Mongolia: the "LEAST" vegan place in the world?

Mongolia is place of meat and milk. Meat in the winter (mostly sheep) and dairy in the summer. They sometimes use some veg, but in so small quantities it is actually seen as spice ( they use small wild garlic and onions in soup). This is their traditionnal way of eating and they want to keep it like this.
There are a lot of chinese/mongolian there too, and they love vegetables, and they love mixing many different ingredient/veg for colourful dishes. Many also have gardens where they grow things. The mongolians are very suspiscious against the chinese way of eating.
They think the reason that the chinese eat so many different ingredients, is that he is POOR. yes, they truly believe this. They say, the chinese eat all these different veg, because they cannot afford to be selective, that is, to eat proper food, real food, like sheep.
The mongolian they say, do not have to eat leafs and things like that because they can afford to eat only the best: meat and dairy....
they also think that veg are very dirty, because they grow on shit....(manure...) and this really scare them. They'll make sure to stay away fron such dirty things as vegetables. (even the most traditionnal mongolian nomads have no idea that manure can be used to fertilize... they don't actually care, since they are nomads, not growing/eating veg)

out of interest... where does this info come from?

Seems a bit of a generalisation to say the least... but then I don't know that much about mongolia (other than they have no word for "vegan")

That is generalized and while I'm not the least bit mongolian i feel slightly offended after reading that. The traditional culture may be quite far away from vegan. i'm sure the country is lovely though. Things get tricky when people start analysing the way a culture eats, it'd be alot harder to be vegan if you're constantly changing locations, foraging might not always provide enough food depending on where you are

I would think the Inuit culture would be less vegan due to the terrain/cold and inability to grow things

Veganism is not just about what people eat.

leedsveg

Interesting enough that I felt inclined to consult my good freind Google who told me this; http://www.mongoluls.net/ger/meatmilk.shtml

Certainly supports the general jist of VLNPT's post; To-whit that fruit and veg are highly incidental additions to the Mongolians predominantly animal based diet.

I somehow found that quite fascinating, the thought that veggies are looked upon as "dirty" and more like a spice, while in our Western world, even the biggest meat-eater would not dare to critisize the need of vegetables in a varied diet :)

But you can't really blame the mongolian people though, that is their tradition, the way they were taught to make food. I used to think dairy and meat was essential to my diet when I grew up, how can I be in any position to look down upon those that still think this way?

There are more and more vegetarian and vegan places in Mongolia.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/61212

I've been to Mongolia. I'd agree that meat and dairy are the norm. I survived as a veggie there (we bought rice, sugar, milk powder, pastries and dried fruit at the Market in ulan batar for when we went trekking into the wild, and had dehydrated curry/ chili packets with us from Scotland plus I brought cup-a-soups and cereal bars) and had rice pudding for breakfast every day, pastries and raisins for lunch, and chili/ curry for dinner. When we ate out, all the vegetarians (there were 4 of us) got was on one occasion mashed potato and cheese, on another ocassion grated carrot and vinegar. I spent one month there and lost a huge amount of weight, we were walking 12 miles a day on that kind of diet.

Interestingly although (yak, sheep and cow) milk and dairy produce is plentiful in the countryside I remember having an awful time finding milk in the city. I also remember we bought a whole pineapple in excitement at finding fresh fruit and realised we only had Swiss army knife which was not really up to the task of cutting it open.

Mongolia is also where I suffered my most upsetting animal related experience, the non-vegs bought a live sheep and watched it being slaughtered, skinned, chopped up and cooked. I obviously didn't watch but I saw the sheep being brought over by the tour guide carried on his shoulders when it was still alive. Also my friend took photos and I didn't realise and when I was looking through her pictures one came up of the sheep dead and half skinned :(

It is an extremely beautiful and interesting country but I can agree 100% that it is not vegan friendly and even vegetarians can't get a meal in most restaurants except those which are westernised (like an ex-pat cafe we found). I don't even remember seeing any veg at the Market just dried fruit, watermelon and pineapple.

Ps I went in 2005 before the 1st veg restaurant sadly!