II The Ger Economy · A Steppe Atlas
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Chapter II · Four Pillars

Four pillars that hold up every ger on the steppe.

Pillar 01 · Material

Felt before form

Pressed sheep-wool walls insulate the ger at −40°C winter and hold scent of nine generations. We start with the wool, not the diagram.

Pillar 02 · Mobility

The herd sets the route

A family moves four to six times a year, following grass and stream. Every object earns its weight; a saddle outlives three horses.

Pillar 03 · Ornament

Uljii holds the line

The endless-knot ornament threads doorframe, saddle, and silver bowl — one mathematically continuous line, never sketched, drawn the same way for eight centuries.

Pillar 04 · Symbol

Soyombo sets the sky

Zanabazar’s ten-element emblem stacks fire, sun, moon, earth, water — first carved in 1686, now the centerline of the national flag and our north-star geometry.