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The Chinese described the Mong-ko (Mongol) as “the people who follow the tails of their horses according to the growth pace of the grass and its withering” (Brief Mongolian history, 2007). While Mongolia has seen a large shift towards urbanization in the past hundred years, a large number of the country's 3 million people retain a lifestyle of nomadic herding. Almost a third of the country's population lives in the capital, Ulaanbaatar.
Mongolia, part of Asia, borders Russia to the north and China to the south. It has 21 states, shown in the map below.
The herders of Mongolia have long played music, and sung in the traditional throat singing, called khoomii. Their revered horses are embodied in the country's national instrument, a horse-head fiddle called the morin khuur . Much of Mongolia's traditional music is inspired by their values of nature, family and animals. Today, however, Mongolia's traditional music is changing. It is becoming fused with rock, jazz, and pop for example, to create a new sound that interests the rest of the world as well.
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Some traditional style Mongolian music, including the morin khuur and khoomii singing, by the band Altai Hangai: