Hemp's Creation of Balance

Dates

2016 - 2020
Author

Maren Krings
Location Mongolia, Mongolia

Mongolia is home to wild growing hemp and shamans.

Since the 13th century, when Genghis Khan began to worship Tengerism, cannabis has been used for shamanic rituals.

After disasters, the Mongolians consult a shaman to restore the balance between the physical and spiritual world.

Mongolias long and complex history of power takeovers has created a deeply rooted cultural crisis, which is enhanced by the dooming ecological crisis.

The impacts of both are taking great effects on the life of Mongolias nomads and their livelihood.

A small company, Hemp Mongolia, has embarked on a journey back to the countries centuries-old knowledge about the hemp plant. Unveiling its traditional use and combining it with discoveries made by the international hemp industry, hopes are to help an increasingly stressed population to adapt to the effects of the climate crisis.

© Maren Krings - Image from the Hemp's Creation of Balance photography project

Mongolia is home to wild growing hemp. It has a history of using cannabis for shamanic rituals dating back to the 13th century, when Genghis Khan started worshipping Tengerism, a form of shamanism unique to Mongolia. After disasters happen, Mongolians consult a shaman to restore balance between the physical and the spiritual world.

Through countless wars with its neighbouring nations, Buddhism and Christianity have been introduced and mixed in with Tengerism, creating unique forms of all three. But under communist ruling, all religious practice was prohibited. Communism created secrecy surrounding Tengerism that is still there today.

With Tengerism, also hemp was abolished. But a small company is finding its way back to the country’s century old knowledge. Hemp Mongolia received special government permission and is now the first and only hemp-growing site in the country. Beyond its traditional use, their hemp now helps an increasingly stressed population to adapt to the effects of the climate crisis.

Anar and Kama are part of the young team of entrepreneurs of Hemp Mongolia and established a green business based on hemp. To obtain a special government permit for growing the otherwise illegal hemp, they have had to educate government officials and doctors about the difference between industrial hemp and wild growing cannabis.

By establishing a Mongolian hemp industry, CEO Anar hopes to provide all sorts of solutions for Mongolians, such as affordable, well insulated housing, natural remedies for pulmonary diseases and a non invasive agriculture that can replenish topsoils.

Wild cannabis is found just a couple hours of driving from the test-site. It usually contains higher levels of THC, for protection against uv radiation, extreme weather and predators. Hemp Mongolia hopes to use the plant’s ability to remove pollutants and replenish soils for the recovery of depleted agricultural land.

The newly bred Mongolian hemp strain is a cross breeding between Mongolian wild cannabis and European industrial hemp, resulting in less THC (0,3%), which aligns with international standards and has no psychoactive effects.

Breeding a new variety is a time consuming task that involves the multiplication of the most resilient seeds, which is done indoor, to avoid loosing the new variety to extreme weather. Adaptation to the climate of the Mongolian Steppe is to follow once the seed stock has been build up.

Kama’s job is to guard the plants throughout the entire growing period. To do so, he is living in the nomadic tradition, in a felted ger, though he doesn’t engage in the nomadic moving pattern.

The operational part of Hemp Mongolia is located in the capital, which is a full day drive away from the testing-site. Anar and Kama are work partners but also friends and hemp aficionados. They are convinced that the plant’s power is great enough to bring change.

While the ger is filling up with swarms of insects drawn to the light of the TV screen, both men play a game of Xbox. The electricity is syphoned from the nearby power pole, making it easy to find food for the brooding swallow.

The generation of Anar’s parents still experienced the command economy of the Mongolian Peoples’s Republic. Rural services, pastures and water was better managed then, despite repression and lack of personal freedom. Yet many herder families miss the sense of community and support they had, as many now experience poverty and lack access to healthcare, education and electricity.

While Hemp Mongolia belongs to the winners of market economy that was only introduced to the country in the 90ties, the rural population has lost ground water and vast landscapes to exploitative mining of natural resources (copper, coal, uranium and gold) by foreign companies.

Ecological zones are moving north-ward with progression of climate change. Especially in the North-West doubling effects of global warming average can be seen. As weather patterns change the traditional knowledge of the nomads fail to predict the weather.

Nomadic households are affected by more frequent extreme events like drought, flood and winter disasters (known as dzud), resulting in severe loss of livestock. Mongolia’s harshest dzut killed 10.3 million livestock during the 2009-2010 winter. This has reduced the number of herder families from 50% to 25%.

Anar hopes to provide an alternative income to herder families by growing hemp as an agricultural crop. As the extreme heat of summers prevents the animals from grazing, this is causing weight loss and increasing the ability to survive a dzud.

The last dzut has caused a rural mass migration, allocating half of the country’s 3 million people in the capital of Ulaanbaatar. Most herder families end up in tiny compounds in the Ger District, an unregulated residential area, without infrastructure, sanitation or clean heating.

Anar knows about the suffocating qualities of the air in the capital, which has four thermal power plants within its city limits alongside approximately 200.000 households in the Ger District, burning anything to survive the bitter cold winters. Hazardous ppm (air pollution) levels are the primary cause of child death and pulmonary diseases. A newly implemented ban on burning raw coal (March 2019) will yet have to proof itself.

In the last 15 years, many young people have returned to worshipping shamanism in search for answers, spiritual healing and in a desire to return to living in harmony with the surrounding environment.

Anar believes that the search for identity, which manifested in New Age Shamanism, an exaggerated form of the old shamanic practice, will reconnect the nation with the good spirits. Reestablishing harmony between humanity and the environment might lead the country back to an „eternal blue sky“ (Mönkh khökh Tengeri), which after all gave the country its name.

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