MWW 29: Сум

Cyrillic	сум
Transcription	sum
IPA	[sʊm]
Layman’s Pronunciation	SOOM
Translation	county, district, village
In Genghis Khan’s time it was sumu.

Map of Mongolian sums: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Mongolia_sum_map.png

A sum (also transcribed soum sometimes) is a kind of political subdivision in Mongolia. In English it is usually translated as "district" or "county." Here in PC Mongolia, we usually don't translate it and just say sum in English, because we all know exactly what we're talking about, and don't have to say things like "district" that don't really fully convey what we mean by a sum. Sum also has connotations of "rural," and the sums collectively make up the хөдөө (hödöö, "countryside"), which stands in contrast to the various хот ("city"), including aimag centers (аймгийн төв), designated cities (like Дархан / Darhan and Эрдэнэт / Erdenet, which have equal status to provinces), and the capital Улаанбаатар / Ulaanbaatar. (As a matter of fact, Mongolians usually don't say "Улаанбаатар," they just say хот "the city." When unspecfied, it's assumed they mean Ulaanbaatar.)

If you visit a typical sum, you will find yourself in a small and often undeveloped (by American standards) kind of human settlement that would probably fit the image of a "village." They average about 3,000 people. The one exception is Хархорин (Kharkhorin), which is the ancient capital, a major tourist site, has over 14,000 people, and generally fits the description of a town. This part is the "sum center," because technically the sum also includes the out-of-sight nomads who orbit the sum center. Soums are divided into small units (often only a couple hundred people) called bags (баг). Usually the soum center is one bag, with the surrounding steppe divided into several more bags.

Here in Peace Corps we often divide volunteers into UB volunteers (in Ulaanbaatar), aimag volunteers (in aimag centers / provincial capitals), and soumers (out in rural areas). Not many volunteers get put in UB (proportionally much fewer than the 40% or so of Mongolia's population that lives there). Most people get put in aimag centers, which usually have plenty of infrastructure but are still only partly developed. Aimag centers usually have several PCVs together. Sums aren't big enough to warrant having many developers, so soumers, almost by definition, are the only volunteers, and often the only non-Mongolians at their sites. The exception, again, is Kharkhorin, which has two volunteers (but this is still smaller than some aimag centers that have half a dozen volunteers or so). Soumers also generally deal with fewer options in shopping, and fewer or no places to eat out. UB and aimag PCVs are usually put up in apartments. Soum PCVs are never in apartments, and almost only in gers (except some in forested areas who have wooden houses). Six volunteers, including me, have no internet access at site, and we're all soumers. For us, using the internet, visiting friends, or buying fruit means traveling from site. That can be a journey of anywhere from 1 hour in my case, to 6 hours (I hear) in the case of another guy out in the Gobi. Soums may or may not have paved roads or plumbing. Sucks, doesn't it? Well...actually not. Pretty soon you get used to the "deprivation." Furthermore, we get the "жинхэнэ Монгол" ("real Mongolian") experience. Our daily lives are permeated with the kinds of things that tourists pay thousands of dollars to see for a week or two in the summer: gers, airag, horses, ovoos, vast skies and steppes, deel-clad nomads herding sheep, and nothing but Mongolian spoken. And anyway, if you just wanted to sit in a cushy apartment, why join Peace Corps?