Bid to save nomads’ best friend
ULAN BATOR — The large stray with a lion-like mane and fur curled into dreadlocks looked no different from the mangy mutts roaming Mongolia’s capital when his future owner found him years ago.
Delgeriin Tserenkhand was a teenager when he saved the dog from the streets — only discovering later that his shaggy haired pet belonged to one of the most ancient breeds in the world.
Now Delgeriin, 34, is part of a growing movement to revive the Mongolian bankhar, a rare herder dog steeped in nomadic traditions that almost died out.
Though no reliable numbers exist on how many of these mostly black-haired “guardian” dogs remain, herders say there was a time, generations ago, that every Mongolian dog was a bankhar.
But a belief that the dog spread the plague resulted in widespread culls in the 1960s, as the bankhar’s assets — their herding abilities and significance according to Mongolian spiritual customs slowly forgotten.
“Saving the dogs means saving Mongolian culture,” said Delgeriin, who owns pack of seven bankhars, each about the size of a small wolf. He breeds the dogs, charging foreign buyers $2,000 per puppy but gives herders a discount.
“Bankhars are very special,” he explained. “They’re comfortable around humans and livestock, but have a strong protective instinct when approached by predators. Nomads are diminished without them.” — were
When it was customary for every Mongolian family to own at least one bankhar, a nomad would treat sore joints by shaving off a tuft of the dog’s fur, soaking it in a bucket of oil and pressing it onto the aching area.
Mongolians believe the dogs are distinct from other animals because they share the “same spirit” as humans, Delgeriin said. Dead bankhars are buried on the tops of mountains to bring them closer to the gods.