now part of Russia. Families moved freely across the mountains until 1944, when Tuva was annexed by the Soviet Union and the border closed, splitting relatives on either side. Mongolia granted the Dukha citizenship in 1956 and resettled many at the lake village of Tsagaan Nuur.
They are a very small community. Mongolia's census counted 303 Dukha in 2000, 282 in 2010 and 208 in 2020. Their language, Dukhan, is an endangered Turkic language of the Sayan group, closely related to Tuvan, and most Dukha also speak Mongolian fluently.
Life with the reindeer
Everything in a Dukha camp turns around the herd. The reindeer give milk, which becomes yoghurt, cheese and milk tea, and they carry people and loads between camps. Mannaerts was told that reindeer hair is used for sewing, dung fuels the stove, antlers become tools, and pelts are made into winter coats, bags, mats and shoes.
Families related to one another pitch their tents side by side and share the herding. Camps usually hold two to seven households, moving several times a year between summer and winter grazing. Mannaerts found the summer camp at an altitude of about 2,300 m, where every evening more than 100 reindeer came back from a day roaming the Ulaan taiga in search of lichen and grass.
The herds are fragile. An outbreak of brucellosis around 1990 and the loss of lichen pastures to a changing climate cut their numbers, and only about 600 reindeer remained in the region in 2010.
The ortz: the Dukha conical tent
The Dukha home is the ortz, a conical tent made largely of birch bark. It looks like a tepee and is quite different from the round, lattice-walled ger used by Mongolia's steppe herders.
Building one is skilled work. A research project run with the British Museum's Endangered Material Knowledge Programme recorded Dukha skin tanning, birch-bark crafting and tent construction, along with the words used for every stage.
A family at the summer camp
Mannaerts's photographs follow one household. Narahuu and his wife Bolorma live at the camp with their children Ulziisaihan, Ulziitsetseg, Tuvshinbayar and the youngest, Ulziichimig. Bayrsaïhan, Chagtan, Baagii and Nuuru also share the camp, and Narahuu's aunt welcomed the visitors with süütei tsai, the traditional salty milk tea.
The pictures show the ordinary rhythm of the day: Bolorma boiling milk for cheese, the girls milking, wood being cut, children playing among the animals, a selfie in the forest and the race at sunset to bring the reindeer back for milking.
Shamanism, tourism and visiting the taiga
The Dukha follow shamanism, alongside Tengrist and animist beliefs. Their shamans are called böö. The tradition was suppressed under Mongolia's communist government and has been practised openly again since that era ended.
Tourism began in the mid-1990s and is now an important source of income. Mannaerts travelled to Tsagaan Nuur village and then rode for days on horseback across the Ulaan taiga to reach the summer camp, which is typical: the camps move with the herds and have no road access.
Go with a guide who works with the families. A local guide arranges horses, knows where the camps have moved and makes sure payment reaches the herders. Ask before photographing people or entering a tent, and bring useful gifts only after asking your guide what is welcome.
See more of Mannaerts's work on his photography website and in our introduction to his travel portraits. For other cultural trips, browse our festival comparison.
Related reading
- Hamid Sardar-Afkhami’s Photographs of Dukha Reindeer Herders
- Dheera Venkatraman’s Winter Mongolia: Landscapes and Everyday Life
- From the Netherlands to Mongolia: Pieter and Mandy’s Motorcycle Diary
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