Yak Butter

There was a strange, nauseating smell which permeated all of Ulaan Baatar (maybe all of Mongolia) and now I smell it here, too. It turns out to be the Yak Butter. The ladies carry it around in little tubs like purses to eat like peanut butter out of a jar when they get hungry. Or they have it in their thermos of hot salty tea, drinking it mixed in before it cools and congeals. Doesn’t it sound appetizing? Near the temples, there’s large vats of it burning with a wick like a semi-soft candle; that’s the smell filling the air and giving everyone (now including me, too!) that distinctive odor.