Ulaanbaatar (Mongolian: Улаанбаатар) or Ulan Bator is the capital of Mongolia. In 1998 its population was estimated at 650,000. It is situated north and slightly east of the center of Mongolia, on the Tuul River, in a valley at the foot of the mountain Bogdo Uul.
Founded in 1649 as a Buddhistmonastery town named Urga, it prospered in the 1860s as a commercial center on the tea route between Russia and China. Mongolia first proclaimed its autonomy in 1911, and when the city became the capital of the new Mongolian People's Republic in 1924, its name was changed to Ulaanbaatar ("red hero" in the Mongolian language), in honor of Mongolia's national hero Sühbaatar, who liberated Mongolia from Ungern von Sternberg's troops, Chinese rule, and called in the Soviet Red Army. His statue still adorns Ulaanbaatar's central square.
Ulaanbaatar has an international airport, Buyant Ukhaa Airport and is connected by highway to all the major towns in Mongolia and by rail to the Trans-Siberian railway and Chinese railroad systems. The city has the only university in the country, Mongolian State University. But there are number of colleges both private and public. A historical library contains a wealth of ancient Mongolian, Chinese, and Tibetan manuscripts.
URGA (the Russian form of the Mongol Orgo = palace of a high official), a city of Mongolia, and the administrative centre of the northern and eastern Kalka tribes, in 48° 20' N., 107° 30' E., on a tributary of the Tola river.
This "resplendently divine lama" resides in a sacred quarter on the western side of the town, and acts as the spiritual colleague of the Chinese amban, who controls all temporal matters, and who is specially charged with the control of the frontier town of Kiakhta and the trade conducted there with the Russians.
The temples in the Mongol quarter are numerous and imposing, and in one is a gilt image of Maitreya Bodhisattva, 33 f t.
Urga, filmed on the steppes of Inner Mongolia, was the first film made by Mikhalkov outside Russia.
At the end of the film, Gombo and Pagma leave their tent with the Âurga' of the title, a pole with a noose for catching cattle which is also used to mark out a private space for lovemaking - a symbol, according to Mikhalkov, of love, solitude and power.
Characteristic of Mikhalkov's films are Urga's emphasis on cultural identity, history and memory, while the exquisitely observed family scenes, complemented by beautiful shots of the prairie, helped the film to win the Golden Lion at Venice.
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