Nikolay Roerich found a kind of color key to the nature of every country. So, for example, in his sketches of Mongolia and China, he used no color contrasts and built them on the basis of one dominant tone.

The prototype of the Mongolian caravan was probably caravan mafas (carts), which the artist observed when completing his own caravan in Chinese Turkestan. Roerich exclaimed that they could be offered to any museum, since their appearance has not changed for several centuries.

(N.K. Roerich. Altai – Himalayas)