Mongolia—a country of stark, ravishing landscapes and resurgent Buddhist traditions—is looking ahead to its future. Go behind the scenes as photographer Freric Lagrange shares his inspirations for these images, and explore Mongolia's emergence from Communism, in the Travel + Leisure article Inland Empire.

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Photographer's Note: This is a very typical Mongolian landscape. I took the shot in the late afternoon as the sun was going down. Here, the light softly disappears and sunsets last forever. It's pretty incredible.

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Photographer's Note: My crew and I stumbled across this gentleman sitting near an oboo, or sacred Buddhist mound, where people go for prayer. He had been traveling a long distance.

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Photographer's Note: I was with my driver, assistant and guide when we met this guy who was crossing part of the Gobi and had stopped with his cattle at a well. He was so laid-back. All I had to do was make eye contact and he let me take his picture. What I like about this photo is that it could have been taken any time over the past century.

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Photographer's Note: The side story here is the monastery had just closed. When the night guard saw us outside, we saw him reach for and load his gun. My assistant was pretty scared, but in the end we all had a good laugh when we realized that he did this every night, and that he didn't intend to come after us.

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Photographer's Note: In ex-Soviet countries you have to go through a lot of red tape and people to get permission to enter special buildings at off-hours. This was the case here at this theater in Ulaanbaatar, which was built by the Germans in the 1950s. The dancers in the distance are rehearsing for Swan Lake.

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Maputaland boasts one of the world's best game reserves, Phinda. While on an early morning drive, safari-goers will not only have the chance to spot the Big Five who inhabit the reserve.

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