The real digital nomads: how, on the Mongolian steppe, mobile internet is helping save nomadic traditions

Out in the wilds of the Mongolian steppe, nomadic herders are embracing the information age. In this excerpt from his book “The Wolf Economy Awakens”, author Johan Nylander looks at how the internet is rising to the challenges of tradition.

The door swings open to the nomadic tent in which we’ve spent the night. A man pops his head inside the room and asks, enthusiastically, “Wanna see gazelle?”

I roll out of bed, grab my boots, and run after Batbayer, our host. He points to a bright green and sun-soaked hillside a short distance away. But there isn’t just one Mongolian gazelle. At least a hundred of these medium-sized antelopes are on the move, slowly and gracefully, and seemingly unconcerned by the humans gazing at them.

For the local nomads, such scenes are not uncommon. But for this outsider, it’s a magical moment. Then, from the opposite direction, another group of animals comes strolling toward us, equally uninterested in our presence although without the gazelles’ effortless grace.

It’s Batbayer’s flock of sheep, baaing and munching on grass as they go. In less than an hour, the gazelles and sheep have moved on to new valleys, beyond our sight. Batbayer has a cheerful face, but with the deep creases and leathery tan that come from long hours working outdoors, giving him the look of a sailor from an Ernest Hemingway novel. He lives with his wife, Enkhmaa.

Together with his brother, they own much of the livestock they look after as they wander the vast Mongolian landscape.