On 23^rd February, President Ts.Elbegdorj met the team, which has been working over the last five years to create an “Encyclopedia for Children and Young People”. The project team is headed by M.Bold who is the project initiator and director of “Selenge Press” Ltd. Also present was Mongolian People’s Teacher, Academician, Doctor Ch.Avdai, who is the general editor of the work. They both presented the three-volume encyclopedia to the President.

The first volume of the encyclopedia is named “Mongolia Our Motherland” and includes the history, from the times when the first humans came to our land and the ancient Mongolian tribes, which formed the first states such as the Hunnu, Syanbi, Jujan, Tureg, Uighur and the Hirgis. The first volume includes information about of the empires of Chinggis Khaan and his descendants, including the Yuan, the Golden Hord and the Khukh Hord. The description of Mongolian history continues until the present time, covering the Manchurian period and life following the 1921 Revolution. This volume also provides information about Mongolian nature, geography, the weather and other traditional and cultural information which every Mongolian child should know.

The second volume is called “Mongolian Historical Traditions, Culture and Science”. It presents information about the Mongolian ger, national dress, the family and relatives, family trees, the location of national and ethnic groups, religion, food and drink and traditional methods of forecasting the weather using the sky. It also presents the modern sciences.

The third volume is entitled “The World, Countries, and People”. It presents information about ancient peoples and the world – its size, shape, movements and structure. In addition to physical geography, there is material about human geography – population growth and the movement of peoples. The last volume goes on to describe international organizations, world famous universities, libraries, museums, theatres, buildings, cities, the Seven Wonders of the World and famous people.

During the meeting, the project team said that a similar “Encyclopedia for Children and Young People” existed in the Soviet Union some 30 years ago.  The three volumes are called “Mongolian Our Motherland”, “Great Unity”, and “People of the World”. The new Mongolian encyclopedia provides totally updated information.

The President expressed his gratitude to the team which had created the encyclopedia and said that every school library in the country should have a copy. Mr Elbegdorj added by saying that said that the encyclopedia should be updated every 30 years.