Khorkhog From Start to Finish in Pictures

Warning: if you have a strong stomach, you may want to read the post below which includes the actual death sentence and butchering of the sheep.  If blood and death of an animal bothers you, please don't read through and look at the pictures!  I was squeamish as I watched the whole process, but made myself watch this Mongolian tradition, knowing I might not ever get to see it again.  Even looking at the pictures makes me feel a little "whoozy"!  So, be forewarned...and read on if you're just extremely curious!

To begin with....our organization's team went out to a nice ger camp.  If you don't know what a ger is, look it up online.  If you've been reading my blog all along, you know.  "Ger" is the Mongolian word for our Americanized word "Yurt".  "Ger" rhymes with "hair".  This camp will hopefully be the location for our August orientation/training, as well.



In August, we will have the choice of staying in these gers, or
a rustic hotel on the grounds.




The ger camp from the top of the hill.  Take notice of the distant hills.
What a refreshing change from the high buildings in the city with all the honking horns and spitting pedestrians!







Here we are, refreshed after a day in the countryside!  We couldn't resist posing
in front of one of these neat little ger homes.  Many people in the countryside live in homes
such as these year around.  There are even gers in the city, and some of our friends and
students live in gers.



To ease into this process...I'll show you the cute picture of the sheep.  Of course, this only makes the
process more difficult, because you get attached to a dear little face.  This is the "start" of the
khorkhog process...a fattened sheep.



This is the master of our khorkhog butchering.  He untied the sheep, marched him over to this tarp on the ground,
and had him laid out on his back all within about 10 seconds (too fast for me to capture a picture!).  The lamb was truly
a picture of a quiet lamb, being led to slaughter.  I was amazed that there wasn't a noise from the sheep.  He
willingly let the master slice his stomach open.  Here, as he lies on his back, still alive, the master takes a very sharp knife, makes a slit down the middle of the stomach, reaches in to snap off an artery, and the sheep slowly bleeds to death, bleeding into his inner cavity.  You will see a picture later where the blood is scooped out of the cavity.  The sheep was dead in about a minute, with some reflexes of his legs for a few minutes after that.



Minutes after the artery has been snapped, the sheep lies still.  I believe the butcher is waiting for the blood to drain into the cavity during this time.



Cutting off the legs.



Beginning the skinning process.  The sheep in sheep's clothing!



And the skinning continues.



One side of the hide or pelt has been taken off.



The legs which were taken off a few photos back.



Now it's time to take the organs, stomach, and intestines out.  This was one of the "yukkiest" parts for me!



Scooping blood from the body cavity.  This whole process kept the blood inside the body cavity and inside cups and kettles.  No blood was spilled on the tarp or the ground.  This is all an important part of the process for them.



The stomach full of grass which the sheep had consumed is in the front left part of the photo.



As the sheep meat (mutton), carrots, potatoes, onions, and cabbage all stewed together with the hot rocks,
we all took walks and visited together.  Kevin and I took a hike up this hill and came upon this ovoo, a spiritual tribute
which can be found all over Mongolia.  It is tied to spiritism, superstitions, and worship which isn't connected to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 



Here's Kevin with his portion of mutton and vegetables.  We are inside a traditional ger.  Gers are ALWAYS
orange inside.  I asked our Mongolian friend (who also has helped us learn some language), if anyone ever decides
to paint the inside of their ger a different color.  She hesitated, thought, and then laughed.  That would be strange...almost against all the rules!

 From this day, which was three days after Easter, I thought of the Lamb of God...who willingly gave His life for me.  I enjoyed my teammates in the great outdoors.  I was rejuvenated in my love for my husband as we had some time hiking in the hills.  What a great day!