Three Men I Met in Mongolia ② Vision 15

A man who can see people 50km away, his vision is probably 15

There were many mysterious men in Mongolia.
Among them, he might be the one who surprised me the most.
His name was Khurchin-akha.
I don't know what Khurchin means.
Akha means older brother.
He was the son of my friend's uncle.
In other words, he was my friend's cousin.
Since he was older, I also called him Akha.

I think he was around twenty-six or twenty-seven years old.
He wasn't tall.
But his body was toned.
He was always smiling.
And he could do anything.

He could ride a horse.
He knew about sheep.
He knew about cows, too.
He knew about goats, too.
He could tell the weather.
He knew about the grasslands, too.
He was truly a nomad.

What was especially amazing was his horsemanship.
It was truly amazing.

While galloping on a horse,
he would pick up a hat dropped on the ground.
He would stand on a running horse.
He would change direction.
He would do it while laughing.

If it were a movie, I would think it was too cool to be true.
But he was really doing it.
He and his horse were truly one.

But what surprised me the most was not his horsemanship.
It was his eyes.

One day.
We decided to go on another picnic from the uncle's house.
The members were me, my friend, and Khurchin-akha.
The three of us rode our horses.
We aimed for the mountains visible in the distance.

How many hours did we ride?
Two hours or three hours?
There is nothing to compare things to on the grasslands.
So I couldn't even tell the sense of distance.

The only thing I can say is,
the mountains we could see were very far away.
That is all.

After riding for about an hour,
Khurchin-akha suddenly said.

"There's a person over there."

I looked around.
I couldn't see anything.

My friend was also tilting his head.

Khurchin-akha said again.

"There's a horse, too."

I couldn't see it.

My eyesight is not bad.
Actually, it's quite good; it was 1.5 then and still is now.
But I couldn't see anything.
Truly nothing.

There were only mountains in the distance.

Then we continued for about thirty minutes.
Then Khurchin-akha said again.

"They've moved a little."

"There are sheep, too."

Still, I couldn't see anything.

We continued for another thirty minutes or so.

Finally, I saw something.

They were definitely there.

Something like small dots were moving.
Looking closely, they were horses.
There were people, too.
And sheep as well.

Khurchin-aha laughed.

"They're people from the neighboring village."

We got closer.

They really were people from the neighboring village.

They were greeting each other with smiles.
It seemed they were acquaintances.

I stood there, stunned.

I wonder what the distance was just now.
I don't know exactly.

But at the very least,
from a distance where I couldn't see anything,
he could see the people, the horses, and the sheep.

I wondered if he had binoculars.
Of course, he didn't.
He was using his naked eyes.

I asked my friend.

"Are all Mongolians' eyes that good?"

My friend laughed.

"No, Khurchin-aha is special."

I thought as much.

Thinking about it now,
I feel it wasn't just about simple eyesight.

People who live on the grasslands
look into the distance.

They look every day.

They look for livestock.
They watch the weather.
They look for wolves.
They look for people.

They repeat this for years and decades.

Perhaps that is why they can see.

It is not just eyesight.
The power of sight itself must be different.

I am no match for a man raised on the grasslands.
That is what I thought.

In Mongolia that day,
I met another man.

A man who lives with horses,
knows the grasslands inside out,
and can see further than anyone else.

There is no way I could win a fight against a man like this on the grasslands with a horse and bow and arrow.
This is a descendant of the Mongol Empire.

Mongolia is formidable.
Khurchin-akha is formidable.