Published: March 26, 2008 10:12 am            

Display roams past, present of nomadic life

BY RUTH RICE

RRICE@TRIBDEM.COM

Mary Mark Munday of New Oxford, Adams County, has had a lifelong interest in Eurasian nomads, and in 1993, she had the opportunity to fulfill a dream.

A professor of art education at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, she took part in a Russian archaeological expedition in which she excavated 2,400-year-old Sauromatian and Sarmatian burials in the southern Ural Steppe for four summers.

“I spent 20 years reading on Eurasian nomads through the arts,” Munday said. “I was fascinated with their use of animal imagery and their intimate involvement with nature.”

Beginning in 1996, she had the opportunity to take photographs and spend some time among nomads living in the Mongolian Altai and the Turkmen Sahra region of Iran.

“It was important to document the living as well as to look at the past,” Munday said. “It gave insight into what I was looking at in the graves.”

Photographs and artifacts collected by Munday in her travels will be exhibited at Bottle Works Ethnic Arts Center, 411 Third Ave. in the Cambria City section of Johnstown. “Guests of the Wind: A Perspective from Two Edges of Eurasia” will be on display Saturday through April 30.

A formal opening will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, and Munday will present a gallery talk on “Hospitality, Horizon and Belief” at 3.

The exhibition compares life among the nomadic Kazakhs in Bayan Olgiy, western Mongolia, and the Goklan and Yomut Turkmen of northeastern Iran, an area called Turkmen Sahra.

Eurasia is a vast territory stretching from Hungary across Asia to the Great Wall of China.

“The Kazakhs and Turkmen are the same people from the same root tribe,” Munday said.

“Though they are living apart, these two groups of Turkic-speaking people share historical and cultural contributions that have shaped our lives today.”

Munday’s collection reveals such commonalities as horsemanship, housing construction, design choices, intimate connections with nature and unconditional hospitality.

Artifacts on display include a variety of hats and handwoven saddlebags, decorative camel wear, rugs and wall hangings.

Photographs show nomads taking down or putting up their wooden-frame mobile homes. The structure is called a “yurt,” which means “place” in the original Turkish language.

In Mongolia, the felt- or canvas-covered structures are called “ger,” and in Iran, they are called “alachek.”

Inside, embroidered wall hangings form curtains between the beds.

“They live more richly with less material goods,” Munday said. “Some of them are professional people in the cities, doctors, lawyers and teachers, but they like to spend the summer in their yurt. They have their cell phones, but they love their traditions.”

Hospitality is of utmost importance to the nomads.

A Mongolian proverb states: “Happy is he who often has guests; cheerful is the home near which stand the horses of visitors.”

“Any time of day, you are welcomed in and offered food,” Munday said. “We were careful not to come during mealtime because they would feel obli-gated.”

Arts center Executive Director Rosemary Pawlowski found out about Munday’s work through Marcene Glover, a local artist and former activities director at Bottle Works.

Munday also is an elementary art teacher in Carroll County, Maryland.

“We wanted something for Women’s History Month,” Pawlowski said. “The women are in charge of the homes and hospitality, even though they move every three months.

“This is a wonderful body of work. It’s a whole different way of living. That’s where the title came from: Wherever the wind blows, they go.”



Views from Iran to Mongolia

What: “Guests of the Wind: A Perspective from Two Edges of Eurasia,” photographs and artifacts collected by Mary Mark Munday.

When: Saturday through April 30.

Where: Bottle Works Ethnic Arts Center, 411 Third Ave. in the Cambria City section of Johnstown.

Information: 536-5399.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.