Erecting a Ger - Part I: Building Materials

Since I’ve already discussed winterizing an already-standing ger, this time let’s discuss putting up a ger from the ground up. Three months ago (of course) I got to help put a new ger together, although I ended up doing more photography than actual labor. It’s OK though, they understood that I don’t get to see this in the U.S.

Seeing as this is so long, I'll try something new and split this into several posts. It's a ger-building series!

Elements of a ger

In this first picture you can see the parts of a ger gathered together and laying in a dusty yard. We have the doorframe, walls, center pillars, canvas cover, tarp, wall hanging, rope, roof poles, center ring, and floor. Here they all are individually:

Ger floor

At this point the floor (шал or хаяа) has already mostly been put together. The workers swept, leveled, and stomped the area where the ger would be put up, and layed out nine wooden floor pieces made of boards nailed together. Then there’s a thick plastic sheet with a fake linoleum design on it.

  

Ger walls

A ger wall (хана) is a framework of hinged wooden beams that can be compressed or stretched out like an accordion. The size of a ger is expressed by how many walls it has. My ger is a five-wall ger, so there are five of these accordion-like segments put together. This ger only has four, so it’s a little smaller than mine.

Here's a close-up

Roof ring

The roof ring (тооно) is the ger’s “window,” the round opening at the top of the ger in the center. It is painted with traditional designs. The outer rim of the ring has slots for the ends of the roof poles to fit into.

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Roof poles

These poles (унь) form the roof, or at least the basis of the roof, of the ger. One end of each roof pole has a twine rope threaded through it. The other end is tapered.

Pillars

These pillars will hold up the roof of the ger. They are also highly decorated.

Ger coverings

Among the various sheets and covering that go in the ger are the canvas layer, the wall hanging, and the water-proof plastic tarp, all shown here.

These paper sheets - basically like a giant paper bag - also form part of the covering.

Felt sheets (эсгий)

Ger door (хаалга)

Next up: Assembling the framework...