Mongolia has a long history of nomadism, a lifestyle where people frequently move to new places. Historically, most Mongolians were herders, so they needed to provide their animals with new pasture to graze on. Moving allowed animals to have fresh food, and also gave the land a chance to recover from people and animals that used it.
Gers make moving convenient for Mongolians, even today. They are (more or less) easy to take apart and put back together. Gers also can be changed for summer and winter. In summer, people can lift up the fabric covering the sides and the ceiling window to let cool wind come through. In the winter, people can pile up snow on the sides to prevent heat from leaving the ger, and its round, small shape means that all the heat made by the stove doesn’t easily leave the home.
Gers are historically important for Mongolians, and are still commonly used today. Nearly everyone living in the countryside still lives in a ger, and close to half of all people living in cities also live in gers. However, as Mongolia urbanizes and more people move to the cities, living in a ger becomes harder. Ger districts in cities like Khovd and Ulaanbaatar do have access to electricity, but they don’t have access to clean water, plumbing, or heating. The lack of sanitation (clean water, toilets connected to sewage lines, and trash disposal), creates diseases among people. To stay warm in their gers, people have to burn lots of coal which creates air pollution.
