You're listening to TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hume. Today, an eye-opening talk from environmental activist Hulan Batthuyag. She tells us about the ancient Mongolian nomadic lifestyle that has survived for thousands of years and what her ancestral homeland can teach us about how our societies should

survive for years to come. She gave this talk in 2020 at TED at PMI.

It's funny how foreigners ask me the same questions when they first meet me. Questions like,

wow, you're from Mongolia? So do you write horses to go to work? Do you know what Coke is? Or do you have chocolates in Mongolia?

And if I want to have fun with it, I see things like, oh my God, I've never heard any of those

before. What are Coke and chocolates? Can you tell me more about them? It always works, and we have a

good laugh about it too. In reality, our capital city, Olambatbatar is very urban.

We have commercial buildings, brand name hotels, and beautiful art spaces too.

But all too often, foreigners fixate on what Mongolia lacks.

They look at our massive, untouched landscape, traditional nomadic lifestyles, and see it as a sign of poverty.

I disagree.

In fact, I think there's a lot we can learn from ancient Mongolian nomads that will help us survive in the years and decades to come.

When I was only nine, I started playing Mongolia's most celebrated traditional instrument Merunhor, or Horset fiddle. And by 11, I was traveling the world, representing Mongolia

at international festivals, living and studying in places like Japan, China, Finland, Germany, and Sweden.

But then, suddenly, when I was 21, I lost my loving mother. And just two years later, I lost my

father. As an only child, I was devastated and lonely.

At the time, the only thing I had left was my country, so I decided to move home.

When I was lost with sorrow, my country gave me a feeling of safety and belonging.

I imagined the eternal blue sky of Mongolia as my father and the

untouched gorgeous landscape as my mother. Having lived and developed countries for over a decade,

I became very distant from the nomadic lifestyles, so I wanted to reconnect and experience it for myself. I often journeyed away from the city

toward my grandparents' provinces in rural Mongolia to see where my parents and I came from and

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