‘Magnificent Mongolia’ coloring book

The Mongol Messenger
baljmaa@montsame.mn
2016-11-24 11:20:47

Beautiful art therapy to represent Mongolia

When it comes to coloring books, people always think about little kids holding their crayons and trying to stay in the lines on the pictures of cartoon characters.  But a coloring book designed for adults is another thing because it has recently become a popular trend and a leisure craze.  The coloring book, with its calming features is believed to be stress-relieving for people who want to unplug from their everyday nerve-wracking issues.  It inspires people to be more creative to do something beautiful.  There is even an adult coloring book club for people who want to meet new people and usefully distract their worries with something creative.

In Mongolia, a new coloring book for people of all ages was launched just a few months ago, becoming the first ever coloring book for adults to be published in the country.  The book filled with elegant and meaningful images about the culture, traditions and heritages of Mongolia, was created by two Mongolian young artists G.Zolboo and Ch.Itgel.  The latter graduated from Australian National University, and that she used to miss her hometown a lot when she was living in Australia.  Then, she noticed Mongolians who were living abroad always talking about sentimental things and memories about their home country as well as the history and traditions of their country.  Conversely, people who still live in their home country somehow often carry negative minds about their home town.  Therefore, Itgel and Zolboo decided to create this book to make Mongolian people aware of what a beautiful place Mongolia is and that Mongolians ought to make the country of Mongolia more magnificent adding more colors to it.  Zolboo and Itgel joined by each of their families spent 8 months creating this coloring book that would also help children to get to know more about Mongolia in an entertaining way.

The Magnificent Mongolia coloring book is an amazing artwork that includes 60 different images with rich details of Mongolian patterns, daily lifestyle and astonishing nature in its 30 pages.  Each consequent illustration is connected with each other to tell a story about the mesmerising cultural treasures and eye-catching beauty of the nature of Mongolia and a back story is provided to guide readers through the book.

When you open the book, you will be welcomed by a woman dressed in Mongolian traditional costume Deel holding a milk tea and khadag showing a great appreciation and respect.  Then the story continues to tell you the way of lives of the Mongolian nomadic people and show you pictures of all that is connected to the living hood of the Mongolians, such as of five snout – the main livestock animals of the nomadic culture, items you can find in Mongolian ger, movement of nomad in search of better pasture land, Naadam Mongolian national festival, and many others, all of which you can color creatively and artistically as you wish. It is noteworthy to say that all of the book pages are exquisitely embedded with Mongolian patterns – khee ugalz.

Magnificent Mongolia seemed to be a useful and exciting method to expand one’s mind as every reader can read and color the illustrations of the book through their own unique imaginations and variations. Apart from its therapeutic quality, the book has many different advantages and profits, for instance, even a person who thinks they are terrible at drawing could discover their hidden talents and passion.

As it is made by the inner creativity of each reader, the colored images of the book would be a unique and exclusive décor for their home interior.  Every page of the book will not end up in a garbage can, but readers will proudly display them in fine frames and put on their bookshelf or work table.  Sure, the readers can tell the book can be a great promotional product for Mongolia to build its reputation on the world stage and draw attention to Mongolian traditions and culture.  In these regards, the book has already entered international markets and is available on Amazon. 

If you are an adult and perhaps think that coloring books are only for children, just grab this book and a pencil or whichever art medium you have and start coloring just one image in it.  You will start experiencing the smoothing effect of the book without a doubt.

Ts.Baljmaa

Photo source: Magnificent Mongolia Coloring Book Facebook Page 

The article is featured in the Mongol Messenger's issue No. 45 for November 11.