Urgana

The first product B. Chantsaldulam (Б. Чанцалдулам) created was not designed for a beauty counter. It was formulated for cancer patients. At her family’s Otoch Od hospital in Ulaanbaatar (Улаанбаатар), chemotherapy patients whose hair began to regrow showed measurable psychological improvement — and the traditional recipes that enabled that regrowth had been passed in secret through three generations of healers, surviving a period when Mongolia’s Soviet-aligned government destroyed 746 monasteries and executed approximately 18,000 monks in an attempt to erase traditional medicine entirely. Urgana (Юргана) launched in 2015 with that hair growth mist. The brand now produces over 50 organic-certified products exported to three countries, built on 500 years of knowledge no competitor can acquire.

Five centuries, then fire

The medical knowledge behind Urgana traces to Jamyaan-Yandag, a student at the Mongolian Medical School established under Kublai Khan in the 13th century. For five centuries, the lineage passed through master-disciple transmission across ten generations of practitioners.

On March 13, 1937, Mongolia’s government closed every traditional medical clinic and pharmacy in the country. Over the next two years, 746 of approximately 800 monasteries were liquidated and burned. Of 83,000 Buddhist monks recorded in September 1937, fewer than 500 remained by end of 1938. The Cyrillic script replacement severed access to classical medical texts in traditional Mongolian and Tibetan. Traditional medicine was, in the words of one researcher for the World Intellectual Property Organization, “officially suppressed and eventually forgotten.”

Not entirely. The eighth-generation practitioner, Lama Dorj (Лам Дорж) — known as Otoch Od, or Healer Od — preserved the lineage through clandestine transmission during the socialist period. What survived was not institutional knowledge but personal knowledge: recipes, diagnostic methods, and treatment protocols memorized and passed in secret from teacher to student.

The doctor’s daughter

The ninth generation brought the knowledge into modern medicine. Dr. P. Baatar — known to patients as “Liver Baatar” and “Five Organs Baatar” for his diagnostic specializations — earned the titles of Meritorious Doctor and Doctor of Medical Sciences. He founded the predecessor brands “Doctor Baatar” and “Одь Тан” and built the Otoch Od hospital in Ulaanbaatar, where traditional formulations met clinical practice. After the 1990 democratic transition ended 53 years of suppression, the Manba Datsan clinic — Mongolia’s revived traditional medicine training center — treated over 230,000 patients, and more than 700 conventional doctors received traditional medicine training.

B. Chantsaldulam studied international relations before earning a business management degree in the United States. She returned with both the inherited medical knowledge and the commercial training to do what her father’s generation had not attempted: transform 500 years of closely held recipes into branded consumer products for international markets.

From hospital ward to product line

Urgana Industry LLC launched in 2015 with that single hair growth mist — the formulation born from cancer ward observation and centuries of traditional knowledge. The path from medical observation to commercial product set the template for everything the company has built since.

The brand expanded across dental care, skincare, and haircare, reaching over 50 products. The company employs more than 60 people and, in December 2023, received the “Organic Products” eco-label from the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry across five product categories. Each product draws on the same source: traditional recipes that were memorized, hidden, and transmitted in secret before reaching the tenth generation.

Ancient dairy science, modern toothpaste

Urgana’s most distinctive product line illustrates how centuries-old knowledge generates commercially viable innovation. The brand’s aaruul toothpaste — the first in the world made from dried curd — was developed from research showing that Mongolian royalty historically had healthier teeth due to fermented dairy consumption. Each 100 grams of aaruul contains 124 milligrams of live calcium.

The dental range expanded to include a pine resin toothpaste that suppresses Helicobacter pylori and a red salt variant, both developed in partnership with the Mongolian University of Life Sciences. These are not wellness marketing claims repackaging commodity ingredients. They are formulations rooted in specific traditional medical knowledge, validated through university research, and protected by the difficulty of replicating a 500-year knowledge base.

The sealed border

When Mongolia became one of the first countries in the world to close its borders in early 2020, over 95 percent of the country’s cosmetics supply — all imported — was cut off. Sixty-five percent of businesses reported significant revenue declines and the economy contracted by up to 5.3 percent.

For domestic producers, the crisis carried a paradox. The border closure that devastated importers gave roughly 40 local manufacturers a captive market. Urgana, with formulations drawing on Mongolian traditional ingredients rather than imported raw materials, was structurally positioned to weather the disruption. In 2022, the company was selected for a manufacturing partnership under Mongolia’s presidential food and wellness security initiative — a government signal that domestic cosmetics production had become a strategic priority.

Three markets and a moat no one can buy

Urgana entered the Chinese and Kazakh markets in 2019, leading with dental products — a category where the aaruul formulation gave the brand something no competitor could replicate. As of late 2023, Urgana was pursuing EU certification for skin and hair care products, with raw material analysis completed and certification rights secured.

The brand operates in a market defined by asymmetry. Mongolia’s total beauty and personal care market — projected at approximately $204 million in 2025 — remains over 95 percent import-dependent, while the domestic natural beauty industry has grown at 21 percent annually. Urgana competes alongside Lhamour, Mongolia’s most internationally visible organic brand with over 70 products and US distribution; Gobi Goo, with its Gobi-region camel milk formulations; and Gilgerem, which chairs the Mongolia Cosmetics Cluster — the EU-backed collective export initiative.

The company’s competitive position rests on a resource no competitor can acquire: a ten-generation lineage of traditional medical knowledge that survived systematic destruction. The knowledge itself is the moat.

Last updated: March 15, 2026