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The Buryat People‘s festival (Altargana) is a bi-annual festival where Buryat Mongol from Mongolia, China and Russia gathers in thier pristine traditional costumes. It is interesting to note that Buryatia is a Rupublic in Russia just north of Mongolia.
from visual story DADAL
Eastern Mongolia is renown for horse breeding, most winning horses came from the East. Horses are half-wild in Mongolia, they have to be captured for brief re-orientation before they are good for riding.
from visual story SUKHBAATAR
Portrait of a Tajik in front of the Mir-i-Arab madrassa in Bukhara. Tajiks are speakers of the Persian language, and they populate the Silk-Road cities of Samarkand and Bukhara in Uzbekistan. Soviet Socialist Rebublic boundaries in Central Asia were engineered during the Soviet era, and those become the country boundaries after independence.
from visual story TIMURID SILK ROAD CITIES
Bamyan’s population was wiped out by Chinggis Khan, and repopulated with some of his Mongol troops and their slave women. These settlers would become the Hazara people. At a tea house in Bamyan, a group of Hazara having strong Mongolian features that is reminiscence of a Khan.
from visual story BAMYAN
Beside a little cafe named Koskhi in Ushguli, a Georgian girl mends a little provision shop that sells the daily necessities that includes wine and spirits. Amongst the south Caucasus states, Armenian and Azeri has greater similarities while Georgian looks different. Georgians were fighting with the Ilkhanate, or the Golden Horde during the Mongol Empire era.
from visual story GEORGIA
Syria was the Mongol Empire’s precious, a state which they had little suceess in conquering. In Aleppo’s souk before the war, a hospitable carpet shop owner who has four wifes and many children. Aleppo suffered badly during the current civil war and resolution to peace seems bleak. Hopefully it woudn’t be too long before it see laughters and colours in the souks again.
from visual story SYRIA
The Kazakh khanate is the longest of the surviving khanates that was descended directly from the Golden Horde. The Kazakh in Mongolia were descendants of Kazakh who migrated towards the Altai, and China. Due to the rapid modernisation of Kazakhstan, Kazakh in Mongolia preserved more of the Kazakh traditions.
from visual story KAZAKH
Mamaev Kurgan translates “The Mound of Mamai”, where Mamai is a Mongol Tartar commander of the Blue Horde in 1380, a disruptive time during the reign of the Golden Horde. Code-named Hill 102, Mamaev Kurgan is the location of brutal fights between Soviet-Union and Nazi Germany in the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942. Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd.
from visual story MAMAEV KURGAN
The Bonan tribe (保安族) is one of the 56 official minorities in China. They are Mongol tribe who adopted Islam, and are much assimilated to the Hui people (回族). In portraits are Ma Tahe (马他黑) and spouse, who professed that their links with the Mongolian culture is fast disappearing. Ma Tahe family used to own traditional Bonan clothing made of Mongolian del, belt and knives, but they were sold for little money during the hard times.
from visual story BONAN
Tibetan belongs to the Semu (coloured-eye) class in Kublai Khan’s Yuan Dynasty, performing important spiritual and administrative roles. The Phags-pa script was designed by the Tibetan monk Drogön Chögyal Phagpa as the official script for the Mongol Empire under Kublai Khan. In the historic Eastern Tibetan district of Kham, Sichuan China, Derge Pakhang Monastery is a celebrated printing monastery, with the most eclectic collection of Buddist script in the world.
from visual story TIBET
Balinese are descended from the Majapahit Dynasty in Java. In picture is the Melasti ritual before the Balinese Nyepi - Day of Silence before the Baliense New Year. The Mongol Empire expedition to Java in the 13th century facilitated the transition from the Saliendra into the Majapahit dynasty. Islamic invasion pushed the Majapahit into Bali, which remained Hindu till today.
from visual story NYEPI
The Mongols battle the Japanese Samurai in 1274 at Hakata bay. Sumo has Shinto origins for court rituals; professional Sumo began during the Edo period and many wrestlers were Samurai who needed income. Sumo today receive another wave of invasion from Mongolia, where the top 3 Yokozuna (highest ranking wrestlers) are Mongolian native.
from visual story SUMO
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© 2026 Kim Lau
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