The Blue Sky

The high Mongolian Altai of Bayan-Ölgii province, near the provincial centre Ölgii, where a Tuvan herding family follows its flocks between summer and winter pastures. A boy grows up among the yurt, the grandmother, the dog and the animals as the old nomadic world starts to give way under the socialist state. The map runs west from Ölgii through the Tuvan district of Tsengel to the glaciated peaks of Tavan Bogd on the Russian and Chinese frontier.

The boy

Ölgii, the provincial centre

The Altai world

The reach of the distant state runs through the provincial capital of Bayan-Ölgii in Mongolia's far west. It is from centres like this that the schooling, collectivisation and new rules of the socialist era press outward onto the herding families of the surrounding Altai, the change that shadows the boy's childhood.

Setting: Bayan-Ölgii province

explicit Ölgii is a real, named town, the administrative seat of Bayan-Ölgii province; this marks the town centre.

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The boy

Tsengel, the Tuvan district

The Altai world

The book grows out of the world of the Tsengel Tuvans, a small Tuvan-speaking herding people in a province that is mostly Kazakh. Galsan Tschinag belongs to this community, and the boy's family, faith and animals are drawn from it. The district anchors the real homeland behind the story.

Setting: the author's Tuvan homeland

explicit Tsengel is a real sum (district) of Bayan-Ölgii and the home of the Tsengel Tuvans; the author comes from this Tuvan community. This marks the district centre, not a specific camp.

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