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TUV, Mongolia — Mongolia's capital is gripped with political uncertainty, but in the countryside it's grass, not politics that is on people's minds.
On the country's vast grasslands, where many live as nomadic herders, tending yak, cows, sheep and goats and living in round felt tents, last week's riot in the capital Ulan Bator over alleged election fraud was a world away.
"We heard that something happened from the radio," said Lkhasurengiin Urgamal, 43, referring to the riots that killed five people and prompted the president to declare emergency rule for the first time in Mongolia's history.
She said it made her concerned, but, busy moving with her three children to new grazing lands, she did not have much cause to dwell on the news.
"In the countryside, life goes on," she said.
For now, she was consumed with setting up the new household on her own, with her husband to follow later with the herds, who take more time to get across the grasslands.
"Sheep are slow," she explained.
In Ulan Bator, everyone has a theory about the riot that followed last Sunday's parliamentary election, which preliminary results show was won by the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP).
Perceptions of fraud led mobs to set fire to the MPRP's headquarters in a night of violence and left Mongolia's political parties locked in discussions on how to move forward.
"That was a mess," said Otgonbayar Jargalsaikhan, 30, milking mares by hand into metal pails. "I think it's just accumulated frustration."
But surrounded by green hills and with only the sound of horses, the political violence seemed far away.
"I think they should just work it out somehow through discussions," he said.
For Davajanstan Minjuur, 65, who moved to the countryside in her retirement, as long as the natural world was in order, politics was secondary.
"As for nomads, they care about nature, trees and mountains. The rest of it, they're not interested in," she said, surveying the white tents dotted across the grassland.
"Our people will overcome this. Our people are clever because we're the descendents of Genghis Khan," she said.
The infamous ruler once commanded an empire as far west as Hungary, and despite his memory being made a taboo during the decades Mongolia was a Soviet satellite, Genghis Khan is once again worshipped as the father of the nation.
Urgamal's main concern was getting her children registered in their new district so she would receive an allowance for them, but if asked to chose, she preferred the MPRP.
"Things were going on as normal, so why don't we just continue that way. If there is any change, that could bring stresses," she said.
With hundreds of heads of livestock to graze, for her the spring rains were more significant than the election, no matter who the real winner.
"The grasses here this year are fantastic," she said.
