He later became a hub for other foreign travellers & entrepreneurs. Mamen learned the Mongolian language quickly and also took up Chinese and Russian in the first years of his stay in Urga. He was close friends with Mongols & had some access to high-ranking #BogdKhanate officials via his landlord, host and companion Lobsen Jantzang, who owned the compound Mamen used for his business in the Chinese Maimaching.
Mamen befriended many of the Russians living in the Russian town outside of Urga.

Oscar Mamen, born 1885 in a village southeast of Oslo, became salesman and entrepreneur in Mongolia in 1911, at a time when the #BogdKhanate was established & Mongols fought back against Chinese hegemony over the steppe plains to the north. He established himself in the Mongol capital, Urga (now Ulaanbaatar), and quickly became part of the Chinese and foreign community located east of Urga. He settled and operated his cigarette-selling business for #BritishAmericanTobacco from the Maimaching.

As of today, I have digitised & for the most part done HTR on:
- pocket diary 1912
- pocket diary 1913
- pocket diary 1914
- diary/notebook 1901-1911
- diary/notebook 1912-1913
- diary/notebook 1913-1914
- diary/notebook 1937
- diary/notebook 1938
- typewritten manuscript "Atter Et År i Østen" (1938)
- typewritten and handwritten misc. documents, incl. field notes, sketches, inventory lists, letter drafts, book excerpts (1937-1938)
#OscarMamen #SpecialCollections #Mongolia #BogdKhanate #China