Travel to Mongolia -10- Red land, Bayanzag

5 min readOct 14, 2022

Red land, Bayanzag (Баянзаг)

Oboo in Mongolia. Though this is not in Gobi desert but Harahorin.

There are a lot of places called “OBOO” in Mongolia.
Once upon a time, there were gods and goddesses in the mountains and rivers. And the greatest of these gods was live in the celestial world. People devoted gifts to the gods in the celestial world and then piled up stones so that they may notice it. These piled stones are Oboo. (It is said some Oboo are simply used to mark places.) Even today, we can find obo in many places like along the road, on the mountain, at the border, etc.

There was also an Oboo in Bayanzag, which is known as the Red Land.
This place along the Arzbogd mountain is said to be a ‘sandstone hill’, I read it in a guidebook.
Nope. I said aloud.
It’s not a hill. This is definitely not a ‘hill’. This is a canyon!

The earth is big. This place mede me think exactly.
Looking around from the top of the ‘hill’.
Do you know Dinosaur eggs have been found here, and it is said to be a treasure fossil-rich place.
Yes, of course there were dinosaurs here. I can say it even without any knowledge. The rocks are big. The earth that is the basement on these rocks is bigger. The sky that surrounds them is more more bigger.
100 million years ago, there was life here, and it was breathing here.
I could feel life is indeed connected in our bodies.

The wind was strong.
The hand holding the Japanese fan was almost blown away. Every time I dance, I had to put all my strength into my body against the wind.
There was no lifeline. Of course, I didn’t go obvious dangerous place.
But even if there is enough room for my foot, when the wind blows strongly, I almost fall off the cliff. This is a gentle breeze for dinosaurs.
I wonder if I fell from here, I would die probably. No, definitely. Even though I thought so, that didn’t make me stop dancing. I had no choice but to hold on.
I didn’t care about the video shooting. I just wanted to dance here, the great earth.

Earth, listen to me. Listen to my dancing breath.
I am alive here.
Mingling with the sand and the wind, I am alive here.

I looked up at the sky. It is blue. It sucked me into.
For a moment, I was dazzled. My legs shake. My body stiffens, preparing for the worst case, falling. My breathing stopped.
- Don’t close my eyes. No matter what.

After a while, I came back and saw my black boots. It was just 30 cm from a narrow gap between the rocks and it was just a moment.
It was alive. Still alive.
I exhaled and returned to the earth where everyone else was. My heart beat fast.

We had finished our last filming here in Bayanzak.
I felt we had done it. The camera had about five minutes of capacity left.
Everyone was tired. Everyone was at their limit.
At this point, we were at our limit.

But it would take 10 hours from here to get back to Ulaanbaatar.
I was in a state of half-consciousness, and I was staring blankly out of the car. I saw something shimmering.
‘There are lakes in the desert, aren’t there?’
I mumbled, to which she immediately replied: ‘That’s a mirage.’
Oh my god. If I’m alone, I must die because of mistake.
We are in the desert. In the Gobi Desert.

** Music is my “A Wingless country”. It’s not bad for travel movie, is it?! Don’t hesitate to use your travel video♪ **

The schedule was also pushed to the limit: we were supposed to arrive in the city at 17:30, but we still had a long way to go. The blue sky turned red and the sunset came and went. Night had come.
We pulled over to the side of the road and got out.

The starry sky.

There is also the Milky Way. I have only a little knowledge, but I can clearly see all the asterisms I know.
This is a star-filled sky.
There are literally countless stars and they seem to be making a sound as they collide with each other. It was like glass touching each other, or thin metal touching each other, but with a sound that you can’t even imagine.

The celestial music. Musica Mundana.
It was thought that in this world there was not only audible music made by humans (musica instrumentalis), but also music created by celestial bodies. That is Musica Mundana.
If you see a starry sky like this, you must think so.
There is an extremely beautiful music that can only be heard in that beautiful place.

Let me repeat: we were supposed to be back in the city at 5.30pm. But it was 1.30am when we arrived. Tomorrow we leave for the airport at 4.30am.
This is completely the limit. We were all at our limit.
I remembered how ease I was when I had just arrived here. I didn’t imagine myself as if I was going to face such a limit.

But I will come back, Mongolia. I will definitely see you again.

“A Wingless Country” in Japanese ver.
https://linkco.re/A4hZetvU

In English ver.