Mongolia – Sükhbaatar Square

 

When I started writing this blogpost I was taken by surprise. The square's name looks in German: Sukhbaatar Platz. If you look at the Cyrillic script – Сүхбаатарын талбай, you see that ü is correct. Now, German is notorious for its umlaute. Maybe it's an idiosyncrasy as in Türkmenistan [1] – or should I say idiosyncrazy? Another name for Ulaanbaatar's central square is Chinggis Square (Чингисийн талбай), which is also the name that my German travel guide-book lists [2]. The name change took place in 2013 and though the Democratic Party maintains that one wants to honor Chinggis Khaan, whose statue overlooks the square from the north end, but there's also the statue of the revolutionary hero on a horse in the middle of the place – Damdin Sükhbaatar. Renaming often is a polical maneuver.

Sükhbaatar Square [3] is the center, the heart of Ulaanbaatar. You can reach quite a lot of places of interest within a radius of one kilometer. I had been walking down Chingis Avenue and before entering Sükhbaatar Square, I saw the Central Post Office (Төв шуудан), which I guess is important for travellers, who have preserved the habit to send postcards, which means relying on snail mail instead of instantly enlighteing the world about you whreabouts. So entering from the south-western corner you walk through a park, looking west you'll see buildings like the Stock Exchange or the National Museum of Mongolian History (merits a visit). Walking north you pass Damdin Sükhbaatar' statue and  Chinggis Khaan on his throne at the colonnades of the Houses of Parliament overlooks the place. At the eastern side there's the Central Cultural Palace Building and State Ballet and Opera House, which I immediately associate with „The east is red“ (东方红), but I know that the love for China has limits in Mongolia.

You may find people taking group photos dressed traditionally (deel) in front of the national heroes. About the bride and bridegroom photographing I'll write a blogpost on its' own. There are kids playing. In the evening you might see young couples. One day there has been a science fair. So it's a good to visit the square more than once.

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2014/10/turkmenistan.html English has it correct – Türkmenistan, in German it's written Turmenistan.
[2] Michael Walther und Peter Woeste: Mongolei. DuMont Reise-Handbuch. Dumont Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2019. ISBN-10:  ‎3770181417. Before travelling to Mongolia, a friend, who lived there for about five years, advised me to contact Michael Walther, which I did, not knowing at this stage of my travel preparation, that he is the co-author of this wonderful guide-book. I should have checked!
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%BCkhbaatar_Square


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