Young Girls with Eagles, When Women Were Birds: Svidensky in Mongolia
Caters News photo of Ashol Pan by Asher Svidensky , used with permission In the fall of 1998, Taukel Sultan, a member of the Mongolian Parliament, traveled 6,000 miles to visit Wyoming, Mongolia’s Sister Province. When he arrived in Sundance, my daughter and I went to meet this exotic visitor. "Do you ride horses?” he asked her, his Mongolian interpreter at his side, a few town locals gathered around us. Her dark eyes lit up. “Ah,” he smiled, using both his hands to shake hers. “In my country, every year, we hold a horse race for the children! Six-year-olds race bareback 35 kilometers! You should come see our horse races!” He turned his attention back to the small crowd and then suddenly turned back to Sarah. “Do you drink milk?” he asked. A little embarrassed, she grinned and nodded. “Ah,” he smiled again, “our yaks have the fattest milk! Like your beef cows, our yaks graze the open grasslands and uplands of the mo...