Many, many years ago-centuries ago, in fact-there lived a people with oak colored skin and almond eyes, herders on horseback and camel who followed sheep and goats and yak across ancient grasslands at the top of the world. Theirs was a land of bitter extremes, wind-swept steppes bounded by jagged peaks, long winters cold beyond imagining that melted into short green grassy summers when the herds multiplied and there was milk and meat in abundance.
Long before the time of Christ, before Buddha and Mohammed, these tribes held a belief in the sacredness of all things and the need to keep a balance-balance between the world of people and the world of nature, and with the worlds above and below. Everything they did reflected this belief.
Trees were scarce, so the herders drew from their animals to create shelter. They layered sheep’s wool, sprinkled it with water and worked it into felted mats.
Roof struts made from saplings were slipped into a central wooden ring, then tied to the top of circular lattice walls and covered with the felted mats. The herders tied the felt to the roof and walls with ropes and belts made from animal hair. In the winter extra mats were added for warmth; in the summer fewer layers were used. Sections could be raised or even completely removed in hot weather to allow for airflow through the shelter.
The original word for “nomad” came from a word for felt, making the nomads “felt people”. These felt people called their circular, lattice-walled shelters “home,” ger (rhymes with “air”) or uy (oo-ee) which today helps us define what is a yurt. It was a shelter that enabled them to live sustainably in the harshest of climates, to move with their herds, to live in tribal communities and raise their families century upon century in a manner that was simple yet comfortable and in balance with the world around them.