Info for Travelers
Part 5 - Cultural and Environmental Information:
Mongolia's Do's and Don'ts
Reduce your impact on the community and the surrounding environment.
General Etiquette
| DO |
DO NOT |
- Cover your head & wrists when presenting gifts/money
- Pass and accept things with right hand and palms up
- Accept food or drink that is offered to you
- Try to speak Mongolian if you can
- Address elders/authorities with “Ta” not “Chee”
- Indicate object/direction with open palm facing up
- Try to sing when asked (ability doesn’t matter!)
- Flick alcohol in traditional manner when appropriate
- Shake the hands of someone who you have accidentally bumped feet with
- Establish a proper area to go to the bathroom or wash clothes and dishes
|
- Pass or accept anything with left hand
- Point with your finger
- Talk or joke about bad things that may happen
- Point your feet at someone or show your soles
- Touch a man’s upper body without permission
- Whistle inside
- Enter a vehicle from its left side
- Let blood touch the ground
- Wash dirty dishes/ clothes directly in a body of water
- Compliment a child with strongly positive words
- Say thank you too much or for small gestures
- Write on someone’s business card in their presence
- Say you will do something you don’t intend to do
- Place a hat or other “open” object face up
|
Guidelines For Visiting a Family
| DO |
DO NOT |
- Ask before taking pictures and introduce yourself
- Proceed to the left as you enter a ger or ortz
- Offer to help by DOING not just by ASKING
- Keep belongings neatly organized and in proper area
- Offer a gift if appropriate
- Grow accustomed to sitting in silence and just observing
- Mail pictures to people if you said you will
- Use the right side or an ortz door when entering and exiting
|
- Step over food or objects on the ground
- Talk in a foreign language excessively in front of others
- Point the spout of a tea pot at someone or the door
- Put anything in a family’s stove without asking
- Pass anything between or lean against the ger poles
- Block the sacred area in a family’s home
- Refuse to try food or tea
- Throw objects, especially inside
- Pass the “midpoint” of a ger/ ortz without permission
|
Top
