GENGHIS KHAN AND Th Edited by William W. Fitzhugh Morris Rossabi William Honeychurch Project Administrator Abigail McDermott MONGOL EMPIRE TV i Published by Dino Don Inc., The Mongolian Preservation Foundation and Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution Sponsored by Don Lessem Vahid Kooros Distributed by University of Washington Press Contents Forewords: Nambaryn Enkbbayar, President of Mongolia 8 Khasbazaryn Bekhbat, Ambassador to the United States 9 Don Lessem 10 Exhibits 12 Contributors 19 1. Introduction: Genghis Khan: Empire and Legacy by William W. Fitzhugh 23 Part I. Before Genghis: Lands and Peoples of Mongolia 2. Mongolia: Heartland of Asia by James Bosson 3. Mongolia: Ancient Hearth of Central Asia by Steven B. Young 4. Tree Rings, Climate History, and Genghis Khan by Gordon C. Jacoby 5. Masters of the Steppe: Peoples of Mongolia by David Sneath 6. Mongolian Shamanism: The Mosaic of Performed Memory by Manduhai Buyandelger 7. Sounds from Nature: Music of the Mongols by Peter K. Marsh 8. Precursor to Empire: Early Cultures and Prehistoric Peoples by William Honeychurch, William W. Fitzhugh, and Chunag Amartuvshin 9. Empire Building before the Mongols: Legacies of the Turks and Uyghurs by Jonathan K. Skaff and William Honeychurch 10. Genghis Khan Emerges: Power and Polity on the Steppe by Isenbike Togan 43 jo 53 57 65 72 75 *5 9i Part II. Genghis Times 11. Genghis Khan by Morris Rossabi 12. Mongol Women by Morris Rossabi 13. “All the Khan’s Horses” by Morris Rossabi 14. Introduction to “The Secret History of the Mongols” by Paul Kahn 15. Rule by Divine Right by Shagdaryn Bira 16. Ancient Cities of the Steppe by J. Daniel Rogers 17. Searching for Genghis: Excavations of the Ruins at Avraga by Noriyuki Shiraishi 18. The Crossroads in Khara Khorum: Excavations at the Center of the Mongol Empire by Ulambayar Erdenebat and Ernst Pohl 19. The Search for Khara Khorum and the Palace of the Great Khan by Hans-Georg Hiittel 10. John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck by David Morgan 21. Xi Xia: The First Mongol Conquest by Ruth W. Dunnell 99 no 113 117 124 127 132 137 146 150 153 Part III. The Mongolian Western Empire 22. The Mongolian Western Empire by David Morgan 163 23. Rashid al-Din by David Morgan iyo 24. The Golden Horde and Russia by Daniel C. Waugh 1-33 25. Conquerors and Craftsmen: Archaeology of the Golden Horde 181 by Mark G. Kramarovsky 26. The Mongols at War by Timothy May 191 Part IV. Kublai Khan and Yuan China 27. The Vision in the Dream: Kublai Khan and the Conquest of China by Morris Rossabi 203 28. Emissaries, East and West: Rabban Sauma and Marco Polo by Morris Rossabi 217 29. Ibn Battuta by Ross E. Dunn 220 30. The Yuan Synthesis: Chinese Influence on the Mongol Culture (1271-1368) 223 by Franqois Louis 31. Chinese Influence on Iranian Art in the Mongol Empire by Willem J. Vogelsang 23 3 32. A Marriage of Convenience: Goryeo-Mongol Relations in the Thirteenth and 239 Fourteenth Centuries by George L. Kallander 33. The Lost Fleet of Kublai Khan: Mongol Invasions of Japan by James P. Delgado, 243 Randall J. Sasaki and Kenzo Hayashida 34. Forensics in the Gobi: The Mummies of Hets Mountain Cave by Bruno Frohlich, 233 Tsend Amgalantugs, David R. Hunt, Janine Hinton and Erdene Batshatar 33. Cave Burials of Mongolia by Ulambayar Erdenebat 233) PartV. Genghis Khan's Legacy 36. Mongolia from Empire to Republic, 1400 to 1921 by Pamela K. Crossley 263 37. Buddhism in Mongolia by Shagdaryn Bira 272 38. Genetic Legacy of Genghis Khan by Theodore G. Schurr 276 39. I Conquer Like a Barbarian! Genghis Khan in the Western Poular Imagination 278 by Peter K. Marsh and Myagmar Saruul-Erdene 40. Today’s Genghis Khan: From Hero to Outcast to Hero Again 283 by Nomin Lkhagvasuren Acknowledgments 289 Object Checklist and Illustration Credits 291 Works Cited 299 Index 313 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Genghis Khan and the Mongol empire / edited by William W. Fitzhugh, Morris Rossabi, William Honeychurch p. cm. Published in conjunction with an exhibition which is first appearing at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, February-September 2009. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-295-98957-0 (alk. paper) 1. Genghis Khan, 1162-1227. -■ Mongols—History—To 1500. 3. Mongolia-Antiquities. 4. Mongols-History. I. Fitzhugh, William W., 1943- II. Rossabi, Morris. III. Honeychurch, William, 1966- IV. Houston Museum of Natural Science. DS22.G46 2009 950.21092—DC22 Cover Nadaam Riders Horses have been central to Mongol cultures for thousands of years. Speed and horsemanship are contested as much today as in the past, primarily in nadaam festivals held annually in early July. Competitive racing has been an important part of Mongol life for centuries, if not for thousands of years, and was the basis for training Genghis Khan’s 13th- century cavalry troops. Page i Whistling arrow Mongol battle commanders used whistling arrows as sound signals to initiate battle orders and for disorienting prey during the hunt. The sound was created by wind rushing across small cup-shaped hollows in the arrow stem. Page 2-3 Erdene Zuu Monastery After its heyday in the 13th century, the Mongol capital city, Khara Khorum, declined and knowledge of its location was lost. Archaeological work conducted in the 20th century identified its buried remains under and north of the Erdene Zuu monastery. Archaeologists believe the monastery, founded in 1586, is built on the remains of the khan’s palace. Back cover: Paiza Use of metal paizas, or messenger passes, preceded the Mongol period, but were adopted by Genghis and later Mongol khans to guarantee safe passage for official representatives and emissaries throughout the Mongol realm. They were worn about the neck and were inscribed with a silver- inlaid message proclaiming that anyone harming the bearer could be put to death. Early paizas were shaped as oblong plates, while those of the Yuan period like this one were round and inscribed with £Phags-pa script. Notes on Transliteration The Editors have adopted a common sense approach toward translit¬ eration of foreign words. In general, the following standard systems of Romanization have been used: pinyin for Chinese, the revised roman- ization of Korean of 2000, and Hepburn for Japanese. The Royal Asiatic Society system has been used for the transliteration of Persian. Antoine Mostaert’s scheme for the transliteration of Classical Mongolian, as modified by Francis Cleaves, has been adopted, except for these deviations: ch is used for c sh is used for s gh is used for y kh is used for q j is used for j Macrons and other symbols have not been used in order not to impose on the reader. For contemporary Mongolian terms in the Cyrillic alpha¬ bet we use a simplified transliteration system in which some letters and diacritical marks represent one or more than one Cyrillic letter as follows: a is used for A e is used for 3 i is used for H and H o is used for O and© u is used for y and Y y is used for bl ye is used for E yo is used for E ya is used for H yu is used for K) ‘ is used for b When a Mongolian term has a traditional transliteration in English, such as the word “gobi,” we defer to that form. When authors have requested specific transliterations, we have done our best to accommodate them. Lenders to the Exhibition The Dornod Province Museum, Mongolia The Dornogobi Province Museum, Mongolia Natsag Gankhuyag, Arlington, Virginia Larry and Pat Gotuaco, San Francisco, California The Institute of Archaeology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences Vahid and Cathy Kooros, with the cooperation of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Arthur Leeper, Belvedere, California The Military Museum of Mongolia The National Library of Mongolia The National Museum of Mongolia The Qinxuan Collection, San Francisco, California The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg Foreword I am pleased that well-known Mongolian and American scholars and scientists, cultural, educational, and scientific organizations, including the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum of Mongolia, are once again so graciously engaged in an international project for both a touring exhibition and a compre¬ hensive book, Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire. Both this hook and the exhibition are build¬ ing a magnificent bridge of mutual under¬ standing and support, education, and col¬ laboration between Mongolia and America, between the people of East and West, as well as between the past and the present, and so, paving a solid foundation for the fu¬ ture. I am happy that hundreds of thousands of Americans, especially young people will benefit from this wonderful cultural project. Mongolia has a rich history. Although insignificant in numbers, the Mongols es¬ tablished the world’s largest land empire, stretching from the Pacific to the Mediter¬ ranean, from Siberia to the Himalayas, under the able leadership of the legend¬ ary Genghis Khan—widely recognized as The Man of the Second Millennium. It was the Great Mongol Empire that caused the first wave of globalization with ensuing free trade and exchange of ideas. An efficient and transparent tax system, the notion of diplomatic immunity, un¬ precedented postal and communications networks encompassing all parts of the great empire, tolerance of various reli¬ gions—all were introduced by the Mongol empire. However, the secrets of Mongol success and the achievements that created a lasting impact on world history are still not well known beyond Mongolia. An impressive number of famous scholars worldwide contributed to this volume, among them editors William W. Fitzhugh, William Honeychurch, and Morris Rossabi. I have had the pleasure of meeting with many of these scholars, who have devoted years of meticulous re¬ search to Mongol studies. I highly appreci¬ ate their scholarship and the light it sheds on the many puzzles of Mongol history. In wholeheartedly thanking the or¬ ganizers and sponsors of this fascinat¬ ing book and international exhibition I wish to express my confidence that your endeavors will expand the ties of friend¬ ship and cooperation between Mongo¬ lia and the United States of America. Nambaryn Enkhbayar President of Mongolia 8 One of the many pleasures of being an Ambassador is the opportunity to introduce one’s country to peoples far and near. It is now my particular pleasure to introduce this marvelous book, Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire. The prominent historians and scholars in the United States and around the world who painstakingly researched the history and culture of the Mongols as well as Genghis Khan present fresh insights into this vast historical heritage, a legacy that has left its great mark on modern history. Recently, Mongolia marked the 8ooth An¬ niversary of the unified Mongol State, a date which constituted a unique juncture in my country’s destiny. The hearts and souls of all Mongols have inherited a firm resolve for independence and national unity from the formation of the Mongol state so long ago. The crafter of this nation was none other than Genghis Khan, who persistently pur¬ sued religious tolerance and introduced the code of law. He initiated diplomatic immuni¬ ty, postal services, and a monetary system on an international scale. Moreover, he firmly stood for pluralistic thinking, religious free¬ dom, and open trade—goals toward which the entire free world is striving now. Clearly, those achievements and many others justify Genghis Khan’s selection by CNN and The Washington Post as the Man of the Second Millennium. Looking back at the distant past is com¬ plicated if not impossible. However, with the long passage of time have come insights from an appropriate distance into the world of Genghis Khan, much as stepping back from a canvas can give one a fuller idea of the beauty of the entire composition. This new compilation of scholarly research, made accessible to the lay reader, will further en¬ rich our perspective on the Mongol empire. I extend my gratitude coupled with my best wishes to everyone who graciously shared his or her time and knowledge in the compilation of this book. I firmly believe Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire will contribute to the increased understanding of Mongolia and to the deepening of her friendship with the people of America. Khasbazaryn Bekhbat Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Mongolia to the USA 9 Mongolia: The Book and Genghis Khan: The Exhibition Don Lessem The debut of the exhibition “Genghis Khan” provides the occasion for the publication of this book. Traveling to science museums across North America, the exhibition is dedicated to both an appreciation of Genghis Khan’s long-slighted (at least in the West) contributions to world history and a celebration of tradi¬ tional Mongolian culture. The exhibition is centered upon a repre¬ sentation of Mongolian imperial culture and Genghis’s own life, and was assembled through the generous loans of the Minis¬ try of Education, Culture, and Science of Mongolia; the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia; and the collections of Larry and Pat Gotuaco, Vahid and Cathy Kooros, Arthur Leeper, and Terese Bartho¬ lomew of the Qinxuan Collection. Many of the more than 200 objects on view in the ex¬ hibition are described and pictured here, in addition to other illustrative materials docu¬ menting the essays by noted scholars of the Mongolian world. As the exhibit occasioned this book, this volume’s purpose is two-fold: to provide supporting documentation for the exhibi¬ tion and its objects and to provide an up- to-date and accessible scholarly treatment of Mongolia and its place in the world, focused around Genghis Khan and his leg¬ acy. No other such book currently exists. For many, perhaps all, of the authors of this volume, their contributions are labors of love as well as the fruits of life-long study. The devotion Mongolia inspires in those who work there has multiple and far-from- mysterious origins. The nation is distinctly remote and hence little known— the fur¬ thest from the sea of any nation, a geo¬ graphic feature that the political isolation of the twentieth century has immensely magnified. It is quite empty, with just 2.8 million residents in a stretch of wild and largely open land half the size of the con¬ tinental United States. The landscapes are awe-inspiring: from the 1,000-mile hard¬ scrabble swath of the Gobi Desert north¬ ward across the oceanic grassland to the pristine deep lakes and evergreen forests beneath snow-capped northern mountains. The culture, arguably the last horse-based society on Earth, is ancient and unfamiliar. But perhaps most alluring to Mongolia’s devotees are its people, with a warmth born of nomads’ hospitality, the curiosity and enterprise of constant travelers, the gentle tranquility of adherents to Buddhist prin¬ ciples as well as a lasting shamanistic legacy, and almost unaccountably, an optimistic enthusiasm that belies their struggles in an economically challenged country in the harshest of all continental climates. To Americans in particular there is something in the Mongolian high plateau and its un¬ developed nature that evokes the long- vanished American West. For all there is the spectacular irony that what was, for millennia before and hundreds of years af¬ ter Genghis Khan, a landlocked cipher be¬ came the greatest empire the world has ever known (with only the Queen’s Navy to contend that assertion). It can also be said with some certainty that this fascina¬ tion most likely does not stem from the cuisine, unless the visitor harbors an in¬ ordinate fondness for boiled mutton. Frequent visits over twenty years, whether to look for dinosaurs or follow the route of Genghis Khan with friends become life¬ long, have engendered that passion for Mongolia in me as well. So it is my privi¬ lege and great pleasure to both create and Dermott of the Arctic Studies Center, who coordinated the efforts of the publication’s many literary and photographic contribu¬ tors. Natsag Gankyuhag was a liaison of great value to all concerned, and the distin¬ guished Mongolian photographer Oktyabri Dash added many spectacular images. The exhibition, and hence the book, would be impossible without the long cooper¬ ation of the Mongolian government, in par¬ ticular its Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science, efforts coordinated by Assistant Di¬ rector Z. Oyunbileg. D. Tseveendorj, Director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Mon¬ golian Academy of Sciences, made available a host of newly discovered finds, including Genghis Khan Mural This mural, painted for the exhibit by Yu Shan, shows Genghis Khan with his standards, generals, and army. The group is pictured as they set out from the Mongol homeland to attack the Khwarazmian empire in 1219. On the following pages we have featured some im¬ portant loans from private collectors to the travelling exhibition “Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire. ” organize the exhibit and support the pub¬ lication of this book. I trust you will find that same powerful draw in this book that visitors to Mongolia so often discover. Thanks go to many for making this book possible, in particular editors William W. Fitzhugh, Director of the Arctic Stud¬ ies Center at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History; William Honeychurch of the Department of Anthropology at Yale University; and Morris Rossabi, who holds faculty positions at both the City University of New York and Co¬ lumbia University. Letitia Burns O’Connor and Dana Levy of Perpetua Press in Santa Barbara, California, prepared this complex manuscript and designed its eye-catching layout, with the assistance of Abigail Mc- mummies analyzed by Bruno Frohlich, statis¬ tician for the Department of Anthropology in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Mu¬ seum of Natural History, and other objects displayed for the first time in this exhibition. Contributions of precious artifacts and im¬ ages thereof from the Golden Horde lent by the State Hermitage Museum in St. Peters¬ burg, Russia, are gratefully acknowledged. Among the many others whose gener¬ osity and skill made the exhibition pos¬ sible are: Sukhbaatar Altantsetseg; Juliana Flower; Yu Shan; Julia Xu; Guan Jian; Lisa Rebori, Rodney Gentry and their colleagues at the Houston Museum of Natural Science; Jodi Schoemer and her colleagues at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science; and the Irving Arts Center. 11 Lacquered Trunk Lacquer-covered feather trunks lit® this On# from th® ISth-lftth centory with iron fittings were light and kept ptssessiiws dry . wiien traveling on horseback. Lacquer wa® also iuM&te, Hess* ible, and could be elaborately decorated. This teifn featwi# ' medallions with rabbits surrounded by floral eteffttnt*. Its home . for centuries was probably a storeroom in a Tibetan tnoftistery. g i7 ■- ’■ m m ^ ■ ■: i v I This textile fragment of a Yuan official's saddle cloth is con¬ structed of silk Aes/tapestry and nagijor "cloth of gold," and was once decorated with gold cording, now lost. The cloth has been radiocarbon-dated to 1263-1395. Coins of the Realm This group of coins dating to the 13th and 14th centuries includes silver dirnams and gold dinars minted in Central Asia for Genghis Khan, Mahmud Ghazan, Alghu Khan, Hiitegu Khan, and Abu-Saitf. ^■0 m Fresco Fragment This fresco depict warriors in a style of dress typi¬ cal of northern or western Mongols during the Yuan pe¬ riod. Painted frescos were used frequently as decorations on temple walls; and have been found at Khara Khorum. WIKSKiiKBHtM SHt H^W :y. ? f ' ■ - L,: fill MMfey ? -:f smm ■Sv ..• ■■■ fipi Ml >/$& f- , *' r« jail I f%‘5»:;^»R« ■ v'\. * :* -. ■ *&# This trunk made of lacquer-covered leather is decorated with birds centered in medallions, The largest birds are paired and single phoenixes, while the smaller ones are cranes. The decoration resembles textile patterns of the Yuan period. Leather loops were for fastening to a packsaddle. The trunk is of Tibetan origin and has been radiocarbon-dated to the 14th century. Its pris¬ tine condition suggests it was kept for centuries in a Tibetan monastery, Travel Trunk Lacquer Saddle This saddle weighing less than four pounds has omits decorations cre¬ ated with the mmmfisf "polish repeal” technique, in which layers of dif¬ ferent colors of lacquer are revealed I? selectively abrading away the darker surface coal, its animal motifs include winged dragons with fish tails, nightmarish birds, spidlto figures surrounded by flames or waye pat terns, and images of Chinese EOidf. This Is the earliest known gaantpl® of a lacquer saddle and nas been fadmcarhon-dated to 1298-1408. Contributors Chunag Amartuvshin is a senior research archaeolo¬ gist at the Institute of Mongolian Archaeology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, and Co-Director of the Institute’s National Cultural Resource Manage¬ ment Sector. Dr. Amartuvshin is also Co-Director of the Joint Mongolian-American Baga Gazaryn Chuluu Expedition. His research interests include the emergence of social complexity among nomadic groups, the study of mortuary processes, and the preservation of steppe nomadic heritage. Tsend Amgalantugs is the Director of the Laboratory of Biological Anthropology at the Institute of Mongolian Archaeology at the Mongolian Academy of Sciences in Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia. He is trained as a biological anthropologist and archaeologist, and presently codirects expeditions to survey and excavate Bronze Age burial mounds in Central and Northern Mongolia with Dr. Bruno Frohlich. Erdene Batshatar is a researcher at the Institute of Mongolian Archaeology at the Mongolian Academy of Sciences. He has worked closely with Bruno Frohlich and Tsend Amgalantugs on several Mongolian projects, including surveying and excavations of Bronze Age burial mounds, forensic investigations, and studies of human mummified remains. Shagdaryn Bira is a member of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and serves as General Secretary of the International Association for Mongol Studies. He is a Mongolian historian who has won international acclaim for his multifaceted research that examines the history, culture, religion, and languages of the Mongols. He has made noteworthy contributions to the organization and spread of Mongol research on an international level as a conference organizer and editor of proceedings. James Bosson is Emeritus Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in Tibetan and Altaic languages. Dr. Bosson was a contributor to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco exhibition catalog, Mongolia: The Legacy of Chinggis Khan (Thames and Hudson, 1995). Manduhai Buyandelger received her BA and MA from the National University of Mongolia, and her PhD from Harvard University. She held a postdoc¬ toral fellowship as a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, 2004-07. She currently serves as an assistant professor in the Anthropology Depart¬ ment at MIT. Her book, Tragic Spirits: Shamanism, Socialism, and Neoliberal State in Mongolia, is under contract with the University of Chicago Press. Pamela K. Crossley is the Robert and Barbara Black Professor of Asian History at Dartmouth College. She is a specialist on the history of the Qing empire; on this subject she has published Orphan Warriors (Princeton Univ. Press, 1990), The Manchus (Blackwell Publishers, 1997) and A Translucent Mirror (Univ. of California Press, 1999). Her forthcoming book, The Wobbling Pivot, is on Chinese history since 1800. James P. Delgado is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA). He previously served as Executive Director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum, and before that was with the National Park Service both in San Francisco and Washington, DC. He has authored or edited more than 30 books on maritime history and nautical archaeology and most recently published Khubilai Khan’s Lost Fleet: In Search of a Legendary Armada (Univ. of California Press, 2008). Ross E. Dunn is Professor Emeritus of History at San Diego State University and Director of World History Projects for the National Center for History in the Schools, UCLA. His books include Resistance in the Desert: Moroccan Responses to French Imperialism, 1881-1912 (Croom Helm/Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1977), and The Adventures of Ibn Battuta, a Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century (Univ. of California Press, 1986). Ruth W. Dunnell is the James P. Storer Professor of Asian History at Kenyon College. A specialist in premodern Chinese history, she helped to launch the interdisciplinary Asian Studies Program at Kenyon in 1991. After publishing a book on the rise of the Buddhist Tangut Xia state between Tibet and China in the eleventh century, she shifted her attention to the Mongol empire in East Asia, and has recently completed a biography of Genghis Khan for Pearson Education’s World Biography Series. Ulambayar Erdenebat is an archaeologist at the Institute of Mongolian Archaeology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, and a professor in the Archaeology and Anthropology Department of the National University of Mongolia in Ulaan Baatar. Dr. Erdenebat is also Co-Director of the Mongolian- German Orkhon Project. William W. Fitzhugh is Director of the Arctic Studies Center and a curator in the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History. During his long career as an archaeologist, he has specialized in Arctic and Subarctic prehistory, circumpolar cultures, human- environmental interactions, and the anthropology of culture contact. He has produced many exhibitions and books on northern cultures, including Inua: Spirit World of the BeringSea Eskimo (SI Press, 1982); Crossroads of Continents (SI Press, 1988); Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People (Univ. of Washington Press, 1999); Vikings: the North Atlantic Saga (SI Press, 2000); and The Deer Stone Project: Anthropological Studies in Mongolia, SI (Arctic Studies Center, 2005). CONTRIBUTORS 19 Bruno Frohlich, a biological anthropologist, directs the Computed Tomography Laboratory at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History. In collaboration with the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, he has directed several excavations of Bronze Age burial mounds, conducted forensic investigations, and examined human mummified remains from the Gobi Desert. His publications include To The Aleutians and Beyond: The Anthropology of William S. Laughlin (The National Museum of Denmark, zooz), and The Early Bronze Age I Tombs and Burials of Bah edh- Dhra, Jordan (AltaMira Press/SI/NMNH, zoo8). Kenzo Hayashida is the Chairman and Founder of the Asian Research Institute of Underwater Archaeology in Japan. He is internationally known for his discovery of the lost fleet of Kublai Khan, wrecked in iz8i. He also played a major role in creating Japan’s first graduate program in maritime archaeology at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology. Janine Hinton is the Manager of Radiographic Services for the Repatriation Office and supports the director of the Computed Tomography Laboratory at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History. William Honeychurch is an assistant professor at Yale University in the Department of Anthropology. His research focuses on interregional interaction and the development of complex political organization, the rise of states and empires among nomadic peoples, and the construction and use of monumental landscapes. Dr. Honeychurch conducts field research in Mongolia with an emphasis on surface survey and bioarchaeology. Hans-Georg Hiittel is a senior researcher and archaeologist specializing in Asian Archaeology at the German Archaeological Institute in Bonn, Germany, where he is also head of the library. He holds an honorary professorship at the University of Bonn. He has conducted field studies and excavations in Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Nepal, and since 1999, has focused his efforts on the Khara Khorum site in Mongolia. David R. Hunt serves as the Collection Manager for the Physical Anthropology Division in the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History. His areas of research include human skeletal biology and variation, forensic anthropology, and mummies of the world. Dr. Hunt has published on these topics in a variety of professional anthropological journals and edited volumes, and co-authored Photographic Regional Atlas Of Bone Disease: A Guide To Pathologic And Normal Variation In The Human Skeleton (C. C. Thomas, Z005). Gordon C. Jacoby is a leading climate scholar researching tree rings and environmental history. Now retired, he founded the Tree-Ring Laboratory of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in 1975. He previously held positions at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, UCLA, and as a visiting professor at Dartmouth College. Paul Kahn is an American writer and information architect, working in Paris. He formerly served as Director of the Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship (IRIS) at Brown University, and as an adjunct professor at the Rhode Island School of Design. He is the author of the American English adaptation of The Secret History of the Mongols: The Origin of Chingis Khan (znd edition: Cheng & Tsui, 1998). George L. Kallander is Assistant Professor of History in the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, specializing in the history of Korea, Japan, and Mongolia. He earned his PhD from Columbia University (zoo6). Awards include: a Fulbright research fellowship (zooi-oz); a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute Expanding East Asian Studies (Z005-06); and a research fellowship at the Academy of Korean Studies (zoop-io). Mark G. Kramarovsky is Senior Curator of Central Asian Collections at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. His many publications on the material culture and history of the Golden Horde include Zoloto Chingisidov: kul’turnoe nasledie Zolotoi Ordy (Gold of the Chingisids: The cultural heritage of the Golden Horde published by Slaviya, zooi). Don Lessen! published this volume to accompany the “Genghis Khan” exhibition he organized in association with the Mongolian Cultural Ministry and the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersbug. Mr. Lessern became fascinated with Genghis Khan during his twenty years of expeditions to Mongolia to study dinosaurs. A former Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, he has authored more than fifty books on natural science for adults and children, and has produced international television and radio documentaries. Mr. Lessein has excavated and exhibited the world’s largest dinosaurs and created the leading charities for dinosaur research. He has the dubious distinction of having Lessemsaurus, a small-brained and large-bellied Argentine dinosaur, named in his honor. Nontin Lkhagvasuren is a freelance journalist and publisher based in Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia. She writes on issues of culture, poverty, human rights, and gender, and is interested in anthropology, religion, and history. Her articles appear in international publications as well as local print media, and she has served as a Mongolian correspondent for Transitions Online magazine and Reporters Without Borders. Francois Louis is an associate professor at the Bard Graduate Center in New York, NY. He was previ¬ ously Editor-in-Chief of Artibus Asiae and Assistant Curator at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich, Swit¬ zerland. He is currently working on a publication tentatively titled Dynastic Possessions: The Material Culture of the Khitan Elite. Peter K. Marsh is a musicologist and ethnomusicolo- gist on the faculty of California State University, East Bay, specializing in Inner Asian music and culture. He has written extensively on issues of musical tradition and modernity in Mongolia. His latest book is The Horse-head Fiddle and the Cos¬ mopolitan Reimagination of Tradition in Mongolia (Routledge, Z009). 20 CONTRIBUTORS Timothy May is an historian of Central Eurasia and the Middle East with a focus on the Mongol empire and nomadic-based empires. He recently published The Mongol Art of War (Pen and Sword Publications, 2007) and is on the faculty of North Georgia College and State University. David Morgan is a professor of History and Religious Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His works Medieval Persia 1040-1797 (Longman, 1988) and The Mongols (Blackwell Publishers, 1986: 2nd. edition, 2007) have seen numerous reprintings and have been translated into a number of languages including Spanish, Japanese, and Persian. Ernst Pohl is Curator for the archaeological artifacts collection in the Department of Pre- and Early Historical Archaeology at the University of Bonn in Germany. From T994 to 1998, he excavated Tibetan settlements in Northern Mustang (Nepal). Recently, he has focused on excavating the Chinese craftsmen quarter of the ancient Mongolian capital, Khara Khorurn. J. Daniel Rogers is Chairman of the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History and specializes in the archaeology of complex societies, ethnohistory, and culture contact. He has researched and written on state formation and urban centers in Mongolia and has authored books including Objects of Change: The Archaeology and History of Ankara Contact with Europeans (SI Press, 1990), and Ethnohistory and Archaeology: Approaches to Postcontact Change in the Americas (Plenum Press, r993). Morris Rossabi is a prominent historian of China and Central Asia who teaches Inner Asian and East Asian history to graduate students at Columbia University and the City University of New York. Dr. Rossabi has published extensively, with a special focus on China and the Mongols. His notable publications include Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times (Univ. of Cali¬ fornia Press, 1988); Voyager from Xanadu (Kodan- sha, 1992); and Modern Mongolia: From Khans to Commissars to Capitalists (Univ. of California Press, 2005). He has also contributed to exhibitions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2009, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the National University of Mongolia. Randall J. Sasaki is a research associate at the Insti¬ tute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) at Texas A&M University, where he is currently pursuing his PhD in Nautical Archaeology. He has conducted several research projects in Japan, including the analysis of hull remains from Kublai Khan’s ill-fated fleet, found off the coast of Takashima, Japan. He has published several articles regarding his research on East Asian shipbuilding traditions. Myagmar Saruul-Erdene has a PhD in Linguistics and has taught at the Mongolian State University of Edu¬ cation (Ulaan Baatar), the International Center for Language Studies (Washington, DC), and the State Department Foreign Service Institute (Arlington, VA). He has held research positions at Istanbul University and Indiana University. Theodore G. Schurr is a biological anthropologist on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania who has investigated the prehistory of Asia and the Americas through studies of mtDNA, Y-chromosome, and au¬ tosomal genetic variation in Central and East Asian, Siberian, and Native American populations. Among his publications are papers describing his work with indigenous Siberian peoples, Kazakhs, and Mongo¬ lians, as well as archaeological populations from the Lake Baikal region. Noriyuki Shiraishi is a professor of Archaeology at Ni¬ igata University in Japan. He has published a number of reports on his archaeological expeditions to uncover the history of Genghis Khan and the Mongol empire. Jonathan K. Skaff, an associate professor of history at Shippensburg University, has devoted his career to studying the relationship between Chinese and Inner Asian cultures. His awards include a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (2007- 08), and a membership in the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey (2007). David Sneath is a social anthropologist and Director of the Mongolia & Inner Asia Studies Unit at Cambridge University. Dr. Sneath has carried out research on pastoralism, land use, and political culture in Inner Mongolia (China) and Mongolia. Among his many books are The End of Nomadism?: Society, State and the Environment in Inner Asia (Duke Univ. Press, 1999), and The Headless State: Aristocratic Orders, Kinship Society, and the Misrepresentation of Inner Asia (Columbia Univ. Press, 2007). Isenbike Togan is a member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences, and was formerly a professor of His¬ tory at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. Dr. Togan participated in the UNESCO Silk Road expeditions of 1990 and 1991, and currently resides in Istanbul. Willem J. Vogelsang is the former Curator for South¬ west and Central Asia at the National Museum of Ethnology, in Leiden, The Netherlands. Since 2008, he has served as a cultural and regional advisor to the Dutch ISAF-operation Task Force Uruzgan in South Afghanistan. He has traveled widely in Iran and Afghanistan since 1978, and is also Co-Editor of the journal Khila, which focuses on Middle Eastern dress. Daniel C. Waugh is Professor Emeritus in the Departments of History and Slavic Languages and Literature, and in the Jackson School of International Studies, at the University of Washington. He has published two monographs and numerous articles on his research specialty of pre-modern Russia. He also edits the Silkroad Foundation journal The Silk Road and directs the internet project Silk Road Seattle (http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad). Steven B. Young is Cofounder of the Center for Northern Studies at Sterling College in Vermont. A naturalist and paleoecologist who has devoted his career to the study of polar regions, he has partici¬ pated in many expeditions to the Arctic, Siberia, and Antarctica and is author of To the Arctic: An Intro¬ duction to the Far North (Wiley, 1989). CONTRIBUTORS 21 1.1 Lake Khovsgol Lake Khovsgol is bounded by the Horidal-Saridag Mountains that separate it from the Darkhad Valley to the west. To the north lie the Sayan Mountains, home to Mongolia’s Dukha (Tsaatan), an ethnic minority who are the southernmost reindeer herders in the world. The rippling raised shorelines etched into the peninsula record the gradual lowering of the lake from drying climate and increased erosion of its outlet. Khovsgol, at 1,645 meters elevation, holds some of the purest water in the world. Its output flows through Mongolia across the Russian border into Lake Baikal, and from there via the Angara and Yenisei Rivers to the Arctic Ocean. 22 F I T Z H U G H i. Genghis Khan EMPIRE AND LEGACY William W. Fitzhugh The terms “empire” and “imperial” are rarely heard in modern political discourse. Yet as the world transitions from a post-imperial era into an increasingly global era, knowledge of past empires can be instructive. In their empire, the Mongols controlled the largest contiguous landmass on one continent the world has ever known, challenged only by the scattered colo¬ nies of the British empire. But despite its huge size and phenomenal impact, this period of world history, which unfolded only two hundred years before Columbus encountered the New World, is barely known outside of Asia. Many recognize the name “Genghis Khan” as a Mongol warrior and empire-builder, but few know in which century he lived or his military and civic accomplishments. Fewer still know of his grandson Kublai, emperor of China, although some recognize the first line of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem of 1798, “Kubla Khan” (“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree”) inspired by Marco Polo’s descriptions of his travels in China from 1275 to 1291. Today Asia is no longer the mysterious chimera described by Polo and romanticized by Coleridge; many of its nations are economic powerhouses and world leaders in arts, science, and technology. The Mongol empire that Genghis Khan forged was the most important early link be¬ tween East and West and began the process of transforming worlds apart into the interconnected, globalized world of today. Empires have ruled most of the world’s terri¬ tory and population for the past three thou¬ sand years. At its zenith during the mid-thir¬ teenth century the Mongol empire created by Genghis Khan and his descendants ruled over the great civilizations of China and Iran and much of the Near East and Russia (fig. 1.2). Even the Roman empire under Trajan (98- 117 CE), at 2.3 million square miles, was dwarfed by the Mongol territories, which in 1260 encompassed territories on the order of 10 million square miles, from the Yellow Sea to Budapest. Its grist included other em¬ pires, nations, chiefdoms, and tribal peoples; its subjects spoke scores of languages and practiced the world’s great religions—Islam, Buddhism, Christianity—as well as many other faiths. It is generally agreed that the end of a sword does not foster understanding between peoples, and during the Mongol conquest phase millions died and incalculable artistic, cultural, and scientific treasures were lost. Yet, as tragic and disruptive as the initial invasions that took place between 1215 and 1241 were to cultures and societies through- INTRODUCTION 23 Modern Mongolia— Okhotsk Sea Moscow Lake Balkhash ' Tabriz a Shangdu CHAGHADAI1 KHANATE Baghdad Samarkand Daidu 1LKHANATE EMPIRE OF THE GREAT KHAN Hangzhou ARABIA Delhi DELHI SULTANATE Arabian Sea Bay of Bengal 1.2 The Mongol Empire At its greatest extent in 1276, the Mongol empire included the steppe and nearby forest zones of Russia from Moscow to Lake Baikal and the terri¬ tories of the Aral, Caspian, and Black Seas, and it briefly reached the Mediterranean. Its northwestern section, where khans ruled over Russians and other ethnicities, was known as the Golden Horde. Its West Asian portion, known as the llkhanate, centered on Iran and extended from eastern Turkey and Iraq to the shores of the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. Its central Asian portion, the Chaghadai khanate, included territories south of the Aral Sea and Lake Balkhash as well as much of Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, the Himalayas, and parts of western China. The fourth, the khanate of the Great Khan, encompassed China and Mongolia, stretching from Lake Baikal in southern Siberia to Vladivostok and extending south through Tibet and to the northern border of Viet Nam. out Eurasia, many benefits also accrued. An era of expanded contacts and exchanges, accompanied by a great expansion of trade, followed the military campaigns for another two hundred years in many of the Mongol- administered territories. More important than cargo was knowledge. Exchanges of medicine, exotic spices, forest products, and industrial products such as ceramics and textiles led the way, but knowledge and information about science and mathematics, arts, and new technologies produced more lasting impacts.1 Standards of governance and diplomacy, internationalism, long-dis¬ tance communication systems, promotion of business, and freedom of religion advanced in ways that helped lay the foundation for the modern world. How this was accom¬ plished, who its perpetrators were, and why this story is important is the subject of this book and its accompanying exhibition. Mongol and Other Empires Empires are nation-states that “metastasize” beyond their borders. Empires arise when a leader or elite group exerts military power over vast regions and diverse peoples and thereafter maintains control through some combination of military, economic, political, and religious force. Historians and archae¬ ologists have catalogued nearly one hundred empires since the first examples appeared in the Near East three thousand years ago. One of the most famous is the highly orga¬ nized and largely secular Roman empire, with leaders chosen, at least initially, by democratic vote from a central governing body, the Senate. Its successor, the Holy Ro¬ man empire, ruled Christian kingdoms and waged crusades against Islam by claiming moral authority directly from God, through the Pope, who was elected by vote of the synod, an ecclesiastical council. The British, French, and Spanish empires of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries used naval power and maritime trade to build vast empires overseas supported by royal courts and a variety of parliaments and legislative bodies. While the Mongol empire’s most direct in¬ fluence was in Asia, where its legacy remains strongest, it also had a powerful effect on Europe and the Western world through di¬ rect confrontations in the thirteenth century and by the cultural, demographic, and eco¬ nomic impact of the empire on neighboring regions of Russia, Asia, and the Near East (fig. 1.3). The Mongol empire, while sharing with other urban-based empires such core char¬ acteristics as centralized leadership, imperial symbols and ideology, aggressive militarism, police control, and supra-state governance structures, differed from most of these in a single surprising and fundamental way: it was an empire built and controlled by no¬ mads. Such was not the typical course to empire, which is generally based on a triad of military might, urban bureaucracy, and agrarian production. The Mongol empire followed a different path, one that grew from the grasslands of the Eurasian steppe through the actions of nomads who counted their wealth in horses, sheep, goats, and cat¬ tle, along with camels in the south and yaks in the north—the so-called “five muzzles,” animals that ensured a herder against cata¬ strophic loss to weather or disease of any one animal group (see Chapters 5 and 9). Mongols preferred living in tents in the open rather than in houses in villages or cities. They were accustomed to mobile life, mov¬ ing with the seasons across hundreds or even thousands of miles, if necessary. They had few material possessions and little to lose in the constant cycle of steppe warfare—other *4 F I T Z H U G H 1.3 Fra Maura Mappamundi, 1459 One of the first detailed me¬ dieval maps to include geo¬ graphic information on Asia as well as Europe is the world map commissioned by King Afonso V of Portugal. The original was produced in Venice around 1450 by a local monk, Fra Mauro, and his sailor-cartographer as¬ sistant, Andrea Bianco, but has been lost. This copy, 2 meters in diameter, was produced by Bi¬ anco and completed on April 24, 1459. The map shows south at the top, in the portolan tradition of Muslim maps, and includes Mongol toponyms gleaned from Marco Polo's travels in Central and Eastern Asia. These place- names emphasize the Mongol legacy in the geography of Eurasia, a landmass conquered and administered by Mongols in the 13th—14th century. than their families, their honor, or their lives. Their polities were small, except during em¬ pire periods, and consisted of clans and small tribes that tended to be fiercely independent and were unlikely to trust their neighbors, who were usually their strongest competi¬ tors and fiercest opponents. Inured to hard¬ ship and constantly expecting treachery, their alliances were opportunistic and ephemeral. Genghis Khan saw his father poisoned by a rival clan leader and his long-betrothed bride kidnapped on his wedding night. Liv¬ ing on the edge of larger, wealthier societies, Mongols and their neighbors desired exotic gold, jewels, and finery, but found them inac¬ cessible. In short, although lacking material wealth, they were proud, well armed, and in their day unparalleled in open-field battle. Such was the background of steppe no¬ madic life and the incipient Mongol polity, which largely through the genius of a single man, became a huge medieval-era empire built entirely on the backs of horses. The pre-Mongol history of steppe peoples since the domestication of the horse 5,500 years ago—and the subsequent refinements of saddles, bridles, reins, stirrups, chariots, and related arms—is one of nearly inces¬ sant competition and war. By Mongol times, men were trained as warriors from the mo¬ ment they could ride and pull the short but powerful Mongolian bow. With a sleeping robe and a warm deel—an all-purpose cloak¬ like overcoat—a Mongol warrior could ride nearly one hundred miles in a single day. In deserts or on forced marches, soldiers tapped their horses’ veins as a substitute for food and water. Trained and marshaled into a disciplined mounted cavalry, self-sufficient Mongol warriors became a Panzer-like army seven hundred years before the Germans reintroduced Mongol tactics with fast battle tanks in World War II. The medieval world had never seen such a blitzkrieg, and the Mongols’ battle plans—derived from ancient animal hunting strategies—have been stud¬ ied by military leaders throughout the world ever since. Armies, cities, and entire civili¬ zations were powerless to check the Mon¬ gols as they advanced across Central Asia nearly to the shores of the Mediterranean and the banks of the Danube in Europe. Warriors and armies need support, and empires need administrators. Mongol wom¬ en, trained to be independent by virtue of nomadic life, often reared families and main¬ tained hundreds of animals under arduous conditions, often without the help of their husbands, whose campaigns could last for years. Many were hunters, and some became powerful shamans and local leaders. The most influential were wives, mothers, and close relatives of Mongol khans (see Chap¬ ter 12). Sorghaghtani Beki, Kublai Khan’s mother, ruled for years as regent over a large portion of Inner Mongolia until her eldest son Mongke was old enough to take charge; others played important roles in the power struggles leading up to the elections of khans by the khuriltai, the Mongol grand council. Centralized leadership is a precondi¬ tion for the growth of empires, and in its early phase, when led by Genghis Khan, the Mongol empire was highly centralized. The Mongol empire embodied the per¬ sonal vision of its founder throughout the thirteenth century, even more than Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, or Napoleon per¬ sonified theirs. Long after his death in 1227, INTRODUCTION 1.4 Khara Khorum Tortoise Resting outside the north wall of the Erdene Zuu monastery, this large stone tortoise dating to the 13th century is the only outward sign of the great buried Mongol capital city that lies beneath the soil. In Mongol mythology a golden tortoise carries the weight of earth and heaven on its back. Tortoises also symbolize immortality and provide protection against flood and other natural disasters. Genghis Khan’s vision of a world ruled by Mongols continued to inspire subsequent khans, whose two-century rule coincided with the medieval period in Europe. Beginning life as a member of an hon¬ orable but besieged clan, Genghis Khan’s youth was one of hardship and privation. Hounded by enemies who drove him and his family into the wilderness, enduring starva¬ tion and periods when enemies hunted him like an animal, he miraculously survived to rise in power through a succession of mili¬ tary victories until in 1206 he was elected by an all-Mongol khuriltai as “Genghis” (vari¬ ously interpreted to mean great, oceanic, or universal), Khan of all the Mongols. There¬ after he consolidated Mongols and other steppe tribes into a single Mongol polity by integrating the army across tribal and clan lines, enforcing strict discipline and loyalty, rewarding able leaders without regard to clan or tribal affiliation, and ensuring all a fair share of war spoils (see Chapter 10). He established a quasi-legal code of behavior known as the Jasagb, settled disputes, and used his army to improve economic condi¬ tions for his people, whose nomadic lives provided little more than food and clothing. Genghis’s earliest campaigns were not initiated to create an empire or new home¬ lands for Mongols but to improve living conditions at home, but soon the subjuga¬ tion of foreign lands resulted in long-term Mongol presence and extensive foreign 26 F I T Z H U G H influence in Mongolia. These campaigns sought to acquire such necessities as cloth, foodstuffs, iron, and military hardware, as well as precious metals and jewels, fine clothing, and other goods needed by a growing Mongol elite (figs. 1.8, 9, 11). Because Mongolia lay north of the major Silk Road trade routes, Genghis’s first tar¬ get, in 1209, was the Tanghut kingdom of Xi Xia in Gansu and Ningxia, northwest¬ ern China (see Chapter 21). Soon after, in 1211, he began attacks on the Jin dynasty of northern China whose capital, Zhongdu (renamed Daidu by the Mongols and now called Beijing) fell in 1215, and then turned west against the Kara-Khitai empire of central Asia in 1218, in part because they were harboring some of his former en¬ emies (see Chapter 22). As the khan’s army grew in size, armament, and experience, it marched further west, subduing the Ira¬ nian Khwarazmian empire and attacking the Kipchak (Cuman) Turks of the Ukraine. Genghis returned to Mongolia in 1223 and later initiated a devastating attack on the Tanghuts, capturing their Silk Road trade. By this time small nomadic polities, cities, and sedentary states had proved no match for the mobile, well-trained, battle-hardened Mongol juggernaut. All of these subjuga¬ tions brought increased trade and trib¬ ute, raw materials, elite goods, slaves, and supplemental troops needed at home and to support the growing Mongol domain. Many empires have been transient and remained nameless, lasting only a few de¬ cades before collapsing from problems of leadership, succession, or rebellion. When empires disappeared, life often returned to what went before, until another power center formed and a new empire was cre¬ ated. Unlike empires that took decades or even centuries to mature, such as the Roman (27 BCE-395 CE), Holy Roman (962-1806), and British empires (1583-1997), the Mon¬ gol empire grew from grass roots to mega¬ empire status in four decades, from 1206 to 1242, and reached its global limits in 1279. At the end of his life Genghis apportioned different sectors of the Mongol ulus (realm) to his sons to govern as khanates under the supervision of an empire-wide Great Khan 1.5 Ulaan Tolgoi Deer Stone Site Khovsgol province, one of the most productive herding regions in northern Mongolia, has many Bronze Age sites like this one near Lake Erkhel. Deer stones bear carvings of stylized warriors with tool belts and deer imagery on their torsos. Found with the heads of sacrificed horses and often accompanied by stone burial mounds known as khirigsuurs, deer stone monuments are among Mongolia's most visible archaeological treasures, dating 1300-700 BCE. The slab-lined square burial in the foreground had been looted in antiquity and probably dates to ca. 800-400 BCE. elected by the kburiltai from among his male descendants. It persisted as a centralized empire for nearly fifty years, until Mongke’s reign from 1251 to 1259. By this time, ri¬ val western khanates had grown stronger and more independent, and the absence of a clear method for selecting the grand khan resulted in rival claims, civil war, and eventu¬ ally the empire’s decline and dissolution. The Golden Horde khanate centered in southern Russia, Ukraine, and Georgia persisted until 1505, the West Asian Ilkhanate until 1335, and the khanate of the Great Khan (Yuan dynasty, founded by Kublai in China) un¬ til 1368. The empire’s last gasp was from the Chaghadai khanate, which survived into the sixteenth century, lasting about as long as the Roman and British empires. The Mongol empire did not have the formal religious core of empires built on Islam or Christianity; but neither could the Mongols’ shamanist beliefs be called faith¬ less or heathen. Similar to the Christian belief in a god residing in heaven, the Mon¬ gol religion also was based in the firmament. Genghis believed in a supreme, all-powerful deity known as Tenggeri (Eternal Heaven; see Chapter 36), who like the gods of other faiths controlled the world and human af¬ fairs, but unlike Christianity and Buddhism, lacked anthropomorphic form. It had no organized priesthood or scripture, no pub¬ lic ceremonies, temples or fixed places of public worship, and was interpreted pri¬ marily by shamans trained to decipher vi¬ sions, interact with the spirits of nature, heal the sick, and generally set things right between the worlds of spirits and humans (see Chapter 6). Shamans performed ritu¬ als, animal sacrifice, and divination to cure the sick, change the weather, discern the future, and affect the course of events. The Secret History of the Mongols (see Chapter 14) makes it clear that Genghis’s survival during his childhood and the wars of unification, and his vision of a Mongol-dom¬ inated world, came directly from Tenggeri. Genghis seems to have acquired his vision as well as certain shamanistic powers dur¬ ing his periods of enforced isolation hiding from enemies in the wilderness as a young man. After becoming khan, he received spiri¬ tual support from the powerful shaman, Teb Tenggeri, who advised Genghis on every¬ thing from personnel appointments to when to wage war and engage in battle, although Genghis later perceived him as a threat and had him killed. It was not until the Mongol INTRODUCTION 27 imperial city at Khara Khorum had become established in the 1240s that Buddhism became influencial among Mongol leaders. During the early days of the empire religious tolerance was practiced and faith was considered a private matter. Later, as Mongol control expanded into Central Asia, the Near East, and Eastern Europe where more formal religious were dominant, Mongol religious policies changed. When Genghis Khan’s grandson Hiilegii began the Mongol campaign against the Abbasid caliph of Baghdad in 1256, he turned first to defeat the Assassins, a powerful Ismaili Muslim group whose tactics included mur¬ dering enemy leaders by stealth. As his war expanded into Muslim western Asia and the Near East, his campaign began to re¬ semble a crusade against Muslims, but in reality it was always an exercise of power and subjugation. Once an enemy was sub¬ dued, Mongol khans rarely interfered with local religious beliefs or cultural affairs. Hiilegii then established the West Asian Tlkhanate and proclaimed himself its ilkhan (subordinate khan). Complicating matters and symptomatic of rising internal conflicts within the empire, three years earlier Berke, khan of the Golden Horde, had converted to Islam, in part to facilitate trade with Mediterranean Muslims. Soon Berke and Hiilegii were waging war with each other over territory and vassals and as support¬ ers of different factions in the succession battle for Great Khan between Arigh Boke and Kublai between 1260 and 1264. Later, in 1295, Ghazan, khan of the Iranian Ilka- nate, also converted to Islam. Mongols who remained in Mongolia continued to practice Buddhism, often together with shamanism, as they still do today. Adoption of local re¬ ligious beliefs also occurred under Kublai’s reign in Yuan China. In short, religion un¬ der the khans was as varied as the econom¬ ics and populations of the empire at large. Mongols and the West Genghis died in the midst of the Tanghut campaign in 1227, never living to see con¬ struction of the capital city for the new Mongol empire that he envisioned. Still, his armies kept advancing as a succession of khans pursued Genghis’s dream. By 1240, when Genghis Khan’s son Ogodei was Great Khan, Khara Khorum had been completed with its khan’s palace, Buddhist temples, and a Nestorian Christian church, all sur¬ rounded by a sea of Mongol felt tents (gers) housing administrators, military guards, traders, and craftsmen brought as volun¬ teers or slaves to serve the Mongol khans (fig. 1.10). By then armies of Genghis’s sons and grandsons stood on the banks of the Danube River, poised to march on Europe. While European leaders interpreted the ad¬ vancing eastern storm variously, the message from the Mongol defeat of King Bela’s Hun¬ garian forces at Sajo River (see Chapter 26) was anything but speculative. Genghis’s plan for Mongol domination of the world as then known seemed about to be realized. A man, who in death Mongols believed held the status of a deity, had brought Europe face- to-face with Asia. At this point, the fate of Europe seemed to hang in the balance, and diplomacy was initiated as a last resort. European understanding of the Mongols was plagued by the absence of knowledge based on direct observation. Except when the Mongols were campaigning in Russia, Poland, and Hungary from 1237 to 1242, the menace seemed distant because Europe was not heavily invested in overland trade with China or the Mongol region to the north. The route was long and arduous and beset with many dangers, including deserts, mountain ranges, and huge rivers that im¬ peded passage. Small numbers of merchants had been successfully negotiating the Silk Road since the late first millennium BCE, when its existence was known in Rome and China, although it could only accommodate lightweight prestige cargos such as fabrics, spices, jewels, and other exotic goods. Religion, compounded by geography and distance, contributed to early European mis¬ understandings of Mongols. The Mongols, for their part, soon discovered Europeans to be, according to their terms, undisciplined, politically disorganized, and dominated by an impractical Christian ideology. European knowledge of Asia at this time was heavily tinged with exoticism and religious propa¬ ganda. To medieval Europeans fixated on 28 F I T Z H U G H 1.6 Mongolian Boots These elaborate boots, Mongolian gutal, have turned- up toes similar to fancy Tibetan footgear. According to Buddhist folk tradition, they permit one to tread softly, doing little damage to the earth and its creatures. Such boots are part of the standard costume worn by Mongolian wrestlers, and it is said thatthe up-turned toes help wrestlers to throw an opponent by hooking his leg. Others note that they help a rider keep his foot in the stirrup. Such ideas are probably apocryphal. This pair has beautiful lines, colored panels, and handiwork of embossed and appliqued scrolls. the Crusades, Genghis Khan became the anti- Christ heralding Armageddon in the form of a wave of murderous Mongols. Mongols felt no compunction about mistreating their enemies, for to them power, bequeathed by Tenggeri, brought its own justice. Be¬ cause Christian morality meant nothing to them, Mongols were considered demons by Christians, whose medieval mythology included an exotic pagan world populated by one-eyed, one-legged, headless, gener¬ ally cannibalistic heathens, some of whom did not bleed when wounded, or, alterna¬ tively, bled like flowing rivers when killed. The more historically inclined equated Genghis Khan with Prester John (also known as John the Presbyter), the legendary Chris¬ tian king of the Orient thought to have de¬ scended from one of the three magi who honored Christ’s birth. The rumors of such a king’s existence may have been stimulated by an early twelfth-century visit to Rome by a prelate named John from a Christian community on the Malabar coast, which was conflated with vague knowledge of a group of Asian Christians known as Nesto- rians. The Nestorians were a schismatic sect founded by the fifth-century Constantinople patriarch, Nestorius, whose expelled follow¬ ers founded the Assyrian Church of the East. Pressured to move again by the expansion of Islam into western Asia, the Nestorians reached Mongolia and China, where they became widely established before the spread of Buddhism. The idea of a long-lost Chris¬ tian East appealed greatly to Europeans after the beginning of the Crusades, and they came to believe, from rumors of Nestorians, that an imaginary Christian king named Prester John ruled there, waiting for a chance to retake Jerusalem from the Muslims. Such fanciful ideas about an eastern Christian- Muslim front probably originated from garbled reports of Asian traders who had heard about Muslim Khwarazmian battles with the non-Muslim Kara-Khitai empire or with Genghis Khan’s western campaigns against both groups. Others saw the Mongol surge as the outcome of a biblical scenario featuring Gog and Magog, giants from the Book of Revelations, who were thought to have been imprisoned somewhere beyond the Caucasus and must have escaped to lead the Mongol attack on Christendom. The cultural chasm between Christian Europe and the shamanist Mongols on the eve of the Mongol invasion of Europe is dramatically seen in an exchange of letters between Khaghan Giiyug and Pope Inno¬ cent IV. Having experienced the Mongol slaughters in Poland and Hungary, in 1245 the pope sent John of Plano Carpini, a 60- year-old Franciscan friar, as an envoy to the court of Khaghan Giiyug (see Chapter 20). Carpini delivered a letter chastising the khan for murdering innocent villagers and asking for clarifications of future Mongol intentions in Europe. In return for peace, the pope offered baptism and forgiveness of the khan’s sins. The khan replied in 1246: You have...said that supplication and prayer have been offered by you, that I might find a good entry into baptism. This prayer of thine I have not understood. Other words which thou hast sent me: ‘I am surprised that thou has seized all the lands of the Magyar [Hungarians] and the Christians. Tell us what their fault is.’ These words of thine 1 have also not understood. The eternal God has slain and annihilated these lands INTRODUCTION 29 1.7 Engraved Silver Medallion During the 13th and 14th centuries, Yuan dynasty officials used silver medallions like this one to certify property ownership rights to individuals. The inscription on this medallion is illegible. and peoples because they neither adhered to Chingghis [Genghis] Khaan, nor the Khaan |Ogodei|, both of whom have been sent to make known Gods command, nor to the command of God. Like thy words, they also were imprudent; they were proud, and they slew out messenger emissaries. How could anybody seize or kill by his own power con¬ trary to the command of God? Though thou likewise sayest that I should become a trembling Nestorian Christian, worship God and be an ascetic. How know- est thou whom God absolves, in truth to whom He shows mercy? How dost thou know that such words as thou speakest are with God’s sanction? From the rising of the sun to its setting, all the lands have been made subject to me. Who could do this con¬ trary to the command of God? Now you should say with a sincere heart: ‘I will submit and serve you.’ Thou thyself, at the head of all the Princes, come at once to serve and wait upon us! At that time 1 shall recognize your submission. If you do not observe God’s command, and if you ignore my command, I shall know you as my enemy. Likewise I shall make you understand. If you do otherwise, God knows what I know.1 This was not what Western leaders or the pope had hoped for, but it did have unex¬ pected and useful results. The Carpini Fran¬ ciscan mission, which lasted from 1245 to 1247 was the first important diplomatic ex¬ change between European and Mongol lead¬ ers and seems to have been the first official envoy and exchange of relations between European and Asian heads of state. Earlier attempts to reach the Mongols initiated by King Bela of Hungary in 1234-35 and 1237 were thwarted by the turmoil of the Mon¬ gol’s Russian campaign. A parallel papal mission undertaken by Dominican friars in 1246, following a southern route, reached only as far as the West Asian military camp established by the Mongol general Baiju, who was put off by the envoys’ lack of cus¬ tomary diplomatic gifts and their strident demands. Carpini, following a northern route through Russia, was more astute and impressed Genghis Khan’s grandson Batu, who gave him safe passage to Khara Kho- rum. Once there, however, Carpini found his mission in jeopardy. His diplomatic gifts had been expended on Batu, and Guyiig saw little use in receiving him (having already heard of the pope’s message from Baiju) or even providing food or shelter. But finally, with the assistance of a Uyghur Nestorian named Chinqai who was secretary to the khan’s court, an audience was arranged. Guyiig’s formal response to the papal letter was a stern rebuff, seen above. Both sides believed their god was on their side, and rather than seeking areas of accom¬ modation, they hectored each other. The pope’s overture seems particularly conde¬ scending because Mongols had yet to be defeated in any major battle and were pre¬ paring to storm Europe. To admonish the khan for killing Hungarians and Christians and seizing their lands, offering conver¬ sion and baptism, benefits that Giiyiig did not understand, shows how little Christian leaders understood Mongols. Giiyiig’s re¬ sponse was more pragmatic. Recognizing no higher power than Tenggeri, he was in no need of conversion and saw no value in questioning the vision of a Mongol-ruled world received from Tenggeri through Genghis Khan; and anyway, all would be made manifest by battle outcomes. In spite of its diplomatic failure, the Carpini mission gathered information on Mongol life, technology, religious beliefs, 30 F I T Z H U G H 1.8 Metal Casting Ladle This cast copper ladle dating to the 14th century was recovered in archaeological excavations at the Mongol empire capital, Khara Khorum. Although it was not capital of the Mongol empire after 1260 and was past its prime in the 14th century, the city remained a center for trade; its many craft shops included metallurgical artisans. and military organization and capabil¬ ity. His report, Ystoria Mongolorum, while notably grim about politics, was op¬ timistic about future missionary work after discovering that many at the Mongol court, both Mongols and Chinese, were Nestorian Christians, worshiped one god, believed in Jesus Christ, and prayed in churches. Carpini dispelled the myth that Genghis Khan was Prester John, describing him as a shaman- ist and an empire-builder with near deity status, and noted that Mongols worshipped felt effigies of Genghis in their homes. From Chinese informants at the Mongol court he learned that Prester John did not exist in Asia, but held out India as a possibility. For the first time Europeans received a rea¬ sonably objective view of their adversary. Fortunately for Europe the attack west of the Danube never came. Ogodei died in 1241, and his forces massing near Budapest retreated, awaiting the selection of a new khan. Giiyiig reigned briefly, from 1246 to 1248, and by the time Mongke was elected in 1251, Mongol forces made the subjugation of China’s Song dynasty their priority. Hiil- egii later began campaigns against Islam in Iran and West Asia. This shift in theater de¬ lighted European supporters of the Crusades, and after 1253 relations between the Vatican and Khara Khorum improved for a while. But despite continued exploration of diplo¬ matic contacts, a Mongol-Vatican alliance against Islam failed to materialize; the parties and their philosophical differences were too far apart to be bridged by fleeting accords. GENGHIS: THE EXHIBITION AND THE BOOK Recognizing the dearth of knowledge about Genghis Khan, Don Lessem organized an ex¬ hibition featuring Genghis Khan, the Mongol empire, and Mongol history, culture, and art. The exhibition, titled Genghis Khan, opened at the Houston Museum of Natural Science on February 27, 2009. As part of the proj¬ ect, Lessem asked Morris Rossabi, William Honeychurch, and me to prepare a support¬ ing book presenting Mongolia’s geography and history, the resilient nomadic society that produced this remarkable man, and his lega¬ cy to the present day. More than thirty inter¬ national experts from a variety of disciplines contributed environmental, archaeological, anthropological, and art historical perspec¬ tives. Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire is organized around the central character in this great historical story. But rather than treating this subject as a biography, or the Mongol empire simply as history, we have chosen to extend the frame, to include arti¬ facts from the exhibition as well as historical documents from libraries, museums, and ar¬ chives around the world. Unlike other works dealing with Genghis Khan and the Mon¬ gol empire that take a primarily historical approach,3 this volume also includes environ¬ mental, archaeological, anthropological, and art historical perspectives.4 Written Sources Reports by traveling scholars and educated religious people provided the first direct writ¬ ten observations on the Mongols. Theirs was a very different process of information trans¬ fer than the field education obtained by sol¬ diers on the battlefield. The earliest contacts were primarily European-sponsored. In addi¬ tion to the report of John of Plano Carpini, his fellow traveler Friar Benedict the Pole prepared a manuscript entitled The Tartar Relation that generally parallels the Carpini report. The Tartar Relation has become nota¬ ble mostly because the manuscript was found bound with a manuscript of Vincent of Beau¬ vais’s popular world history, Speculum His- toriale, together with the notorious “Vinland Map,” which purports to show eleventh-cen¬ tury trans-Atlantic travel to Newfoundland INTRODUCTION 31 1.9 Arrowheads Each type of iron arrowhead used by Mongols for hunting and war has different qualities. Broad-bladed varieties were for hunting animals and unarmored targets. Narrow, heavy points were used for piercing leather or metal armor. but that is judged a fake by most scholars.5 A few years later, around 1254, Wil¬ liam of Rubruck arrived as an independent missionary at the Khara Khorum court of Great Khan Mongke. His Itinerarium, while basically a travelogue, was more perceptive than Carpini’s and Benedict’s reports, espe¬ cially regarding religious views and culture. Best known is his account of a philosophi¬ cal debate about the nature of god and faith he had with Mongke and resident Muslims, Nestorians, and Buddhists. By his reckon¬ ing, he won and the Nestorians came in last. Although the information flow from scholar-travelers was largely biased to¬ ward the West because of wider distribu¬ tion of their reports, envoys sent west by the Mongols informed at least the Mongol leadership about Europe. The first of these envoys were Ai'beg and Serkis, who were sent by the llkhanid Mongol ruler Baiju to Pope Innocent IV in 1247-48.6 Forty years later the Nestorian monk Rabban Sauma went to Europe at the request of Arghun, khan of the Ilkhanate, bearing a proposal for joint military action against the Mam- luks of Egypt. He reported to the khans on his return (see Chapter 28). During visits to Rome, Genoa, Paris, and other locations, Sauma was much impressed with the mag¬ nificence of Europe’s churches and the might of its military forces. In a much-noted high¬ light, he wrote about a naval battle between Neopolitan and Aragonese fleets he wit¬ nessed from the roof of his house in Naples 32 F I T Z H U G H and about the Frankish practice of engaging only combatants rather than civilians in war. His favorable view of Europe was probably influenced by his Eastern Christian faith.7 The Secret History of the Mongols is the most valuable and interesting source on the earliest phase of the empire, but it is also the most problematic. This remarkable docu¬ ment, which purports to be the official story of Genghis Khan’s life and times, may have been written shortly after Genghis’s death in 1227, although a final section seems to have been added between 1240 and 1252 (see Chapter 14). The Secret History is also re¬ markable for being the first piece ever writ¬ ten in Mongolian language, probably using the Uyghur-Mongolian script. Its seamless mix of mythology, epic poetry, history, and gazetteer, with no clear indication of where fact meets fancy, makes it problematic as a primary historical source on Genghis’s life and thirteenth-century Mongol cul¬ ture, geography, and political events. Yet without The Secret History almost noth¬ ing would be known about Genghis from those who knew him directly, for he died before Iranian sources begin, except what can be gleaned of his values from the Jasagh (see Chapter n), the quasi-legal code he established soon after becoming Genghis Khan. Even his official portrait is fantasy, painted long after his death by a Yuan-era Chinese artist who had never seen him. Fortunately, parts of The Secret His¬ tory are verified by a few other independent sources. These include Tarikh-i jahangusha {History of the World Conqueror) an en¬ cyclopedic account of Genghis Khan and the Mongol empire by Ata-Malik Juvaini, a high-ranking Iranian administrative official and historian who served under Hidegii and visited the imperial court in Khara Khorum several times between 1249 and 1253. Ju- vaini’s History, which was strongly influ¬ enced by his official role, provides valuable information on Genghis’s life and conquests, on the history of the western empire through the 1260s, as well as on Mongol culture, nomadic life, customs, and law. Rashid al- Din (see Chapter 23), a Jewish-born Iranian who converted to Islam and held powerful government posts under two of Hiilegii’s 1.10 Soviet Khara Khorum Finds Soviet archaeologist S. V. Kiselev conducted excavations in 1948-49 at Erdene Zuu and concluded that this indeed was the lost site of Khara Khorum, the ancient capital of the Mongol empire. Among the clues were 13th-century ceramics with painted Chinese designs, reproduced here from Kiselev's monograph of 1965, one of the first major publications to document scientific excavations in Mongolia. Ilkhanate descendants, Ghazan and Oljeitii, also wrote an encyclopedic history of the Mongol empire. Commissioned by Ghazan, who was concerned over the waning knowl¬ edge of Mongol life and history in the in¬ creasingly Islamicized khanate, Rashid al-Din used Juvaini as a source to describe Mong- ke’s reign (1251-59) the Jami‘ al-Tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles) and translated materials from the Allan Devter, known as the Golden Book, an official document of Mongol history that was kept secretly by the Mongol court but has since been lost. A version of the Allan Devter compiled in Chinese as Shengwu qinzhenglu closely par¬ allels the account known from al-Din and provides some assurance of its validity.8 I bn Battuta, an early fourteenth-century Moroccan traveler, also produced histories that provide documentation on the western khanates (see Chapter 29). The works of these administrator-historians, who lacked the Euro-Christian bias of Western travel¬ ers, are primary sources for what happened within the Islamic and Mongol worlds. Each had access to Mongol informants and now- lost Mongol manuscripts, but neither of them knew Genghis Khan as a living person. Marco Polo’s report, A Description of the World, which appeared in 1299, is un¬ like other traveler reports because Polo’s perspective is that of a merchant rather than an ambassador, missionary, or cleric (see Chapter 28). The Polo brothers Niccolo and Maffeo, and Niccolo’s son, Marco, traveled with an official permit known as a paiza— something like a passport guaranteeing safe passage—granted to the Polos first by Berke and later by Kublai. The three Venetians journeyed extensively between the Mediter¬ ranean and the Mongol courts in Russia, Central Asia, China, and West Asia between 1260 and 1294. For sixteen years (1275-91) they were associated with Kublai’s court, which was by then a popular meeting-place for world travelers and thinkers. Marco’s widely published work was first written as recounted to Rusticello da Pisa when they were imprisoned (with amenities) in Genoa during a Venetian-Genoese war in 1298-99. First published in French, the tale soon be¬ came a sensation and was translated widely, providing Europe with its first description of a strange new eastern world. Later ver¬ sions inspired Geoffrey Chaucer to write about “the king of Tartary” as a noble, mer¬ ciful leader “blest by Fortune’s smile” in his late fourteenth-century Canterbury Tales. Expecting to meet Mongol khans when he sailed west from Spain, Christopher Colum¬ bus carried a copy of the Polo book on his 1492 voyage. He did not realize that he was still an ocean away and 124 years too late. The most formidable Asian source by far is the 4,000-page Yuanshi (1370), the official encyclopedic account of the Yuan dynasty (1207/71-1368) commissioned by Ming Taizu, founder of the Ming dynasty, immedi¬ ately after the fall of the Yuan in 1368. Like all Chinese dynastic histories, it emphasizes bureaucratic matters and is thus invaluable for understanding the government’s view. Perhaps the biggest mystery of the Mon¬ gol story concerns Genghis Khan’s death INTRODUCTION 33 and burial. Rashid al-Din ascribes his death to an unspecified illness—possibly result¬ ing from a fall from a horse—shortly before the Xi Xia king surrendered and its capital city and entire population was destroyed in 1227. As Genghis’s troops advanced, his decline and death had been kept secret from all but his family. After the victory, Genghis’s body seems to have been taken back to Khentii province in northern Mon¬ golia where his life began, to a spot he had chosen many years before. Al-Din adds a macabre detail: “On the way they killed every living being they met until they had reached the horda [nomadic palace-tent] with the coffin.” The location of the burial is described in relation to Burkhan Khaldun, a mountain where Temujin, young Genghis, had found refuge as a youth. In this passage al-Din notes the identification of Genghis Khan, the warrior and empire-builder, with his beginning as a hunter. He also notes that it was customary, after Mongol leaders were buried, for herds of horses to be driven back and forth across the site to obliter¬ ate all traces of its precise location. The prize of finding Genghis’s grave has inspired archaeological searches since the 1870s. Many wild claims have been made, starting with an erroneous report in 1888 that the famous Russian archaeologist RK. Kozlov had discovered his silver coffin—a notion that may have been inspired by silver finds in the ruins of the destroyed Xi Xia capi¬ tal.9 Later, in the 1930s, Owen Lattimore visited a Genghis shrine in Inner Mongolia (see page 37) where an annual festival was held at which his “memorabilia” and “re¬ mains” in a silver coffin were on display, although Lattimore doubted their authen¬ ticity.10 Many Mongolians—following Genghis Khan’s wishes—hope the location of his grave will remain forever unknown. New Discoveries As the survey of historical reports on the Mongol empire reveals, much of the con¬ temporary information about this subject comes from non-Mongol sources. With the gradual decline in the discovery of new writ¬ ten sources, archaeology has begun to of¬ fer a promising approach to the still-poorly known history of the Mongols. In the thir¬ teenth and fourteenth centuries Mongolia was a nation whose culture depended large¬ ly on oral traditions; it had few institutions comparable to those that existed throughout Europe, India, and South Asia—churches, mosques, palace complexes, libraries, ar¬ mories—that preserved relics of the past. Almost all tangible materials from this pe¬ riod of empire that existed in places such as Khara Khorum have been destroyed in wars or were carried off, lost, or buried (figs. 1.4, 10). Even knowledge of the location of Khara Khorum was lost. In short, much that remains to be learned about the history of the Mongols and their empire will have to be gleaned from archaeological evidence of material culture. William Honeychurch, Chunag Amar- tuvshin, and I present archaeological evi¬ dence (see Chapter 8) that shows that by the introduction of metal in the Bronze Age, which dates to around 4,000 to 2,800 years ago, the roots of the horse-based nomadic culture seen today had taken shape. Large burial mounds were erected for the dead and Mongolia’s famous “deer stone” monu¬ ments, standing stones representing war¬ riors with iconic images of deer carved on their bodies, were being constructed (fig. 1.5). Prehistoric Mongolia experienced oc¬ casional bursts of agriculture, urbanism, trade, and craft innovation, and the first state-level developments, represented by the Xiongnu culture (200 BCE-200 CE), whose burial complexes contain chariots and retainer graves also found in South Siberia and China. The Xiongnu were fol¬ lowed by a succession of steppe empires including the sixth- to eighth-century Turk empires and others, separated by peri¬ ods of decline, until the rise of the Mon¬ gol empire in the thirteenth century. Recent archaeological research has demonstrated promising results, includ¬ ing settlements perhaps relating to Genghis Khan and the Mongol clans. Noriyuki Shi- raishi discusses (Chapter 17) the inscription found on a rock surface at Serven Khaalga mountain in Khentii province, a Mongol homeland, that appears to commemorate a battle at the end of the twelfth century 34 F I T Z H U G H 1.11 Biue-and-White Porcelain Dish Chinese artisans began manufacturing blue-and-white Qinghua porcelain, famous for its deep cobalt underglaze painting, in the 12th century. During the Yuan dynasty established by Genghis Khan's grandson, Kublai, it became a valuable export commodity, sent to Japan, Southeast Asia, and West Asia. It first reached Europe with Portuguese merchants and became a sensation in Holland after being imported by the Dutch East Indian Company in 1603. This 13th-century piece manufactured at the Qinghua kiln in China was recovered at Khara Khorum. Its decoration includes a crane, an ancient Chinese motif symbolizing longevity, surrounded by floral elements. between the Jurchen-Jin state (n 15-1234) and the Tartar enemies of the early Mon¬ gol tribes. More relevant to Genghis him¬ self may be the Avraga site located near the Kherlen River not far from Serven Khaalga. Coins minted by the Jurchen-Jin state in 1179 and radiocarbon dates of similar age indicate that Avraga was occupied in the early period of Genghis’s life. While there is no direct evidence confirming Genghis’s presence at the site, the complex architec¬ ture and evidence of craft production and trade goods suggest it was an elite seasonal camp of the sort Genghis would have used. New information from the very heart of the Mongol Empire is also becoming avail¬ able. In separate essays, Ulambayar Erden- ebat and Ernst Pohl (Chapter 18), and Hans-Georg Hiittel (Chapter 19), present the results of excavations at Khara Khorum documenting the early development of this early imperial city and its architecture, arts, technologies, and external contacts as Mon¬ golia emerged from centuries of isolation to become, from 1235 to 1265, the political center of eastern Eurasia. Excavations in the business district near the city center have un¬ covered remains of ceramic and metallurgical workshops similar to those described by Wil¬ liam of Rubruck, who reached Khara Kho¬ rum in the spring of 1254. It was in shops like these that the French goldsmith, Guil¬ laume Boucher—one of many famous foreign artisans brought to Khara Khorum as slaves to build and decorate the new Mongol cap¬ ital—must have made the tree-shaped silver fountain in the courtyard of the khan’s pal¬ ace that dazzled foreign visitors by dispens¬ ing different beverages from its branches. The search for the palace of the Great Khan, an ongoing archaeological effort of the past seventy-five years, has also advanced. A large building once thought to be the palace has recently been properly identified as the Bud¬ dhist Temple of the Rising Yuan described in a Khara Khorum stone inscription dating to 1346. The missing palace, described by Marco Polo, seems to have been found ex¬ actly where it was supposed to be all along, directly beneath the Erdene Zuu monastery. Archaeological evidence has also emerged from the relatively unknown Russian por¬ tion of the Mongolian empire known as the Golden Horde. Here, as in Mongolia, the paucity of written records has hampered historical research. The Golden Horde, named for the gold-colored horda or or do, the nomadic palace tent used by its leaders, was the most distant khanate from Mon¬ golia and became part of the empire with INTRODUCTION 35 Batu’s and Subodei’s invasion of Russia in 1237. An essay by Mark G. Kramarovsky (Chapter 25) reveals the Genghisid heraldic motifs and three- and four-clawed dragons on belt ornaments that identify the graves of Golden Horde leaders and members of the house of Batu. Over time the Golden Horde grew fabulously rich from Russian tribute and from trade that passed through its territory linking southern Russia with the Near East, West Asia, Mongolia, and China. This and Daniel Waugh’s essay (Chapter 24) reveal the Mongol role in founding administrative, trade, and craft centers in territories that had previously been tribal lands, and extending Silk Road trade far west of its earlier boundaries, connecting Russia’s gold, silver, ivory, and fur resources with the Muslim world and the Orient. At the other end of the Eurasian conti¬ nent, Mongols made an even more lasting impact on China, uniting it into a single political entity and modernizing its govern¬ ment, economy, and arts. Morris Rossabi (Chapter 27), Francois Louis (Chapter 30), and Willem Vogelsang (Chapter 31) dis¬ cuss the advances in Chinese textiles, paint¬ ing, ceramics, and sculpture of the Yuan period, which Genghis’s grandson, Kublai, encouraged as he also promoted industry and foreign trade. During this period, Chi¬ nese goods and art styles penetrated into Iran and other areas of Central and West Asia, finding markets for its blue-and-white porcelain, silk brocade textiles, architec¬ ture, and even the art of book-making. Once South China had been subdued, its maritime traditions were harnessed to ex¬ tend Yuan trade and influence into the coastal areas and island systems of South¬ east Asia, and into the Indian Ocean. Ar¬ chaeologists have recovered cargoes of the famous Yuan porcelain export ware from sunken ships that once sailed these routes. Despite great progress at the center of the Yuan empire, much of its population continued to suffer great hardship, as seen dramatically in a group of mummies found in a cave in the Gobi Desert near the pres¬ ent China-Mongolia border. Bruno Frohlich and his colleagues (Chapter 34) document the manner of their gruesome deaths, which he relates to struggles between rival herding groups whose lives had not benefited from the growth of imperial elites and luxury trade passing through their territory. The Gobi finds are not unique, for as Ulamba- yar Erdenebat shows (Chapter 35), Mon¬ golia’s dry, cold climates have preserved the graves of many Mongolians, mighty and humble, whose bodies and artifacts provide insight into their lives and ancient world. Archaeologists have also provided in¬ formation on the ill-fated invasions of Ja¬ pan that Kublai forced upon his Korean allies in 1274 and 1281. James R Delgado, Randall J. Sasaki, and Kenzo Hayashida (Chapter 33) describe how underwater archaeologists have recovered traces of the 1281 fleet that was wrecked by a ka¬ mikaze (typhoon) near Takashima Island just as it was about to disembark its troops on Japanese soil, losing thousands of ships and tens of thousands of men. Researchers excavating ancient shipyards in China and underwater archaeologists working at the invasion site at Takashima Island have re¬ covered remains of vessels, ceramic bombs, Buddha figures, and other materials re¬ lated to the Mongol-led invasion of 1281. Genghis Khan's Legacy Following the decline of the Mongol em¬ pire, five hundred years passed during which Mongolia was dominated by the Qing- Manchu dynasty and became increasingly influenced by Tibetan Buddhism (see Chap¬ ter 36). During this period the legacy of Genghis Khan remained strong; however, the situation changed dramatically when Mongolia became a Soviet vassal state in 1924. During the 1930s the Soviet-backed Mongolian government destroyed most of the country’s Buddhist monasteries and murdered 20,000 to 25,000 monks and lamas as well as many of its teachers and educated class. By the mid-twentieth cen¬ tury, when the Soviet Union and China were engaged in their own cold war, thousands of Soviet troops, advisors, and scientists came to Mongolia. In addition to purges and ex¬ ploitation, the de facto Soviet occupation brought many benefits—reforms in educa¬ tion and medicine, technical assistance to 36 F I T Z H U G H "The Shrine of a Conqueror" “There is a sanctuary in the loop of the Yellow River to which thousands of Mongols make pilgrimage, believing it to be the burial place of the great Chingghis or Genghis Khan. No Westerner had seen the ceremonies of this cult, much less taken part in them...” So began an article entitled “The Shrine of a Conqueror” written by the famous China and Mongolia scholar, Owen Lattimore, in The Times, London on 21 April 1936. In it he describes a visit the prior year to a desolate region of the Ordos in western Inner Mongolia to wit¬ ness annual spring ceremonies mark¬ ing the death of Genghis Khan. Lo¬ cal tradition held that it took place at this very location, known as Edjen Khorokha (Enclosure of the Lord), nearly 900 kilometers west of Be- jing. Those attending the ceremony told Lattimore that the court travel¬ ing with Genghis at the time of his death had been charged with carry¬ ing on an annual commemorative ritual. Lattimore describes the cer¬ emonies and notes that they were attended annually by thousands of Mongol pilgrims who come to of¬ fer prayers to the conqueror, whom many believe to be a god and whose spirit is thought to be present. Lat¬ timore found relics of the conqueror displayed in decorated gers, chief among them being Genghis’s State Tent. To its right was the Tent of the Bows and Quivers with its silver- plated bows, armor, and saddles. To the left were the tents of the Great¬ er and Lesser Empresses, the latter dedicated to the Tan ghat princess he took from the king of Xi Xia in 1209. There was a stand-in for Genghis’s sacred white horse and a cart for dispensing airag, the Mon¬ gol beverage made from fermented mare’s milk. Lattimore, in disguise because foreigners were barred from the rituals, participated in chants and drinking of fermented milk be¬ fore the relics. In the tent, on a silver-plated al¬ tar, stand three wooden chests, one upon the other, all plated with silver. One of them by tradition holds the remains of the conqueror. On the hammered silver plating are Mongol inscriptions, in a not ar¬ chaic lettering. I made out a refer¬ ence to “the Leagues and Banners of Inner and Outer Mongolia”—a formula which did not exist under the Mongol dynasty, and proves that most of the silver work is not older than the Manchu dynasty. The Manchu inscription led Lattimore to conclude that Edjen Khorokha was probably not Genghis’s final resting place; the alternative tradition, that he was buried somewhere in northern Outer Mongolia, was more likely. At the close of the festival all of the shrine tents were “invited” back to their permanent sanctuaries. Before a team of two white camels hitched to the cart carrying Genghis’s tent was hauled off, Lattimore took the photograph seen here, and later, on the back of a print, wrote “Ger holding the relics of Genghis Khan.” Soon after the relics de¬ parted, word spread that bandits were about to attack. All ran for their horses, and Lattimore’s party made a forced march for several days, finally reaching the Yellow River. Here, safe at last, his guide confided, “We are men of good des¬ tiny and can speak the truth; I have ridden this whole journey in fear.” Much has changed since Latti¬ more’s visit. Today the sanctuary of a conqueror, where Genghis’s life has been celebrated faithfully by true be¬ lievers for 800 years, has been turned into a theme park and tourist center. INTRODUCTION 37 herders, introduction of irrigation and ex¬ pansion of agriculture, development of in¬ frastructure and transport, establishment of a stable government bureaucracy, creation of arts and scientific institutions, and impo¬ sition of a written form of Mongolian based on the Cyrillic alphabet. By the 1990s most Mongolians could read and bad access to radios and televisions, and some received higher education in the Soviet Union. The Communist Chinese government provided similar benefits to Mongolians liv¬ ing in Inner Mongolia, hut unlike the Sovi¬ ets, the Chinese did not suppress the memory of Genghis Khan or the celebration of fes¬ tivals in his name such as that witnessed by Owen Lattimore in 1935, noted above. An¬ nexed to China in the early twentieth century, Inner Mongolia became subject to the assimi¬ lation policies of its Communist government. Throughout the middle part of the century, hundreds of thousands of Chinese belonging to the ruling Han ethnic group immigrated or were sent to build farms, diluting and sinicizing its Mongol population, which was then two to three times as large as Outer Mongolia’s. By 1990 the population of In¬ ner Mongolia was 21 million, of which only 3.8 million were Mongol, the rest being largely Han Chinese. Today there are about 4 million Mongols in Inner Mongolia and 2.8 million in the Republic of Mongolia.11 While much social progress was made, the Soviet era brought tragedy and suffer¬ ing beyond that experienced in the early purges. For the first time in a thousand years, the Mongols found themselves al¬ most completely isolated from the world beyond the Soviet orbit. All information passed through Soviet filters; political life was filled with cronyism and corruption; and freedom of movement and expression was greatly restricted. Mongolians re¬ tained memories of Genghis Khan and the empire period, hut they were memories. Among the more unusual aspects of the Mongol legacy is the recent scientific dis¬ covery, discussed here by Theodore Schurr (see Chapter 38), that genetic traces of a distinctive Mongol male descent line can be identified today in the genome of more than 16 million Central and East Asian men—a biological inheritance of the Mon¬ gol wars, empire, and the access of its male leaders to large numbers of women. Despite nearly a century of repression, Genghis’s legacy thrives today. In 1990, in the aftermath of the Soviet empire’s collapse, the new democratic nation of Mongolia, freed for the first time in hundreds of years to chart its own course, initiated a frenzy for all things Genghis, whose name and/or like¬ ness branded everything from vodka to res¬ taurants, airports to currency (see Chapter 40). Instantly the lives of Genghis and his descendants became as popular to herders as to the urban culture of the rapidly growing regional centers and the capital, Ulaan Baa- tar. Mongolia again began to look beyond its borders. Nations all around the world reciprocated, sending aid, money, hospital equipment, and mining companies, in par¬ ticular, began joint ventures in Mongolia. Some Mongols resettled abroad in Korea, Europe, and the United States, where within the past ten years Mongol commu¬ nities of 3,000 to 5,000 developed in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, tour¬ ism became a major Mongolian industry: thousands of outsiders flock yearly to ex¬ perience Mongolia’s Flaming Cliffs, the snow-capped Altai Mountains, and the pristine waters and forests of Lake Khovs- gol. Tourists climb onto the backs of cam¬ els, ride horses into the mountains and across the steppe, and visit the haunts of America’s 1920s swashbuckler explorer- paleontologist, Roy Chapman Andrews, the first to discover dinosaur eggs. Foreign¬ ers enjoy Mongolia’s traditional life and cheerful welcoming people, taste airag, the famous national drink made from ferment¬ ed mare’s milk, and participate in the an¬ nual July Naadam Festival with its “manly sports”—horse-racing, archery, wrestling— all under Tenggeri’s great blue sky (fig. 1.6). The wider world’s most recent engage¬ ment with Mongolia came in 2006 when the nation marked the Sooth anniversary of Genghis’s investiture, which is now rec¬ ognized as Mongolia’s birthday. A new fagade was built to obscure the old Soviet- style parliament building and serves as a 38 F I T Z H U G H 1.12 Reconstructed "Camp of a Conqueror" The opening of Mongolia to tourism has prompted the development of museums and monuments, along with preservation of historical sites and re-creations such as this 13th-century gercamp northeast of Ulaan Baatar. Here, in a dramatic setting amidst craggy granite outcrops, is an encampment of a type that might have been occupied by Genghis Khan, his family, and personal guard, replete with a nearby "shaman’s camp." Visitors attend audiences with Genghis, hear throat-singing (khoomii) performances with traditional Mongol instruments such as the horsehead fiddle (morin khuur), and stay overnight in 13th-century style. backdrop for an immense bronze statue of a regal Genghis seated on his throne flanked by his four sons. A 95-foot high statue of Genghis on horseback was constructed on an open hilltop near the Tuul River, 54 kilometers from Ulaan Baatar near a re¬ constructed “thirteenth-century village” catering to caravans of tourist buses (fig. 1.12) . Tourists from around the world participated in festivities marking the rebirth of a nation, observing special art exhibits and performances of the Buddhist Tsaam dance in which performers wearing oversize papier-mache heads engage in mock battles and comic antics. In the midst of this festi¬ val, which coincided with the annual Naadam in early July, Ulaan Baatar was experiencing an economic boom with the construction of hundreds of new buildings. Ubiquitous cell¬ phones, iPods, baggy pants, and cars, cars, and more cars signaled the dawn of a new era. Although an ancient polity, Mongolia today is in the midst of rapid transforma¬ tion. The last century was one of turmoil, when Mongolia passed from a semi-theo- cratic society to a communistic order and, in 1990, to a democratic nation. About half of its 2.8 million people live in the capital city of Ulaan Baatar, while the rest live in the countryside as herders or in regional centers. Not since the days of Genghis Khan have its diplomats, soldiers, and businessmen, trav¬ eling to the far corners of the world, been received with respect rather than fear. Tittle by little Mongolia’s resources—cashmere, ore, oil, meat products, and hides—are find¬ ing markets beyond its former and proximal trading partners, Russia and China. Its au¬ thors and filmmakers are finding readers and viewers in Europe and North America, and outsiders are increasingly traveling to Mon¬ golia to view its spectacular natural land¬ scapes, experience its fascinating traditional cultures, and meet its friendly, resourceful people. In a real way, ancient Mongolia and modern Mongolia have merged. The elemen¬ tal herding life that continues to sustain most Mongolians today has not changed much since the time when Genghis as a young man struggled to feed and defend his fam¬ ily. Many of Mongolia’s ancient ways—its nomadic economy, musical traditions, love of horses, of festivals and sporting events, and openness to the outside world, remain strong, even as Mongolia finds its way into the globalized world. One senses that if Genghis Khan, an early advocate of global integration, returned today, he would ap¬ prove and would see that little of what was essentially “Mongol” in his day has changed. 1. Komaraoff and Carboni 2002, 7. 2. Translation drawn from Dawson 1955, 86. 3. Morgan 1986; Marshall 1993; Jackson 2005. 4. Komaroff and Carboni 2002. 5. Skelton et al. 1965. 6. Roux 1993, 316. 7. Morgan 1986, 188-9. 8. Morgan 1986, n-12. 9. “Secrecy Still Marks Tomb of Genghis Khan,” New York Times, 20 Nov. 1927. 10. Lattimore 1936. 11. Atwood 2004, 245. INTRODUCTION 39 PART I 2.1 Intertwined History Recent research has revealed evidence of bit abrasion on horse teeth and horse milk residue in ceramic containers at sites on the Central Eurasian steppe dated to 3500 BCE. Such evidence suggests domestication of horses was well underway by this time, eventually leading to revolutionary changes in transportation, warfare, and social life throughout the world. Mongolia, with its broad expanses of steppe grasslands, is ideal horse habitat, and the rearing and riding of horses remains central to Mongolian life, culture, and economy. Here a herder captures a horse with the traditional uurga, a long pole with a noose at its end. 42 B O S S O N Mongolia HEARTLAND OF ASIA James Bosson For thousands of years, the rolling Mongolian steppe, like a grassy cradle in the heartland of Inner Asia, has provided sustenance and geo¬ graphic protection for its animal and human inhabitants. Surrounding this oasis of green, mountains or deserts form distinct but permeable bar¬ riers. To the north lie the Sayan Mountains of southern Siberia, the Russian prov¬ ince of Tuva, backed by thick forests and bogs. In the west the Altai Mountains rise to glaciated peaks. To the south lies the Gobi Desert, hundreds of kilometers wide, and to the east the steppe grasslands give way to parched barrens that stretch a thousand kilometers to the Gulf of Korea. Between these natural borders the more hospitable basin-like central Mongolian steppe forms the biological core of the Inner Asian plateau. Watered by winter snows, seasonal mountain rivers, and summer thunderstorms, the Mongolian plain—one thousand kilometers wide, wet¬ ter and greener in the northern foothills, and drier toward the Gobi—has nurtured pastoralists for millennia. Once converted about five thousand years ago from an Ice Age hunters’ paradise to a herders’ landscape following the domestica¬ tion of its “five snouts”—sheep, goats, cattle, camels, and horses—the Mongolian culture quickly became established and has changed little over succeeding millennia. Today, half of Mongolia’s human population lives out¬ side of the capital city in small towns or settlements of felt tents known as gers. They tend the same animals, eat the same food, and converse about the weather, water, their neighbors, and the spirits of the land much as their ancestors did through the ages. And yet, as steady as the Gobi winds, the cross¬ currents of history have found their way into Mongolian gers, just as Mongolian peoples have found their way to other lands, follow¬ ing the steppe grasslands west to the Cas¬ pian, Southern Russia, even to the Puszta steppes of Hungary. Mongolia, while partic¬ ularly susceptible to influences from Siberia and China, has always had natural geograph¬ ic and ecological continuity via the steppe to the west. The steppe is Mongolia’s lifeline— its source of sustenance and its strongest con¬ nection to the outside world (fig. 2.8). The Land Mongolia’s geography is both physically daunting and visually awe-inspiring. Its steppe region averages 1580 meters above sea level,1 and because it is far from the moderating in¬ fluence of the ocean, the climate is extreme. The country’s landlocked position creates spectacular diurnal and annual ranges in MONGOLIA 43 2.2 Gobi Dunes High sand dunes like those found in the driest deserts are uncommon but dramatic features of Mongolia's Gobi Desert. Where topography and strong prevailing winds over millennia have concentrated sands, high dune-fields, called etsen mankhan, have formed. temperature and weather systems. Yet, due to the low precipitation and strong winds, there is seldom snow of any depth on the ground, even in sub-zero conditions. In fact, when snow is plentiful, it is a disaster for the herdsmen. This condition is called “white famine” (tsagaan zud), a time when the snow is so deep herds cannot kick through to reach the grass. Even more devastating is the “black famine” (kbara zud), when an ice crust forms that is equally impenetrable. The storms that produce these conditions are called zuds and can last for days and fill the air with a deadly mixture of snow and sand, freezing or suffocating animals over huge expanses of territory. The vari¬ ety of natural catastrophes—including zuds, droughts, fire, and animal disease—is offset by the herdsman’s time-tested “five snouts” insurance policy, because each of these ani¬ mals has different tolerances and abilities to withstand privation. Throughout most of Mongolia the winds blow almost constantly, with a de¬ creasing intensity only in summertime. In April, the wind velocity in Dalanzadgad, a small town in the southern Gobi region, has been measured at 28 meters per second.1 Anyone who has visited these steppes comes away with the sound of the constant wind as a souvenir; some believe the wind-song is the source of Mongolia’s unique musical traditions, such as the high-pitched operatic “long song” genre (see Chapter 7).3 To the newly arrived visitor, Mongolia’s landscape can befuddle. Traveling north from Mongolia’s capital city, Ulaan Baatar, located in the central steppe region, grassy hills climb one above the other toward the mountains of Siberia (fig. 2.3). But looking in the other direction the vista reverses: all one sees are the northern sides of fully forest¬ ed hills. This visual paradox has an intricate biological and cultural basis in which graz¬ ing and wood-cutting find a balance with precipitation and evaporation that keeps south-facing slopes in grassland and sun- shadowed north-facing slopes under forests of Siberian larch (Larix sibirica) and birch (Betula) trees. Willows (Salix) also grow along watercourses. On the steppe, a variety of feather grasses (Stipa sp.) and brush are dominant, and rodents, principally marmots and squirrels, are abundant. In northern and mountainous regions arctic vegetation prevails, and permafrost is present sporadi¬ cally in the ground even in summer. In areas of discontinuous permafrost, large earth- 44 BOSSON 2.3 Steppe Grasslands Typical of northern Mongolia are rolling hills covered with grass and brush that form part of the great Eurasian steppe. Cold and snow-covered in winter and temperate with frequent thunderstorms in summer, the Mongolian steppe supported many species of grazing animals during the Ice Ages, and after the domestication of sheep, goats, camels, cattle, and horses, became the economic core of nomadic life. Nearly one-third of Mongolia's population still lives as herders in gers and small villages in "the countryside," as the steppe is popularly known. covered ice mounds called pingos, sometimes reaching three meters in height, form under the surface, rising and falling with the sea¬ sons. The alpine pastures in the Sayan Moun¬ tains around Lake Khovsgol support the southernmost domestic reindeer population in the world. The lower forested mountain slopes are inhabited by bear, antelope, large cats, and the Siberian elk (red deer, Cervus Si¬ berians), famed for its huge, graceful antlers. Mongolia’s surrounding mountains cre¬ ate complex drainage patterns, but most of its rivers are small and do not create barriers to flocks, horses, or carts. Snow-melt cre¬ ates strong spring and early summer run-off from the mountain slopes. In summer many of these rivers and streams are dry, but vio¬ lent thunderstorms bring torrential rains that periodically flood large swaths of land. But even Mongolia’s largest rivers like the Selenge, Orhkon, and Kherlen, can often be crossed in numerous places. Most others draining from the mountain rims surround¬ ing Mongolia eventually disappear into the steppe, either into the ground, into playas and salt marshes, or into saline lakes, which are common in western Mongolia and in the Gobi. However, two rivers, the Khug and the Selenge, rising only a few tens of kilometers apart in northern Mongolia, flow east and west then northward to form the great Yenisei-Angara drainage of Siberia. Most of Mongolia’s lakes are “dead seas.” Lake Khovsgol in northern Mongolia is the ex¬ ception, being the highest large sweet-water lake in Asia. It drains through the Selenge River into Siberia’s Lake Baikal, Asia’s larg¬ est freshwater lake and the world’s deepest. Southern Mongolia is a land of arid sandy deserts with dunes in constant mo¬ tion, driven by strong winds. The vast Gobi Desert is not as arid as its reputation leads us to believe (fig. 2.2). The term gobi re¬ fers to a specific type of gravel desert with a flora of low, creeping, drought-resistant grasses, but it also has broad areas of savan¬ nah-type landscape with grasslands, brush, and stunted trees. Gobi has come to be used as a place-name, which has become synony¬ mous with danger, hardship, and menace. In fact, there are springs and wells in numer¬ ous locations that allow the Gobi Desert to be traversed without dramatic difficulties. Water can be found close enough to the surface to quench the thirst of the herdsmen and their animals; although it is often saline and unappetizing, it is nevertheless potable. The domesticated horse, that most pre- MONGOLIA 45 TUNDRA A - Aj\ /' lONIFEROUS FOREST MID-LATITUDE DESERTS TROPICAL Ecological zones of Inner Eurasia I I Tundra |A Northern coniferous forest |jj:; l| Grassland _ K-v&f Mixed forest - ■ l- \ Monsoon woodland IW1 Deciduous forest [ A Open jungle and scrub EQUATORIAL 2.4 The Steppe Zone: Highway of Conquest Running across Eurasia from Manchuria to Hungary between 40-50° l\l latitude, the grassy rolling steppe is a highway of migration, trade, and cultural influences. Until the development of ocean-going ships, the steppe, like the arid region to the south supporting the Silk Road, was a major artery connecting East and West. Like Scythians and Turks before them, Mongols used the steppe as their highway of conquest in the West. cious of animals, allowed Mongolian peoples to become nomads par excellence (fig. 2.1). The horse’s mobility allowed nomads to seek sustenance where it was most abundant. Game could be found everywhere—from the Gobi through the grasslands to the foothills of the high mountains. The Mongolians’ eco¬ nomic survival has always combined animal husbandry and hunting. And what they could not produce locally, over time they learned to acquire by force, making a regular prac¬ tice of raids into Northern China to obtain such goods as woven cloth, silk, and tea. Nomads and their Culture Who then, were the freely moving herds¬ men who inhabited this area from ancient times? Nomads leave few physical remains to be found by archaeologists; neither do they commonly leave written records. Although archaeological knowledge is advancing, much that is known of Mongolia’s early people comes from Mongolia’s literate and sedentary 46 B O S S O N neighbors, in this case, the Chinese. Archaeological evidence indicates that the herder had a military alter ego. The warrior-herdsman duality must have been present in steppe societies as early as the Bronze and Iron ages, 3,500 to 2,500 and 2,500 to 1,500 years ago, respectively. Dur¬ ing the Late Bronze Age “deer stones”— engraved stone monuments found through¬ out northern and western Mongolia—were carved, depicting stylized warriors with tools and weapons hanging from their belts and graceful images of the Siberian deer on their torsos. Warfare must have been endemic in these early societies and prob¬ ably ranged from localized clan rivalries involving disputes over pasture rights, water, women, slaves, and others matters to the scale of regional conflicts and wars between entire ethnic or political confederations. A tall stone stele known as the Kill Te- gin stone, which was carved a little more than 1,200 years ago and still stands in the heartland of Mongolia, offers more di¬ rect clues into the early human history of this region. This stone bears inscriptions in letters reminiscent of the Scandinavian runic script, mainly straight-cut lines, ver¬ tical and oblique with few horizontal or curved lines. The origins of this script are still obscure, but because this stele bears a parallel Chinese text, the script was deci¬ phered in 1893. The text, which was de¬ termined to be an early form of the Turkic language,4 refers to events in the eighth century is a tangible witness that a no¬ madic Turkic society inhabited the center of what is now Mongolia. From these in¬ scriptions memorializing famous leaders, and from other documents, scholars have learned much about the political organiza¬ tion of Mongolia’s early nomadic peoples. Confederations were made up of no¬ madic clans that allied themselves to the local leader, known as khan. If they had other ambitions or were defeated, the khan and his commanders were killed, and a new oath of allegiance was taken by those re¬ maining. The new clan became part of the confederation. In this way, the khan’s troops grew by geometric progression, and it was to the advantage of the defeated soldiers 2.5 Ancient Postal Service Stephane Passet was one of the first to make color pictures in Central Asia. When his caravan met this Mongolian postal service detail on the road between Kiakhta and Urga (modern Ulaan Baatar) on 19 July 1913, he made a color image of a service that has been a feature of Mongolian civic culture since at least the time of the Turkic empire in the 7th-8th centuries. Genghis Khan improved the rapid postal system, which became a crucial instrument of his empire, by establishing depots for changing horses and couriers which enabled messages and documents to travel hundreds of kilometers per day. to be on the victorious side with promise of future booty. Because the defeated clan had the same organization and economic structure as the victor, the amalgamation of troops was successful. Although these no¬ madic clans might have different linguistic backgrounds, the majority spoke Turkic or Mongolian languages. Such confederations were multicultural, although the name of the confederation was that of the ruling khan. These armies of nomads also had other ad¬ vantages over their more settled adversar¬ ies. To begin with, they were not fighting for a nation, in the way a sedentary polity defines this concept (see Chapter io). The confederation title “Mongol” did not con¬ clusively appear until the time of Temujin, who later held the title of Genghis Khan. Because outsiders could not easily breach the Sayan or Altai mountains or the steppe’s barrens or deserts, the Mongolian heartland was a natural fortress whose development depended mostly on its own internal affairs. Yet to Turks, Mongols, and other nomadic tribes who had adapted to these harsh condi¬ tions, these barriers were easily passed, and the one-way traffic helped preserve an indig¬ enous life-style. As Owen Lattimore recog¬ nized years ago,5 invaders might destroy a city or lay waste to villages, but the Mongols could slip away into the hills with their gers and animals where armies could not find them. Invaders rarely stayed to hunt them down. In time, the Mongols would reas¬ semble and march forward again. In this way Mongolia’s geographic isolation was both its greatest boon and its gravest challenge. Mobility remains at the core of steppe nomadic life, and key to mobility is the felt tent or yurt, known to Mongols as a ger (fig. 2.8). The antiquity of the ger may reach back more than four thousand years, to the time when nomadic pastoralism began to be practiced. The ger had to be light and easily transportable yet strong enough to withstand fierce storms. Today’s Mongolian ger is prob- MONGOLIA 47 2.6 Greeting Ritual Until recently all Mongol men, whether herders or high- ranking officials, carried small snuff bottles known as khoorog, which they would offer as part of a handshake when meeting old or new acquaintances. Compliments on the artistry of the bottle and quality of snuff are essential parts of the ritual. Today this greeting ritual is still commonplace when herders meet in the countryside, but it is limited in the cities to formal meetings and ceremonies. 2.7 Larder on the Wall The staple diet of rural Mongolians consists largely of meat and dairy products. Vegetables, grains, and root products can be grown in some regions, but today much produce is imported. In ancient times irrigation was practiced in some river valleys. Agricultural production expanded in the Soviet era, but declined precipitously after 1990. The core diet is supplemented by herbs, pine nuts, wild plants, and imported starches. Even in summer, meat can be preserved for long periods by drying and storing inside a shady ger, safe from scavengers. ably similar to its ancient prototype: it has collapsible lattice walls fastened to a conical roof made of slender wooden poles, a rigid wooden door supported by posts, and a hole for smoke and ventilation at the apex of the structure (fig. 2.7). Once the framework is secured by lashings, one or more layers of thick felt matting are tied around the walls and over the roof. The ger is heated by burning wood or dung in a small bar¬ rel stove, which can keep a ger warm in the depths of winter. When storms threaten, heavy rocks are suspended from the walls or roof to hold it down. This exquisitely de¬ signed house is ideally suited to the constant winds; they are warm in winter and provide shade and ventilation in summer when the lower felt wall covering can be rolled up a short distance to let the wind blow right through the dwelling. Experienced hands can erect or disassemble a ger in thirty minutes. Dismantled, the entire dwelling can be car¬ ried on several camels or on carts pulled by yaks. Today’s no¬ mads more frequently make their seasonal moves by truck. The modern Mon¬ gol herder’s yearly round is also undoubt¬ edly similar to the ancient pattern of seasonal camp moves. In some areas, for example, near forested areas or rivers, herders may move only short distances, or might move only two or three times a year. In less productive regions, such as the Gobi, or in the aftermath of zuds or droughts, herders’ seasonal moves are more frequent and take place over great distances. In northern Mongolia, nomads frequently locate winter camps in protected valleys near the edge of the forest; in barren hilly regions, people prefer south-facing slopes and hillsides protected from northern winds and where spring snow-melt promotes early grass growth. Water is always an issue, and camps must be accessible to rivers, springs, or wells. If winter snows are too low, sum¬ mer droughts may force nomads to migrate hundreds of kilometers. Cold climate condi¬ tions have been theorized as a major factor in historical social and cultural change on the steppe and have been cited specifically in the rise of Genghis Khan and the expan¬ sion of the Mongol empire. More refined studies (see Chapter 4) confirm a cold pe¬ riod before 1206 when Genghis Khan was consolidating the Mongol tribes. Losses of livestock due to such conditions might have enticed people to join a powerful new leader. After Genghis Khan’s election in 1206, however, warmer weather returned through much of the early thirteenth cen¬ tury, making climate an unlikely factor in the growth of the Mongol empire. Mongolian culture and society today re¬ tain many characteristics that emerged thou¬ sands of years ago in response to its climate, environment, and geography. Its culture type 48 BOSSON 2.8 Erecting a Ger The ger, a felt-covered tent with a lattice-wall frame and roof poles fitted into a central ring, has been the traditional Mongolian dwelling for at least two thousand years. Equipped with a small tin barrel stove and insulated with felt, a ger is comfortable in all seasons, even the depth of winter. In summerthe felt can be rolled up from the ground to let the breeze blow through. An engineering marvel, a dwelling that is light and easy to move by cart, camel, or truck, the ger is strong enough to withstand Mongolia's violent winter and summer storms. seems to have became established quickly following the adoption of domestic sheep and goats from the western Asian steppe and the addition—perhaps locally derived— of yak and camel domesticates. Wool from these animals stimulated the invention of felt, which provided sturdy material for every¬ thing from warm clothing to ger coverings and became the focus for an ancient artistic genre of felt applique and embroidery that continues to this day. Soon after these core traditions of Mongolian nomadic life were in place, about 5,000 years ago, came the do¬ mestication of the horse. Horse-riding was a later development that transformed herding, and it established mounted warfare as anoth¬ er core element of nomadic steppe life, bring¬ ing with it new political developments, trade, and external relations. During the last two thousand years, Mongolia’s nomadic econ¬ omy, traditional adaptations, and military tradition provided the basis for the growth of huge empires and population dispersions, notably that of the Tiirks in the seventh and eighth centuries and the Mongols in the thir¬ teenth. During intervening periods Mongo¬ lia’s “fortress” topography, and relative geo¬ graphic isolation, allowed its grass, its “five muzzles,” and its hardy and resilient peoples to preserve an ancient cultural tradition that has become part of the modern world. 1. Murzaev 1954, 133. 2. Murzaev 1954, 246. 3. Levin 2006: Levin and Suzukei 2006. 4. Thomsen 1893. 5. Lattimore 1938. MONGOLIA 49 3. Mongolia: Ancient Hearth of Central Asia Steven B. Young In Mongolia, one is as far from the salt seas as it is possible to be on this planet. North lies the broad belt of the Siberian larch forest, ex¬ tending thousands of kilometers to the Arctic Ocean. To the south, the Gobi Desert rises to the Himala¬ yan mountain complex. To the east physical barriers are less formidable and have long allowed migrations of people, as well as animals and plants, between Mongolia and the Pacific shores in China and Korea. Westward, the old trade routes lead through the steppes and highlands of Kazakhstan into the Caspian Basin and, ultimately, the ancient grasslands of eastern Europe. Long before trade routes were established, these pathways were traversed by camels, wild horses, bison, and a host of other creatures, large and small—as well as human migrants. New research suggests that Mongolia, once thought of as an isolated marginal region of In¬ ner Asia, may have been a central refuge and source of animal species and a hearth of human peoples and cultures that repeatedly migrated 3.; Comparative Climate Profiles This graph shows yearly profiles for five climate stations located near 50° N latitude. Of all stations, Mongolia has the lowest average temperatures, the highest amount of variation between summer and winter, and low and highly seasonal precipitation, most of which occurs as rain during summer. into other parts of the world. Scyth¬ ians, Tiirks, and Mongols are only the most recent of these diasporic peoples; others may have included the ancient Americans and Eskimos. The history of early Mongolia and its ancient environments is only beginning to be explored, and the results suggest that a unique combi¬ nation of high-altitude geography, cold climate, and resourceful peoples have given Mongolia a larger role in history than is generally accorded. Climate Mongolia’s extreme continental cli¬ mate reflects its landlocked nature. With none of the ameliorating influ¬ ence of the sea, the range of season¬ al changes is intensified. The range between Ulaan Baatar’s mean sum¬ mer and winter temperatures is three times greater than in Vancouver, also at about 50 degrees North latitude. Conversely, total annual precipita¬ tion in Ulaan Baatar is about one- third that of Vancouver (fig. 3.1). Climatic factors, of course, control the type of vegetation. The presence of a temperate rain forest in coastal British Columbia could be predicted accurately from the climatic data, as could the steppe that dominates much of Mongolia north of the Gobi Desert. Scientists have determined that Mongolia’s climate has been fairly stable for at least one thou¬ sand years (see Chapter 4). Not only is the Mongolian cli¬ mate more seasonal than that of coastal regions, it is also colder. This is typical of continental climates at high latitudes; in Mongolia, cli¬ mate extremes are exacerbated by elevation. Most of the plains and valley floors lie at elevations well above one thousand meters. North¬ ern Mongolia is underlain by per¬ mafrost, indicating a mean annual temperature significantly below freezing—even at roughly the same latitude as London. Ulaan Baatar is the coldest national capital of any country on earth. The current cli¬ mate of many northern Mongolia weather stations, such as Hatgal, is comparable to that of parts of Alaska near the Arctic Circle. Ac¬ cording to widely accepted defini¬ tions of the Subarctic,1 much of Mongolia would fall within this region because in most stations no more than four months of the year have mean temperatures above 10 degrees Celsius. Stations such as Hatgal display climatic conditions comparable to those of the low Arc¬ tic, or to alpine regions in interior Alaska and the Yukon Territory. A peculiarity of Mongolia’s climate is the extreme aridity of the winter season. Many Mongolian 150mm 125mm 100mm 75mm 50mm 25mm 0mm 150mm 30°C 125mm 20°C 100mm 10°C 75mm 0°C 50mm -10°C 25mm -20°C 0mm -30°C Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia Elev. 1315m Lat47 56N Ann.Temp-1° Ann.Ppt.370mm Hatgal, Mongolia Elev. 1668m Lat 50 24N Ann.Temp -4° Ann.Ppt. 284mm Calgary, Canada Elev. 1083m Lat 51 06N Ann.Temp4° Ann.Ppt.421mm Vancouver, Canada Elev. 2m Lat 49 11N Ann.Temp 10° Ann.Ppt. 1110mm London, England Elev. 61m Lat 51 09N Ann.Temp 10° Ann.Ppt. 750mm 50 YOUNG stations report virtually no measur¬ able precipitation during the four to six coldest months of the year. In a normal winter, the steppe may be essentially snow free. Grazing animals that can withstand the in¬ tense cold can continue to forage on the dried and frozen grasses and other vegetation without needing any special ability to dig for food sources buried deep under snow. Pollen and tree ring data show that Mongolia has had a cold, arid, and relatively stable climate extend¬ ing back through the millennia into the last Ice Age, which reached it greatest extent about twenty thou¬ sand years ago, and probably for much longer. We may reasonably hypothesize that the pattern of winter drought and lack of snow cover was also characteristic of the climate back into the distant past. Beringia and Megaberingia Early in the twentieth century, sci¬ entists realized that the seas to the north and south of the Bering Strait were shallow. The sea floor is actu¬ ally a shelf of the Asian and North American continents, often lying less than one hundred meters be¬ low current sea level. A drop in the level of the ocean’s surface of one hundred meters would thus create a broad land connection between the two continents. At the height of an Ice Age, sea level was lowered by at least this much, and Alaska and easternmost Asia became connected. Alaska was also cut off from the rest of North America by immense gla¬ cial barriers. Alaska was geographi¬ cally a part of Asia during the re¬ peated Ice Ages of the past million years or so. The great Swedish botanist Eric Hulten in the 1930s called attention to this area around Bering Strait, which he named “Beringia.” He believed that Beringia was an exten¬ sive ice-free area lying between the enormous ice sheets of North Amer¬ ica and the equally vast glaciers of Siberia/ He further postulated that Beringia had served as a refugium, a place where cold-adapted ani¬ mals and plants could “overwin¬ ter” the Ice Age, then repopulate other high-latitude lands to the east and west as the earth warmed and the ice retreated. Hulten’s original idea has been refined and modi¬ fied over the years as additional evidence has been uncovered. Most of the major mountain systems of Eurasia as well as North America are connected to Beringia, providing migration routes between the circumpolar Arctic and alpine re¬ gions at lower latitudes. This ancient ecosystem, sometimes called the “mammoth steppe,” extended from Beringia across Asia westward even to Ukraine, Poland, and Hungary. In this view, Beringia, in its traditional, narrow sense, is an outlier of a great belt of cold steppe that extended nearly half way around the world, from central Europe to the Yukon Territory during the last Ice Age. Mongolia, situated in the center of this mammoth steppe belt, has 3.2 Southernmost Reindeer The Dukha, a Tuvan-speaking people closely related to Siberian tribes, occupy mountain regions around Lake Khovsgol in northern Mongolia. Known in Mongolia as Tsaatan (reindeer-herder), they winter in the forest and summer in the mountain tundra. Dukha ancestors may have been the first to domesticate reindeer, probably about 2,000 years ago, perhaps inspired by knowledge of domestication of other animals on the steppe. The Dukha use reindeer for transport and milk, and only rarely for meat. Today they are the southernmost reindeer herders in the world, a traditional lifestyle vulnerable to global warming and shrinking habitat. been called “Megaberingia” by some paleoecologists. Its current environ¬ ment is characterized by an extreme continental climate: intensely cold, dry winters and warm summers; vegetation includes many species typical of steppe, cold desert, and semi-desert, and, at least historically, large populations of steppe-adapted animals. These aspects of the present Mongolian environment suggest that it retains many characteristics of the Ice Age mammoth steppe. Studies of Mongolia’s past may yield important information about the conditions that influenced its cultural develop¬ ment, including those, such as cycles of drought or harsh conditions that may have contributed to the Mongol empire. And because of its geograph¬ ic centrality and mountain connec¬ tions, Mongolia may have been a source for animal and human migra¬ tions into other parts of the world. ANCIENT HEARTH 51 3.3 Winter Camp With most of Mongolia above 1500m and far from moderating oceans, its winters are long, cold, and dry. In treeless regions, gers are heated by dung-fueled fires and by wood in northern or mountainous areas. Animals are often sheltered in low sheds and forage close to home, protected from wolves by dogs and armed herders. Sheep and goats can starve if an icy surface crust forms on pastures. Their survival depends on horses, yaks, or camels whose hooves and feeding breaks up the crust, giving smaller animals a chance to reach the leftovers. Ancient Hearth of Cultures One of the perennial controversies regarding the mammoth steppe en¬ vironment of ancient Beringia in¬ volves the carrying capacity of the ecosystem for large herbivores.3 A productive mammoth steppe ecosys¬ tem, supporting herds of large her¬ bivores, carnivores, and scavengers, north central Asia probably support¬ ed advanced hunter-gatherer cul¬ tures of humans during the last Ice Age. If this were the case, the area that is now Mongolia and its envi¬ rons could be envisioned as a stag¬ ing area for human expansion deeper into the north as the climate changed in postglacial times. In this scenario, the thirteenth-century Mongol intru¬ sions into western Asia and Europe would be late manifestations of the kind of human movements that had occurred before, perhaps many times before, and include the earlier ad¬ vances of the Scythians (700 BCE- 500 CE) and the Turks (700-800S). The speed and intensity of these later excursions would, of course, have been augmented by use of the horse and by the increasing sophistication of the skills and technology of horse¬ manship. The modern Mongolian steppe is capable of supporting such large populations of herd animals.The modern herds are of domestic ani¬ mals; presumably, managed herds can utilize the resources more ef¬ ficiently than wild herds. But even if the wild herds of the mammoth steppe numbered no more than a tenth, in terms of individuals or biomass, of modern herds, they would have indicated a complex and highly productive ecosystem.'* The high, cold Darkhad Valley today supports well over one hun¬ dred thousand individual herd ani¬ mals.5 Even if the wild herds were a fraction of that size, they would have provided ample resources for partial support of a semi-nomadic, hunter-gatherer human population. Given what we know of Mon¬ golia’s climate during the last few thousand years and today, a good case can be made that the cold, dry steppe that remains to this day, extends back deep into the last Ice Age, and perhaps earlier. It is clear that there have been major chang¬ es in the large animal species, in terms of both species present and population sizes, over the millen¬ nia. Many indigenous species, such as Przewalski’s horse and the Saiga antelope, have been largely replaced by domestic sheep, goats, cattle, and horses. Although the hunting of wild game was important in the time of Genghis Khan, little infor¬ mation is available on the size and location of game animal populations and how they may have interacted with domestic herds and herders. When Genghis Khan first began to solidify his main confederacy into outlying regions beyond the main steppe area of Mongolia, he turned his military efforts northward, into the Darkhad and Selenge val¬ leys, the gateway to Siberia and its wealth of animals, fur, fish, and gold. Once again Mongolia found itself reconnected to the northern world. That these areas were given attention suggests that Mongo¬ lia’s northern regions and nearby Buryatia, where the Central Asian steppe meets the Siberian taiga, were productive and well known. As in earlier periods, these boreal and arctic outliers soon became an important part of another cy¬ clical pulse of Mongolian peoples and cultures facilitated by Mon¬ golia’s unique geographic position and environmental connections. 1. Young 1994. 2. Hulten 1937. 3. Guthrie 1990; Brigham-Grette and Elias 2001. 4. Brigham-Grette and Elias 2001. 5. O. Sukhbaatar, personal communica¬ tion, 2003. 52 YOUNG 4- Tree Rings, Climate History, and Genghis Khan Gordon C. Jacoby The rise and fall of cultures and civilizations has been a focus of scholarly debate for hundreds of years. Geographical and cli¬ matic factors were among the first explanations to be promoted, fol¬ lowed by Arnold Toynbee’s “great man” explanations.1 The rise of Genghis Khan and rapid spread of the Mongolian empire have often been explained by his charismatic leadership. But were other factors involved? Was Genghis Khan’s rise to power due to harsh climate and agrarian privation? Or was it fa¬ cilitated by optimal conditions and agrarian productivity that promoted demographic and political expan¬ sion? Were there other factors? Most early geographic theories of culture change, such as those promoted by Ellsworth Huntington and Friedrik Ratzel, were seriously flawed and lack scientific merit. Owen Lattimore in the 1930s, fol¬ lowed by Gareth Jenkins forty years later, developed more objective hy¬ potheses.1 A gifted pioneer of Asian ethnology and geography, Lattimore understood the delicate balance between precipitation, tempera¬ ture, storminess, and disease upon which Mongolian herding societies depended. Jenkins, a climatologist with a strong interest in history, and with access to some of the first detailed meteorological records from central Asia, believed there “may have been a steady and deep decline in the mean-annual temperature in Mongolia in the years 1175-1260,” the years when Genghis Khan and his sons and grandsons built the Mongol empire. He believed cold conditions may have been an im¬ portant factor promoting Mon¬ gol unification and expansion. In Jenkins’s time the science of paleoclimatology was still ru¬ dimentary. Few paleo records were available, and variations of climatic change were not under¬ stood. Today it is possible to re¬ construct climate and temperature history in far more detail, from a variety of proxies (comparative records), because it is not possible to obtain direct temperature and weather readings from the past. One important source of proxy records that relate closely to tem¬ perature and precipitation is from annual growth rings of trees. Den¬ drochronology, or tree-ring analy¬ sis, uses the natural record of en¬ vironmental variations preserved in the growth rings to extend our knowledge of past conditions.’ The basis of the science is the tendency for trees and some shrubs to form identifiable annual increments. Most sampling of living trees is done by boring a thin core from the outer bark to the center of the tree. There are frequently missing and/or false 4.1 Ancient Larch The author stands next to a Siberian larch (Larix sibirica) tree near the Khoton nuur (Pelican Lake) site in Western Mongolia. Wide and narrow tree rings correspond respectively to wetter and drier years in this region. The core extracted from this tree had 791 rings (1215— 2005) but did not reach its inner heart-wood, so the tree may be much older. TREE RINGS 53 4.2 Temperature Record from Tree Rings The upper graph plots average tree-ring indices based on fourtree-ring records. Higher values indicate wider rings and warmertemperatures; lower values indicate narrower rings and colder temperatures. The darker line is constructed from ten-year running averages. The lower graph provides detail on temperature change during Genghis's life time and the expansion phase of the Mongol empire. rings that must be identified in order to determine the exact calendar year of growth for each ring, however. A key factor in dendroclimatic tree-ring research is to seek out sampling sites where the variable of interest—usually, either temperature or precipitation—has strong influ¬ ence on tree growth. Examples are (i) elevational or latitudinal treeline, where temperatures are cold enough to limit the survival of trees at high¬ er levels and (2) the lower forest border, where trees cannot extend into the grassland of the lower eleva¬ tions due to lack of precipitation and usually higher temperatures. The respective limits to tree growth are temperature and precipitation.4 The latter correlates with stream- flow, drought, and soil moisture. Applying this science to paleocli- matology provides us with a quanti¬ tative record of climate for times of history when there are few other re¬ cords. The question here is what the climate variations may have been in Mongolia at the time when Genghis Khan (1162-1227) was uniting and expanding his empire. Research in Mongolia has resulted in records of temperature and precipitation that extend back through many centu¬ ries before the recorded information extant in Mongolia. In addition to temporal variations there are sub¬ stantial spatial variations of climate throughout the empire and, to a less¬ er degree, even within present-day Mongolia. Tree-ring studies give us insight to these variations. The fol¬ lowing discussion is based on tree¬ ring records primarily from within Mongolia’s present boundaries. Four independent tree-ring re¬ cords of year-to-year temperatures, each spanning more than one thou¬ sand years, have been developed in Mongolia from trees growing at their high-elevation limits where growth is limited by temperature (fig. 4.2). These records comprise samples from old-aged living trees and relict wood samples, more than 300 individual series. Well-preserved relict trees often fell against rocks af¬ ter death and had little contact with moist soil. Some samples have been dead and exposed for more than a thousand years but are still sound and useful for tree-ring analyses. Two living trees from the Khen- tii Mountains are known to have been alive during the life of Genghis Khan. Due to spatial variations in mountain temperatures, the records from each site do not match exactly year by year, but cooler and warmer times of three to five years are very consistent between the sites.5 The 54 JACOBY top graph in fig. 4.2 presents the average ring-width indices of all four sites. One can see the effects of eras termed Medieval Warm Epoch (MWE, from around 1000 to 1400),6 Little Ice Age (LIA, 1450 to 1850),7 and recent climatic warming. Several of the lower-frequency temperature declines match similar trends in the weakening of the monsoon as in¬ ferred from the isotope data from a cave deposit in the northern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, especially in the late 1300s and around 1600.8 The time of Genghis Khan is concurrent with somewhat warmer spells after a brief cooler interval within the MWE. Today, at two of the sites, small, young saplings have migrated above the present eleva¬ tion of the highest mature trees, indicating unusual recent warmth. These results are similar to high- resolution paleotemperature re¬ cords from lake sediment studies in Mongolia.9 In the context of east¬ ern Asia, the Mongolian records also show similarity to the eastern China temperature and China temperature reconstructions.10 The tree-ring record of mois¬ ture variations is much shorter than the temperature record, producing tree-ring records that go back only 400 to 500 years.11 Tree-ring studies in other areas of eastern Asia indi¬ cate some increase in precipitation and moisture in China in the early 1200s.11 Unfortunately, we have only found one moisture-sensitive tree in Mongolia that was alive during Genghis Khan’s time. Core samples from this tree extend back to 1215 (fig. 4.1). One tree is not enough to use for a firm judgment, but the increasing growth trend in this specimen during the early 1200s is in agreement with results found by Chinese researchers.13 Early discussions on the influ¬ ence of climate on culture and his¬ tory suffered from scarcity of ac¬ curate paleoclimate records. The relatively recent availability of more accurate sources of information from tree rings and other climate records14 provides long-term cli¬ mate contexts for reconsideration of some early hypotheses.15 Only Jenkins provides quantitative data in the form of temperature and precipitation. His hypothesis that cold conditions promoted Mongol unification may have some merit for the period of 1175 to 1206, that is, during the decades when Temiijin struggled to consolidate his power, prior to being named Genghis Khan. Jenkins’s hypothesis that un¬ usual cold continued during Genghis Khan’s actual reign (1206-27) is not supported by modern tree-ring pa¬ leoclimate studies for northern Mon¬ golia after the very early 1200s.16 These tree-ring indices (Figure 4.2) show a decline in temperature from a peak (which may represent the early part of the Medieval Warm Epoch) around 1000 until around the 1120s, followed by some warm¬ er temperatures in the 1150s, and renewed cooling from around 1180 through 1204, with a few interven¬ ing periods of increased-growth (warmer). Genghis Kahn’s consoli¬ dation and expansion of the empire coincided with a period of increased growth (warmer temperatures), although the specter of colder times must have remained with him and his people. After another brief cold¬ er interval (1228-45), t^e warm¬ ing period climaxed in the 1250s, and then growth rates fell severely, more severely than around 1100. While new data supports Jen¬ kins’s data that cooler tempera¬ tures were present while Genghis was consolidating his power over the disparate Mongolian tribes, it probably was not a deciding fac¬ tor in Genghis’s rise to power or in the major period of empire expan¬ sion. In similar times of colder envi¬ rons both before and after Genghis Khan, no single leader emerged to unify the empire even though the climatic stresses were as severe, and even worse, in some later in¬ tervals, including around 1300, the 1360s, 1460s, and beyond. 1. Toynbee 1934. 2. Lattimore 1938; Jenkins 1974. 3. Fritts 1976. 4. Fritts 1976. 5. Jacoby et al. 2009. 6. Lamb 1995. 7. Grove 1988. 8. Zhang et al. 2008. 9. Robinson et al. 2009. 10. Yang et al. 2002. 11. Pederson et al. 2001; Davi et al. 2006. 12. For example, Zhi-Yong et al. 2007. 13. Zhi-Yong et al. 2007. 14. IPCC 2007. 15. Toynbee 1934; Lattimore 1938; Jenkins 1974. 16. Jacoby et al. 2009. TREE RINGS 55 5. Mountain Herding In most herding families, youngsters do much of the work tending animals. As soon as they can ride a horse, at about age four, children tend flocks in all kinds of weather conditions. Back at camp they milk and help their parents with fleecing, caring for the sick, and butchering and processing foods. This family is camped in one of the upland valleys in the Altai region of western Mongolia. Solar panels store energy to operate a light, a radio, and often a television. 56 S N E A T H 5. Masters of the Steppe PEOPLES OF MONGOLIA David Sneath For thousands of years, the Mongolian steppe has been home to an ar¬ ray of peoples and empires. Since the first millennium BCE, if not before, societies with pastoral nomadic lifestyles populated the belt of steppe lands that stretches across Eurasia from the Black Sea to the Manchu¬ rian forests.1 These peoples lived in dwellings made of felt and wood that could be moved easily. They herded livestock on horseback and traveled from one seasonal pasture to the next. With these strategies, pastoral peoples were able to master the climatic and geographical challenges of the rolling grasslands of Central and Inner Asia. Their mobile lifestyle and talent with horses made these nomads for¬ midable warriors, who did not hesitate to profit from any weakness they detected in their neighbors. Chinese sources describe the powerful Xion- gnu empire that, beginning in the third cen¬ tury BCE, ruled what is now Mongolia (see Chapter 8). To counter the threat of this northern neighbor, the Chinese Qin emperor Shi Huang (r. 2.2.1-210 BCE) linked smaller existing fortifications into a huge chain of walls that snaked across much of northern China. For centuries, the Great Wall marked the division between the domains of the Chi¬ nese emperors and the lords of the steppe/ On either side of this formidable frontier emerged some of the most expansive empires ever known. Religion and Civil Organization Far from being a timeless land of ancient, unchanged traditions, Mongolia has had a tumultuous history of sweeping changes. New regimes and religions have transformed political, economic, and ideological life. One of the most important developments was religious conversion. Genghis Khan and his successors had followed the established sha- manic polytheistic religion of the Mongols, but since the days of Kublai Khan, Tibetan Buddhism attracted Mongol followers, par¬ ticularly at court. By the end of the sixteenth century, Buddhism was the dominant religion of the region. Some elements of the pre-Bud- dhist shamanic religion, including the wor¬ ship of local deities, may have lived on under Buddhist auspices3 and some practices may have survived periods of active suppression (see Chapter 6). In some areas, such as re¬ mote Khovsgol, some shamanic practices can be found to this day. But from the sixteenth century, Buddhist rulers began to effectively suppress the old faith as a public religion, persecuting shamans and burning their ritual objects. Explicitly non-Buddhist shamanic practices were retained in the northern and eastern fringes of the Mongolian world, among groups such as the Buryats and Daur.4 MASTERS OF THE STEPPE 57 Khalkha |_| Khotgoid | [ Darkhad ||m Eljgin ■■ Sartuul Dariganga Uzemchin Kazakh jiliilliijlllij Uriankhai (Altai) Khoton Buryat Barga Dorvod Zakhchin Torghut Bayad Khoshuund Myangad Oold Uriankhai (Tsaatan) 5.2 Mongolian Ethnicity The largest ethnic group in Mongolia today are Khalkha Mongolians, comprising more than 80 percent of the country's population and occupying most of its core territory. Mountainous northern and western Mongolia holds most of the nation's ethnic diversity, including Buryats, Darkhad, Dukha, and others along its northern frontier with Russia, and Kazakhs in the Altai regions in the west. Khalkhas are mostly Buddhist; Darkhads, Buryats, and Dukha are mostly shamanist; and Kazakhs and some other western groups are predominantly Muslim. The Buddhist era introduced monasteries throughout Mongolia. These became enor¬ mously important ritual, economic, and politi¬ cal centers, and throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they became the hubs of small settlements. Great complexes were built in such places as Urga and Erdene Zuu— where Ogodei’s imperial capital, Khara Khorum, had once stood (see Chapter 19). The Buddhist establishment also took over the ritual aspects of relations with the environment. Every year, the local spiritual masters of the land (gazaryn ezed) were honored in ceremonies held at ritual cairns (ot'oo).5 The district officials might con¬ trol access to pasture land, but these rites demonstrated that, in some sense, the true owners of the land were spiritual ones, in recognition of which the people, lamas, and officials of districts came together to make offerings to these local deities, who were thought to control environmental condi¬ tions.6 These ceremonies and attendant local games (naadam) have been revived through¬ out much of the country in recent years. Mobile pastoralism has long required flexible access to grazing land. District au¬ thorities (lordly, monastic, or collective) historically have tended to control large tracts of territory within which pastoral families have been allocated complimen¬ tary seasonal pastures. This local control of land has allowed for movement and reallocation of pasture in harsh environ¬ mental conditions such as drought and the winter freezes known as zud. Such flexibility conflicts with rigid and perma¬ nent private ownership of land, and until relatively recently, grazing land in Mongo¬ lia was never owned in this manner. This tradition reflects the notion of spiritual authority over the land, which makes hu¬ man claims custodial rather than absolute. Some areas in Mongolia are suitable for agriculture, but most of this vast land is best used for livestock. Around half of Mongo¬ lia’s population now relies upon their do¬ mestic animals to make a living. Many, but not all, of these pastoralists are still “no¬ mads,” moving to different seasonal pas¬ tures as part of an annual cycle. Since long before the time of Genghis Khan pastoral¬ ists have kept what Mongols today describe as the tavan khoshuu mal, the “five types 58 S N E A T H 5.3 Mongolian Saddle The Mongolian saddle, emeel, evolved for battle, not travel. As important as the legendary Mongolian bow, its V-shaped seat and flat- bottomed stirrups enhance a rider's stability for shooting arrows and waging hand-to- hand combat. Short stirrup lines and large ornamented bolt-like saddle fasteners ensured that riders stood rather than sat in the saddle. For nomadic peoples lacking vehicles for prestige display, saddles and horse trappings advertised personal wealth and power. Modern saddles like this are often embellished with tooled designs; bronze castings or silverwork have also been popular in ancient and modern times. of livestock”: horses, cattle, sheep, goats, and, in the drier regions, camels, which are used for transportation. In the higher north¬ ern regions they also keep yaks, sometimes cross-breeding them with Mongol cattle. But above all, Mongolia remains a land of horses. There are almost as many horses as people living in Mongolia—some two mil¬ lion. No other animal is more honored or valued, and top racehorses sell for thousands of dollars. Until the development of fire¬ arms, horses were a key military resource, providing the deadly mobility for which Mongol armies became famous (fig. 5.3). Steppe “nomadism” should not be thought of as an aimless, wandering sub¬ sistence activity. Mongolian mobile pas- toralists know very well which seasonal pastures they will use in winter, spring, summer, and autumn. These generally form an established annual cycle, although pastoralists may adapt their pattern in re¬ sponse to changing economic, social, and environmental circumstances. Pastoral- ism need not be a small-scale activity, lim¬ ited to one or two households. Large-scale, coordinated, mobile herding systems can involve hundreds of households, thou¬ sands of animals, and have ancient roots. From the seventeenth century until the twentieth, Mongolia was divided into ad¬ ministrative districts called khosbuu, or “banners,” ruled by a hereditary lord or a Buddhist monastery. Mongol commoners were tied to a district and were required to provide taxes and labor to their noble or ecclesiastical masters. Buddhist monaster¬ ies, the nobility, and the imperial adminis¬ tration owned large numbers of livestock, which were herded for them by subjects or servants who received a share of the ani¬ mal produce. Most commoners also owned their own livestock, and some could be rich, but they were still required to render service to local princely or monastic au¬ thorities as part of their political units.7 Pastoral systems could also be highly sophisticated. Specialist herders and their families moved large herds of livestock to selected seasonal pastures in an annual cycle. Banner officials regulated pasture alloca¬ tion. Some movement systems could entail MASTERS OF THE STEPPE 59 TOP 5.4 Salty Milk Tea Hospitality is an ancient Mongolian custom that begins with ritual drinking of salty suutei tsai, Mongolian tea. Prepared with tea shredded from a compressed block, milk, and a handful of salt, the brew is mixed by repeatedly pouring cascades of steaming tea from a ladle. BOTTOM 5.5 Making Aaruul Mongolians thrive on cheese and other dairy products made from goats, cows, yaks, and even horses, whose milk they ferment into a beverage called airag. Various Mongolian cheeses, yogurts, and other dairy products can be stored, depending on fat and moisture content. Here a woman turns cheese blocks drying in the sun. This type of dried cheese provides a nutritious snack for herders on the trail or can be rehydrated to fortify soup or stew. herd shifts of 150 to 200 km between sum¬ mer and winter pastures.8 Because different animals have different grazing habits, spe¬ cies were segregated. Sheep crop vegetation so close that horses and cattle cannot get at what is left, so efficient use of land re¬ quired coordinated movement of livestock. This “feudal” system was largely abol¬ ished in the early years of the Soviet-style Mongolian People’s Republic, and, in the 1950s, pastoralists were organized into large collective and state farms. Although these collectives represented a radical break from the past, in some respects they resembled the large monastic and noble estates. As had their predecessors, they controlled ac¬ cess to grazing land and required herders to provide quotas of produce as part of a district-wide operation. They also supported 60 S N E A T H seasonal movement and supplied hay using central motor pools. The collectives were disbanded in the early 1990s, using vari¬ ous formulas to divide livestock and other assets among local members. This has al¬ lowed some herders to become wealthy, but others now own barely enough animals to make a living, and many pastoral house¬ holds have struggled to do without col¬ lective fodder supplies and motor support in the face of harsh weather conditions.9 Mongolian Ethnicity The modern state of Mongolia has a num¬ ber of officially recognized ethnic groups. More than 80 percent of Mongolians are registered Khalkha (fig. 5.2). In the western part of the country there are some 100,000 Kazakhs, whose Turkic Muslim ancestors had moved into the region in the nineteenth century, in part to avoid Tsarist Russian rule. The incorporation of subjects of the former Oyirad realms in western Mongo¬ lia, after their defeat by the Qing emperor of China in the eighteenth century, left a num¬ ber of named groups that became officially registered ethnic minorities (yastan), mostly in the Mongolian west. Administrative divisions introduced by the Manchu rulers of China and Mongolia also left their marks on the ethnographic map of Mongolia. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Qing emperor Kangxi (r. 1662-1722) established a unit to raise imperial horse and camel herds in the Dariganga region in what is now the eastern part of Mongolia. The people of this region were registered as an ethnic group of 32,000 in the 2000 census. In the north, next to the huge fresh-water Lake Khovsgol, is another ethnic group of around 20,000 who trace descent from the great monastic estate of the Bogdo Gegen “Living Buddha.” As part of a religious establishment they were ex¬ empt from state taxes and described as the “exempt ones,” or Darkhad,10 as they are known today. Khovsgol province is also home to some Tuvan-speaking people, such as the Dukha (Tsaatan), famous for herd¬ ing reindeer. In the early twentieth century, many Buryats crossed the border into Mon¬ golia to escape the turmoil of the Russian 5.6 Iron Camp Stove Ceramic pots appeared in Mongolia during the Neolithic period. The introduction of bronze and later iron vessels provided better cooking service while ceramics persisted as personal eating utensils. This iron pot and brazier from a grave in Inner Mongolia and dating to the Yuan period, ca. 1300 CE, could be fueled by wood or charcoal, but most commonly by dung. revolution. Today, some 40,000 Buryats live in Mongolia, mostly in the northern prov¬ inces of Selenge, Khentii, and Dornod.11 Today, many aspects of Mongolian cul¬ ture remain important in Inner Mongolia, now one of the autonomous regions of the People’s Republic of China. Mongolian is an official language, alongside Chinese, and the head of the local government is rou¬ tinely Mongolian. There are around four million people of Mongolian nationality in the region—many more than in the inde¬ pendent state of Mongolia. The region was subject to Chinese settlement throughout the twentieth century, however, and today about 80 percent of the population of In¬ ner Mongolia consists of Han Chinese.11 Farther abroad, people tracing Mon¬ golian descent turn up in some surprising places. On the Russian shores of the Caspian Sea lies the semi-autonomous Republic of Kalmykia, the successor state of the western¬ most outpost of a seventeenth-century ex¬ pansion by the Oyirad Mongols. In exchange for guarding Russia’s eastern frontier, the tsar granted them a small khanate south of the Volga River. The republic has a rich Oyirad- Mongol heritage—it is the only Buddhist nation in Europe and devoted to the Da¬ lai Lama—although only about half of the republic’s population of 300,000 people are Kalmyk, and many of these no longer speak their historic dialect of Mongolian. Having endured the turbulent and brutal tenure of the Soviet Union, diaspora communities of Kalmyks can be found elsewhere in Europe, including Serbia and France, and on the east coast of the United States. The Kalmyk community in New Jersey holds annual festivals to honor their Mongolian heritage. Mongolia is also a land of settlements— most of them tiny, widely dispersed vil¬ lages, isolated in the endless grassy sea of the steppe. There are larger urban centers such as Darkhan and Erdenet, but a single city dominates national consciousness: the capital, Ulaan Baatar. The city started life in the seventeenth century as a great encamp¬ ment around the Bogdo Gegen or “Living Buddha,” the head of the Buddhist church. At first, it remained mobile, a city of tents that moved every few years. Only around 1778 did it settle in its present location in east central Mongolia. It was first known as Ikh Khiiree (Great Camp) and later called Urga by Europeans (probably from orgoo, the Mongol term for a palace yurt). By the end of the nineteenth century, one hundred monasteries and temples of various sizes were located in the vicinity of Urga, with a total population of around 20,000 monks. In the Soviet era, the capital was renamed Ulaan Baatar (“red hero”). The city took on an unmistakably Soviet look, especially in its architecture, and grew at an amazing speed. In 1935, the population of Ulaan Baatar was 10,400. Fifty years later it was fifty times larger, growing to more than a half million people. Since then, the population has al¬ most doubled again to nearly one million.13 Mongolia is a relatively unified nation, with a dominant Khalkha culture and lan¬ guage and smaller Kazak, Buryat, and Dukha MASTERS OF THE STEPPE 6l 5.7 A Fashionable Women's Outfit The Khalkha seamstress who made this fancy woman's garment in the late 19th or early 20th century created it from silk fabrics. Because Mongolia produced only homespun wool and cashmere made from camel, sheep, and goats, finer fabrics like silk had to be imported. Silk was among the commodities obtained from China in exchange for Mongolian horses, wool, and in recent centuries, cashmere. This outfit consists of a long-sleeved dee/and a sleeveless outer garmet called uuj. ll> ||(. flltfTlflW'1 62 S N E A T H 5.8 Woman's Headdress Head gear has always been a striking component of Mongolian apparel. The Early Iron Age headdress from the Arzhan site in Russia's Gorni- Altai had a gold deer figure on its crest, and the 5th-century BCE Issyk Gold Man from Kazakhstan wore a hat with a towering gold pillar. Chinese portraits of elite Mongol women of the Genghis Khan era also depict hats with high pillar-like tops. The hats of elite 19th- and early 20th-century Mongolian women were more conservative, but were often peaked and highly-styled, such as this hat ornamented with silver, silk tassels, and Chinese silk with embroidered designs. minorities. Nevertheless, within the Khalkha majority are remnants of many distinctive local traditions, linguistic dialects, beliefs customs, and techniques of managing live¬ stock. Even greater diversity exists if one includes the peoples of Inner Mongolia, most of whom have been heavily influenced by Chinese assimilation policies and the massive influx of native Chinese in the last century. Yet, throughout “greater Mongo¬ lia” one finds common threads that are the legacy of a long history of largely nomadic and pastoral steppe life, with roots stretch¬ ing back for more than two millennia. While keeping step with the increasingly urban, industrialized world, Mongolia’s peoples continue to find countless ways to express their unique history, culture, and way of life. 1. Allard and Erdenebaatar 2005; Levine 1999. 2. Di Cosmo 2002; Jagchid and Symons 1989. 3. Sneath 2007. 4. Humphrey 1996. 5. Heissig 1980. 6. Erdenetuya 2002. 7. Natsagdorj 1978; Boldbaatar and Sneath 2006. 8. Simukov 1936; Sneath 1999. 9. Simukov 1936; Sneath 1999. 10. Atwood 2004, 132. 11. IISNC 2006, 135. 12. Bulag 2002. 13. Gilberg and Svantesson 1996; Campi 2006. MASTERS OF THE STEPPE 63 6.1 Shaman Robe As in modern times, ancient seamstresses often created garments using scraps available from various sources. This shaman's robe is a replica based on a garment from the grave of a Yuan-dynasty shaman in Inner Mongolia and is created from scores of tassels and strips of different materials, each of which flashed and swirled as the shaman danced. The iron headdress is surmounted by antlers or horns, and the many metal discs, probably representing mirrors for seeing into the spirit world, would have enhanced the shaman's powers and ability to foresee the future, cure the sick, or inflict injury upon enemies. 64 BUYANDELGER 6. Mongolian Shamanism THE MOSAIC OF PERFORMED MEMORY Manduhai Buyandelger In shamanism, the spirit realm continuously engages with the human world. Because humans unwittingly disturb the province of spirits, inviting misfor¬ tune and death, they require shamans to mediate between themselves and the supernatural. To ensure the well-being of individuals and communities, a shaman performs rituals to mediate between humans and the supernatural. Rock art and archaeological finds of human figurines, drums, mirrors, and mouth harps, suggest shamanism has existed in central Eurasia since the Upper Paleolithic pe¬ riod, beginning about 30,000 years ago (fig. 6.2). Based on twelfth-century documentary in¬ formation in The Secret History of the Mon¬ gols (compiled after Genghis Khan’s death in 122.7) and Rashid al-Din’s Compendium of Chronicles [Jami‘al-tavarikh; complet¬ ed around 1310), anthropologist Caroline Humphrey’speculates that shamanistic be¬ lief in Eternal Heaven was important for consolidating political power and for the establishment of the Inner Asian states, in¬ cluding the Mongol state in the thirteenth century. Shamanic insight is credited with as¬ sisting Genghis Khan’s accession to khanship when the legendary shaman Teb Tenggeri an¬ nounced that it was heaven’s will that Temiijin (young Genghis) become the ruler of the na¬ tion and receive the title of Genghis Khan. Later, Genghis became adept in discovering heaven’s will himself by going into a trance and communicating with the supernatural. He seems, however, to have bent his inspira¬ tional abilities to expand and strengthen his power. When Teb Tenggeri became Genghis Khan’s rival and declared that Genghis’s younger brother Khasar was soon to succeed him as a khan, Genghis had Teb Tenggeri eliminated. In successive Mongol courts, the ruling elite continued to seek shamanic servic¬ es, while also being influenced by Nestorian Christianity, Buddhism, and Confucianism.2 Shamanism not only helped to strengthen the political powers of the elite; among ordi¬ nary Mongols of the twelfth to sixteenth cen¬ turies it was an everyday religion. Male and female shamans, called boo and udgan respec¬ tively, performed the rituals of offering milk and blood sacrifices to ongguts, the shamanic gods and spirits. The ongguts of the house¬ hold, livestock, mountains, and rivers, and especially sky and earth, were evoked and appeased to protect against death, illnesses, and natural catastrophe. They were repre¬ sented in the forms of figurines and masks made from skin, leather, felt, metal, and mul¬ ticolored silk, or carved from wood and kept in little boxes or wrapped in cloth or felt.3 In those places where ongguts are the spirits of ancestors, shamanism constitutes an historical memory. By communicating with those ongguts who speak through sha- shamanism 65 6.2 Ancient Spirit Figure Mongolian rock art provides a window into the past. This spirit figure from the Biluut site at Khoton Lake, Bayan Ulgii province, has large three-fingered hands and an elaborate headdress. It is surrounded by animals and human figures, which are smallerthan the spirit figure, perhaps to indicate the powerful nature of the deity. mans about their lives in the past, Mongols keep in touch with their history. These ong¬ guts are disembodied relics4 and the verbal archives of the nomadic population. These origin spirits also reside in (or visit) the places of their burial and become the protec¬ tive deities of their neighboring mountains, rivers, and cliffs. A landscape infused with spirits resembles a mosaic of memory where stories lie dormant and come alive through shamanic rituals of possession. Through communal worship of such landscape spir¬ its, which are either individual ancestors or communal mythical ongguts, the Mongol people perpetuate their ancient history. In places where the origin spirits had become communal ongguts, their myths and stories make up regional and clan iden¬ tities.5 Among the Buryats there is even a correlation between use of communal pastures and sharing of the same mythi¬ cal origin ancestor.6 Almost everywhere in Mongolia, Eternal Heaven and its entou¬ rage of gods, demigods, and spirits, consti¬ tute a shamanic ruling hierarchy that can be called a celestial court that oversees the rest of the spirit world. The origin spir¬ its and landscape spirits occupy the lower part of this hierarchy and shift freely be¬ tween the spirit and human worlds. Shamanic rituals are intended to al¬ ter the believer’s perception of the world. Ceremonies are layered with meaning. Elaborate shamanic paraphernalia allow 66 BUYANDELGER the shaman to summon spirits and convince the audiences of the authenticity of his or her performance. Throughout Mongolia, shamanic paraphernalia consist of vari¬ ous types of mirrors, drums, headdresses representing an animal or a bird, a gown, and often a cape or an apron (figs. 6.4, 5). Male and female shamans generally use the same paraphernalia and perform simi¬ lar rituals. Shamans chant elaborate poetry that maps out the hierarchy of the spirit world, the expansiveness of the landscape, and the types and identities of individual gods, demigods, and spirits of particular groups and clans. Shamanic ritual condens¬ es the political, historical, and economic spheres of life into a single cultural event. Shamanism and Buddhism Shamanism had been the dominant spiritual practice in Mongolia until persecution be¬ gan in the sixteenth century, when Mongol elites began to convert to Tibetan Buddhism under the sponsorship of the Mongol khans. As Buddhism spread from the south to the north, shamanism became less prominent in southern and central Mongolia, and in some places it disappeared altogether. However, in the north, among the Buryat, Dukha, and Darkhad peoples, shamanism remained powerful. That persistence was not only be¬ cause Buddhism reached these groups later but because their cultural backgrounds were different from mainstream Mongols. Their mobility between Mongolia and Russia and their political prowess also helped the Bury¬ at, Dukha, and Darkhad peoples to retain their practice. For instance, the Darkhat no¬ bility in the seventeenth century successfully negotiated their freedom to practice both shamanism and Buddhism in return for sub¬ mitting to the lineage of a leading lama.7 Shamanism continued to be persecuted under the direction of the third Dalai Lama, who asked the Mongol khans to destroy ongguts and punish shamans and believ¬ ers by taking away their livestock.8 To at¬ tract converts, the lamas took on the roles of shamans by offering rituals of healing, magic, and exorcism adopted from pre- Buddhist Bon shamanism in Tibet, in which lama oracles would go into a trance similar 6.3 Buryat Shaman This female Buryat shaman, smoking a pipe and wearing a shaman robe and headdress, was possessed by a spirit during her conversation with the elderly client at the left. Mongol shamans, are accustomed to making house calls and perform many of the same services. to Mongol shamanic spirit possession. The Buddhist missionaries also replaced the func¬ tions of shamans by incorporating the lo¬ cal rituals of worshiping mountain cairns (ovoos) and by introducing deities that protected livestock and life. Buddhism also substituted the shamanic guardian and an¬ cestor deities with personalized lamaist dei¬ ties. The lamas taught tarani (incantations) for individual protection, destruction of evil, good luck, and healing illness. For each ill¬ ness and body organ there was a separate tarani. Lamas prescribed healing packages consisting of taranis, herbal medicine, and rituals of cleansing and deflection that devo¬ tees could perform at home. The Buddhism introduced in Mongolia promoted itself as a more advanced spiritual practice because it operated not through the spirits of the de¬ ceased or animals and nature, but by com¬ municating with deities (sabins). The Bud¬ dhist missionaries prohibited shamanic blood sacrifice as barbaric and promulgated ritual offerings of dairy products as humane and superior. Unlike shamanism, which only has a celestial realm, Buddhism’s upper (para¬ dise) and lower worlds (hell) were meant to induce consternation among nonbelievers As Buddhism became prominent by the nineteenth century, shamanism became known as a “black” or evil religion, in con¬ trast to Buddhism, a “yellow” or benign religion.9 Officially, Buddhism replaced shamanism in most of Mongolia. In places with communal shamanic ongguts, these spirits were replaced by the Buddhist deities in a fairly straightforward way. But in places where, in addition to the communal ongguts, individual families also worshipped their own origin or ancestor spirits, Buddhism re¬ placed the communal ones without destroy¬ ing the origin spirits. Therefore, in many places, Buddhism and shamanism coexisted. The Buryats were able to maintain their traditional belief in shamanism (fig. 6.3). In addition to their communal shamanic ong¬ guts, individual families also have origin spirits who are passed down within the fam¬ ily. Most of the communal ongguts acquired their Buddhist versions, but the Buryat origin spirits who are the souls of deceased histori¬ cal people were not replaced. The shamans who become possessed by these origin spirits impersonate historical personages through dramatic performances by changing their body language, speech, enacting the spirits’ gender, age, and narrating historical events. By doing so, these spirits achieve a lasting presence in the Buryat collective memory Although Buddhism was officially estab¬ lished throughout Mongolia and became the dominant religion by the early twenti¬ eth century, shamanism remained covert. Shamanic spirits are considered to be eter¬ nal, and while shamans can be removed, the spirits can emerge at any time, request propitiation, and if displeased, they may brutally punish the living. The spirits who possess shamans in the ritual arena recount the clashes between shamans and lamas and the heroic battles shamans fought with la¬ mas. It is particularly in resistance to Bud¬ dhism that Mongol shamanism developed creative and undercover strategies that en¬ abled it to endure socialist suppression. Feminization of Shamanism under Socialism Shamanism in Mongolia was suppressed during the era of state socialism in the early twentieth century. Under the fledgling Mon¬ gol state that had gained its independence after the fall of Qing China in 1911, religion was seen as a hindrance to modernization and nation building. Following the commu¬ nist lead, the state regarded religion as an SHAMANISM 67 6.4 Drum-Beater A shaman's drum and drum- beater, like the coat or headdress, had special powers. This beater has a skin covering, a paddle-shaped blade fitted with iron rattles, and suspended amulets. “opiate of the masses” and shamanism as the remnant of the most primitive and barbaric past that brought shame upon the nation. To eradicate these scourges, the state launched purges in the 1930s. The official history of Mongolia mostly records the destruction of Buddhism, which was, by then, the most powerful institution and the greatest threat to the young socialist state. But along with Buddhism, shamanism was also suppressed; its practitioners were either killed or forced to renounce their religious affiliations and accept civilian jobs. The state control of the economy also made it difficult to engage in private enterprise, and, with the decrease of economic incentives, shamanism became less attractive. Nevertheless, shamanism was still in demand as a form of healing and a way of explaining misfortune and the vicissitudes of life through ritual. Because shamanism is not a formal religion with an institutional base of support, but rather a fluid practice that is deeply rooted in the domestic sphere of everyday life, it could more easily survive, albeit in condensed and hidden forms. Unlike the larger society that is con¬ structed around patriarchal rules, sha¬ manism is gender-egalitarian; men and women can obtain equal powers and perform the same services. This notion, however, is often suspended in real life, as throughout history there have been more accomplished male shamans com¬ pared to female. During the religious per¬ secution that culminated in the 1930s and 1940s, shamanism among the Buryats was forced underground and female shamans took the places of purged male practitioners. This feminization of shamanism during so¬ cialism was conditioned by a complex set of issues concerning the nature of the socialist state, structure of shamanism, and gender constructs. During socialism, despite the claim of universal equality, men re¬ mained in power, whereas women, who technically had equal rights for jobs and education, were excluded from leader¬ ship and decision-making roles. Ironi¬ cally, women succeeded in shamanism because of their unequal position in patriarchal society. Relatively invisible and considered too meek to challenge the domi¬ nant power, their actions were not scruti¬ nized by the state as closely as that of men. Engaging in shamanism was a sub¬ versive and dangerous activity. The shamans were seen as charlatans and their clients as superstitious and uncivilized. Associated primar¬ ily with the domestic sphere, women were afforded less suspi¬ cion and scrutiny. Men’s greater role in the state limited their opportunities for underground activities. Women’s lesser official positions allowed them to engage in secret practices in the mountains and forests at night or, quietly, in the privacy of their own homes. A schoolbag hanging on the wall might hide a shaman’s drum; old family trunks might conceal ritual para¬ phernalia. Some of the herdsmen secretly 68 BUYANDELGER 6.5 Shaman Coat and Headdress This 20th-century garment and headdress has tassels and ribbons that came alive in dance. Beads and other ornaments at the ends of the strips and bottom of the coat probably represented spirits acquired by the shaman during quests or fasts. SHAMANISM 69 70 BUYANDELGER 6.7 Modern Shamans > During the Soviet period, shamanism was banned in Mongolia, as it was in the Soviet Union, and shamans were persecuted, jailed, or even killed. Nevertheless, many continued to practice in secret and hid their costumes and drums. After 1980 persecution stopped and shamans were able to practice again. In areas where shamanism had ceased, costumes, rituals, and gear had to be reinvented, resulting in new and sometimes non- traditional forms. < 6.6 Darkhad Shaman This shaman in the Darkhad valley west of Lake Khovsgol wears a costume with a feathered mask. Chanting to the beat of his drum helps him enter a trance to communicate with the spirits. attended rituals by night, but supported the propaganda of atheism by day, thus rec¬ onciling the uncompromising demands of both the state prohibition and their ong- guts who demanded commemoration. Shamanism Today Following the collapse of socialism in the 1990s, shamanism began reemerging from underground into a public sphere. Shaman¬ ism could explain away the ongoing crises as chaos and disorder in revenge for the people’s abandonment of the shamanic spir¬ its during socialism. Among the Khalkha Mongols, these spirits are mostly the guard¬ ians of landscape, particularly the lords of ovoos, while among the Buryats, these are origin spirits. Many of these spirits have been suppressed for five, seven, or more generations, from the time when Buddhism was politically dominant. Today, the Bury¬ ats of Mongolia worship both the white and black spirits and shamans draw upon knowledge from Buddhism and shaman¬ ism to satisfy the needs of different Mongol groups. Shamanistic rituals are performed publicly for Mongolian travelers and foreign tourists. Shamanism offers modern Mon¬ golians entrepreneurial opportunities, and, more significantly, a source of ethnic pride, historical identification and national iden¬ tity. Much as it helped Mongolian peoples for centuries to cope with myriad challeng¬ es, shamanism has become a popular tool for dealing with the misfortunes and un¬ certainties of incipient capitalism and de¬ mocracy. As shamanism became a respected and income-generating practice, more male practitioners emerged and have taken lead¬ ing roles in an increasingly male-centered society of neoliberal capitalism without the former state rhetoric of gender equality. 1. Humphrey 1994. 2. Atwood 2004. 3. Heissig 1980. 4. Taussig 1997. 5. Buyandelger 2004. 6. Humphrey 1983. 7. Atwood 2004. 8. Heissig 1980. 9. Banzarov 1991-92. SHAMANISM 71 7. Sounds from Nature: music of the Mongols Peter K. Marsh The haunting melodies of Mon¬ golian “long songs” are said to be the oldest tunes still performed and Mongolian throat-singing the most complex of all musical vocalizations. While these assertions are difficult to verify, evidence of music, song, and dance among the Mongols dates back to the thirteenth century. The Yuanshi (the history of the Mon¬ gol dynasty in China) describes an enormous staff of singers, dancers, and musicians, at times numbering more than 700, resident in Kublai Khan’s palaces in the imperial city of Daidu (modern Beijing). These artists formed enormous ensembles during formal state ceremonies, such as weddings, feasts, and banquets. Marco Polo, who spent years at Kublai Khan's court, noted the close link between music and the drink¬ ing of airag, or fermented mare’s milk (called koumis in Central Asia), a summer drink highly prized by the Mongols (fig. 7.1). When the Great Khan was about to drink from his enormous bowl of airag, Polo writes, the musicians would begin to play and all in attendance would kneel in respect. The Fran¬ ciscan monks John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck, who also visited the Mongol court (see Chap¬ ter zo), observed similar uses of music. On his visit to the palace of Batu Khan—one of Genghis Khan’s grandsons, then khan of the Golden Horde—Carpini writes that neither the khan nor any of the other princ¬ es “ever drinks, especially in pub¬ lic, without there being singing and guitar-playing.”1 Music and song were also tools in warfare of the time. Polo remarks that Mongol sol¬ diers preparing for battle would sing “very sweetly” to the accompani¬ ment of their stringed instruments, a practice that might also have been a means of intimidating their enemies. Despite the awesome power of their armies and the global reach of their empire, the Mongols were at root a nomadic people of the steppe lands and mountains of their homeland. The Secret History of the Mongols (see Chapter 14) speaks of Mongols far removed from war and imperial palaces playing fiddles, singing folk songs, and dancing—in one instance, dancing joyously around verdant trees until their bodies ached. Such is evidence of musical tradi¬ tions that existed long before and long after the period of empire. We know little about musical practice during the many years of social and political upheaval that accompanied the end of the empire. 7.1 Marco Polo and Kublai Khan Marco Polo and his father and uncle, merchants from Venice, noted the importance of music in the Chinese court of Kublai Khan. This image from Le Livre des Merveilles du Monde (Travels of Marco Polo, 1298/99) shows Kublai giving the Polos a letter for the Pope. It was common for European artists of the day to represent the foreign setting and people in a manner familiarto Europeans. But oral history tells us that by the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries several distinct, but inter¬ related, music cultures had formed along ethnic lines, the most sig¬ nificant of which included those of the Khalkha Mongols of central Mongolia and the Oyirad Mongols of the far west. Among the many musical traditions of the Khalkha, the two-stringed fiddle and long song genre have held a special place in traditional society. Among the Oyirad, a confederation of smaller ethnic groups, the plucked lute, bii dances, heroic epics, and kboomii, or “throat-singing,” traditions have held an equally important place. Whether bowed or plucked, the pear-shaped, two- and four-stringed lute has a truly ancient history in Central Asia. Images of such lutes, as well as lutes themselves, have been found at ancient sites along the Silk Roads, which crisscrossed central Eurasia from ancient times, including the lands of the Turkic nomadic pastoralists. The Mon¬ gols, who likely adopted the instru¬ ment from their Turkic neighbors, adapted it in truly unique ways. By the end of the nineteenth century, the Khalkha of the south-central Gobi Desert region of Mongolia had highly developed bowed lute 72 MARSH < 7.2 "Chinggis 800" Festival On the 800th anniversary of Temujin's investiture as Genghis Khan at the khuriltaioi 1206, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History staged a festival with traditional Mongolian music and dance. Many of the performers came from the Mongolian community in Washington, D.C. traditions. Pastoralists constructed their fiddles out of wood covered with animal hide and strung with horsehair. A simple bow was fash¬ ioned from a stick also strung with horsehair. These fiddles would often be crowned with the heads of ani¬ mals and mythical beasts. By the late nineteenth century, the head of the horse was especially popular, lend¬ ing the instrument the name morin kbuur, or “horsehead fiddle” (fig. 7.3).” By the turn of the twenti¬ eth century, the two-stringed fiddle had become so popular that it is said that every Mongol ger in the Gobi had one hanging on its walls. The central and southern regions are also the home of the Khalkha Mongol long song traditions. This is a genre of folksong characterized by long, ornamented melodic phrases that follow no strict rhythmic pat¬ terns. The songs typically have many verses and the lyrics are often about love or horses. Some Mongolian musicologists connect the long, flow¬ ing nature of the long song’s melodic phrases with the open and undulat¬ ing surface of the steppe lands of central and southern Mongolia. The Oyirad Mongols of the far west, a confederation of smaller eth¬ nic groups, also have two-stringed fiddles, but far more common is the two-stringed plucked lute, or tovsbuur. A narrow and tradition¬ ally pear-shaped lute constructed from a single piece of wood, this instrument often accompanies the singing of folksongs and the telling of stories and legends. Also popular, but now disappearing, is the tradi¬ tion of reciting epic tales, accompa¬ nied by the tovsbuur, which recount the exploits of fabulous, and often mythical, Mongol heroes. Some of these tales are so long that a singer can require several days to complete the narration. The tovsbuur also commonly accompanies dances, the most famous of which in western Mon¬ golia is the bu. Tradition¬ ally danced in the small space of a pastoralists’ ger, the bii emphasizes the movements of the dancer’s upper body, es¬ pecially the arms, hands, and face. These move¬ ments often stylistically mimic the actions of the pastoralists’ daily lives. Male dancers might imitate the move¬ ment of riding or rop¬ ing their horses, while female dancers might imitate the movement of brushing their hair or milking the family’s animals. Western Mongolia is also the home of a unique method of singing, which in recent decades has brought the region national and international fame. Throat-singing requires a sing¬ er to produce two or more separate tones at the same time. Singers ex¬ ecute a resonant drone above which they “sing” a folksong melody. Musicologists suggest that, like the long song tradition, kboomii is inti¬ mately connected with the Mongols’ close relationship with their natural environment. The pastoralists them¬ selves often say that they learned to sing this way from listening to the world around them, such as to the sounds of water flowing over stones in a brook or wind blowing over rocks on a mountain. Ethno- musicologist Ted Levin suggests that such abilities to hear and imitate the sounds of their ambient envi¬ ronment is a critical survival tool for pastoralists trying to navigate their ways through a world fraught with physical and spiritual danger.1 The twentieth century, which brought revolution, moderniza¬ tion, and urbanization to Mon¬ golia, fundamentally changed the ways in which the Mongolians interacted with their natural and spiritual worlds, and these changes were reflected in musical practice. Western-styled folkloric in¬ stitutions were established around the country and tal¬ ented rural folk musicians were sent to the nation’s capital for training in music schools and colleges. Students were taught to read music, pay attention to musical style, tuning, and technique, and to perform repertoire written by urban composers. From Ulaan Baatar to rural villages, musical practice slowly migrated from the homes of pastoralists to the stages of newly built theaters and cultural centers, where it was overseen by cultural officials from the local and national governments.3 This insti¬ tutionalization and nationaliza¬ tion of folk music has given rise to largely professional and urban- oriented folk music very different from the mostly amateur and lo¬ cally oriented folk musical traditions still practiced in the countryside. 1. Dawson 1980, 57. 2. Levin and Suzukei 2006. 3. Marsh 2009. ABOVE 7. Morin Khuur The morin khuur, known to English-speakers as the "horsehead fiddle", is still played by many Mongolian musicians. Carrying only two strings, it can be plucked and bowed at the same time to produce a great variety of genres, but most popular are those with a driving, hoof-beat cadence. SOUNDS FROM NATURE 73 mM •'Wiky'vV. 4s^: • mm MMh Spif 74 HONEYCHURCH-FITZHUGH-AMARTUVSHIN 8. Precursor to Empire EARLY CULTURES AND PREHISTORIC PEOPLES William Honeychurch William W. Fitzhugh Chunag Amartuvshin 8.1 Xiongnu, an Early State The Xiongnu people, who emerged during the late Iron Age, created a powerful Mongolia-based state that controlled territories from southern Siberia to northern China and the Altai. Their royal cemeteries contain platform mounds with deep shaft graves for burials of leaders, horses, and chariots. Grave goods included artifacts from as far afield as Egypt and China, indicating Xiongnu involvement with the Silk Road trade. This photograph shows the fortified Mangasiin Khuree site, a garrison in the southern Gobi nearthe Xiongnu-Chinese frontier. In Western popular imagination, Mongolia has long seemed more a con¬ cept than a real place, more a land of myth than of dynamic history. Unlike China, where written records reach 3,500 years into the past, the earliest texts by the people of the eastern steppe begin 2,000 years later, found on isolated standing stones with carved inscriptions, some of which have never been deci¬ phered. Otherwise, the history of Mongolia’s steppe nomads has been largely told through the accounts of such foreigners as Marco Polo and John of Plano Carpini. Their sparse words and partial understandings inspired Westerners to romanticize a distant land of imperial khans. Even when scientific knowledge of Mongolia be¬ gan to accumulate in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, ethnograph¬ ic and travel accounts of Mongolian horse herders, camel caravans, abandoned cities of crumbling mud-brick, and stately Buddhist temples tended to reaffirm the earlier images of a timeless and unchanging land. While adventuresome accounts of Western expeditions to Mongolia in the 1920s and 1930s popularized this vast steppe region, for the most part, Mongolia’s people and history still remained as inscrutable as the Gobi rock that entombed its prehistoric dinosaurs. Over the last sixty years, Western under¬ standing of Mongolia has transformed dra¬ matically thanks to innovative studies of the historic and prehistoric past. A few Western archaeologists such as Nels Nelson, who worked with Roy Chapman Andrews on the American Museum of Natural History expe¬ ditions in the 1920s, took an interest in the early Paleolithic- and Neolithic-period stone tools found emerging from the shifting sands of the Gobi Desert.1 Later, Soviet-period re¬ searchers, both Russian and Mongolian, ad¬ vanced the scientific study of the Mongolian past by launching major excavation projects in the mid-twentieth century.2 These early Soviet projects were devoted to discovering, mapping, and exploring the magnificent royal tombs of the Iron Age Xiongnu peoples and the numerous ancient ruins of cities standing forgotten in the grasslands (fig.8.1). In the 1990s, a virtual explosion of archaeological fieldwork and historical research has fol¬ lowed closely upon the democratic transition in Mongolia. Spectacular finds have been made across the eastern steppe in the past few years, such as an intact tomb with a frozen mummy dating to 2,500 years ago from the western Altai Mountains,3 and an imperial medi¬ eval palace that some believe was built by Genghis Khan, discovered in the northeast (see Chapter 17). One very important find PRECURSER TO EMPIRE 75 8.2 Salkhit Cranium In 2006 this fragmentary human skull was found, along with bones of a woolly rhinoceros, in the rubble excavated for a mine at Salkhit in northeastern Mongolia. Subsequent archaeological work failed to recover other evidence. Preliminary results suggest the skull is slightly fossilized, has features of both modern humans and Neanderthals, and probably dates between 40,000 and 100,000 years old, a time when both modern and archaic humans were present in northern Asia. The Salkhit skull is the first early hominid found in Mongolia and one of the northernmost human fossils known from Asia. S 3 Bayanlig Hunting Art Rock art is common throughout Mongolia but is most prevalent in the Altai region of western Mongolia. This panel from the Bayanlig rock art site in Bayan- khongor province probably dates to the Iron Age and illustrates two people hunting deer with bows, possibly assisted by dogs. Wild goats and sheep are also shown. Such art is believed to have been used to enhancethe hunt, which remained an impor¬ tant supplement to the herding economy given the lack or uncertainty of agriculture in many regions. from northeastern Mongolia may, how¬ ever, change the very way we understand the origins and spread of our own species. A fragmentary hominin skull uncovered at the mining site of Salkhit in the fall of 2006 along with the remains of a woolly rhinoc¬ eros is already causing an international stir among researchers who study human evolu¬ tion (fig. 8.2).4 Only the upper portion of the skull remains, and while its species has not yet been identified with certainty, this early individual probably dates to between 40,000 and 100,000 years ago, a period when both modern and archaic forms of human beings inhabited northern Asia.5 The Salkhit find is the first early hominin to be discovered in Mongolia and is one of the northernmost human fossils known from Asia. Preliminary reports suggest that because these remains are only lightly fos¬ silized, they may contain analyzable DNA, which could clarify our understanding of the early peopling of Asia and, possibly, of the New World as well. Whatever the ulti¬ mate determination of the Salkhit hominin’s age and species, such recent discoveries are contributing new chapters to the fascinat¬ ing and complex archaeological story of Mongolia and to the course of human pre¬ history. In the following sections we review some of the major contributions made by Mongolian archaeology to an improved understanding of the ancient world. From Ice Age to Neolithic Domestication of the Steppe The two million-year era known popularly as the Ice Age—and to scientists as the Pleis¬ tocene—was a time of intense cold when glaciers advanced throughout many areas of the northern latitudes (see Chapter 3). The first evidence of the entrance of human ancestors into the region of Mongolia is to¬ ward the end of the Ice Age, about 100,000 years ago. Collections from cave sites in Mongolia and Siberia suggest that these first people were probably very similar to the Neanderthals of Europe and western Asia and were adapted, physically and culturally, to survive in frigid environments. The Salkh¬ it fossil, for example, has several cranial characteristics that are distinctive of Nean¬ derthals.6 Between 45,000 and 35,000 years ago, a technological revolution swept north¬ ern Asia, as it had western Eurasia, produc¬ ing a greatly expanded tool kit that made more sophisticated use of bone and antler and introduced a new stone tool technology on the steppe. These new tools, made from large blades struck from prepared cores of rock, appear in Mongolian sites at the same time as the arrival of modern Homo sapiens. Whether this innovation originated locally or was introduced by migrating Homo sapi¬ ens has not been conclusively established,7 but such technological developments as finely worked clothing, more efficient hunt- 76 HONEYCHURCH-FITZHUGH-AMARTUVSHIN 8.4 Khirigsuurs and Horse Burials Stone mounds known as khirigsuurs are often associated with deer stones and date to the same period, ca. 1300-800 BCE. Although khirigsuurswere used for human burial, grave goods were almost never included. This khirigsuur north of Lake Khoton in Bayan Ulgii province is surrounded by a low squared fence of stones. Outside the fence line are twelve small mounds each containing the skull of a sacrificed horse. Encircling the central mound, fence, and horse graves are small hearths where members of the burial party cooked and ate ritual meals. ing implements, and construction of dwell¬ ings suitable for winter occupation propelled a major growth in population. The increased number of late Upper Paleolithic sites from Siberia to the Gobi Desert attests to this surge in human habitation. After 26,000 years ago, hunting on the vast grasslands of Mongolia was bountiful, and well-equipped hunters pursued Ice Age megafauna, includ¬ ing woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, horse, cave bear, reindeer, bison, and musk ox. The advances in cognitive, symbolic, and expressive skills that identify the Up¬ per Paleolithic revolution include a dra¬ matic new form of cultural representation that emerged at the end of the Ice Age. In the first pictorial records produced by these ancient peoples, petroglyphic carvings and rock paintings show us ancient Mongolia through the eyes of the Upper Paleolithic hunters who once lived there, rather than our having to infer their activities from mute bones and artifacts. Ibex with their elabo¬ rate notched horns, mountain sheep, camels, horses, bears, and several species of cattle leap to life from the surfaces of rocks embel¬ lished during the final centuries of the Ice Age. The canyon cathedrals of ancient rock art at Baga Oigor-Tsagaan Salaa8 and cave paintings deep inside Khoid Tsenkher Cave,9 both located in far western Mongolia, show an array of animals long extinct from the mountains and steppes of Eurasia. Usually interpreted as a form of hunting magic to increase the abundance of game or hunting effectiveness, petroglyphs became increas¬ ingly abundant over the millennia and con¬ stitute one of the most informative site types of Mongolian archaeology (figs. 8.3, 6). The milder climate of the Holocene pe¬ riod, which begins after the Ice Age some 10,000 years ago, stimulated a major change that transformed human societies. Plants and animals were domesticated and vari¬ ous forms of agriculture were adopted. Not surprisingly, however, the Neolithic period seems to have brought less dramatic change to Mongolia than to many other areas of Eur- asia, such as China or the Near East. Lack PRECURSER TO EMPIRE 77 8.5 The Bronze Age The Mongolian Bronze Age, ca. 1500-700 BCE, brought far- reaching change to society as well as to technology. Bronze arrow tips and battle axes, more durable bits for horse bridles, and more effective knives had both military and practical implications. Producing and acquiring bronze stimulated trade, competition, and warfare, leading to larger political groups, elites, and more rigid social hierarchies. Wealth was displayed on one's person, often in the form of animal-headed knives and ornamental castings affixed to horse gear. of sufficient water, saline soils and lakes, and a short growing season may explain why early to mid-Holocene peoples of Mon¬ golia maintained their earlier subsistence strategies. Hunting and gathering contin¬ ued among Mongolian steppe dwellers who experimented with the growing of grains and other crops sporadically in the more fertile and well-watered valley locations. Two important new technologies domi¬ nate archaeological assemblages during the Neolithic period: microlithic tools and pottery.10 By about 6,000 years ago, min¬ iaturization of cores and blades reached a level of efficiency that could only be further improved by the introduction of metal. But with metal smelting still two thousand years in the future, core and blade industries remained the dominant technology for hunting, processing, and production. Tiny flint blades, hardly larger than slivers, were set into the sides of bone and antler to serve as butchering knives, scrapers, implements for preparing pat¬ terned skin garments and embroidery, and many other purposes. Not only these products but the microtools themselves, fashioned from multicolored crystalline stone, were often extremely beautiful. Pottery began to appear at small open- air sites across the steppe by 8,000 to 6,000 years ago, along with microlithic stone tools and grinding stones.11 Pottery is sometimes associated with the introduc¬ tion of agriculture and building of perma¬ nent dwellings, but these parallel develop¬ ments did not occur as readily in Mongolia. Intensification of hunting, gathering, and fishing in many places provided sufficient food resources so that people did not need to maintain a completely nomadic way of life. At least seasonally, longer-term vil¬ lages could be established. Ceramics, along with more stable living sites, were the key to improved nutrition: more efficient food¬ processing and cooking techniques could be used for making stews and gruels from cereal grains, whether wild or domesti¬ cated. Mongolian Neolithic sites are full of ceramics, most of which were decorated with incisions and the impressions of cord¬ age, textiles, and sometimes painted de¬ signs. Although early ceramics were initially poorly fired and fragile, once introduced, pottery remained part of the Mongolian cultural pattern for thousands of years. During the late Neolithic period, Mon¬ golian culture gradually became invested in the use and management of domesticated herd animals. Cattle may have been domes¬ ticated about 5,000 years ago at sites like 8.6 Biluut Ceremonial Figures This unusual image, which was pecked into a polished rock at the Biluut site in southern Bayan Ulgii province, displays a central genii-like figure with no legs. It has huge arms, each of which has appendages and holds a crook or hooked implement. Small dancing human figures are seen on either side; the one on the right appears to hold a dagger. the late Neolithic village of Tamsagbulag, a small settlement of subterranean pit houses on the far eastern steppe.1- Microliths and ceramics, as well as artifacts related to cul¬ tivation and processing of grain—including grinders, millstones, weights for digging sticks, and stone hoes—were found there. Human burials were also discovered un¬ der the floors of some pit houses, along with large quantities of cattle bones. While the use of cattle was certainly intensive, it is still not yet known whether they were wild or domestic breeds. Sites such as Tamsagbulag may reveal the kind of experimentation and intensive use of wild animal species that eventually results in local domestication. Domestic sheep, goats, and cattle can also be moved over great distances, exchanged, and transferred to groups who primarily survive by hunt¬ ing. Domestic herd animals may have ap¬ peared in Mongolia by way of such ex¬ changes from the northwest, where they are documented 5,000 to 4,500 years ago as part of a mixed hunting-herding strategy of the Siberian Afanas’evo culture.13 The introduction of herd animals to the Mon¬ golian steppe, however that may have oc¬ curred, was a critical event that shaped both Mongolian and, eventually, world history. The Bronze and Early Iron Ages: Warfare and Ritual Landscapes Highly visible changes in social and religious life—rather than changes in environment, tech¬ nology, and relationships with animals and plants—marked the final phase prior to the appearance of state-level societies and empires in Mongolia’s culture history. These changes, which begin during the early second millen¬ nium BCE and develop over the next thousand years, intersect with far-reaching transforma¬ tions across the Eurasian steppe zone. The first horse-drawn chariots in the southern Russian steppe, the expansion of sophisticated bronze technology across the territory of Kazakhstan and southern Siberia, and the rise of long-dis¬ tance trade routes and violent warfare were transformations that also occurred over the eastern steppe, but at different rates and at different times. These innovations were facili¬ tated, almost certainly, by increasing mobility made possible by use of horse-drawn carts and, very likely, horse riding.14 The ritual use of horses in Mongolia was widespread and intensive by 1500 BCE. Ceremonial stone piles encircling mega- lithic burial mounds, known as kbirigsuur (fig. 8.4), punctuate Mongolia’s steppe lands from the borders of Manchuria all the way to Tuva and the Russian Altai and into the south Gobi Desert.15 These stone piles contain horse skulls, vertebrae, and hooves derived from horse sacrifices and feasting that ac¬ companied the building of kbirigsuur mounds. Kbirigsuurs have central, stone-mounded burial chambers, surrounded by rectangu¬ lar or circular stone enclosures, and outlying stone circles, often with horse-head burials.16 The wide variation of the size and complex¬ ity of kbirigsuur mounds may indicate dif¬ ferences in personal wealth and social sta¬ tus, even though the burials do not contain grave goods. An idea of the labor needed to build a kbirigsuur can be provided by the larger monuments, which can be 400 meters across and up to five or six meters high.17 Kbirigsuurs are a specialized form of kur- gan, a term widely used in northern Eurasia for stone-mounded graves. Kbirigsuurs are PRECURSER TO EMPIRE 79 8.7 Ulan Tolgoi This site west of Lake Erkhel in Khovsgol province has five deer stones in north-south alignment and many large khirigsuur mounds. A joint Smithsonian- Mongolian team excavated here from 2002 to 2006, discovering multiple horse-head burials surrounding Deer Stone 4, all dating ca. 800 BCE. The tall deer stone (DS2), measuring 3.2m high, is one of the largest and one of the most beautifully carved in Mongolia. similar to kurgans, but have a more com¬ plicated structure and the term is restricted to Mongolia and adjacent regions. At the present authors request, an etymology has recently been offered by Professor Gyorgy Kara of Indiana University. He notes that Tsewel’s Mongol-Mongol dictionary defines khirigsuur as an ancient tomb {ert deer tsagt uexegsdiin xuueriig orshuulsan bulsh, “a tomb for the corpses of people [who] died in ancient times”). The Uyghur-script, or clas¬ sical form, of the word is indicated as Kirgis eguer, literally, “Kyrgyz (or Kirghiz) nest.” The late Mongol scholar Yoengsiyebue Rinchen considered the term a distortion of Kirgis keguer (modern Khirgis khuuer), the last word meaning “corpse; burial, tomb.” Mongol scholarly tradition connected those prehistoric tombs with the medieval Kir¬ ghiz people whose empire ruled over what is now Mongolia in the ninth century CE. Its usage today may be based on the mod¬ ern interpretation of the term, because the word kereksur/khirgisuuer does not occur in premodern Mongol written sources. The large region in which these com¬ plexes appear probably indicates greater contacts between local groups, which by the second millennium BCE had adopted horse-riding and more mobile forms of herding, and so were interacting over lon¬ ger distances. Rock art panels from many parts of Mongolia show riders mounted on camels and horses, often in associa¬ tion with highly stylized deer images that are best known from hundreds of stone steles found throughout northern Mon¬ golia. Deer stone steles are anthropomor¬ phic figures, delineated by earrings, belts, weapon sets, and, sometimes, with human faces, and elegantly carved with stylized deer motifs (figs. 8.7, 9, 11).18 They have been interpreted as depictions of revered warriors and chieftains whose tattooed bodies may have resembled the individuals found in the frozen Early Iron Age tombs at Pazyryk in the Altai Mountains.19 These striking monuments were also erected at khirigsuur sites and, like them, are often surrounded by horse-head burials, suggest¬ ing that in addition to changes in transport and burial customs, new religious and status systems were extending across the steppe. New technologies were also developed and spread rapidly during the second to first millennium BCE, especially with the advent of bronze and, later, iron metal¬ lurgy. Developed independently in several parts of Eurasia, bronze-working was a technology transferred between and among sedentary and nomadic societies. The south¬ ern Gobi site of Oyu Tolgoi, dated by the presence of decorated Bronze Age ceram¬ ics, is a representative example of early copper mining and bronze production in Mongolia. The site has mine shafts dug into deep copper veins, piles of discarded copper ore, slag-encrusted ceramic and stone crucibles for smelting, and extensive bronze slag.i0 Daggers and knives, bells, arrowheads, saddle decorations, axes, and many ritual items were the types of stun¬ ning artifacts eventually produced from such mining and casting activities (fig. 8.5).-' 80 HONEYCHURCH-FITZHUGH.AMARTUVSHIN 8.8 Square Burial At the end of the period of deer stone and khirigsuur construction, a new culture appeared that can be identified by square burials lined with stone slabs. Their graves are sometimes found at the outer edges of khirigsuurs or deer stone sites and occasionally used recycled deer stones as corner posts and retaining walls. In Mongolia square burials appear toward the terminal Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, ca. 1000-600 BCE, but unlike the latter they contain many grave goods. This burial is from the Salkhat site near Ulziit, Khovsgol province. By the first half of the first millennium BCE, iron objects appear in burial assem¬ blages in both Siberia and Mongolia, as does increased evidence for conflict and violence. The battle axe and war hammer, artifacts once cast from bronze and, later, in iron, were designed specifically for use in armed combat. If the evidence for fractured skulls and other conflict-related trauma from sites such as Chandman in northwestern Mon¬ golia are indicative, violence was increas¬ ingly a part of everyday life among many nomadic groups during this period.22 Ancient Empires of the Steppes: The Xiongnu Inter-group conflict may have been one im¬ portant factor that culminated at the end of the first millennium BCE in the emergence of the first nomadic state, known as the Xion¬ gnu confederation. While violent conflict did not occur in every locale—studies of skel¬ etons from the Egiin Gol Valley in northern Mongolia show mostly healthy individu¬ als23-—-evidence of warfare in some regions demonstrates varying degrees of political stability and instability across the eastern steppe. Conflict could have resulted from many factors, including increased territorial¬ ity as small-scale political organizations ex¬ panded and controlled specific resources. An¬ other source of political instability may have been the competition over and disruption of long-distance exchange relationships with Inner Mongolia and China, where highly militarized states were aggressively compet¬ ing for dominance during the Warring States period (475-221 BCE). The first references to mounted war¬ riors from the steppe occur in the early Chi¬ nese histories around the fourth and third centuries BCE.24 These fearsome peoples are referred to as “Hu,” a generic term for non-Chinese barbarians, and sometimes as “Xiongnu,” a specific steppe group. Sima Qian (145-86 BCE), the grand historian of the Han dynasty (206 BCE- 220 CE), pro¬ vides an account of the rise of the Xiongnu state in 209 BCE under the leader Maodun, a dispossessed younger son of a tribal leader. Maodun escaped from captivity among the enemies of the Xiongnu into which his own father had sent him. Secretly, he trained a small elite force of warriors to loose their arrows toward whatever target Maodun shot at with his own bow. A bone whistle attached to Maodun’s arrow screeched men¬ acingly toward its victim, instantly inform¬ ing the elite warriors of the target’s direc¬ tion. Maodun tested the archers relentlessly, first by letting his arrow loose at his favorite horse, and then at his favorite wife; those who hesitated were summarily killed on the spot. Finally, during a day of hunting along PRECURSER TO EMPIRE 81 8. 9 "Old Stone Men" While Smithsonian conserva¬ tors were making a latex cast of a deer stone a young girl and her brother approached, asking, "What are you doing to our old stone men?" Although known to scholars as deer stones, these elaborate monuments are thought to be stylized representations of warriors with weapon belts, beaded necklaces, and earrings. The name comes from graceful images of flying deer carved into the torso section of the stones, whose faces and front sides are positioned to face east toward the rising sun. This deer stone is DS4 at the Ulaan Tolgoi site, near Lake Erkhel in Khovsgol province. 8.10 Xiongnu Grave Figures These faience ceramic fragments include a representation of the West Asian mythological being named Bes, a genial figure associated with human pleasures who guards against misfortune, and an amulet with a hand gesture symbolizing fertility, artifact types well-known from finds in archaeological sites from the eastern Mediterranean and West and Central Asia. This set, which was recovered from a 2nd- or Ist-century BCE Xiongnu tomb at the site of Baga Gazaryn Chuluu in the Middle Gobi province, had probably arrived in the Gobi via the Silk Road. a immsm the forest fringes of the vast Mongolian grasslands, Maodun shot a whistling arrow at his own father and, inevitably, his arrow was answered by twenty-five more, leav¬ ing Maodun’s father dead in his saddle/5 Maodun used this moment to seize control of his tribe and neighboring peoples, and quickly consolidated a large and powerful polity, which he used to extract tribute from the neighboring Chinese Han dynasty. The legend of Maodun will probably never be certified as fact or myth, and the story may be colored by Chinese cultural distaste for the northern nomads. However, archaeolo¬ gists have discovered material culture that can be identified with the historical Xiongnu and have even recovered examples of whis¬ tling arrows from tombs of this period/6 Archaeological investigation of the Xiongnu has revealed information that is lacking or only hinted in the historical texts. Research in the Selenge River ba¬ sin of Mongolia and Siberia suggests that the Xiongnu originated from indigenous Early Iron Age groups south of Lake Bai¬ kal/7 Historians describe the huge terri¬ tory controlled by the Xiongnu as being divided into eastern, western, and central sections, a distribution actually borne out by archaeological site locations. Until re¬ cently it was thought that the Xiongnu were specialized herders who moved with their animals; but large, walled Xiongnu settlements are also known from across the steppe, some with agricultural produc¬ tion, as seen at Ivolga in southern Siberia/8 The massive cemeteries of the Xion¬ gnu elite, with burials excavated as deep as fifteen or twenty meters below the sur¬ face, contain elaborate internal chambers constructed from heavy wooden beams and stone; immediately above the burial chamber complete chariots have been dis¬ covered/9 Inside the tomb chamber archae¬ ologists have not only recovered artifacts of gold, silver, and semi-precious stones but also objects from everyday life such has horse-riding gear, storage pots, domestic grain, and the remains of sacrificed cattle, horses, and camels. Along the walls of the tomb are found long severed hair braids, perhaps symbols of mourning placed by 82 HONEYCHURCH-FITZHUGH-AMARTUVSHIN 8.11 Tsagaan Asga Deer Stones The 3,000-year-old Tsagaan Asga site has the largest number of deer stones in western Mongolia. More than twenty stone slabs with images of antlered deer-bird figures once stood in north-south alignment. Today only a few remain intact, and most are covered with modern grafitti. Little protection is available for such archaeological monuments, but signage and listing as cultural heritage sites would alert local people and officials to their importance and need for preservation. men or women of the Xiongnu aristocracy. Imported artifacts are also found, many produced in China and others from Central Asia and beyond, including objects from as far away as the Mediterranean (fig. 8.10).30 These long-distance imports have led schol¬ ars to infer that Xiongnu tribute and trade routes extended far into Central. Asia and possibly constituted an early form of Silk Road exchange long before the Han dy¬ nasty’s well-documented Silk Road trade.-31 The Xiongnu polity, with shifts in struc¬ ture and in geographical extent, persisted as a regional organization for more than three hundred years. By CE 91 major fac¬ tional challenges within the Xiongnu east¬ ern flank, supported by the Han dynasty, caused a series of significant defeats and subsequent migrations out of Mongolia into the western steppe. The Xiongnu cre¬ ated a major state on the present-day ter¬ ritory of Mongolia that strongly influenced other regions and peoples of Eurasia. Their political, ideological, and cultural prec¬ edents were later assimilated and developed by the imperial Turks, Uyghurs, and Mon¬ gols into a unique nomadic civilization. 1. Fairservis 1993. 2. Kiselev 1965; Rudenko 1962. 3. Tseveendorj et al. 2007. 4. Tseveendorj et al. 2006. 5. Etler 1996, 291-93. 6. Coppens et al. 2008. 7. Brantingham et al. 2001, 745-46. 8. Jacobson et al. 2001. 9. Tseveendorj et al. 2003, 56-57. 10. Derevianko 1994. 11. Derevianko 1994. 12. Derevianko and Dorj 1992, 172-75. 13. Honeychurch and Wright 2008, 522. 14. Honeychurch et al. 2009. 15. Frohiich et al. 2009. 16. Allard and Erdenebaatar 2005. 17. Allard and Erdenebaatar 2005. 18. Fitzhugh 2009. 19. Rudenko 1970; Jettmar 1994. 20. Tseveendorj et al. 2001. 21. Erdenebaatar 2004. 22. Tseveendorj 1980; Novgorodova 1982. 23. Nelson 2000. 24. Di Cosmo 2002, 165-66. 25. Sima Qian 1993, vol. 2, 134. 26. Konovalov 1976. 27. Honeychurch and Wright 2008, 529. 28. Davydova 1995. 29. Miniaev and Sakharovskaia 2007. 30. Khatanbaatar et al. 2007. 31. Barfield 2001; Christian 2000. PRECURSER TO EMPIRE 83 84 SKAFF-HONEYCHURCH 9. Empire Building Before the Mongols LEGACIES OF THE TURKS AND UYGHURS Jonathan K. Skaff William Honeychurch 9.1 Turkic Monument Authropomorphic figures known as khun chuluu—literally, "stone man"—are common markers of the 6—8th century Turkic period of Mongolian history. Like deer stones, which may have provided inspiration, Turkic figures follow a strict formula: the right hand holds a cup of libation; the left rests at the belt; the mustache is thin and curled; robes, belts, and hats are indicated; the face is absent of expression, and the eyes closed, as in death. Such figures are probably stylized portraits of the deceased. They are usually found at burial sites, but some mark ceremonial structures, like this pair wrapped in blue, orange, and gold Buddhist khadags (ritual strips of silk signifying respect) at the Dalkha site south of the Selenge River. The Mongols were not the first great empire to rise from the steppes of Central Asia. The Turks and their successors, the Uyghurs, would unify Mongolia from the sixth through ninth centuries and migrate west to build a string of empires, culminating in the Ottoman. Many of their Turkic traditions such as rule from the Orkhon River Valley of Mongolia and worship of a sky god, were adopted by the Mongols. Turkic peoples also were a crucial component of the Mongol empire. Nomadic Turks are thought to have formed the largest contingent of Mongol cavalry. Settled Tiirks and Uyghurs advised the Mongols on bureaucratic practices essential for administering sedentary societies. The Mongols built on the debt to their Turkic predecessors and contemporaries in honing their skills at empire building, unsurpassed in the history of the steppe. Historical records of the ancient Turks date to the early sixth century, when their origi¬ nal tribal groups were living in the Altai Mountains of what is today western Mongo¬ lia. They specialized in ironwork, serving as blacksmiths for the nomadic Rouran confed¬ eration. By 545, Ashina Bumi'n, who would found the first Turk Empire, was establishing himself as an important regional chieftain. He initiated independent diplomatic and trade relations with the Western Wei dynasty (535-557) of northwestern China, marrying a Western Wei princess to forge an alliance that secured his southern borders. Follow¬ ing a victorious attack against the Rouran in 552, he declared himself khaghan, or su¬ preme ruler, the title later adopted by the Mongols. The name “Turk” became the po¬ litical designation for all tribes under Ashina authority. Ashina Bumi'n reigned for only two years before he died. He was succeeded by his son Muqan Khaghan, who created by conquest the largest imperial confederation in the region since the time of the Xiongnu polity 300 years earlier (see Chapter 8). The first Turk Empire included much of the eastern Eurasian steppe zone along with deserts, oases, and forested regions to the north (fig. 9.2). Turk officials were stationed in the trade-rich oasis states around the Ta¬ rim Basin with small garrisons to oversee taxation; often, they became hereditary rulers of these agricultural regions.1 Like the later Mongols, Turk rulers built their empire through military victories and justi¬ fied their rule with myths of descent from a legendary wolf ancestor and claims that the supreme sky god, Tenggeri, had appointed them to govern.1 The khaghans enhanced their prestige by engaging in diplomacy, warfare, and trade with the great sedentary powers on their borders. Muqan, like his father, allied with the Northern Zhou, one TURKS AND UYGHURS 85 9.2 Map of Turkic Empire Originating in Western Mongolia and the Altai Mountains region, the Turks built a huge empire based on nomadic herding and mounted warriors during the 6th—8th centuries. Expanding throughout the steppe region from the Black Sea nearly to Korea, the Turkic empire and its populations expanded north, where its linguistic, genetic, and cultural legacy is found in today’s East Siberian peoples. of the important northern Chinese dynas¬ ties. He sent one of his daughters to marry the Zhou emperor, a rare honor and a sign of Muqan’s power because Chinese rulers usually sent lesser brides to the steppe. The Turks also traded with the Zhou, and the Zhou paid annual tribute of 100,000 bolts of silk to the khaghan during his reign.3 Silk Road trade across Eurasia expanded to an extent not seen since the collapse of the Han dynasty of China in 220. Eastern and Western confederations of Turks prof¬ ited from protecting merchants and facili¬ tating trade. Without them, the Silk Roads might not have been rejuvenated. Although 9.3 Iron Bits and Stirrups Major improvements in horse culture, especially the develop¬ ment of stirrups, which enhanced a rider’s lateral stability, gave mounted Turkic warriors an advantage in battling infantry soldiers. Since stirrups are rare in Western Asia and Europe before 600 CE, this Asian invention probably was an important factor in the Turkic expansion. These stirrups and bits were recovered from the Bilga Khaghan treasure dating to ca.734. the goods conveyed over long distances along the Silk Roads were principally luxury products, hence not critical to the survival of the partners, trade did result in consid¬ erable cultural exchange. Drugs, aromat¬ ics, jewels, precious metals, glassware, and relics reached China from Central Asia and the Middle East and Chinese inventions filtered westward. The Chinese secret of silk production reached Central Asia and the Byzantine empire by the sixth century. Merchants or Buddhist monks probably introduced papermaking to Samarkand, the fabled market of Central Asia, by 700. Turkic influences on the Tang dynasty (618-907) were dramatic. Turkic soldiers and officers filled the ranks of Tang north¬ ern armies. Tang rulers invited Turkic mu¬ sicians and dancers to perform at court, inspiring fads for foreign music, dance, and dress. Indirect cultural influences from peoples along the farthest reaches of the Silk Road were equally dramatic. For ex¬ ample, the Chinese adapted Middle East¬ ern musical instruments as part of their own musical repertoire. The Tang fascina- 86 SKAFF HONEYCHURCH 9.4 Kiil Tegin This carved head of Kiil Tegin was found in the Orkhon Valley north of Khara Khorum. Kiil Tegin was the younger brother of Bilga Khaghan and his most important military commander. tion with foreigners was delightfully real¬ ized in the tricolored ceramic figurines of Turks, Arabs, and Silk Road travelers that were made in China and excavated from the tombs of politically prominent individuals. Through the conduit of the Silk Roads as well as the expansion of the Turk Empire, a profusion of Middle Eastern and South Asian religions found their way to Central Asia and to Tang China. Zoroastrianism, the major Iranian religion, took root in Central Asia and western China before Islam became predominate. The Nestorian sect, a heretical form of Christianity banned in Europe in the fourth century for diminishing the balance of the Holy Trinity, attracted many Asian con¬ verts, including residents of the Tang capital of Chang’an. The Turk ruler Taspar (r. 572- 81) converted to Buddhism, although under the Turk empires many different religions proliferated.4 Manichaeism, which originat¬ ed in Iran in the third century and preached of a primordial struggle between light and darkness, spread to the east after being banned at home. This faith found converts in Tang China, but experienced far greater success as the state religion of the Uyghur Empire, which succeeded the Turks in 744. Much of Turk history, however, was not made of opulence, wealth, and toler¬ ance as much as political discord and vio¬ lence. Prosperity and stability frequently were interrupted by political factional¬ ism among the Turk elite. Bloody interne¬ cine struggles followed the deaths of most khaghans. Succession was a challenge for the entire body politic, as it would be for the Mongols. Another persistent problem was that allegiance to the khaghan was only extended freely by tribes who lived in close proximity; coercion was necessary to en¬ sure the submission of tribes in outer parts of the realm. Rebellion often erupted when there were signs of a khaghan’s weakness. In 630, following several years of harsh winters across the steppe, the Tang emperor Taizong took advantage of divisions among the Turks to launch a lightning cavalry at¬ tack that led to the fall of the Eastern Turks.5 The khaghan and other leaders removed to the Tang capital of Chang’an in the Central Plain of China and were granted positions and titles. Nomadic tribes in Inner Mongolia became Tang subjects and played a promi¬ nent role supplying the Tang army with cavalry soldiers. The Western Turks divided into two factions with competing khaghans, making them vulnerable to Tang conquests that took place between 640 and 657. By 648, the Tang had captured all of the oasis city-states of the Turfan and Tarim basins, depriving the Turk tribes of income from taxes and trade, further weakening their authority. Around the same time, fractious tribal groups in the region of Mongolia gave at least nominal allegiance to Uyghur rulers, who in turn supplied cavalry troops to the TURKS AND UYGHURS 87 9.5 Bilga Khaghan Stele This stele carved in runic letters and dating to ca. 734 commemorates the life of Bilga Khaghan, a Turkic leader who created a powerful empire built upon Silk Road trade, military strength, and strategic diplomacy with Tibet and China. He was poisoned in 734, and this huge memorial stele lies fallen in the Okkhon Valley of central Mongolia. The stele covered with runic lettering bears the first account written in an indigenous script in Mongolia, telling history from its own rather than a Chinese perspective. Its text shows that many military and political innovations credited to Genghis Khan were probably borrowed from the earlier Turks ortheir predecessors. Tang armies attacking the Western Turks.6 Just as it was difficult for Turk khaghans to satisfy all parts of their far-flung domains, Tang emperors likewise faced Turk accusa¬ tions that “sons of the nobles became slaves of the Chinese, and their lady-like daughters became servants.”7 Adverse weather and drought in 679 caused great hardship on the steppe by killing off massive numbers of livestock. Among the disenfranchised Eastern Tiirks, the Tang emperor’s charisma and legitimacy were waning. Eastern Tiirks revolted under the leadership of the rebel Ilterish, breaking away from Tang rule and the Turk aristocracy, heading north to Mon¬ golia, where they conquered and reunited the former tribes of the first Turk empire and established a new imperial order. Tonyu- kuk, the Chinese-educated chief minister of Ilterish, rejected fixed abodes and settle¬ ments in favor of traditional steppe ways of life, including hunting and providing for herd animals by “following the water and grass,” as Chinese texts commonly described nomadic migrations. The Tiirks of the second empire also continued the well-established steppe tradition of raiding China for resources and luxury goods.8 Khapaghan Khaghan led the second em¬ pire to its pinnacle of power, controlling In¬ ner and Outer Mongolia and Manchuria. In 698 he forced China’s Empress Wu to turn over several tens of thousands of her Turk subjects and large quantities of grain seed and agricultural tools. However, Khapa¬ ghan severely overextended his military by attacking western Central Asia in attempt¬ ing to recoup the vast territories of the first Turk empire, which led to major military defeats and his downfall as ruler. His suc¬ cessor, Bilga Khaghan, relying on the mili¬ tary skill of his younger brother Kill Tegin and the political acumen of the now elderly Tonyukuk, carried out numerous campaigns to force the tribes of Mongolia to subju¬ gate themselves once again to the Tiirks. Initially, Bilga allied with Tibet against China, but met with less success in looting the Tang because of their improved fron¬ tier defenses. In 725, Bilga abruptly shifted course in foreign relations and made peace overtures to the Tang. Both sides agreed to trade Tiirk horses for Chinese silk. Once again, the prosperity and stability was not long lasting. The untimely deaths of Tonyu¬ kuk and Kill Tegin strategically weakened Bilga Khaghan, and he was poisoned in 734. The deaths of these leaders of the impe¬ rial Tiirks occasioned the construction of three grand funerary monuments on the steppes. The monument to Tonyukuk lies a short distance east of the present-day capital city of Ulaan Baatar. The mortu¬ ary monuments to Kill Tegin and Bilga Khaghan still stand today close together on the open grasslands of the Orkhon Val¬ ley in central Mongolia (figs. 9.4, 5). The Orkhon sites contain inscribed stone ste¬ les more than three meters tall bearing the most substantial writings in the Orkhon runic script, the indigenous writing sys¬ tem of the ancient Turks.9 The inscriptions eulogize the lives of these two leaders and in doing so, provide valuable information on history, politics, social life, religion, and military campaigns. The Orkhon steles of¬ fer the first glimpses of steppe history from the perspective of the nomadic elite instead 88 SKAFF-HONEYCHURCH of through the eyes of Chinese historians. Following the demise of Bilga Khaghan, his successors struggled to maintain political order but by 742 a massive rebellion across the steppe collapsed the second Turk Empire entirely. In place of the Turks and their enor¬ mous territories, a politically more stable and geographically smaller organization arose under the Uyghurs, who were one of the dis¬ gruntled tribes that had revolted against the second Turk empire. The Uyghurs held sway over their steppe domain between 744 and 840, coexisting with, and at times, propping up, the faltering Tang dynasty to the south. Uyghur rule instituted great changes on the steppe. They founded such major urban centers as Khar Balgas and Baibalyk, which exist today as magnificent walled ruins in Mongolia10 (see Chapter 19, fig. 19.3) There is still much to learn from the archaeology of these mostly unstudied urban sites (see Chap¬ ter 16). By stabilizing the succession of ruler- ship and by forging close alliances with the Sogdians of Central Asia, a prominent Irani¬ an group known for their trade acumen, the new Uyghur elite fostered economic prosperi¬ ty and a higher degree of political integration across their empire.13 Uyghur cities supported markets, craft industries, and intensive ag¬ ricultural production. However, these im¬ portant and expansive centers also became vulnerable to attack. Uyghur domination of Mongolia ended in 840, when the capital city of Khar Balgas was conquered by the Kyrgyz tribe of the northern forest regions, and the last Uyghur khaghan of the steppe was sum¬ marily executed within his own city walls. These events had important implications for the later Mongol empire. Some Uyghurs fled westward to take control of the Turfan basin and surrounding oasis states, where they preserved their former administra¬ tive traditions and innovated new statecraft to suit their more sedentary way of life. In centuries to come, these Uyghurs of Turfan would communicate the traditions of their empire and those of their Turk predeces¬ sors to the Mongols. Not only techniques of governance were shared between these peoples but specific technologies such as writing as well. The Uyghur script, itself improvised from a cursive form of Sogdian writing, was modified by Uyghur scribes to suit the Mongol language.12 This “Old Mon¬ gol” script was not only the imperial writ¬ ing system of 800 years ago but is still used today in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia. The Turks and the Uyghurs far outlived their empires. Like the later Mongols, these groups created vast political realms that facilitated long-distance trade and encour¬ aged sharing of political, cultural, and dip¬ lomatic traditions between distant parts of Eurasia. The Tiirk empires also encouraged a cultural identity based upon commonali¬ ties of belief, lifestyle, and language among formerly dispersed Turkic peoples. After the fall of the second empire in 742 and the rise of the Uyghurs, the word “Tiirk” no longer served as the name of a particular tribe, but the name has persisted as an ethnic designa¬ tion for all speakers of Turkic languages. The Mongols, fittingly, built their own capital, Khara Khorum, less than a day’s ride on horseback from the ruins of the first Uyghur city, Khar Balgas, and the in¬ scribed stones of the Turks standing in the Orkhon Valley (see Chapter 19). The Mon¬ gol empire itself took root in the cultural and political legacy left by the Turks and Uyghurs centuries before.13 Ultimately, the Mongols would surpass these predecessors in empire building because they were more effective at controlling internal factional disputes and more innovative in develop¬ ing methods to rule sedentary societies. 1. Skaff 2002. 2. Golden 1982. 3. Golden 1992, 127-32; Linghu 1971: 50, 908-12. 4. Sinor 1990, 3x4-15. 5. Graff 2002. 6. Skaff 2009, 179-89. 7. Sinor 1990, 310. 8. Liu et al. 1975: 194a, 5174. 9. Tekin 1968, 261-90. 10. Honeychurch and Amartuvshin 2007. 11. Mackerras 1990, 323-24. 12. Brose 2007. 13. Honeychurch and Amartuvshin 2006. TURKS AND UYGHURS 89 t/W*v if#?"—ty!}9. rj.virj:B=.Mj 'oooc i?b 0 o O < y 0 0 0 c" '144 Vty’foi 1 '■' ~-‘“‘"‘""U'-"—"7"" — '---- -;■ — I — -UiJ_- ^ ■ f ■ - ly * * ■> j^fo’ ^ j L-y; jSj^SsjaUs£ ;(*y* *4#^ 0jJjgJ (4 , (IJ^kC- */sj{/l(//s..Lt?(Lb'* 'Jit-. / //L> / , * / **/w 90 T 0 G A N io. Genghis Khan Emerges POWER AND POLiTYON THE STEPPE ISENBIKE TO GAN 10.1 Budonchar's Wives and his Sons Buka and Buktal This painting from a Chinggisnameh manuscript of 1596 is based on the Compendium of Chronicles that Rashid al-Din prepared on commission from the Mughal ruler Akbar. It shows Budonchar’s wives with their sons in a courtly gathering. Although the scene is depicted in a Mughal setting, the headgear of the two wives are distinctively Mongolian (bogtag), whereas some of the attendants and servants wear Indian outfits. The painting relates to the story of the mythological origin of Genghis Khan's clan, which descended from Alan the Fair, the ancestral mother of the Mongols. IN the era during which Temujin, who became known as Genghis Khan, rose to power, alliances between pastoral nomads shifted according to which groups sought power and which preferred to avoid conflict. Most pastoral nomads in twelfth-century Mongolia chose to avoid confrontation rather than to engage in warfare. Conflicts erupted, but warfare was not the norm. In this early nomadic society might made right, and the not-so-mighty simply migrated. There was room to move: nomads were highly mobile and generally lived in sparsely populated areas. In addition to disagreements over hunting, another source of con¬ flict was the control of summer and winter pastures for livestock. Increases in herd size necessitated more land to graze an owner’s cattle, but once again, herders who lacked strength preferred to migrate rather than fight. Nine hundred years ago, most steppe fami¬ lies were relatively self-sufficient, living off a wide range of domestic animal products as well as wild game and foraged resources. They caught fish in the rivers and lakes of the northern steppe, and farmed on a small- scale.1 Steppe families moved their camp possessions seasonally with the aid of hors¬ es, camel caravans, and ox-carts (fig. 10.5). The circular tent known as the ger could be moved by camel or cart at the slow but steady speed of the entire herd. Whenever they were not traveling, the family group kept the animals used for milk inside a circular enclosure of carts or gers while the other sheep, cattle, and horses were free to move about in herds. During the sum¬ mer, herd animals spread out widely across the land, but in winter were kept closer to home. Horses were key to winter survival, for their hooves broke up the icy surface of the snow to reach buried grasses, making it possible for cattle, sheep, and goats to graze on what was left below. Horses roamed the steppe in the vicinity of an encampment throughout the year with little supervision, and their inde¬ pendence helped them stay strong enough to withstand winter weather and wolf predation. When the snow and ice was too thick for horses to break up the crust, however, di¬ saster struck animals and people. Known as zuds, these times of famine, often weather- related, caused suffering and death to animals and people and initiated massive migrations as people searched for new pastures even as herd animals rapidly weakened and died. When setting up camp, families erected their gers so that the doors faced south, al¬ lowing the sunlight from the east, south, and west to shine in. The seat of honor for the master of the house and guests was in the north, opposite the entrance. Male guests and male members of the family sat to the right of the master, and women sat GENGHIS KHAN EMERGES 91 10.2 Naiman Homeland The Mongolian valleys on the eastern flanks of the Altai Mountains, once home to Turks, were controlled by the Naiman during Genghis Khan's ascent. This region of Bayan Ulgii province is 500-1,000 meters higher than the steppes of central Mongolia. Its winters are longer and colderthan in central Mongolia, promoting the development of large snow mounds with frozen cores of ice known as pingos. Melting mountain snow, extended by local irrigation, provides water for animals during early summer when central Mongolia is prone to drought. 92 to the left. This gendered division was ac¬ companied by an age hierarchy in which elders took their places toward the north— toward the seat of honor—while younger people sat close to the entrance.1 Directly below the smoke hole at the top of the ger was the family hearth, usually in the form of an iron stove. The hearth signi¬ fied the vitality of the family and also connected to the family’s ancestral spir¬ its who were sometimes present in the ger in the form of amulets and figurines. These ancestral spirits were honored with animal sacrifices, and women played an important role in these rituals. Such ceremo¬ nies, which were accompanied by the chop¬ ping and scorching of meat,3 could also be used to expel people from the social group. Not inviting someone to the ceremony indi¬ cated that they were unwanted and would be forced to move. Decamping was another method of social division; in this case people moved away suddenly, leaving those who were unwanted on their own (fig. 10.4). Af¬ ter she was widowed, Hoelim, the mother of the future Genghis Khan, was subjected to such forced isolation. These were traditional methods of conflict resolution on the steppe. Pastoral nomads of the eleventh and twelfth centuries had been moving between their winter and summer pastures in this manner without centralized leadership since the period of Uyghur leadership in the middle of the ninth century.4 Interac- T o G A N tion with outside states was never totally absent, however, because the Khitan-Liao polity (907-1125) had constructed out¬ posts in these areas. Nevertheless, north¬ ern steppe peoples resisted formation of large confederations, preferring to maintain their nomadic life as tribal and dan units. Steppe Tribes at the Time of Temujin At the beginning of the twelfth century, the steppe tribes were scattered and lacked in¬ stitutionalized political organization (fig. 10.3). Some did not have designated leaders, so anyone from the group could lead based on achievement and dominance, while other groups had several leaders.5 Strong chief¬ tains began to emerge in areas adjacent to sedentary civilizations,6 and their chieftains may have acquired the power of hereditary rule. It would have been customary for these leaders to assume the title of khan, a heredi¬ tary leadership title that by the twelfth cen¬ tury already had a long imperial tradition in Xiongnu, Turk, and Uyghur polities. The Kereyid, Naiman, Tanghut, and Uyghur were the most prominent of these local groups (fig. 10.2). Some spoke Mon¬ golian, others Turkic, and many people were bilingual. The bilingual Kereyid had a ruling family supported by retainers and common soldiers led by the command¬ ing elite, which constituted the center of a small-scale polity. The periphery was made up of a larger body of various clans.7 In for- 10.3 Tribal Distribution Mongolia and its surrounding regions were home to many independent tribes at the beginning of the twelfth century, many of which are noted in The Secret History of the Mongols. mer times, discontented tribal people could decamp. However, the creation of a strong multi-group center provided the leader with a military force loyal to the khan that could be employed internally and external¬ ly.8 In this way khans and chiefs acquired methods of enforcement over their subjects such that “voting with their feet” was no longer a means of escape. Competition be¬ tween polities arose, and as leaders grew more powerful, they sought greater man¬ power and control of lucrative trade routes. Some tribes opposed the emergence of strong central authorities, but their options were limited to internal opposition. They resented, in particular, the abandonment of the traditional custom of lateral succession, under which a leader was succeeded by his younger brother after he died, and the for¬ mer retainers and rank and file continued to wield power as before, partly because there was no generation gap. In contrast, under lineal succession, a son took power but had little connection to his father’s fol¬ lowers and often replaced them with in¬ dividuals from his own generation. This power structure offered greater authority to the new khan, who controlled the disposi¬ tion of spoils and kept them under his con¬ trol without necessarily sharing with oth¬ ers. But internal political dissent was more likely with lineal succession than by fol¬ lowing the tradition of lateral succession. The emergence of a strong central leader almost always provoked strong op¬ position. When Ong Khan began to assert strong central leadership, many Kereyid opposed him and sought to assert their own authority. As opposition grew stron¬ ger, Ong Khan sought help from a young leader named Temiijin.9 This period was marked by intense military conflict, and many people were killed while others fled to the west or into the Siberian forests. In a matter of decades, all the tribes of Central Asia, whether people of the for¬ est, the desert or the steppe, would be in the thrall of the Mongols and their Khan. From Temujin to Genghis Khan By appealing to the discontented who had left their clans, Temujin—disenfranchised himself—strategically built up his central command. He recognized and rewarded GENGHIS KHAN EMERGES 93 10.4 Camp Scene This painting illustrates such Central Asian camp activities as processing entrails and blowing on a brazier fire. A collection of weapons and horses surround a well-dressed man with a saddle; naked figures may represent slaves. It is attributed to Muhammad Siyah Qalam ("Muhammad of the Black Pen"), who is thought to have lived 1469-1525. The attribution is questionable, but this image represents a genre of paintings of outlandish, fantastic, and often humorous figures engaged in various activities, some perhaps inspired by shamanistic seances. Sixty- five such paintings are known, housed in the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul. loyalty and talent among the more pow¬ erful as well as the rank and hie, creating an alternative to the traditional model of power. From his personal alliances, politi¬ cal acumen, and structural innovations that fostered an efficient central command, the institution of Mongol leadership evolved, culminating in his appointment as Genghis Khan in 1206. Genghis recognized the value of hori¬ zontal power sharing that constituent tribes desired, as well as the hierarchical structure that drove his rise along with other, newer chieftains. His policies required tribes ac¬ cepting Mongol rule to integrate with his military administration, a process that was accomplished gradually as the territory of the core Mongol polity grew. Absolute loyalty to the khan, which was recipro¬ cated with redistribution of wealth and power among his followers, was the cen¬ tral pact of the emerging Mongol polity. The constituent tribes that gave Temii- jin his initial rise to power later became major parts of the Mongolian empire in Mongolia, China, Central Asia, Iran, and Russia. Their ideas of self-determination and power sharing did not die out com¬ pletely, although their ambitions were recast through an imperial political structure that no one could have foretold in 1206 when Temujin became Genghis Khan. A century and a half later, the empire fragmented and the same groups re- emerged as steppe tribes once again, mostly under their old names; this time, however, they had the legacy of Genghis Khan and a world empire behind them. Alan the Fair, Ancestress of the Mongol Tribes Interactions between families and larger tribal entities in these unsettled times on the steppe are recounted in The Secret History of the Mongols (see Chapter 14), as the prologue to Temiijin’s emer¬ gence. Alan the Fair, whom all the de¬ scendants of the successor states of the Mongols recognized as their ances¬ tress, catches the eye of her future hus¬ band, Dobun, when she and her family move to the area around Burkhan Khal¬ dun Mountain seeking better hunting grounds. The unusual developments in Alan the Fair’s later life are explained to her sons, in a story of miraculous birth that became the basis of the Genghissid legacy (fig. 10.1): 94 T O G A N 10.5 Silk Road Retirees Double-humped Bactrian camels were the trucks of the Silk Road trade for almost 2,000 years. Adapted to winter cold and summer drought they reputedly could travel across Asian deserts for thirty days without water, packing loads of people, goods, and, of course, water. In remote regions like the Altai, camels still do heavy lifting when herding camps have to be moved, although they are gradually being replaced by trucks. In time Dobun passed away and after he was gone Alan the fair, without a husband, gave birth to three more sons. They were named Bughu Khatagi, Bughutu Salji, and Bodonchar the Fool. The first two sons, Belgunutei and Bugunutei, talked to each other about this: “Even though our mother has no brothers or kin here and now has no husband at all she’s given birth to three sons.” [hearing this she said] “You’ve said to each other: ‘She’s given birth to three new sons. Who is their father and what is their clan?’ You’re right to ask questions like this, so I’ll tell you. Every night a man as yellow as the sun would enter my tent by the light from the smoke-hole or by the place light enters at the top of the door. He’d rub on my belly. The light from this man would sink into my womb Then he’d leave me, crawling out on the sunbeans or the shafts of moonlight, crawling up like a dog as yellow as the sun. So now do you believe me? Now that you know the truth can’t you see it’s a sign? These brothers of yours must be the sons of Eternal Heaven. How can you think these are the sons of a mortal man? When they become Lords of all people, Then common men will understand who they are.”10 1. Honeychurch and Amartuvshin 2006. 2. Kahn 1998, 71-72. 3. Kahn 1998, 17. 4. Golden 1992, 155-73. 5. Rashid al-Din 1998. 6. Scott 1975; Di Cosmo 2006. 7. Togan 1998, 125. 8. Togan 1998, 72. 9. Kahn 1998, 70. 10. Kahn 1998, 5-6. GENGHIS KHAN EMERGES 95 Naadam Racers The "three manly games" (eriin gurvan naadam) cele¬ brated during midsummer in the national festivals called Naadam include Mongolian wrestling, horse racing, and archery. In older times only men and boys participated; now girls compete in horse racing and archery, but not in wrestling. The horse races are overland events averaging 15-30 miles, depending on the age class of the horse. Riders range from five to thirteen years old. (After thirteen, riders are too heavy for races of this length.) The races test the horses as much as the riders. Horses are fed special diets and young boys sing ritual songs to them throughout the night before the race to protect them and give them strength. GENGHIS TIMES ii. Genghis Khan Morris Kqssabi 11.1 Genghis Khan and His Sons This Iranian miniature paint¬ ing, taken from a 16th-century manuscript, re-creates the event when Genghis Khan conveyed his precepts of governance to his sons and assigned to them the territor¬ ies they would rule. The life and career of Genghis Khan are extraordinary, but his tri¬ umphs and his emergence on the historical stage were not inevitable. Temujin, as he was known before he was granted the title Genghis Khan in 1206, was bom in the mid-n6os in a time of considerable turbulence in Mongolia. The Iranian historian Juvaini, writing several decades after Genghis’s death, asserts that the people of Mongolia “had neither ruler nor leader.”1 A variety of groups, including the belligerent hunting and fishing Merkid. the Nestorian Chris¬ tian Kereyid, the pastoral and prosperous Tartars, and the Naiman, probably a Tur¬ kic group from Western Mongolia, vied for power. As a result, almost continuous warfare plagued the steppes; the people required a leader who would bring peace. Temiijin did not, at first glance, appear to be the Mongols5 savior. Descended from a fam¬ ily of the minor nobility that had become im¬ poverished, Temujin had lost his father, been abandoned by his tribal group, and captured several times by rival tribes by his second de¬ cade of life. But he overcame his circumstances and used his po¬ litical skills to rebuild his alli¬ ances and popu¬ lar support. The Secret History of the Mongols, the only primary source produced by the Mongols, is surprisingly evenhanded in its treatment of Genghis. Written shortly af¬ ter his death in 12,27, if depicts his heroic ex¬ ploits and his administrative innovations but also describes his murder of his half brother In the time before you were born the stars in the heavens were spinning around. Everyone was fighting each other. Unable to sleep in their own beds, they constantly stole from each other. The crust of the earth was pitching back and forth. All the nations were at war with each other. Unable to lie beneath their own blankets they attacked each other every day. When your mother was stolen by the Merkid she didn’t want it to happen. It happened because one nation came armed to fight with another. — The Secret History of the Mongols Kahn 1998,153 and his execution of former allies. It does not conceal unpleasant decisions, such as his treatment of people who resisted him: “He ordered that the men and women of their cities be killed, their children and grandchil¬ dren. ... As long as I am still alive keep up the slaughter.”2 The principal Chinese source, the thirteenth-century Shengwu qinzhen- glu (History of the campaigns of Genghis Khan),3 is based on a Mongol account that has been lost and provides details principally about Genghis’s military campaigns. The Iranian historians Rashid al-Din, relying on a Mongol informant and the same lost Mon¬ gol account used by the Shengwu, and Ju¬ vaini, using his own observations and those of other eye-witnesses, describe Genghis with an emphasis on his campaigns in Central Asia, juvaini offers a decidedly negative ac¬ count of Genghis and the Mongols’ rampage during and after these battles. In general, Iranians, Chinese, and Russians—peoples Genghis and his descendants subjugated— depicted him (and often still do) as a brutal barbarian whose armies plundered states and regions, undermined impressive civilizations, GENGHIS KHAN 99 ! £0 ^o A O _ A RUSSIAN 0*N PRINCIPALITIES Kiev* / \ , / 4 J&L/i \ 'v A_- — \ (jral d^^JKhalkba River 1223 ^ S°ld^iA^^(? AMongols defeat Russians %c, ^ "T _ y— Tbilisi j^igbi^iss KARA' Cyprus r-O' £ . h KMngol CyprusQ2-p Gl OSfclA Urgench*^*^ xg * - CRUSADER, - Maragheh > JArdabil - >»5ra>-* "Jerusalem 4 Zanjan r V Op7\/in CN ^ kAri Qorn *Nishfpur | ,\|D(J KUSHv^J^ Desert SULTANATE --OF RUM AYYU^ID Hamadkn ^yQazuin O SULTANATE Baghdad® ' ^ A>V ~a<&- • A ABBASID fred Sea ' S I CALIPHATE v o>* Herai ARABIA Persian Gulf KHURASAN • Multan 11.2 Genghis Khan's Campaigns, 1209-27 Genghis’s first campaign outside the Mongol homeland, which began in 1209, was directed at the Tanghuts, a kingdom also known as the Western Xia (Xi Xia) in Gansu and Ningxia, northwestern China, grown rich by controlling Silk Road travel routes. Genghis attacked the Jin empire in China in 1211 and 1215, the Kara Khitai to the west in 1218, and the powerful Iranian Khwarazmian empire from 1219 to 1221. During 1221-24 his trusted generals Jebe and Subddei campaigned further to the northwest, making a circuit that reached the Dnieper and Black Sea, laying the groundwork for the khanate that became known as the Golden Horde. Genghis returned to complete his conquest of the Tanghuts in 1226-27, and died just as that victory was being realized. and raped and murdered vast numbers of their citizens. Although these historians offer few, if any, redeeming features of the Mongols’ oppressive rule, they are fasci¬ nated and horrified by the Mongol leader. Early Life and Career Temiijin was betrothed at the age of nine to Borte, the ten year-old daughter of a leader of the Onggirad peoples, who eventually provided consorts for the Mongol khans. As one of its rulers stated, “We don’t chal¬ lenge empires; we don’t go to war with our neighbors; we offer our daughters to sit by the khan, and he places them upon the throne. We’ve survived by the loveliness of our granddaughters, by the beauty of our daughters.”4 Genghis’s father Yesiigei ac¬ companied him to his future bride’s fam¬ ily, where Genghis would reside, and was poisoned on his return journey, when he unwisely accepted an invitation for a meal with a group of Tartars whom he did not recognize as enemies. News of his death prompted many of his retainers to abandon his widow Hoeliin, who immediately sent for Temiijin. Without a support network, Hoeliin’s family barely survived, often gathering nuts and roots and hunting marmots to sustain themselves. In these difficult times, Hoeliin nonetheless taught Temiijin and her other sons basic military skills required in the demanding environment of Mongolia and drilled into them the need for close bonds with others for survival and strength. She subscribed to the view articulated by one of the Mon¬ gols’ ancestors in The Secret History: “You five were born from one womb. If, like the five single arrows that you held you separate yourselves, each going alone, then each of you can be broken by anyone. If you are drawn together by a singular purpose bound like the five shafts in a bundle how can anyone break you?”5 However, she could not maintain unity within her own family.6 Vying for leadership among the younger generation, Temiijin treacherously surprised and brutally murdered one of his half- brothers.7 By age fourteen, about the time he killed his half-brother, Temiijin did not appear to have a great career ahead of him. Lack¬ ing any allies or supporters, Temiijin was captured several times by rival tribes. Once he escaped by “hid[ing] in the bed of the River Onon, lying on his back with only his face projecting from the water.”8 The Mongol and Iranian sources recount other of his dashing and colorful adventures. Af¬ ter hiding from his enemies in a forest for three nights, he set forth to escape when 100 ROSSABI “his saddle seemed to fall off by itself.”9 He took this as a sign that Heaven wanted him to stay in the woods. Emerging after three more nights, he found his path blocked when a huge boulder fell a short distance ahead of him. He concluded that “Heaven wants me to stay here.” After three more nights, hunger prevailed, and he ground out a path around the boulder only to be captured by enemy soldiers who awaited him. Eventually, he managed to escape. By the early 1180s, Genghis was basically a minor figure with only a few supporters. However, adherence to his mother’s instruc¬ tion about the need for allies would shape his career. His brilliance at forming the Mongol When they got back to the tent Mother Ujin [Hoeliin] could see on their faces what they’d done. She looked at her two sons, then pointing first at Temujin said to them: “Killers, both of you! When he came out screaming from the heat of my womb this one was born holding a clot of black blood in his hand. And now you’ve both destroyed without thhiking, like the Khasar dog who eats his own afterbirth, like the panther that heedlessly leaps from a cliff, like the lion who can’t control its own fury, . . . like the tiger who doesn’t think before seizing his prey, you’ve killed your own brother! When we have no one to fight beside us but our shadows when there is nothing to whip our horses but their own tails when our mouths are filled ivith the bitterness of what Tayichiud have done to us, and we ask ourselves: ‘How can we get our revenge on them?’ you come complaining to me, saying: ‘How catz we live with these brothers?’ and now you do this!” This is how she spoke to her sons, reciting ancient phrases and quoting old sayings to them in her anger. -The Secret History of the Mongols Kahn 1998, 20. with wealthier or stronger Mongol leaders. His first alliance was with the Ong Khan of the Kereyid, a patron and protector rather style of “blood brotherhoods” (anda) set the stage for his rise to power. Living in such unsettled and somewhat chaotic times, Mongols recog¬ nized that blood brotherhoods were vital for survival, and as early as the age of eleven, Genghis and Ja- mukha, a noble boy of about the same age, sol¬ emnly pledged to assist each other against their enemies. They would become competitors for power and bit¬ ter enemies. Becoming Genghis Khan Temujin forged “blood brother” relationships 11.3 The Genghis Stone This monument, inscribed with an Old Mongol script, was found in 1818 in the Russian province of Chita. Moved to St. Petersburg, the stone is displayed in the State Hermitage Museum. Its inscription was first translated fully by the Mongolian archaeologist Khodoogiin Perlee and lauds the archery skills of Genghis Khan's general Yesunkhei: "After Genghis Khan conquered the Sartuul dynasty [in Central Asia] in 1224, all Mongolian lords met on the Bukha-Sojikhai steppe. There, Yesunkhei, with a bow and arrow, hit a target from a 335 arm-span [ca. 535 meter] distance." than a blood brother. The young Mongol appealed to the powerful Ong Khan and to Jamukha, his blood brother, to assist him in recovering his wife Borte, who had been cap¬ tured during a Merkid raid. Around 1184, their joint forces campaigned against the Merkid and recovered the pregnant bride. Intermittent failures and successes marked Temiijin’s rise to total power. He experienced devastating losses and reversals of fortune: just a few years before the Mon¬ gols accepted him as their leader, he had been defeated in battle and left with only a small group of supporters. A Chinese source claims that the Jurchens, who ruled North China as the Jin dynasty, captured and imprisoned Temujin until the mid-npos.10 His virtual disappearance from the historical sources for about seven or eight years after he had as¬ sumed the title of khan—sometime between 1187 and 1189—lends credibility to this ac¬ count, but it cannot confirm it. He reemerged around 1195 and determined to destroy his opponents. The Secret History of the Mon- GENGHIS KHAN IOI 11.4 Genghis Khan No actual likeness of Genghis Khan exists. This official portrait was painted during the late 13th century by an anonymous Yuan court painter who had never met Genghis Khan. It is held, along with other portraits of succeeding khans and their wives, painted in similar style, by the National Palace Museum in Taipei. gols subtly criticizes him for his ruthlessness in these bloody encounters. The same text repeatedly praises him for dividing up the spoils of war equally among his forces, a strategy that doubtless prompted many lord¬ less Mongols, including capable military and civilian leaders, to accept him as their leader. Genghis’s ability to attract others, even vaunted enemies, was integral to his suc¬ cess. After his horse was killed in a vic¬ torious battle, he rounded up the enemy prisoners and asked the culprit to identify himself, according to The Secret History. To his surprise, a lowly soldier accepted responsibility, and Temujin responded: “Usually a man who’s fought against us is the last to admit it. He’ll lie about what he’s done or simply hide out of fear. But this man doesn’t deny that he’s fought us; in fact he declares it! Here’s a man who’ll 102 ROSSABI tell you straight what he’s done and here’s a man that I’ll have in my army.”11 Te¬ mujin recruited him immediately for his army and gave him the new name of Jebe (“Arrow”). His new recruit turned out to be one of his great military commanders. After some initial successes, his cam¬ paign to establish hegemony over steppe peoples suffered setbacks during the decade between 1196 and 1206. The Ong Khan, however, had recognized that Temujin now had a force to be reckoned with and col¬ laborated with the younger man between 1201 and 1202 to vanquish the Tartars, the people who had poisoned Temiijin’s father. In the face of this alliance, the Ong Khan’s son and Temujin competed for power, which eventually led to a break between the Ong Khan and Temujin. The Secret History at¬ tributes this split to the duplicity of the Ong Khan and his ambitious son, but since each side sought ultimate authority, all share blame for the severance of relations.1- The Secret History also excuses Temujin for the feud with his blood brother Jamukha at the same time. The sources record a consistent pattern of ruptures between Temujin and his allies, accusing them of treachery or dis¬ loyalty, which suggests that Temiijin’s own ambitions were at least partly responsible. The Ong Khan, with the support of Temiijin’s former blood brother Jamukha, defeated Temujin in 1203, leaving him with just a few thousand men. Retreating to Baljuna Lake in southeastern Mongolia, Temujin gathered together the remnants of his forces, and in an emotional speech, he pledged to share the “fruits” when he had “completed this . . . task” of destroy¬ ing his enemies.13 News of Temiijin’s Balju¬ na Covenant spread and attracted many Mongol leaders who found his vision of Mongol unity and more equitable divi¬ sion of spoils captivating. His professed asceticism, exhibited by living in a ger (yurt), wearing ordinary doth, and avoid¬ ing luxuries, also appealed to his men. From despair at Baljuna, Temujin suc¬ ceeded within three years in becoming the principal Mongol ruler. He launched a surprise attack on the Kereyid, who had become complacent, believing they had totally crushed his forces. Within three days, the Kereyid had been routed and the Ong Khan killed when he tried to escape. This stunning reverse stimulated Temiijin to challenge the Naiman, the last remain¬ ing opposition to his supremacy in Mon¬ golia. The Naiman mounted a spirited de¬ fense before falling to Temiijin’s troops. Temujin’s last threat was from Jamukha, his blood brother of more than twenty-five years, who had lost favor with many Mon¬ gols because he originally had sided with the Naiman, against his Mongol anda Temiijin. Jamukha’s own subordinates betrayed him and turned him over to Temiijin, who killed these turncoats with the comment, “How can we allow men to lay hands on their own lord to live?”14 The Secret History includes Jamukha’s mov¬ ing speech (inset) in which he ab¬ solves Temiijin of any blame for the rupture of their relations and in conclusion, asks for a quick death: “My anda, if you want to favor me, then let me die quickly and you’ll be at peace with your heart.”15 To honor their previous friend¬ ship, Temiijin executed Jamukha without shed¬ ding his blood, a “privilege” granted only to rulers, princes, or khans.16 To commemorate and legitimize his achievement in defeating the major tribes in Mongolia, Temiijin convened, in the spring of izo6, a khuriltai, or assemblage of the Mongol nobility, at the origins of the Onon River in northeastern Mongo¬ lia to confirm him as the supreme ruler. The khuriltai enthroned him with the title “Genghis Khan,” a puzzling term which different scholars have translated vari¬ “Long ago when we were chidren in the Khorkhonagh Valley I declared myself to be your anda. Together we ate the food which is never digested and spoke words to each other which are never forgotten, and at night we shared one blanket to cover us both. Then it was as if people came between us with knives, slashing our legs and stabbing our sides, and we were separated from each other. . . . Now, my anda, you’ve pacified every nation; you’ve united every tribe in the world. The Great Khan’s throne has given itself to you. Now the world is ready for you what good would I be as your ally?. . . I went wrong when I strove to be a better man than my anda. ” -The Secret History of the Mongols Kahn 1998,111 ously: from the Mongol term “Ching” as “Cruel Ruler,” or “Strong Ruler,” and from the Turkish term “Tengiz” as “Ruler of the Ocean (fig. 11.6).”17 Genghis, in turn, showered rewards on the subordinates who had helped him to emerge victorious. Temujin’s rise to power as Genghis Khan succeeded not only because of his military prowess, but due to his knack for forging alliances and political deal-making, and his willingness to make an equitable divi¬ sion of spoils. He imposed tight discipline on his forces, a harsh set of rules that man¬ dated severe punishments for those who disobeyed orders. “If we disobey your com¬ mand during battle/ take away our posses¬ sions, our children, and wives./ Leave us behind in the dust,/ cutting off our heads where we stand and letting them fall to the ground.”18 Cowardice resulted in immedi¬ ate execution, and Genghis ordered similarly draconian punishments for other breaches of discipline. He issued stern warnings to his commanders to avoid conflicts among themselves, and initiated compulsory service for all males from approximately fifteen to seventy years of age, which was meant to signal that everyone should be prepared to give whatever he could, even military ser¬ vice, to the Mongol campaign. Finally, he relied on comprehensive intelligence about the enemy before he initiated a battle or at¬ tack. Spying and using psychological war¬ fare, such as undermining popular morale by recounting occasionally apocryphal tales of massacres and destruction by Genghis’s forces, were tactics that the Mongols of¬ ten used to induce voluntary submission. His military successes were not in¬ novations but based upon centuries-long advances in steppe warfare. Dependence upon an adept and mobile cavalry predated Genghis, as did the effective composite bow, a weapon that had a much greater range than any European bow. The most power¬ ful arrows were adapted from hunting for combat; the so-called whistling arrows in¬ duced animals to halt to discover the ori¬ gins of the noise, a stationary target for a second, deadlier arrow (see Chapter 13). The tactic of feigned retreat by a small de¬ tachment, which led the pursuing enemy GENGHIS KHAN 103 into a deadly trap where they faced a much larger force, was also a traditional ploy that Genghis used but had not originated.19 Instead, Genghis’s innovations were or¬ ganizational. Many were designed to sub¬ vert the traditional tribal system, which has often been considered the optimal unit in this mostly pastoral society that depended upon considerable flexibility and mobility for survival.10 These requirements are bet¬ ter suited to relatively small units such as families, clans, and tribes than the much larger organization that Genghis now planned. Members of the same tribe were assigned to entirely different units in order to break down loyalty to their old lead¬ ers. Genghis appointed new commanders to these units, who formed a new military elite that owed its advancement to their leader, hence were obliged to him abso¬ lutely.11 Removing the old tribal leaders, he placed his own men in charge and de¬ manded that his forces shift their loyalty to them. Having defeated the major tribes in Mongolia and created a sizable confedera¬ tion unifying the various peoples in this vast, sprawling territory may have been Temiijin’s greatest achievement. His abil¬ ity to maintain control over such a huge and diverse domain—about three and a half to four times the size of modern France—motivated The Washington Post in 1996 to name Genghis Khan the most important man in the past thousand years. Genghis's Foreign Campaigns With almost all of Mongolia now under his command, why did Genghis and his forc¬ es emerge to attack other lands? The wars leading to his victory devastated the herd¬ ing economy, with many animals perish¬ ing. To recover from these losses, Genghis needed to secure animals and other products from neighboring states. Paul Ratchnevsky characterizes his aim as “the acquisition of slaves, animals, and riches rather than the territory.”11 Another theory for Mon¬ gol territorial expansion holds that a drop in the mean annual temperature in parts of Mongolia may have created economic hard¬ ships that propelled a small exodus from the country13 (see Chapter 4). That Genghis had fashioned such a large group under arms is a condition that would almost ensure inexo¬ rable military expansionism. Some assert the existence of a divine plan to bring the world under Mongol hegemony, in which Teng- geri, the Sky God, entrusted Genghis with this Herculean task. Unfortunately, this plan for conquest did not appear to jibe with Genghis’s objectives, which often entailed seizure of booty or guarantees of trade con¬ cessions.14 Genghis’s campaigns were generally successful. First, the Uyghurs, a Turkic group that had one of the first written languages and one of the first capital cit¬ ies of any steppe people, voluntarily sub¬ mitted.15 Second, Genghis attacked the Xi Xia dynasty, or the Tanghut peoples, who controlled northwest China. His longest and most demanding campaign in East Asia was his four-year struggle against the Manchurian Jurchens who had con¬ quered North China by 1126, and had established the Chinese-style Jin dynasty, which culminated, in the Mongols’ oc¬ cupation, in 1215, of the Jin capital of Zhongdu, near modern Beijing (fig. 11.2).16 After this stunning but debilitating vic¬ tory, Central Asia, with its network of mercantile centers and potentially lucrative trade became his next target for incursion. Recognizing Genghis’s plans, a local gov¬ ernor in Central Asia killed some Mongol merchants whom he accused of spying and psychological warfare. Genghis immediately dispatched official envoys to Muhammad II, the ruler of Central Asia, demanding that he turn over the governor for punish¬ ment. Instead Muhammad executed the hapless ambassadors, the most heinous of crimes from the Mongol standpoint.17 In 1219 Genghis departed, with a sub¬ stantial army, to avenge the murders of Mongol merchants and ambassadors and to obtain booty from the rich oases and cit¬ ies in this region. Muhammad’s autocratic rule had alienated many of his top com¬ manders, and Genghis capitalized on this fragmentation by offering favorable terms to those who surrendered without a fight. Urgench and other cities actually defended themselves, killing quite a few Mongol 104 ROSSABI 11.5 Genghis Khan at the Bukhara Mosque This Persian miniature from the Shahanshahnama, a 14th- century collection of epic poems, shows Genghis Khan admonishing the wealthy elite of Bukhara from the pulpit of the Kalon mosque. He told them he was the scourge of God and had come to punish them fortheir sins. Genghis then razed the mosque, sacked the city, and killed most of its leaders and elite. He was so impressed with the 12th-century Kalon minaret that he ordered it spared, and it stands today. troops, but Genghis’s forces, with the help of Chinese and Muslim experts in the use of catapults and other siege engines, finally overwhelmed them and devastated and plundered these sites. Groups that did not mount such stiff resistance generally escaped the Mongols’ wrath. Many merchants and clerics from Samarkand surrendered and were not harmed, but the Turkic troops, who defended the city, were massacred once they were compelled to surrender/8 By early 1221 cities including Bukhara, Samarkand, and Herat had fallen to Genghis’s troops, and Muhammad died of natural causes while fleeing farther west (fig. 11.5).29 Having fought hard for his victories in Central Asia, Genghis was now determined to retain control over much of this vast do¬ main. The resistance he encountered may have prompted him to station troops in the oases and towns; Central Asia was the only land where he posted an occupation force. He also devoted two years to devising an administrative system for the newly subju¬ gated territories, which he may have been eager to use as a base for further expansion westward.’’0 He may have reconsidered his previous policy about occupations on learn¬ ing that the Tanghuts, the first foreign group he had conquered, but not occupied, had not lived up to a commitment to support the Mongols’ campaigns. He turned eastward from Central Asia to punish them. His troops destroyed the Tanghut state, but Genghis did not witness the final denouement. He died in August 1227, probably of natural causes. Legacies of Genghis Khan Despite the stereotypical portrait of Genghis as a great conqueror, he bequeathed a legacy that went beyond the military. Once he had conquered territories beyond Mongolia, he initiated a more sophisticated administrative structure and a regular system of taxation. Recruiting captured Turks, Chinese, and oth¬ ers more experienced with sedentary societ¬ ies, he began to devise a more stable system that could contribute to a more orderly gov¬ ernment, with specialized official positions. He also recognized the need for better com¬ munication in the territories he had subju¬ gated and set up postal stations and a courier system that could expeditiously transmit vital messages from one part of his territories to another. The Jasagh, a set of rules and regulations about the military and the systems of gover¬ nance and justice, may have been his most significant administrative innovation.31 Al¬ though it fell short of a formal written code of laws, it contained his basic precepts and laid down the principles for determination of policy and judicial cases. Genghis added to it over his lifetime as new legal problems arose. Nearly all the provisions concern the lifestyle and regulations relating to the Mon¬ gols, the Turkic people, and other nomadic GENGHIS KHAN 105 Jasagh Genghis Khan promulgated regu¬ lations and laws, which came to be known as the Great Jasagh, as early as 120Z. The Jasagh may have origi¬ nally been in old Mongolian script (although whether it was a written code remains uncertain), but it sur¬ vives, in fragments, only in Arabic and Iranian sources and is alluded to in The Secret History and in Chi¬ nese accounts. Genghis and his most trusted advisers added to it as new problems and situations arose. Yet they designed it as final and unchang¬ ing laws and regulations, rather than mere judgments relating to individual cases or circumstances. Its final ver¬ sion mandated behavior and specified rules for organization of the military and the system of justice. However, it “gradually lost its importance, the main causes of its decline being the political fragmentation of the Mon¬ gol empire, and alien (local) cultural influences.”1 Thus the Jasagh applied principally to pastoral nomadic life but did not suit the requirements of more complex sedentary civilizations. Later khans recognized the need for more comprehensive legal codes for the counties they had subjugated. For example, Kublai Khan commissioned Chinese officials to devise a code of laws for China, which appeared in 1291. Military and Organization The military must be organized into units of ten, hundred, and thou¬ sand. Soldiers will be punished for negli¬ gence or cowardice. Commanders need to establish postal stations in their domains. Commanders must personally ex¬ amine troops and their weapons before departing for battle. Social All religions must be treated with deference and not discriminated against. Women must assume all the chores when men go to battle. Children of a concubine have the same inheritance rights as children of a wife. Clerics, scholars, physicians, and muezzins and those who wash the bodies of the dead should not be taxed. A son may marry the widows of his father except for his own mother. Slitting an animal’s throat in the Muslim way is forbidden and pun¬ ishable by death. Murderers may ransom themselves by paying forty gold coins in the case of a Muslim and a donkey for a Chinese. A horse thief must compensate the owner with ten horses. If he cannot provide the horses, he must turn over his children to the owner. If he has no children, he is to be ex¬ ecuted. Travelers must always be welcomed as guests and given food. Individual Behavior Adultery and sodomy are punish¬ able by death. Urinating in water or ashes is pun¬ ishable by death. One who finds a captive must re¬ turn the captive to the captor or face execution. Clothes must not be washed until they are worn out. 1. De Rachewiltz 1993, 103. peoples who originally joined them. There are few decrees that deal with land owner¬ ship, contractual obligations, agriculture, and the principal issues facing sedentary societies that Genghis and the Mongols would eventually subjugate, but the Jasagh began the codification of customary laws that would regulate and bind the Mongols.32 This set of regulations was originally written in a Mongolian script, although the remaining fragments are found in Is¬ lamic sources.33 The Mongolian script was devised to fill the need for a written lan¬ guage for administrative and governmen¬ tal purposes, which Genghis recognized when he was on the verge of unifying the Mongols. In 1204, he instructed one of his Turkic counselors to devise such a writ¬ ten language. Within a short time, his Tur¬ kic adviser had adapted the Uyghur script for the Mongolian language, and Tur¬ kic secretaries began to record Genghis’ pronouncements, edicts, and laws. Herders needed a steady supply of goods from sedentary civilizations for their very survival, which impressed upon Genghis the value of commerce for his nomadic pasto¬ ral peoples. This favorable attitude toward trade translated into advocacy for merchants and efforts to foster commerce, another of his important legacies, perpetuated by all of his successors. Kublai increased the amount of paper money in circulation in China and reduced the punitive taxes previously im¬ posed on merchants. The Mongol rulers of Iran were hospitable to foreign traders and 106 RO S S A B I 11.6 Installation of a Mongol Khan A Mongol khan, his wife, and court are shown during enthronement ceremonies in this illustration from Jami 'al- Tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles) by Rashid al-Din. Ghazan Khan (r. 1295-1304) commissioned al-Din to write a history of the Mongols and gave him access to confidential court records to do so. This work was completed during the reign of OljeitO (1304-17), and when he finished, Oljeitii asked al-Din to expand it to include all the known world. constructed caravanserais partly to serve as hostelries for trading caravans. Mongol sup¬ port of commerce eventually resulted into the greatest flow of goods and people in his¬ tory until that time, leading to the first direct interactions between Europe and China. Genghis’s interest in new technologies contributed to their diffusion throughout the Mongol domains. Chinese and Muslim advisers introduced catapults, battering rams, and scaling ladders, which proved in¬ valuable to his forces in besieging the larger cities in the sedentary civilizations. His inter¬ ests were not limited to military technology. Good medical care was essential to main¬ taining the demanding lifestyle he mandated and to treating the wounds his soldiers suf¬ fered. He recruited physicians to remedy the ailments such as gout and liver disease that resulted from obesity and alcoholic binges, in which he and his people indulged.34 Knowl¬ edge of astronomy, another practical field that Genghis prized and patronized, enabled his subjects to gather information about GENGHIS KHAN 107 climate and weather conditions that might, on the one hand, bolster their economy and, on the other hand, allow them to make ad¬ equate preparations to counter calamities. Genghis supported the creation of craft articles and repeatedly instructed his sol¬ diers not to harm captured craftsmen. In Samarkand, the Mongol troops, follow¬ ing his orders, reputedly spared 30,000 artisans.35 Some of the craftsmen who sur¬ vived were moved to northern China and contributed to an artistic renaissance dur¬ ing the Mongol era. Like Genghis, his de¬ scendants treated craftsmen generously, fostering an efflorescence in Chinese por¬ celain and textiles and in Iranian tile work and illustrated manuscripts in the four¬ teenth century36 (see Chapters 30, 31). Genghis adopted a policy of toleration toward foreign religions, perhaps to ingrati¬ ate himself with foreign clerics who could facilitate his rule over the territories he had subjugated. However, his genuine interest in foreign ideas, particularly if they had prac¬ tical implications, should not be ruled out. In general, Genghis did not seek to impose a particular religion or philosophy on his new subjects. As long as they did not cre¬ ate disturbances or instability, he did not intrude on the beliefs, values, and customs of the subjugated peoples.37 He also had a personal interest in religion, particularly as he aged and began to fear death. Hearing that Daoists had developed elixirs of immor¬ tality, he invited the renowned Daoist monk Changchun to his encampment. Although Changchun traveled with Genghis’s entourage in Central Asia, he disclaimed knowledge of formulas for prolonging life. The account of his journeys is an important primary source on both Genghis and Central Asia.38 Many, though not all, of Genghis’s suc¬ cessors adopted a policy of religious tolera¬ tion. Kublai proclaimed that he believed in a variety of the Chinese religions.39 The first Mongol khans in Iran employed Jewish, Nestorian Christian, and Bud¬ dhist officials in ruling their principally Muslim populations. Khans throughout the Mongol domains subsidized the con¬ struction of monasteries, churches, and mosques and ordered translations of impor¬ tant texts from a wide variety of religions. Perhaps Genghis’s most audacious, yet positive, legacy was recruitment of for¬ eigners. Early in his career, he recognized that the Mongols lacked expertise in vari¬ ous fields. For example, they initially had no experience in besieging cities and did not have the proper equipment to do so. Thus Genghis secured the services of Chi¬ nese and Muslim “engineers” who could construct and deploy catapults and other siege engines. He also recognized that the Mongols did not have the requisite skills to devise administrative systems for seden¬ tary empires. If they were to conduct cen¬ suses, develop a steady stream of revenue through regular taxation, and organize a system of justice that met the approval of the local population, they would have to recruit knowledgeable foreigners.40 Simi¬ larly, he employed foreign merchants and craftsmen to provide the goods and arti¬ facts the Mongols needed and cherished.41 How is one to take the measure of this seemingly larger-than-life figure? Genghis was responsible for remarkable accom¬ plishments. He united, either by force or by negotiations, the diverse Turco-Mongol peoples who inhabited a vast terrain in Mongolia. Capitalizing on the advice of a multiethnic group of counselors, he set up a hierarchical governing structure, estab¬ lished a regular military administration, ordered the development of a written lan¬ guage for Mongolian, and devised regula¬ tions that eventually formed a legal code. His occupation of Central Asia paved the way for the creation of the largest con¬ tiguous land empire in world history and, perhaps as important, the most exten¬ sive East-West commercial and cultural exchanges until that time. He himself lived a relatively simple life for a ruler of such a vast domain, though he mar¬ ried or took many women from his de¬ feated enemies as concubines. He did not take a disproportionate share of the booty that accrued to the Mongols and ensured an equitable division of such riches. On the other hand, the loss of life and destruction of oases, settlements, and towns wrought by his conquests and occupation 108 ROSSABI cannot be ignored. Though contemporane¬ ous sources sometimes inflated the num¬ bers killed and the damage inflicted, his military campaigns in East and Central Asia were devastating to many areas. Moreover, his words, as quoted in The Secret History of the Mongols, occasion¬ ally reveal a disdain for human life. In short, neither hagiography nor con¬ demnation is sufficient to characterize Genghis Khan. Succession One of Genghis’s glaring failures was his in¬ ability to bequeath a regular and orderly sys¬ tem of succession to leadership. Because the Great Khan¬ ate was a new institution, no specific struc¬ ture had been devised to ensure conti¬ nuity. Clans and tribes had often based succession to the father’s sta¬ tus and some of his wealth on the prin¬ ciple of ultimo¬ geniture, that the last born will inherit first. The underlying logic was that the youngest son would not have had the time to establish himself and needed the father’s inheritance more than his siblings did. But Genghis did not adhere to such a formula, instead calling together his prin¬ cipal wife Borte’s four sons to select his successor on the basis of merit (fig. n.i). Thus, he chose Ogodei, rather than choos¬ ing his youngest son Tolui, the father of Kublai Khan. Although Ogodei did suc¬ ceed his father, all future successions were contested because it proved impossible to achieve unanimity in determining who was the most talented among Genghis’s descen¬ t's Tatar wife, Yesui Khatnn, spoke: “The Khan will cross the high mountain passes, cross over wide rivers, waging a long war far from home. Before he leaves has he thought about setting his people in order? There is no eternity for all things born in this world. When your body falls like an old tree, who will rule your people, these fields of tangled grasses? When your body crumbles like an old pillar who will rule your people, these great flocks of birds? Which of your four heroic sons will you name?” -The Secret History of the Mongols Kahn 1998, 152 dants in each successive generation. Adher¬ ing to a less contentious system, such as ultimogeniture, might have averted such disputes. At the death of each leader, as¬ semblages of the Mongol nobility would be convened to choose one of Genghis’s descen¬ dants as the new Great Khan. At these con¬ vocations, Mongol noblemen would express different views about the most meritorious of these descendants, leading to disputes and, eventually, wars. Such conflicts and the ensuing disunity would be prime fac¬ tors in the collapse of the Mongol empire. 1. Juvaini 1958, 21. 2. Kahn 1998, 165. 3. Shengwu 1951. 4. Kahn 1998. 15 5. Kahn 1998, 6. 6. Rossabi 1979, 156. 7. Kahn 1998, 18-20. 8. Ratchnevsky 1991, 21. 9. Kahn 1998, 23. 10. Ratchnevsky 1991, 50; Zhao Gong et al. 1980. 11. Kahn 1998, 59-60. 12. Kahn 1998, 72. 13. Cleaves 1955. 14. Kahn 1998, no. 15. Kahn 1998, 112. 16. Kahn 1998, 113. 17. Pelliot 1959-73, 301. 18. Kahn 1998, 44. 19. Chambers 1979. 20. Fletcher 1986. 21. Ratchnevsky 1991, 93. 22. Ratchnevsky 1991, 103, 115. 23. Jenkins 1974. 24. Humphrey and Hiirelbaatar 2005, 9. 25. De Rachewiltz 1983, 285; Brose 2005. 26. Allsen 1994, 350-52. 27. Juvaini 1958, 79. 28. Ratchnevsky 1991, 132. 29. Juvaini 1958. 30. Buell 1979. 31. De Rachewiltz 1993, 102. 32. Riasanovsky 1965, 33. 33. Ayalon 1971-73; Morgan 1986a. 34. Smith 2000; Hymes 1987. 35. Juvaini 1958, 122. 36. National Palace Museum 2001; Komaroff and Carboni 2002. 37. Ratchnevsky 1991,185. 38. Li Zhichang 1931. 39. Polo 1938, 201. 40. De Rachewiltz 1983. 41. Rossabi 2002. GENGHIS KHAN 109 12. Mongol Women Morris Rossabi On the Mongol division of labor Marco Polo judged that the women “do all the work that is needed for their lords and family and for them¬ selves” and that the “men trouble themselves with nothing at all but with hunting and with feats of battle & of war and with hawking . . . The Mongols’ demanding and frag¬ ile pastoral economy required each household member, even young chil¬ dren, to assume heavy workloads. Women had dual full-time occupa¬ tions, for they not only performed domestic duties but also milked the animals and produced the house¬ hold’s butter, cheese, and yoghurt. The women could manage the ani¬ mals, permitting the men complete availability for hunts and warfare, thus contributing to the Mongols’ military successes. A few women were even trained in combat and ac¬ companied the men to battle. One of Genghis Khan’s daughters com¬ manded a force in April 1221 that razed the city of Nishapur.1 Such vital contributions trans¬ lated into relatively more rights and greater freedom, at least for women of the elite and perhaps even for ordinary women. Unlike Chinese women, Mongol women were not hobbled by bound feet. They dif¬ fered from almost all women of their era because they could own property, although men generally controlled a household’s assets. Although widows faced pressure to remarry the deceased husband’s brother or another member of his family to preserve the family’s prop¬ erty, such prominent widows as the mothers of Genghis and Kublai ignored the practice of levirate and never remarried.3 When the Mon¬ gols occupied China, they enacted a law code designed to extend the rights of Mongol women to the Chinese and to prohibit the most flagrant abuses against women. They forbad female infanticide, the forc¬ ing of women into prostitution, and the sale of daughters into prostitu¬ tion or servitude.4 The effectiveness of these provisions for the protec¬ tion of Chinese women is unknown. The available historical evidence precludes a comprehensive and definitive assessment of the status of women of the lower strata. The elite women addressed in this essay scarcely confronted restrictions on their mobility and their decision¬ making. One of Ogodei Khaghan’s widows was the de facto ruler of the Mongol empire from 1241 to 1246, when her son was prepared to as¬ sume the title of khan. However, she and all the influential women known were directly related to Genghis or his male descendants. It is impossible to determine whether ordinary wom¬ en enjoyed similar rights and power within their own households. The Mongol women who figure in the Chinese and Iranian histories and in the travel accounts of the Franciscan John of Plano Carpini and of Marco Polo may have been exceptions in their prominence and influence. Sorghaghtani Beki, the mother of Kublai Khan, is the best known of these extraordinary women. All four of her sons became khans and owed much of their success to her. A Nestorian Christian captured by Genghis’s troops and then turned over in marriage to his son Tolui, she took charge of her sons’ educa¬ tions, ensuring that they not only applied themselves to military train¬ ing but learned to read and write. Attempting to prepare them for rule of a multiethnic and multireligious empire, she also encouraged them to adopt a policy of religious tolera¬ tion, an attitude that would be in¬ valuable when they became khans.5 After her husband’s death, Sorgh¬ aghtani Beki requested and received control over eighty thousand house¬ holds in North China. Recognizing that exploitation and plunder of the fields of the Chinese peasants in her control would eventually decrease production, she fostered local ag¬ riculture and employed Chinese as local officials.6 In sum, she sought to govern, and it is no accident that two of her sons founded dynas¬ ties and devised governments in the domains they subjugated: Hulegii established the Ilkhanate in Iran and the Middle East, his brother Kublai created the Yuan dynasty in China. Their mother also attempted to find her sons suitable mates who would prove to be wise counselors. Hulegii’s wife Dokhuz Khatun was a widow of his father and was passed on to him in leviratic cus¬ tom. An ardent Nestorian Christian, she championed the recruitment of Nestorians for the Ilkhanate gov¬ ernment. Partly due to her convic¬ tions, Hulegii employed an interna¬ tional coterie of officials, including Nestorians, Jews, and Buddhists, though most, befitting his location in Iran, were Muslims. She and Hul¬ egii negotiated a marriage alliance between her son and Maria, the natural daughter of the Byzantine emperor.7 Although the two ruling families were related and Christian (but of different orders), territorial disputes caused a rift between the two empires. Nonetheless, Nestorian Christianity, due to the patronage of Dokhuz Khatun and her descen¬ dants, remained a vital religion in the Ilkhanate, with Baghdad be¬ coming the seat of a patriarchate 110 ROSSABI of the Nestorian church. Kublai’s wife Chabi, whose portrait can be found in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, was even more influential, judging from her biogra¬ phy in the Yuan dynastic history, the Yuanshi (fig. 12.i).8 According to that text, her timely warning to her husband led to his ac¬ cession as the Great Khan. His older brother, the Great Khan Mongke, died dur¬ ing an assault on Southern Song China in 1259. Arigh Boke, their other sibling, quickly capitalized to con¬ vene a kburiltai, congress of Mongo! nobles, to ratify his claim to the throne. Meanwhile, Kublai persisted in his campaign against the Song until Chabi dis¬ patched a messenger to inform him of Arigh Boke’s plans.9 Abandoning his attack on the Southern Song, Kublai traveled north to organize his troops for war against his brother, a war in which he vanquished Arigh Boke’s forces in 1264. Chabi’s sound politi¬ cal skills may also be observed in her intercession after Kublai de¬ feated the Southern Song and cap¬ tured the dynasty’s dowager empress and empress. When Kublai offered Chabi the Song’s jewelry and other imperial treasures, she responded, “The men of the Song saved these objects to bequeath them to their sons and grandsons . . . How could I bear to take one thing?”10 She insisted that the Song imperial fam¬ ily be treated with proper respect. This account could be considered hagiography, but it certainly con¬ veys the image and the values the Mongols wished to transmit. Chabi’s reported advocacy of Tibetan Buddhism is not mythmak¬ ing. She provided funds for the construction of monasteries and the translation of Buddhist texts and received instruction from Tibetan monks. Her most renowned contri¬ bution is the resolution of a dispute concerning status between her hus¬ band and the ‘Phags-pa lama, the eminent Tibetan Buddhist of that time. She helped to devise a com¬ promise by which Kublai would sit below ‘Phags-pa in private religious ceremonies but would be seated higher in public court appearances." Khutulun, the daughter of one of Kublai’s cousins, exemplifies the strength, pride, and assertiveness seen in one type of Mongol women. Described by Marco Polo as “very beautiful, but also so strong and brave that in all her father’s realm there was no man who could outdo her in feats of strength,” she took an active role in combat.12 Relishing a hardy and active life, she required that a suitable mate defeat her in an 12.1 Portrait of Chabi Kublai Khan’s wife, Chabi, was highly influential and played an important role in the success of his reign. Her high hat, called a bogtagw'Wb ornaments, and beaded earrings were fashionable among elite Mongol women of her day. This late 13th-century portrait by an unknown artist resides in the National Palace Museum, Taipei. athletic contest. She demanded a wager of one hundred horses for the challenge, and, in time, accumulated ten thousand steeds. Finally, a handsome and powerful prince bet one thousand horses on a wrestling match with her. Her parents begged her to lose, but she refused. After a long, gruel¬ ing competition, she managed to wrestle her opponent to the ground. The prince quickly left. Khutulun assessed her new thousand horses. Mongol women today, many of whom face poverty, unemploy¬ ment, domestic abuse, and a shred¬ ded social safety net, may yet look to Khutulun as a model. However, they have turned to education— currently comprising more than seventy percent of university students—to improve their pros¬ pects in the tradition of women who contributed to an empire. 1. Polo 1938, 169. 2. Juvaini 1958, 177. 3. Ratchnevsky 1968. 4. Ratchnevsky 1937-72, 80, 108-109. 5. Rossabi 1979, 164-66. 6. Song 1976, 35, 912. 7. Spuler 1985, 59, 151. 8. National Palace Museum 1971. 9. Song 1976, 62-63. 10. Song 1976, 2871. it. Song 1976, 68. 12. Polo 1903, vol. 2, 463. MONGOL WOMEN 111 S«#«® , | -'••£< 13.1 Faramurz Pursuing the Kabulis This Great Mongol Shahnama (Book of Kings), an epic work presenting a legendary account of the dynasties of Iran, was first written ca. 1010 by Firdausi (935-1020), but has been lost. A revision with illustrations was produced by Hamdullah Mustaufi Qazvini in ca. 1328-36, during the reign of llkhan Abu Sa'id (r. 1316-35). The Demotte Shahnama, so called because this illustrated copy of the Shahnama was cannibalized by Demotte for the art market, exists today only as fragments—but these exemplify some of the finest book illustrations ever produced. 13.2 Desert Horsemen > From the moment a youth, whether male or female, is able to sit upon a horse, he or she is taught to ride and manage horses. Here, a young boy on a horse is led by his father along a river in wind¬ swept dune-field. Mongols name their horses by their colors, not behaviors or terms of endearment. 112 ROSSABI i3. "All the Khan's Horses" Morris Rossabi Genghis Khan and his descendents could not have conquered and ruled the largest land empire in world his¬ tory without their diminutive but extremely hardy steeds. In some respects, these Mongolian ponies re¬ sembled what is now known as Prezwalski’s horse. Mongols held these horses in highest regard and accorded them great spiritual sig¬ nificance. Before setting forth on military expeditions, for example, commanders would scatter mare5s milk on the earth to ensure victory. In shamanic rituals, horses were sacrificed to provide “transport” to heaven. The Mongols prized their horses primarily for the advantages they offered in warfare. In combat, the horses were fast and flexible, and Genghis Khan was the first leader to capitalize fully on these strengths. After hit-and-run raids, for example, his horsemen could race back and quickly disappear into their na¬ tive steppe. Enemy armies from the sedentary agricultural societies to the south frequently had to abandon their pursuit because they were not accustomed to long rides on horse¬ back and thus could not move as quickly. Nor could these farmer-sol¬ diers leave their fields for extended periods to chase after the Mongols. The Mongols had developed a composite bow made out of sinew and horn and were skilled at shoot¬ ing it while riding, which gave them the upper hand against or¬ dinary foot soldiers. With a range of more than 350 yards, the bow was superior to the contemporane¬ ous English long bow, with a range of only 250 yards.1 A wood-and- leather saddle, which was rubbed with sheep’s fat to prevent cracking and shrinkage, allowed the horses to bear the weight of their riders for long periods and also permit¬ ted the riders to retain a firm seat. Their saddlebags contained cook¬ ing pots, dried meat, yogurt, wa¬ ter bottles, and other essentials for lengthy expeditions. Finally, a sturdy stirrup enabled horsemen to be steadier and thus more accurate in shooting when mounted (fig. 13.3). Genghis Khan understood the importance of horses and insisted KHAN'S HORSES 113 13.3,4, 5 Bridle Bit, Stirrups, and Saddle This bit and set of stirrups were recovered from a 13th—14th-century grave at the Artsat del cave buria! site in Bayankhongor province (see Chapter 35). Stirrups originated in Asia in the early centuries CE, and by the 12th century their bases had become flattened to provide better foot support. The saddle from a 14th-century grave in Khuiten Khosbuu in Khentii province is made of wood, tooled leather, and bone. Its sturdy front and back arches helped support the rider and eased the burden on the horse. that his troops be solicitous of their steeds. A cavalryman normally had three or four mounts, so that each was, at one time or another, given a respite from bearing the weight of the rider during a lengthy journey. Before combat, leather coverings were placed on the head of each horse and its body was covered with armor. After combat, Mongol horses could traverse the most rugged ter¬ rain and survive on little fodder. According to Marco Polo, the horse also provided sustenance to its rider on long trips during which all the food had been consumed. On such rare occasions, the rider would cut the horse’s veins and drink the blood that spurted forth. Marco Polo reported, perhaps with some exaggeration, that a horse¬ man could, by nourishing himself on his horse’s blood, “ride quite ten days’ marches without eating any cooked food and without light¬ ing a fire.”1 And because its milk offered additional sustenance dur¬ ing extended military campaigns, a cavalryman usually preferred a mare as a mount. The milk was often fermented to produce kumiss, or airag, a potent alcoholic drink lib¬ erally consumed by the Mongols. Mobility and surprise character¬ ized the military expeditions led by Genghis Khan and his command¬ ers, and the horse was crucial for such tactics and strategy. Horses could, without exaggeration, be referred to as the intercontinental ballistic missiles of the thirteenth century. The battle of the Khalkha River (now renamed the Kalmyus River) in southern Russia is a good example of the kind of campaign Genghis Khan waged to gain terri¬ tory, and of the key role of horses. After his conquest of Central Asia from 1219 to 1220, Genghis Khan dispatched about 30,000 troops led by Jebe and Subodei, two of his ablest commanders, to con¬ duct an exploratory foray to the west (See Chapter 11, fig. 11.2). After several skirmishes, the advance force reached southern Russia. In an initial engagement, the Mongols, appearing to retreat, lured a much larger detachment of Georgian cav¬ alry on a chase. When the Mongols sensed that the Georgian horses were exhausted, they headed to where they kept reserve horses, quickly switched to them, and charged at the bedraggled, spread-out Georgians. Archers, who had been hiding with the reserve horses, backed up the cavalry-—-with a barrage of arrows as the cavalry routed the Georgians. Continuing their exploration, the Mongol detachment crossed the Caucasus Mountains, a daunt¬ ing expedition during which many men and horses perished. They wound up just north of the Black Sea on the southern Russian steppe, which offered rich pasturelands for their horses. After a brief respite, they first attacked Astrakhan to the east and then raided sites along the Dniester and Dnieper Rivers, incit¬ ing Russian retali¬ ation in May 1223 under Mstislav the Daring, who had a force of 80,000 men. Jebe and Subo¬ dei commanded no more than 20,000 troops and were outnumbered by a ratio of four to one. Knowing that an immediate, di¬ rect clash could 114 ROSSABI be disastrous, the Mongols again used their tactic of feigned withdrawal. They re¬ treated for more than a week, because they wanted to be certain that the opposing army continued to pursue them but was spaced out over a considerable distance. At the Khalkha River, the Mongols finally took a stand, swerving around and positioning them¬ selves in battle for¬ mation, with archers mounted on horses in the front. The Mon¬ gols’ retreat seems to have lulled the Russians into believing that the invaders from the East were in disarray. Without waiting for the remainder of his army to catch up and without devising a unified at¬ tack, Mstislav the Daring ordered the advance troops to charge im¬ mediately. This decision proved to be calamitous. Mongol archers on their well-trained steeds crisscrossed the Russian route of attack, shoot¬ ing their arrows with great preci¬ sion. The Russian line of troops was disrupted, and the soldiers scattered. After their attack, the archers turned the battlefield over to the Mongol heavy cavalry, which pum- meled the already battered, dis¬ united, and scattered Russians. Wearing an iron helmet, a shirt of raw silk, a coat of mail, and a cui¬ rass, each Mongol in the heavy cavalry carried with him two bows, a dagger, a battle-ax, a twelve-foot lance, and a lasso as his principal weapons. Using lances, the detach¬ ment of heavy cavalry rapidly at¬ tacked and overwhelmed the Rus¬ sian vanguard, which had been cut off from the rest of their forces in the very beginning of the battle. Rejoined by the mounted ar¬ chers, the combined Mongol force mowed down the straggling rem¬ nants of the Russian forces. With¬ out an escape route, most were killed, and the rest, including Ms¬ tislav the Daring, were captured. Rather than shed the blood of rival princes—one of Genghis Khan’s commands—jebe and Subodei or¬ dered the unfortunate commander and two other princes stretched out under boards and slowly suffocated as Mongols stood or sat upon the boards during the victory banquet.3 The battle at the Khalkha River resembled, with some slight devia¬ tions, the general plan of most of Genghis Khan’s campaigns. In fewer than two decades Genghis Khan had, with the support of power¬ ful cavalry, laid the foundations for an empire that was to control and govern much of Asia in the thir¬ teenth and fourteenth centuries. He died on a campaign in Central Asia, and his underlings reputedly decided to return his corpse to his native land. Any unfortunate indi¬ vidual who happened to encounter the funeral cortege was supposedly killed because the Mongols wished to conceal the precise location of the burial site. At least forty horses were reputedly sacrificed at Genghis Khan’s tomb (although his body may have been left behind in Central Asia);4 his trusted steeds would be as important to him in the afterlife as they had been during his lifetime. This article, which first appeared in Natural History, October 1994, was reprinted with permission. 1. Chambers 1979, 71. 2. Polo 1938, 173. 3. Chambers 1979, 32-34. 4. Ratchnevsky 1991, 142-44. KHAN'S HORSES 115 14.1 Defeat of the Naiman According to The Secret History, the final battle in Temiijin's ascent to leadership was against the Naiman tribe and took place at Baidragiin bulcheer, Zag sum, in Bayankhongor province. Today the battleground is marked by a large ovoo (cairn) with a staff bearing prayer flags and a replica of the Mongol imperial white standard. I i i . i KAHN 14-Introduction to "The Secret History of the Mongols" Paul Kahn Sometime during the first half of the thirteenth century an extraordi¬ nary literary event took place. The life story of the man who came to be known as Genghis Khan was written down in the language he would have spoken. Six hundred years later, this story, by then entitled by Chinese scribes as The Secret History of the Mongols, was discovered on the shelves of a library in Beijing. Born with the name Temiijin, Genghis had come from a culture that thrived on the steppe to the north of China, to the east of the Christian and Islamic worlds. During the seven decades of Temujin’s life, he and his descendents organized the steppe peoples of this region into a single military force whose leaders were to become the khans of Central Asia, the Ilkhanid rulers of what we know today as the Middle East, the Golden Horde of Russia and the Ukraine, and the emperors of the Yuan dynasty in China. This was a literary event because The Se¬ cret History was the first text to be composed in the Mongolian language. Its composition marked the transition from oral to written tradition in a bio-geographical region where human culture had thrived without written literature for thousands of years. The peoples of north and central Asia had been in contin¬ uous contact with literate cultures, and sev¬ eral preceding cultures in the same bioregion, notably the Turks and Uyghurs (see Chapter 9), had developed their own forms of writ¬ ing. But the impetus for this manuscript was not merely contact with other writing sys¬ tems; the new element was the motivation, perhaps even the necessity, to record recent events in their own language for posterity. The narrative of the book is extraordinary because of its immediacy. In Homer’s Iliad, the legends of Alexander the Great, or the sagas of Icelanders, the adventures of cultural heroes are recorded centuries after the events themselves occurred. But in this case, the sto¬ ries seem to have been written down within a few decades, and by an author familiar with the events. Details of steppe life are rendered with intimate detail, and men and women di¬ rectly express their feelings and thoughts. The way of telling the story is shaped by frequent use of parallelism and repetition, both well- known techniques of oral storytelling. Events occur in groups of three. Characters justify their actions by repeating entire passages found earlier in the text. Attributes of charac¬ ters are described in pairs: Borte is introduced as “a girl whose face filled with light, / whose eyes filled with fire,”1 a phrase that is an in¬ version of an earlier description of Temiijin himself. Formulas used to describe a character are frequently repeated with slight variation each time the character appears. By capturing the form of oral literature in writing, the story from 800 years ago speaks to us directly. Evidence suggests that The Secret History of SECRET HISTORY 117 the Mongols was the property of the Mongol ruling family and was never intended to be viewed outside the inner court. Two Iranian histories, written during the Mongol empire period, hint at the book’s existence by mak¬ ing reference to its stories. The History of the World Conqueror by Ata-Malik Juvaini and the Compendium of Chronicles by Rashid al-Din were available in Mongol Iran and later copied in Islamic courts from Tur¬ key to India, transmitting detailed accounts of the origins and lives of the first genera¬ tions of Mongol rulers. But no copy of the Mongol source from which these Iranian books quote survived in the Islamic world. In the late fourteenth century the Han Chinese regained political and military control over their own land and forced the Mongol ruling class back to their homeland in the north. A copy of the Mongolian book about Genghis Khan, presumably written in the old Mongolian script adapted from the Uyghur alphabet, remained in Chinese libraries after the transition of power. Fol¬ lowing Chinese tradition, scholars of the newly established Ming dynasty compiled the Yuanshi, to record the history of the previous Yuan dynasty founded by Kublai Khan. Because Mongolian and Chinese are unrelated languages, with completely dif¬ ferent writing systems and grammar, as well as little common vocabulary, schol¬ ars from the College of Literature created training materials in the Mongolian lan¬ guage for Chinese diplomats. One of the texts they chose was what we know today as The Secret History.z The copy they cre¬ ated was written in Chinese characters and incorporated three parallel texts: Chinese characters transcribing the sounds of Mon¬ golian words, a Chinese translation of each word or phrase, and a Chinese summary of each passage (fig. 14.2). The result was quite similar to the way anthropologists from the Bureau of American Ethnogra¬ phy produced transcripts of Native Ameri¬ can tales in the early twentieth century— transcribing the sounds of the language, literally translating individual words, and then writing a summary of the meaning. The Chinese version of the Mongol book was given the title Yuan bishi mean¬ ing “The Secret History of the Yuan [Mon¬ gols].” The text was divided into 282 sec¬ tions, arranged in twelve chapters. This organization seems to have more to do with the way the book was copied in Chi¬ nese than any divisions in the original text. The scribes and printers divided the new version of the book into numbered para¬ graphs and chapters. The same scholars from the College of Literature incorporated this into a Mongolian-Chinese language¬ training manual. In the first decade of the fifteenth century, both the Chinese version and the training manual were copied once again into a larger encyclopedia. This en¬ cyclopedia survived in both manuscript and printed editions held privately by Chinese scholars and in the Imperial Li¬ brary. The title of the book was changed to Yuancho bishi, meaning “The secret his¬ tory of the Yuan dynasty.” The title was later reinterpreted by Western translators as “The Secret History of the Mongols.” From the fifteenth until the late nine¬ teenth century, knowledge of the book was limited to Chinese intellectual circles, per¬ haps akin to the way rare Aztec codices are known only in the libraries of Spain. Its existence was a curiosity that attracted a few devoted readers. Chinese scholars who owned the book note repeatedly that it con¬ tained information that should be of interest to historians and is not to be found in the official history, the Yuanshi. Francis Wood¬ man Cleaves translated a typical remark by the eighteenth century scholar, Qian Daxin: Yiian T’ai-tsu [Genghis Khan] was the cre¬ ator of an empire, yet the account of his deeds in the Yuan History is very careless and contradictory. Only the narrative in the Secret History seems to come closer to the truth, yet its language is vulgar and un¬ couth, not having had the benefit of polish¬ ing by a literary person. Hence, those who know [of] it[s existence are] few. It is very regrettable! 3 As Qian remarks, a factor that contrib¬ uted to the book’s obscurity was that many of the events and actions it described were outside the boundaries of Chinese taste. The following passage illustrates aspects of the text that the Chinese characterized 118 KAHN as “vulgar and uncouth.” Hoeliin, mother of Genghis Khan and a woman in her six¬ ties, rides into the camp in a cart drawn by a white camel to confront her eldest son, who has arrested his younger brother, Khasar, on suspicion of plotting to seize power. Unable to control the anger she felt, Hoeliin sat down before Genghis, crossing her legs beneath her, brought out her two breasts from under her coat, lay them on her two knees, and cried: “Do you know these breasts? These are the breasts you sucked from! These are the source of your life, and like the mother of the wolf I ate the afterbirth, I cut the navel cord for you both. What could Khasar have done to deserve this? Temiijin could empty one of my breasts with his drinking, and Alchidai and Odchigin together couldn’t even empty one. But Khasar could drink all the milk from both breasts. He eased my pains and brought me rest.4 This kind of physical detail was as natu¬ ral to Mongolian sensibilities as it was alien to Chinese taste. The intimacy of the scene (we are there) and the directness of the speech (the mother is speaking directly to her sons) are fundamental to the style of the book. The implied inner strength of a child who could empty one or both of a mother’s breasts is a particularly Mongolian turn of phrase. The entire language of the story is an expression of Mongolian experience and thought. Images of predatory animals (wolves, panthers) and birds (eagles, falcons) are used to describe human actions, moth¬ ers are shown caring for their children as they care for sheep and horses, husbands and wives share each other’s resources, and blood or spiritual brothers defend each other’s lives. Each man and woman has the obliga¬ tion to protect the ruler of his/her tribe or clan. Betraying that ruler is an anti-social act punishable by death, and many examples are given to prove this point. But this loy¬ alty is both absolute and transitory. Once a battle is over, each person is free to change allegiance. The defeat of one group by an¬ other certainly resulted in the death of some of the enemy, but victory is also portrayed as a form of redistribution, the absorption of one group by another. Former enemies who pledge allegiance to the victor after a proper fight are rewarded. Enemies who do not recognize redistribution, who flee and continue to resist, are dealt with ruthlessly. A woman’s loyalty, whether given in mar¬ riage by her parents or taken through ab¬ duction or warfare, is also to the victor. The quality of the people rather than the way in which a marriage begins determines the bond of loyalty between husband and wife. The Portrait of Genghis Khan The young Temiijin, who becomes the ma¬ ture military leader Genghis Khan, is the main protagonist of the book. He is por¬ trayed as a human character with strengths and weaknesses. While many incidents in his early life suggest that he is protected or fa¬ vored by spiritual forces, it is never suggested that he has been given supernatural powers. His strengths are stamina, determination, and shrewdness. He repeatedly demonstrates that he knows when to run, when to attack, when to make peace, and how to manipulate alliances to his own advantage. His appearance and his actions clearly inspire devotion. The text includes many stories about the men who chose to join him. These men come from all the strata of steppe culture, wealthy and poor, princes and foundlings, close kin and unrelated tribes. A common factor is that all the major charac¬ ters are people of the steppe, horse nomads who live off their herds and the hunt. The assumption that any band of people benefits from having a strong leader is presented as a self-evident truth, introduced as a pro¬ logue in the tales of Mongol ancestors. The story demonstrates how Genghis Khan, his first wife Borte, and his loyal re¬ tainers embody and extend these principles of Mongol culture. Their actions bring peace and stability to a culture that seemed to thrive on and suffer from constant con¬ flict driven by cycles of revenge. We see how Genghis Khan ends discord by absorbing SECRET HISTORY 119 14.2 Yuanchao bishi The Secret History of the Mongols (subtitled "The Origin of Genghis Khan") was part of a Chinese manuscript known as Yuanchao bishi [the Secret History of the Yuan [Mongol] Dynasty). The work was described by early Chinese compilers as "secret" because it was intended for court use only. Until the manuscript was published fully in Chinese in 1933, it was known to only a few scholars. The original Chinese work was presented in three parallel sections on each page: one, a phonetic transcription of Mongol using Chinese characters, another in Chinese, and a third consisting of Chinese summaries of the Mongol text. and redistributing the tribes into a Mongol nation, organized through complementary practices of hunting and military discipline, to be fed by constant expansion of terri¬ tory, trade, and the rewards of conquest. In this world, all the spoils of hunting and warfare belong to the leader, who justly redistributes the wealth among his people. The story teaches us that Genghis Khan is a great ruler because he inspires his fol¬ lowers, he listens to good counsel, and he keeps his promises. He is always ready to face the next challenge to his leadership role, he acts decisively, and finally he succeeds. The fact that he is favored by heaven is self- evident. It is both the cause and the result of his success as a leader and definer of a nation described as “these fields of tangled grasses.” Rediscovery Today we know that some of the old Mon¬ golian sources found in The Secret History of the Mongols were incorporated in later Mongolian texts, but these works were not read in Chinese intellectual circles and were unknown in Europe. International politi¬ cal and social dynamics at the start of the twentieth century finally brought the book to the attention of Chinese and non-Chi¬ nese audiences. As the twentieth century began, explor¬ ers, archaeologists, linguists, and religious missionaries from Russia, British India, France, Germany, and Japan were active in China and the border regions then known as Russian Turkistan, Chinese Turkistan, and Outer Mongolia. All were motivated by a mixture of nationalistic competition, scientific discovery, military intelligence, and religious mission. Both secular schol¬ ars and Christian missionaries were study¬ ing the native languages of the non-Chinese groups living on the borders of the British, Russian, and Chinese empires. The region, newly accessible along its margins by rail¬ road, was being explored and mapped to prepare for possible military incursions. British, French, German, American and Russian archaeologists and explorers were excavating sites that had been ignored for centuries. Inscriptions and fragments of writing in known and previously unknown languages were found among the paintings, sculptures, cloth fragments, and objects of daily life. Hundreds of crates were being packed and shipped to Fondon, Paris, Ber¬ lin, and St. Petersburg for further examina¬ tion in national libraries and museums. Most of these archaeological sites pre¬ dated the Mongol empire, and the book 120 KAHN 14.3 Darkhad Winter Rider This image captures the winter twilight ride of a herder in the Darkhad Valley. Soon after his rise to power, Genghis sent his eldest son Jochi to subjugate the people of this region and those living in what is today Tuva, to the north, who became some of the Mongol's early subjects. about the life of Genghis Khan was not among the treasures found buried in the sand. The book was in libraries and pri¬ vate collections of the Chinese capital, Bei¬ jing. In 1866 Archimandrite Palladil (Pal- ladius), a member of the Russian religious mission, became the first non-Chinese to find a copy.5 Palladil could read Chinese but not Mongolian, so he translated the book’s Chinese summary into Russian. As a result of his work, the first European edi¬ tion of the book was a Russian translation based on the Chinese summary of Chap¬ ter 1, published in St. Petersburg by A. M. Pozdneyev in 1880.6 From that moment on, The Secret History of the Mongols was “injected into the bloodstream of Western scholarship.”7 However, it remained obscure until a full Chinese version was published in 1933 followed by the first translations into European languages in the 1940s. Once the Chinese text was available, sev¬ eral obstacles kept the book from being read by all but a few specialists. To translate the book into a modern language, the transla¬ tor must be fluent in both classical Chinese and Mongolian. The Old Mongolian to be translated is a vernacular language of the thirteenth century, related but not identi¬ cal to contemporary Mongolian. The Secret History itself is the key to that language, being the single large work from that period that survives. The task is further compli¬ cated because the scholars at the College of Literature left in place but did not translate words and place-names they did not under¬ stand. To interpret these words, a translator must also possess knowledge of the Altaic family of languages related to Mongolian. Many of the fourteenth-century sources that could be used to explain or verify ob¬ scure passages are in Iranian, a language that is unrelated to Chinese or Mongolian. Most of these sources were not translated into European languages until recently. In addition to the language challenges, the book was difficult to place in the context of any literary or historical tradition. Being in a language spoken by a few million peo¬ ple, with no literary precedent or successor, The Secret History does not fit clearly into any larger body of literature. It is not an epic poem, a work of fiction, or a cycle of tales. Some passages are alliterative poetry, intend¬ ed to be recited, but much of the text seems to be narrative prose. While its subject is the life of a nation-builder, it does not resemble medieval romances such as La Chanson de Roland or Cantar del Mio Cid, both consid¬ ered precursors to later European literature. If the place of The Secret History as lit¬ erature has been unclear, its place as history has also been suspect. The text does not fit the definition of history as that term is used by our own Greek-Roman-European tradi¬ tion, nor by the standards of the Chinese or Islamic worlds. The descriptions of people and events inside and outside of Mongolia contain many chronological details that are contradicted by Iranian or Chinese sourc¬ es, leading many historians to question its value. Sections such as those describing the reign of Ogodei, Genghis Khan’s son and first successor, were probably not part of the original. The text we have appears to have been altered or added to during the Yuan period, but there is no clear evidence as to why or when these alterations were made. A printed edition of the Chinese ver¬ sion of The Secret History was produced by The Commercial Press in Shanghai in 19 3 3. Within a decade, scholars were trans¬ lating the work into German, French, and English. The first European scholars who dedicated themselves to the task were Erich Haenisch, whose work was published in German in 1948, and the French Sinologist Paul Pelliot, whose incomplete translation was published in French after his death in the same year. Father Antoine Mostaert, a Belgian Catholic missionary in Inner Mon¬ golia, and Francis Woodman Cleaves, an American who later became a professor of Chinese and Mongolian language at Har¬ vard University, began similar work. The Cleaves English translation (1982), copies of which had been circulating since the 1950s, is the primary source for my adaptation, The Secret History of the Mongols: The Origin of Chingis Khan (1984; 1998), quoted in this chapter and throughout this volume. The 2004 English translation by Igor de Rachewiltz deserves special mention. His fine translation is accompanied by a historical and philological commentary on each passage to which he devoted four decades. The result is arguably the most complete scholarly work on the subject in any language, a veritable encyclopedia of the field. His introduction summarizes the various arguments put forward regard¬ ing when The Secret History was written and by whom. De Rachewiltz agrees with Cleaves and several other scholars that the cyclical date, Year of the Rat, given in the book’s final paragraph, corresponds to 1228, which suggests that composi¬ tion was completed within one year after Genghis Khan’s death. By choosing 1228, de Rachewiltz agrees with other scholars that the last few sections, which describe events during the reign of Ogodei, were added to the text at a later date. To consider these passages about Ogodei later addi¬ tions does not make them less interesting, but does give us a better sense of the shape of the original text, which ends at Genghis Khan’s death and contains no account of his funeral or the events that followed. The location and date of composition are stated in the final paragraph of the text as it was found, but there is no statement in the book that directly identifies the author. Therefore, any identification of the author is speculative and deductive. De Rachewiltz deduces that Shigi Khutukhu, a foundling adopted from the Tatar tribe into Genghis Khan’s immediate family and described in the book as chief judge and record keeper, is the author. De Rachewiltz’s attribution is the generally accepted one, based on a summary of arguments by a broad range of previous scholars, including Cleaves. The more significant question may be why the book was written at all. To under¬ stand what the book meant to the author and his intended audience, we need some concept of motivation. Is The Secret History of the Mongols to be considered literary composition, a work of history, or a group of tales compiled by a committee? Why does some of the chronology not agree with Irani¬ an and Chinese sources? In his biography of Genghis Khan, Paul Ratchnevsky concludes, “The chronology of the Secret History is unreliable because the author considers the individual episodes of his epic to be more important than either their interrelation or correct chronological order.”8 To under¬ stand what the author did consider impor¬ tant, we must recognize that the book was written for posterity not as a chronology but as a cultural instruction to generations who would inherit a new political state. Its 122 KAHN 14.4 Bronze Mirror This mirror was recovered during excavations at the Mongol capital, Khara Khorum, and dates to the late 12th or early 13th century. Its decoration presents a stylized scene of two standing people, a horse or donkey and rider, and other animals underthe overarching branches of a tree. essential purpose was didactic, to transmit in a dramatic form the information it contains. The characters of the book explain their motivations very carefully each time they act. An attack today is always justified by a previous transgression or just cause for re¬ venge. The repeated parables of how to treat members of one’s family, clan, and tribe; the details of just punishments and rewards; and the many acknowledgments of and invoca¬ tions for the protection the Eternal Blue Sky —the Mongol deity—all are meant to teach future generations crucial cultural values. It is significant that people of the steppe, hav¬ ing accomplished an unprecedented cultural, military, and material transformation, chose to record these lessons in a literary form. De Rachewiltz draws a similar con¬ clusion, calling The Secret History: ...an heroic epic, aimed at recording not only the deeds and pronouncements of Ch- inggis Qan fGenghis Khan], but also those of his faithful companions in a language and style that reflect the attitudes and values of contemporary Mongols. It is at the same time a glorification of the conqueror’s clan for the sake of posterity, especially of his im¬ mediate successors, and the mere fact that it was put down in writing so soon after his death (in the form which it still largely re¬ tains) indicates, in my view, that it was also meant to serve as a guide and instruction, not just as a plain record or entertainment. 9 In Mongolia today, the life and accom¬ plishments of Genghis Khan are well known and freely celebrated in books, music, dra¬ ma, and the plastic arts. Increasingly this is also true throughout the world. In each case, The Secret History of the Mongols is the primary source. In her 2006 catalog of translations of the The Secret History of the Mongols, Ts. Sarantsatsral lists nearly every major, and many minor, European and Asian languages including English, French, Spanish, German, Russian, Hungar¬ ian, Polish, Japanese, Modern Mongolian, and Modern Chinese.10 More than forty translations have appeared since 1990. The version we read today is a record, albeit a selective one, of actual people and events. It is epic in scope, joining the story of a man who was a conqueror, his allies and enemies, and the diverse nomadic na¬ tions they united. It is weak in its depiction of the sedentary Chinese, Tanghut, and Islamic cultures the Mongols fought because it is not about them. The book’s intended audience was the members of those fami¬ lies who carried on the cultural transforma¬ tion that Genghis Khan began. With this in mind, we can better understand why it is a book worth reading in any language. It en¬ ables 11s to hear the voice of a culture barely understood by the people that it conquered, and to read that culture’s view of a man of extraordinary complexity and unique global influence. As the twenty-first century be¬ gins, nearly everyone on the planet can read the book that was once the private prop¬ erty of the descendants of Genghis Khan. 1. Kahn 1998, 15. 2. De Rachewiltz 2004, xliv-xlv. 3. Cleaves 1982, xxxiv. 4. Kahn 1998, 140. 5. De Rachewiltz 2004, vol.i, lxx ff. 6. De Rachewiltz 2004, vol.i, ci, note 246. 7. Cleaves 1982, xix. 8. Ratchnevsky 1991, 61. 9. De Rachewiltz 2004, lxix. to. Sarantsatsral 2006. SECRET HISTORY 123 15- Rule by Divine Right Shagdaryn Bira Genghis Khan and his imperial heirs linked the eternal power of the Sky God Tenggeri with the tempo¬ ral rule of his designate, the Mongol khan. Whether from political con¬ venience or exalted self-regard, the khans drew from traditional Mon¬ golian shamanism and appropriated some of the rituals of the dominant religion in the East, Buddhism, in spiritual justification for their rule. The idea that the Mongols harbored a cohesive religious concept has emerged in recent years from study of documents relating to the Mongol empire in the thirteenth and four¬ teenth centuries. Although contro¬ versial as a formal religious philoso¬ phy, Tenggerism motivated at least the early phase of Mongol expan¬ sion and political domination. The worship of the Eternal Blue Sky is a fundamental concept of ancient Turkic and Mongolian shamanism. Tenggeri represents su¬ preme masculine power in the uni¬ verse, ruling all natural phenomena (fig. 15.1). Earth is a subordinate feminine force called Etugen, giving rise to the couplet: etsege Tenggeri (Father Heaven) eke Gajar (Mother Earth). The thirteenth-century trav¬ eler Friar William of Rubruck, ob¬ served that the Mongols believed in a god who created all visible and invisible beings as well as all hap¬ piness and suffering in the world. While the theory of divine ori¬ gin of khanship was perpetrated among the nomadic people, the Mongols refined the oldest version of the credo on the basis of their own perceptions and the achieve¬ ments of civilizations they encoun- 15.1 Spiritual Elements Water, earth, and sky were essential elements in Mongol religious beliefs and became fundamental to Genghis's philosophy of life and power. Central also to shamanism and Buddhism, they are ever present and strongly expressed in the Mongolian landscape, framed by the arc of Tenggeri's Eternal Blue Sky. 124 BIRA tered. TSie totemistic belief in the origin of a leading clan changed into an affirmation of the khan’s divine origin from Tenggeri under Genghis Khan. In The Secret His¬ tory of the Mongols, written shortly after Genghis’s death in 1227, his descent is attributed to a bluish wolf from the heavens. By this ac¬ count, Alan the Fair, the mythical ancestress of the Mongols, gave birth to three sons, the youngest of whom was the direct progenitor of Genghis Khan’s Golden Family. Buddhism was to entwine with, rather than replace, shamanism in this theology, as both beliefs have done to this day. With the expan¬ sion of the Mongols and their em¬ pire, the worship of Tenggeri ad¬ opted more sophisticated ideology as Mongol military and political successes brought them into con¬ tact with the religions of seden¬ tary peoples such as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Daoism. Genghis Khan and his succes¬ sors believed in the omnipotence of Tenggeri, who had invested them with the divine mission and for¬ tune to rule over all countries and peoples. Mongolian khans felt jus¬ tified in expanding their conquests wherever Blue Sky (Koke Tenggeri) extended and believed their domina¬ tion was as permanent as the Eternal Blue Sky (Mongke Tenggeri) itself. Official documents of the Mon¬ gol khans in the thirteenth and four¬ teenth centuries begin with a stereo¬ typical proclamation, such as the opening of Giiyiig Khaghan’s letter to Pope Innocent IV of around 1247: “This is the order of the everlasting God (Mongke Tenggeri). In heaven, there is only one eternal God: on earth there is only one lord, Ching- gis Khan. This is the word of the son of God, which is addressed to you.”1 This formula distills the du- alistic concept that Tenggeri and Khan constitute the two elements of supreme power in the world. Tenggeri is the divinity with ab¬ solute power in the universe who protects and sanctifies the khan to act on his behalf. The khan is the absolute embodiment of Tenggeri. To the Mongols, those who did not accommodate to the divine or¬ der of Tenggeri were rebels, not only against the khan but against god. Therefore, Mongols had a divine right to punish their enemies and the obligation to subjugate them to their khans, much as Western Christians in their crusades and the Muslims in jihads justified imperial conquests. As the empire expanded under Kublai Khan, this duality underwent a transformation. After conquer¬ ing China, Kublai turned to the problems of pacifying and consoli¬ dating an immense empire. During the Yuan dynasty he established, Mongols came into direct contact with Chinese, Indo-Tibetan, Arab- Islamic, and Central Asian cultures. Travelers from many areas of the world—most famously, Marco Polo—came to visit his court, ac¬ quainting Kublai with new ideas and philosophies. Kublai embraced not only the shamanistic beliefs of his nomadic roots but also personified a religious pragmatism that tolerated Buddhist, Daoist, Arab-Islamic, and European-Christian religions among his subjects. Mahakala, the protec¬ tor deity of Tantric Buddhism—who is commonly depicted as a frighten¬ ing black figure with fangs, wear¬ ing a crown of skulls, a garland of severed heads, and bracelets of snakes—is still widely regarded as the defender of the Mongolian na¬ tion, and paintings and statuettes of Mahakala are kept in the homes of most Mongolian families today. This essay is condensed from the author’s Mongolian Tenggerism and Modern Globalism: A Retrospective Outlook on Globalisation delivered to the Royal Asiatic Society, London, 10 October 2002 on the occasion of his receiving the Denis Sinor Medal, and published in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society series 3, 14, no. 1: 3-12. 1. Rubruck 1990, 236. DIVINE RIGHT 125 16.1 Water, Cities, and History Water, central to the herding economy, also controls the potential for complex social life. Small-scale irrigation has long been practiced in some areas of Mongolia to prolong winter run-off or conserve summer rains. Changes in rainfall, shifts in river courses, and floods have often caused cities to be abandoned or relocated periodically throughout history. 126 ROGERS 16. Ancient Cities of the Steppe J. Daniel Rogers Even by today’s measure of nation states and globalized interaction, the geographic extent of the Mongolian empire is breathtaking. Though it was to last no more than 150 years, the Mongols controlled the larg¬ est contiguous landmass of any empire. At different times throughout their imperial history, and at opposite ends of the earth, Mongol regiments took on Egyptian armies of Mamluk slave-soldiers, Polish armored knights, and Japanese samurai. Until today, the Mongol empire has been known largely through the bi¬ ased historical records compiled by the peoples they defeated. Combining environ¬ mental and archaeological research with the study of early documents is produc¬ ing a more complete and objective understanding of how societies change within empires, of the imperial state established by Genghis Khan, and of the legacy of the Mongols in the modern world. Archaeological research, in particular, has begun to modify the image etched into the Western collective imagination of hordes of Mongol warriors descending with bows drawn upon peaceful farm villages, or laying waste to the walled cities of China and Persia with catapults and siege machines. Indeed, such events occurred during the initial and most destructive phase of conquest, which wrought havoc on vibrant cultures and civili¬ zations. But these events are only short chap¬ ters in the long story of the Mongol empire. Many essential questions remain. What was the empire like internally and across its dif¬ ferent regions? How was it organized and who made decisions? How did it evolve and change through time? How was it different from other great empires? Answers to some of these queries are only hinted in documents as revealing as The Secret History of the Mongols (see Chapter 14). Recent studies of settlements and urban sites on the Mongolian steppe have begun to raise—and sometimes answer—questions about the economy, agriculture, manufactur¬ ing, and trade with far-flung peoples. The Mongol empire and the early Inner Asian empires that preceded it established a new model for large-scale political organiza¬ tion. The steppe statecraft arose from no¬ madic and pastoral production; seasonal movement of camps and settlements; and horse-based transport and communica¬ tion systems all adapted to the ecology of the vast steppe regions of Inner Asia. These characteristics produced both a range of novel options and unique problems for po¬ litical integration and centralization across large regions and diverse populations.1 The Mongols did not emerge as lords of the steppe without substantial political experimentation and precedent on the part ANCIENT CITIES 127 16.2 Gol Mod II The Xiongnu royal cemetery at the unexcavated Gol Mod II site in the Khanui Valley has scores of burial features ranging from small mounds to huge ramped platforms. Excavations at the nearby Gol Mod I royal cemetery revealed deeply buried interments flanked by subsidiary royal graves. Xiongnu tombs contain lavish grave offerings, including chariots, horses, and spectacular personal artifacts. 128 of former steppe peoples, many of whom, like the Mongols, constructed empires.1 Without the long legacy of unique mo¬ bile statecraft that had developed over a thousand years on the eastern steppe, the Mongols probably would have been hard pressed to conquer, much less manage, the massive swath of Eurasia that became their political domain. The first example of large-scale and centralized polity build¬ ing on the territory of Mongolia arose through the efforts, fortunes, and strategies of the ancient Xiongnu (ca. 200 BCE-155 CE)3 (see Chapter 8). The historical record of these peoples is neither indigenous nor copious; archaeology is the major source of information about Xiongnu ways of life and techniques of organization—and there is still much to learn (fig. 16.2). Some of the principle themes of Xiongnu organi¬ zation become part of a long-term politi¬ cal repertoire in later steppe empires. Two examples that are repeated time and again are the creation of military-administrative units based on decimal organization (units of 10, 100, 1,000, etc.) and geographi¬ cal divisions of large-scale polities into “right hand” (western), “left hand” (east¬ ern), and central administrative units.4 ROGERS Cities, Palaces, and Seasonal Camps The Xiongnu began the tradition of building large walled sites on the open steppe. Sev¬ eral of these structures have been recorded and a few examined by excavation.5 Sever¬ al other walled sites were later built by the Khitans, among others (fig. 16.3). Although little is known about the function of these sites, preliminary studies based on archaeo¬ logical surveys argue that the relationships between walled centers and pastoral no¬ madic hinterlands change dramatically and strategically over time.6 Such changes were part of long-term innovations to older tech¬ niques that the Mongols carried on in every sphere of life, from trade, to manufacture, to statecraft. Like prior empires, the Mongolian khanate arose from the pastoralist tradition, but evolved different types of settlements and spatial geography as appropriate for its time, setting, and needs. These sites were often planned and built to serve central administra¬ tive, military, manufacturing, and trade pur¬ poses. Steppe settlements had much smaller populations than the great cities of China or other sedentary states, and the layout of these settlements reflected the pastoralist prefer¬ ence for open spaces and distaste for the nar¬ row confines of the city. that was the residence of the Uyghur khan, Bogii (r. 759-79 CE). The site is located in the Orkhon Valley, 24 km north of Khara Khorum. According to Ata-Malik Juvaini, the Persian scholar and administrator, the Mongols confirmed its identity from an inscription, then built Khara Khorum nearby as proximity to the once-powerfu! Uyghur capital would add prestige to their city. Recent research suggests the high tower may not be an accurate projection; instead, a much smaller stupa or an elevated part of the citadel may have existed. 16.3 Kherlen Bars Stupa The walled city of Kherlen Bars in Dornod province, far eastern Mongolia, was a leading Khitan urban center dating to ca. 10th—12th century. The Khitans, who created the Liao empire in northeastern China, had a language that was expressed in two independent writing systems but is now extinct and only partially deciphered. Many Khitan documents have been recovered from the Kherlen Bars ruins; further progress in deciphering the language depends on the acquisition of more texts. To protect these rare archaeological resources, the site has been listed for protection as a world heritage site by UNESCO. Its Buddhist stupa is the largest standing in Mongolia today. Genghis Khan continually moved his court from one outlying palace site to an¬ other, a practice reminiscent of the seasonal movements of individual herder house¬ holds. Japanese archaeologists have posited the identification of seasonal sites associ¬ ated with Genghis Khan’s itinerary from evidence recovered in these places. These include a settlement site on the Avraga River as a possible winter and spring camp (see Chapter 17); the site of Sa’ari Ke’er, a possible summer palace, located about no km southeast of Ulaan Baatar; and Khara Tim, a possible autumn palace, lo¬ cated 30 km southwest of Ulaan Baatar.7 While it is sometimes difficult to match archaeological sites with places mentioned in early sources, the work on these po¬ tential seasonal encampments continues, and their association with Genghis Khan’s seasonal travel is an intriguing theory. When the need for a more permanent central place was determined—after the death of Genghis Khan—construction of a capital for the Mongol empire began at a site along the Orhkon River in central Mongolia. It was completed during the rule of Ogodei Khaghan, Genghis’s third son and succes¬ sor, in 1234. The construction of the Mongol walled capital of Khara Khorum did not put this region on the map: the Orhkon Valley is a natural crossroads, where mountain fringes, major rivers, and the steppe edge intersect at the center of the eastern grasslands, and had long been a place of ceremonial significance for the Turks and Uyghurs prior to the Mon¬ gols (see Chapter 9). The broad well-watered valleys and grasslands of the Orhkon River area accommodated horse breeding, a prac¬ tice of the Uyghur and Tiirk elites.8 The Uy¬ ghurs established the largest of their steppe urban centers at Ordubalik (Khar Balgas), 24 km north of the future location of the Mongol capital (fig. 16.4). Another objec¬ tive of Genghis Khan’s heirs in selecting the Orhkon may have been to accrue political legitimacy through geographic association with the former Uyghur walled capital. Prior to the building of Khara Khorum, the Mon¬ gols conducted what was undoubtedly the first archaeological excavation ever to take place in Mongolia to confirm that the ruined and toppled walls were indeed those of Or¬ dubalik. Through their work an inscribed stele was unearthed that identified the site as Ordubalik, the residence of the Uyghur khan Bogii, who reigned from 759 to 779.9 Khara Khorum is the best-known settle- ANCIENT CITIES 129 ment of the Mongol empire, but there are other large and small sites that have at¬ tracted much less attention from researchers (fig. 16.6). Khar Khul Khaany Balgas, covers about three square kilometers on the Khanui River, slightly northwest of the Orhkon Val¬ ley.10 There are ten square enclosures—the largest has earthen walls, built for defensive purposes, standing four to five meters high. Remains of the walls and of glazed roof tiles indicate that buildings once stood on low earthen platforms within most, if not all, of the enclosures.11 The function of this site is not mentioned in any written sources, but the investment in sizable buildings sug¬ gests it was a royal administrative center. The chronology of Shazaan Khot, a possible Mongol-period palace site, is es¬ tablished by the presence of Chinese coins dated to 1064-66, 1078-85, and later. The ceramics, especially various types of Chinese porcelain, date to the Yuan dy¬ nasty (1279—1368).11 Like other outlying palace sites, Shazaan Khot is not fortified by a major exterior wall but organized as an irregular assortment of building plat¬ forms arranged along a central street, similar to that found by archaeologists at Khara Khorum (see Chapter 18). At the end of the street, enclosed by a wall, is a large platform mound with column bases and other evidence of a major building. Mongol steppe settlements incorporated design principles from China and other re¬ gions, but their layout and architecture had unique attributes (fig. 16.5). The royal courts constructed by Genghis Khan’s grandson, Kublai Khan, were designed to invoke the steppe origins that lay behind the founding of the Mongol Yuan dynasty of China in 1271. Both Shangdu, where Kublai had already moved his seat of government in North China by 1256, and Daidu, which we now know as Beijing,13 were built with Chinese principles in mind, but employed uniquely Mongol elements.14 With the relocation of the capital to Daidu, principles of Chinese construction were emphasized, as Kublai realized that to rule China he must at least have the appearance of being a Chinese em¬ peror (fig. 16.7). Inside the Chinese facade of the imperial compound, the young Mon¬ gol princes lived in traditional steppe tents. Archaeological work on the urban cen¬ ters of Mongolia continues to yield im¬ portant discoveries. Based on preliminary research using survey and excavation tech¬ niques, a few common characteristics in the design of Mongolian settlements can be identified. Defensive walls with gates at midpoints are typical of large Mongol cit¬ ies. Inside the walled enclosure, a Mongol settlement generally has a square or recti¬ linear layout organized around a central street that connects the gates and bisects cross streets. In general, public buildings, 16.6 Pharaonic Maskettes Two small Egyptian masks with classic pharaonic features were found in the 1970s in the vicinity of Khara Khorum by construction workers. They probably arrived at Khara Khorum during the Mongol era when the city received foreign visitors and gifts from Western envoys. 16.5 Mongolian Central Air Excavations below the floor at Uglugchiin Kherem, a site in Khentii province of probable Khitan affiliation, revealed stone-lined ducts for delivering heated airto the floors or rooms above. Similar heating systems were employed in Korea and China and have come to light in excavations at the crossroads in Khara Khorum. 130 ROGERS 16.7 Plan of a Chinese City Illustration of the Yuan Dynasty City at Qin showing principles of Chinese city plannings, such as a squared layout with gates in the middle of the four walls and a gridded interior plan of streets and enclosures. Some Mongol urban sites follow this general plan, but little detailed research has been conducted to understand the great variation found in them. including palaces, are not centrally located but at one edge of the urban matrix. Low earthen platforms formed the typical founda¬ tions for tents or royal buildings and other administrative structures. At some sites there is no evidence of buildings or habitations within large sectors of the city that were probably occupied as tent neighborhoods, which leave little or no archaeological trace, but are well known from written sources.15 The Mongol empire drew on ancient steppe customs both in the construction of urban centers and in the creation of political and economic systems. The bustling center of Khara Khorum became a destination for the many foreign embassies bringing tribute to the burgeoning empire, and for the bu¬ reaucracy of government, notably, services to support the royal court. Like the empire, Khara Khorum was a multiethnic town that drew on many traditions and cultures across half the globe—the vast Eurasian steppe, the forests of Siberia, the Middle East, the Manchurian plain, and China. Archaeol¬ ogy continues to add to our understand¬ ing of how and when these traditions de¬ veloped and how they contributed to the sweep and power of the Mongol empire. i. Honeychurch and Amartuvshin zoo6; Rogers et al. Z005. z. Di Cosmo 1994. 3. Barfield 1981. 4. Honeychurch and Amartuvshin zoo6. 5. Rogers et al. Z005; Perlee 1961. 6. Honeychurch and Amartuvshin zoo6. 7. Shiraishi zooz. 8. Rogers et al. Z005. 9. Juvaini 191Z-37, vol. 1, 39-46; 191-9Z; Juvani 1958. 10. Tseveendorj et al. 1999. 11. Rogers et al. Z005. iz. Moriyasu and Ochir 1999; Tseveendorj et al. 1999. 13. Rossabi 1988. 14. Steinhardt 1988. 15. Rogers et al. Z005. ANCIENT CITIES 131 17- Searching for Genghis: excavation of the ruins at avraga Noriyuki Shiraishi \RUSSIAN FEDERATION/ MONGOLIA • O'J0 AMt. Khentii' Khan lerven Khaah Avraga 17.3 Serven Khaalga Rubbings Parallel texts in Chinese (right) and Jurchen (left) commemorate a battle between the Jurchen-Jin state (1115-1234) and the Tartars. Genghis was living in the area during the period when this battle occurred. 17.1 Khentii Homeland The Secret History and other sources identify the Khentii Mountains and the Tuul, Kherlen, and Onon River valleys as important places in Genghis Khan's early life and during the initial development of the Mongol empire. Although no archaeological sites have been linked directly to Genghis, a rock inscription on Serven Khaalga Mountain and an archaeological site at Avraga date to this time period. 17.2 Serven Khaalga Inscription The discovery of an unknown inscription is an important find because it can add immeasurably to the interpre¬ tation of mute physical remains. The faint traces of two inscriptions found in 1991 on a rock surface at Serven Khaalga Mountain are eroded and difficult to read. As Genghis Khan and his Mongols rode forth from the arid steppe of far northeast Asia, they changed world history. They left little infor¬ mation about their origins, their for- bearers, or even of their intentions. How and why an obscure group of shepherds conquered much of Eur¬ asia is a genuine and fascinating historical mystery, about which the medieval Mongols themselves were almost silent. The Secret History of the Mongols, a handful of text frag¬ ments and a few inscribed stones on the windy steppe are the only indig¬ enous testament to world conquer¬ ors—words drowned in an ocean of disparaging histories about the Mongols penned by those they had conquered and dominated. Archae¬ ology is one of the sources that helps fill gaps where histories are lacking. Northeastern Mongolia, and the modern province of Khentii, has long been identified as the home¬ land of Genghis Khan, as well as a possible place for the location of his tomb (fig. 17.i). While large- scale excavations are continuing at the ancient Mongolian capital of Khara Khorum (see Chapters 18, 19) 600 km to the northeast in Khentii province, systematic archaeological research is just beginning to reveal how and why Mongolia became the political and cultural center of Eurasia during the thirteenth century.1 On the rocky slopes of Serven Khaalga Mountain, halfway up the mountain¬ side, carved into the rock, is a text in the Jurchen script; 20 meters to the east is another inscrip¬ tion in Chinese characters (figs. 17.2, 3). The texts are difficult to read because of heavy weathering of the stone. Pre¬ liminary studies they may commemorate a famous battle at the end of the twelfth cen¬ tury between the Jurchen-Jin state (1115-1234) and the Tartar enemies of the early Mongol 46N ( " 150 km 106 108 110 Wm m H P ||Y 132 SHIRAISHI tribes.1 These texts suggest that the region of Khentii is the place where the earliest history of the Mongols began to unfold upon a world stage. During the socialist period in Mongolia (1921-90), this region was politically dangerous for archae¬ ologists and historians because of its association with the Mongolian em¬ pire. Because attention to the history of Genghis Khan could easily have evoked strong nationalist sentiment in Mongolia, research in Khentii was discouraged by authorities in Mos¬ cow, and the archaeology of this fas¬ cinating homeland is today still very much in the making.3 One fascinat¬ ing site in the homeland of Genghis Khan that was only superficially in¬ vestigated during the socialist period is the mysterious ruins beside the river Avraga, about 140 km to the west of the Serven Khaalga inscrip¬ tions (fig. 17.4). Genghis Khan led a typical nomadic lifestyle, shifting the location of his residence in ac¬ cordance with the change of seasons. These movements were not haphaz¬ ard, but involved traveling, with all his wives, retainers, and livestock, between fixed seasonal camps within a specific area. The Secret History of the Mongols identifies one campsite, called Yeke a’uruq, as an important camp in the basin of the Kherlen River. Linguistically, the ancient Mongol a’uruq is very similar to the modern name of the river, Avraga. Since 1992 Mongol-Japanese excavations at the Avraga ruins re¬ vealed chronological evidence that the site had been in use during the pre-imperial period of the twelfth century. However tempting it may be to hypothesize that Avraga might have been an important site on the early migration route of Genghis, archaeologists can now only con¬ firm that it was a major center in the early Mongol heartland, even if they have yet to find a direct con¬ nection to the Great Khan. Many square earthen mounds can be seen on the site, which covers an area of 60 hectares. These mounds have been identified as the remnants of foundations of substantial buildings (figs. 17.5, 6). Since architecture is rare in this region, these ruins sug¬ gest that this place was connected 17.4 Avraga, a Possible Genghis Camp Historical sources of the Mongols are fragmentary, making it difficult to match established events and people to archaeological sites. Excavations on the Avraga River 140 kilometers west of Serven Khaalga suggest this may have been the camp Genghis used that is named in The Secret History as Yeke a'uruq. It also matches a description in Heida shilu by Peng Daya, a Southern Song Chinese emissary who traveled in this region in 1232-33 and visited Ogodei Khaghan at a settlement used earlier by Genghis. with activities of the Mongol elite. Areas surrounding the main buildings of the Avraga site held evidence for other activities car¬ ried out by the people who once lived there. Extensive remains of iron working and ceramic produc¬ tion have been found, showing that Avraga was used for craft manufac¬ ture as well as for residences. Clay bricks, made at the site and baked in a kiln or dried in the sun, were used to construct the walls of the buildings. Fine gray earthenware water vessels and storage jars were also made locally. A fragmented inscribed bone object unearthed at the site is similar in shape and de¬ sign to rulers used for standardized measurement and may have been an SEARCHING FOR GENGHIS 133 example of the kinds of tools need¬ ed to construct the buildings. The markers on this artifact show that one unit of measure was a little less than 3 centimeters (fig. 17.7). Nu¬ merous iron bars, in standard size and weight, may have been ingots used to manufacture iron weapons, tools, and domestic implements. Numerous other artifacts found at Avraga probably arrived there in the saddlebags or carts of long¬ distance traders. These include several kinds of high-quality glazed ceramics from the famed junyao and Cizhouyao kilns in China, all manufactured between the latter half of the twelfth and the first half of the thirteenth century. Coins first minted by the Jurchen-Jin state in 1179 also provide a temporal con¬ text for the ruins.4 Radiocarbon analysis corroborates this dating for the ruins. The presence of such trade goods implies that the up¬ per stratum of Avraga encouraged and was involved in intercultural exchange at a very early time. The arrangement of the Avraga settlement is dominated by a large central structure made up of a plat¬ formlike foundation surrounded by 17.5 Avraga "Palace" Complex Excavations at the large central mound uncovered foundations of three buildings. The Upper Building (A) has stone walls; stone column bases seen to the right are part of a Lower Building (B); and beneath these buildings are remains of an earlier structure (C). The site's complexity, use of stone walls and columns, and changing construction styles indicates a lengthy period of occupation by high- ranking people. Artifacts and radiocarbon samples from the lowest levels date to the late 12th or early 13th century, the period when Genghis was living in this region 17.6 Avraga Site Plan Archaeological work in Khentii province, Genghis’s homeland and the likely location of his grave, was discouraged during the Soviet era because of concern it might boost nationalistic fervor. In 1992 when these restrictions were lifted, work began at Avraga. The site is large and complex, with numerous raised platform mounds in a 60-hectare area. The largest mound is probably a palace structure. Most of the artifact finds have come from smaller dwellings or workshops. 134 SHIRAISHI a rectangular earthen enclosure. The central platform was made from hard-packed earth and clay; holes with stone supports for columns were found around the periphery of the platform. Excavating small but deep pits in the surface of the plat¬ form revealed that the stonework foundation visible in the uppermost level was only the final and latest phase of construction in the history of this building. Below this surface, another two phases of earlier plat¬ form construction were discovered, showing that this structure had been remodeled periodically throughout the empire period. Given its large size and centrality, its special archi¬ tectural features such as the stand¬ ing columns, and the great attention given to its maintenance over time, this building probably represents the residence of a nobleman and per¬ haps even an early Mongol palace. A huge quantity of bone frag¬ ments excavated at Avraga indicates the presence of horses, cattle, sheep, 17.7 Measuring Device Among the finds was this small, inscribed bone that appears to have been a measuring device. The author contends that Mongolian urban centers from the 8th century to Genghis Khan’s reign were constructed with a standardized system of measurement, perhaps the Chinese chi(29.6 cm). More work is needed to determine whether this unit or a local Mongolian system was used. goats, dogs, as well as rodents and fish. Bird bones and eggshells were also unearthed. Some of these ani¬ mals were being consumed as food, but many others may have been used for ritual purposes. Remains of sheep and goats are found in much greater quantities than those of cattle and horses, and most of the horse remains were recovered in the vicinity of the central platform “pal¬ ace” structure. While all of these herd animals were used for food and feasting, historical texts, like the Yu- anshi, state that sheep and especially horses were also used for ceremonies involving the Mongol elite. Most of the horse bones excavated were fragments of skulls, necks, and ribs, which in the Mongolian tradition were honored parts of an animal and offered to noble personages.5 From the bottom ash layer of a pit filled with burnt animal bones, we also found charred cereal grains, including barley (Hordeum uulgare), wheat (T. aestivum), and millet {P. miliaceum) (fig. 17.8). Radiocarbon analysis dates these grains to the first half of the thirteenth century, in keeping with all other chronological evidence.6 The presence of multiple sections of the cereal plants—ears, stems, leaves, even roots—argue that these remains derive from lo¬ cal agriculture and were not ob¬ tained through exchange. Since there was, and still is, fertile land and plentiful water nearby, Avraga may have been an agricultural cen¬ ter, not only a destination for rich craft goods and far-off trade. We know from The Secret His¬ tory that the early life and initial political career of Genghis Khan played out in northeastern forest steppe in what is today called Khen- tii province. Mongolian people still 17.8 Charred Grain and Crops The Avraga excavations recovered large amounts of carbonized wheat, barley, and millet, probably of local origin. William of Rubruck reported merchants at the gates of Khara Khorum selling millet and other kinds of local grain. Archaeologists have tended to underestimate the importance of agriculture in Mongolian history, particularly during its periods of centralization and empire. make pilgrimages to this region to ask for the blessing of Genghis in their daily pursuits, believing that in one of Khentii’s forgotten valleys lie the tombs of all the great khans of the empire. These stories, however, can only hint at the evidence that ar¬ chaeologists must unravel from the damp earth. At the Avraga ruins we find one of the first and earliest indi¬ cations of the organizational invest¬ ment made by the Mongols in subju¬ gating the peoples of the vast eastern steppe. By 1206 those people, with the newly anointed Genghis Khan before them, rode forth to conquer Eurasia, though they never forgot their distant steppe homeland. 1 Shiraishi 2004; 2006. 2. Matsuda 2006; Aisin-Gioro 2006. 3. Bawden 1989, 417-49. 4. Miyake 2005. 5. Kato 2005. 6. Obata 2007. SEARCHING FOR GENGHIS 135 18.1 Unearthing Khara Khorum The Franciscan monkWilliam of Rubruck arrived at Khara Khorum in the spring of 1254, finding the city a cosmopolitan place full of people from all overthe world. Excavations at the city center are revealing much about its early history and the activities of artisans who worked there. Founded in 1235 and razed by the Ming Chinese in 1388, the Mongol capital city is now deeply buried beneath flood deposits and wind¬ blown sand and silt. 136 ERDENEBAT-POHL 18. The Crossroads in Khara Khorum EXCAVATIONS ATTHE CENTER OF THE MONGOL EMPIRE Ulambayar Erdenebat Ernst Pohl Regarding the city of Caracorum, you should know that, discounting the Chan’s palace, it is not as fine as the town of St. Denis, and the monastery of St. Denis is worth ten of the palace. It contains two quarters: one for the Saracens [Muslims], where there are bazaars and where many traders gather due to the constant proximity of the camp and to the great numbers of envoys; the other is the quarter of the Cataians [Chinese], who are all craftsmen. Set apart from these quarters lie large palaces belonging to the court secretaries. There are twelve idol temples belonging to different peoples, two mosques where the religion of Mahomet [Muhammad] is proclaimed, and one Christian church at the far end of the town. The town is enclosed by a mud wall and has four gates. At the east gate are sold millet and other kinds of grain, though they are seldom imported; at the western, sheep and goats are on sale; at the southern, cattle and wagons; and at the northern, horses. —William of Rubruck (1990: 221) When the Franciscan monk William of Rubruck reached the Mongol capital of Khara Khorum in the spring of 1254 after crossing large areas of the Eurasian steppe, he perceived the city as a cosmopolitan community (fig. 18.1). Within its walls mem¬ bers of the Mongol empire’s many ethnic groups were living and working side by side. Rubruck’s account testifies to religious freedom and tolerance and describes numerous houses of worship, including two mosques, several Daoist and Buddhist temples, and a Nestorian Christian church that Rubruck frequented during his stay. Although he mentions Europeans of dif¬ ferent nationalities, Muslims, and Chinese, Rubruck omits the fact that most of these foreigners lived in the Mongol capital in¬ voluntarily, conscripted into service to the court of the Great Khan. People from set¬ tled cultures were always in demand to fill jobs that nomadic people were not able or willing to do. Foreign craftsman were vigor¬ ously, sometimes forcibly, sought (fig. 18.4). Perhaps the most famous of these was the French goldsmith Guillaume Boucher, who created for the khan’s palace the silver and gilt fountain in the form of a tree that dis¬ pensed fermented mare’s milk (airag) and four other liquors from its branches. Boucher had arrived in Khara Khorum as a prisoner of war, captured in Belgrade during the Eu¬ ropean campaign. According to both the Yuanshi, the of¬ ficial history of the Yuan dynasty, and an inscribed stone of 1346, the earliest build¬ ing activities at Khara Khorum can he dated to 1235, when the son and successor of CROSSROADS IN KHARA KHORUM 137 18.2 Khara Khorum from the Air Patterns in the surface vegetation indicate the buried remains of Khara Khorum, which lie north of the walled enclosure of Erdene Zuu Monastery in this Soviet-era aerial photograph. The remains of the temple enclosures excavated in earlier days are to the left. The khan's palace probably lies directly beneath the monastery. Genghis Khan, Ogodei Khaghan, began to build walls to enclose the area of the future city.1 In the same year, construc¬ tion began on a royal palace, later called Wan-an, and on the foundation of a Bud¬ dhist temple. While the first iteration of the palace was completed promptly and inaugurated in the spring of the follow¬ ing year, construction of the temple was not finished until 1256, during the reign of Mongke Khaghan. During the past several years, archaeologists from the Mongo¬ lian Academy of Science and the German Archaeological Institute have been exca¬ vating this temple area, where the royal palace was also thought to he. However, recent research has shown that the palace is more likely located within the area of the Buddhist monastery of Erdene Zuu, which was founded in 1586 in the south¬ ern part of the city (see Chapter 19). According to the written sources, building the Mongolian capital was a pro¬ tracted process that took many years to complete. One of the first orders Mongke Khaghan issued after his enthronement in 1251 was to discharge some 1,500 work¬ ers who were still engaged in construct¬ ing the city walls more than a decade after the project had begun. One year later, 500 families of craftsmen were re¬ settled at Khara Khorum to begin another phase of construction on the palace.2 As Rubruck makes clear, travelers who journeyed to Khara Khorum two decades or more after the death of Genghis Khan encountered a city of flourishing and di¬ verse communities. Yet, only a few years later, after the death of Mongke during a military campaign in China, Khara Kho- rum’s prospects darkened. Rival claims to the title of khan were staked by two of his younger brothers: Arigh Boke, who had re¬ mained at Khara Khorum with the charge to protect the city and maintain order, and Kublai, who had been sent to China to consolidate the empire’s southern domains. Each convened a congress, or khuriltai, to elect himself Great Khan (khaghan). Discord roiled the royal clan. Khara Khorum was the scene of many military clashes during the nearly four-decade civil war that ensued between the nomadic fac¬ tion, led at first by Arigh Boke, and later by his nephew, Khaidu, and the “China faction” of Kublai Khan and his succes¬ sors.3 The rivals inflicted serious dam¬ age on the residents and structures of the city as they took turns overtaking it. The first military clash took place di¬ rectly after the investiture of Kublai in 1260. Arigh Boke tried to defeat his broth¬ er’s forces, but Kublai’s army won, then moved north to besiege Khara Khorum. During this first campaign, the surrender of the city appears to have taken place without any destruction because mem¬ bers of the resident religious communities 138 ERDENEBAT-POHL 18.3 Decorative Roof Tiles These incised-clay roof-tile fragments, found in the Khara Khorum crossroads area, suggest the presence of Chinese-style architecture. convinced Kublai to take the city peace¬ fully. Arigh Boke reconquered the city the following year, but failed in a second at¬ tempt to defeat Kublai, losing a battle to Kublai’s forces in the Gobi Desert. When Arigh Boke returned to Khara Khorum, Kublai cut off the supply of food to the city from his Chinese territories and, within a short time, famine and a horse plague broke out, forcing Arigh Boke to submit to Kublai’s rule in the spring of 1264. A second stage of the civil war began in 1277, when Kublai’s nephew Khaidu, who belonged to Ogodei’s side of the fam¬ ily, took Khara Khorum. Bayan, the com¬ mander in chief of the Yuan, recaptured the city in the following year. These cam¬ paigns devastated the city, as did another conquest by Khaidu ten years later. Only after Khaidu’s death did the relationship stabilize between the nomadic popula¬ tion of the steppe lands around Khara Khorum and the central government in Daidu (modern Beijing). The Yuanshi dy¬ nastic history reports the start of new con¬ struction at Khara Khorum by 1299. During the fourteenth century, written sources repeatedly mention different admin¬ istrative divisions in Khara Khorum such as a General Regional Military Command or a Branch Central Secretariat.4 Tradition¬ ally, the heir to the throne had to live in the city for some time before ascending to the throne of the Great Khan. In addition to being the center of the northern prov¬ ince of the Yuan empire, Khara Khorum was the homeland of Kublai’s ancestors. According to the stele inscription of 1346, Khara Khorum received regular donations for the restoration of the Buddhist temple after 1311 (fig. 18.10). However, statis¬ tics about the size of the city and about construction activities in the interven¬ ing decades have not been discovered. In 1368 the last emperor of the Yuan dynasty, Toghon Temur fled the advanc¬ ing Chinese army from Daidu to Inner Mongolia, where he died in 1370. His son and successor, Ayushiridara, moved the seat of the Mongol government back to Khara Khorum, where he was anointed Biligtii Khan. Even after this return of the Great Khans to Khara Khorum, the sources provide only a fragmentary pic¬ ture of the city’s history. Biligtii Khan’s multiple defeats of the Chinese forces are recorded, but these victories failed to lead to reconquest of China. When the army of the Ming dynasty defeated the Mongo¬ lian troops in 1388, the Chinese obliter¬ ated the old capital of Khara Khorum. It is unclear if any permanent recon¬ struction of Khara Khorum was made dur¬ ing the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Written sources of the era mention the former capital several times, but no ar¬ chaeological evidence of occupation has been uncovered.5 However, the site of the old capital was still important to vari¬ ous Mongol clans. In 1415 several clans CROSSROADS IN KHARA KHORUM 139 18.4 Strap or Belt Ornament This 14th-century jade ornament is decorated with the carving of a reclining deer. During the 13th century Mongol khans brought artists and craftspeople from conquered lands to Khara Khorum to manufacture goods for the growing Mongol elite. Whether this piece was imported or produced locally from Chinese or Mongolian jade is not yet known. reportedly decided to “rebuild” the city, whatever this claim means. By the end of the fifteenth century, during the reign of Dayan Khan, Khara Khorum was es¬ tablished again as the capital and seat of the Mongol khans, but permanent build¬ ings were erected in the vicinity of the old capital only after Abtaj Khan founded the monastery of Erdene Zuu in 1586. Discovering Khara Khorum Today, the remains of palaces, temples, shops, and storehouses of ancient Khara Khorum described by William of Rubruck lie nearly invisible beneath several meters of windblown sands and scrublands. Nev¬ ertheless, aerial photographs, digital sur¬ face modeling, and geophysical surveys provide considerable detail about parts of the Mongols’ former capital. Looking at an aerial picture, the long walls and one hundred stupas of the Buddhist monas¬ tery Erdene Zuu are visible in the south¬ ern part of the site. A wall runs north from the northeastern corner of the monastery before turning west after 1.5 km, and, af¬ ter another 1.2 km, angles to the south. The area of the Buddhist temple lies in the southwestern part of the city and is ori¬ ented differently from the main axis of the site, formed by the intersection of two main roads that divides the city into four quarters (fig. 18.2). Archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology of the Mongolian Acad¬ emy of Science and from the University of Bonn carried out excavations of Khara Khorum beginning in 1999. Our team began in the center of the walled city to uncover the chronology of the city’s de¬ velopment and occupation. We selected an area for excavation immediately south of the central crossroads. The surface to¬ pography here is marked by elevated ter¬ rain with numerous platforms, piles of rubble, and trackways, suggesting that remains of buildings and courtyards that once stood along the main north-south road would be found underneath the rubble. These mounds stand higher than the surrounding lands of the river valley and probably represent several periods of construction at the site. By excavat¬ ing here, archaeologists hope to augment the limited historical accounts of Khara Khorum and expose the details of daily life in the city over its many generations. The Russian archaeologist S.V. Kiselev and his Mongolian colleague Kh. Perlee were also drawn to these large piles of rub¬ ble in the southeastern corner of the center during their 1948-49 expedition, excavat¬ ing a trench of around 20 by 30 meters at the so-called “House of the Crossroads.”6 While their excavation methods would not stand up to scientific scrutiny today, their work did reveal a stratigraphic sequence several meters deep, with different layers of occupation. Needless to say that exca- 18.5 Dragon Ornament This 5cm carving of a scale- covered dragon dating to the 13th—14th century was recovered during excavations at the Khara Khorum site. It appears to have been used as an ornamental plug or handle 140 ERDENEBAT POHL 18.6 Handled Mirror Decorated mirrors appear in the Bronze Age and were probably preceded by Neolithic jade prototypes. Mirrors cast with a polished side and a decorated back were used for both vation at the same area would produce a com¬ parable stratigraphy, which—based on modern excavation techniques—could lead to more re¬ fined understand¬ ing of the city’s development. One of the most exciting discoveries of the excavations by our team was proof of the north-south boulevard of Khara Khorum. Three different road levels were uncovered along a portion of that street. It was clear that the road had been reconstructed several times, provid¬ ing an important key to the chronologi¬ cal progression of the city center. The oldest surface is paved with irregular limestone blocks separated by wood divid¬ ers that may have helped protect the road from Khara Khorum’s drastic variations of seasonal temperature. The limestone pave¬ ment rests on several gravel layers similar to a Roman-style embankment that slopes on each side toward the habitations lining the avenue. Artifact finds suggest that this personal and ritual functions. Shamans used mirrors in seances and they are often found as grave goods. This copper alloy mirror dating to the Song or Yuan Dynasty is from a site at Khanan Uul, Khentii province. Its decoration includes two antlered stags, a goose or swan, and two people beneath a tree with a sun symbol to the left. Similar mirrors were made in Korea during the 12th—13th centuries. 18.7 Porcelain Lion This porcelain lion with a light blue glaze was made at the Qingbai Kiln in China in the 14th century. Its ferocity is compromised by features both humorous and fantastic and its human-like pose. The presence of such exotic artifacts in the upper level of the crossroads excavations may mark the return of elite Mongols to the old capital in 1368 when they were expelled from China at the end of the Yuan dynasty. kind of road construction was laid down in the first half of the thirteenth century and continued to be traveled into the second half of that century, when Khara Khorum flourished from international trade, requir¬ ing arteries worthy of an imperial capital. In the Mongolian climate, with its peri¬ odic sandstorms and rainy summers, these roadways required regular maintenance. The stratigraphic levels above the lime¬ stone pavement indicate that road main¬ tenance grew worse over time. Layers of grayish sand interspersed with thin layers of gravel, bones, and potsherds show that the roadway slowly silted up, forcing resi¬ dents to continually compact its muddy surface lest it become impassable. The main architectural feature of this period, drain¬ age ditches running along each side of the road embankment, testify to the city’s con¬ cern for water management. These ditches were covered by wooden boards that had been repaired repeatedly. Multiple layers covering both the embankment and drain¬ age ditches show that, over time, the road level continued to rise gradually as more material accumulated. The second phase of road construction occurred in the latter half of the thirteenth century, when Khara Khorum was enduring decades of military confrontations. Eventually, the drainage channels filled up with sandy materials that precipitated the third phase of road con¬ struction phase in the fourteenth century, when it became simple, rough pavement. Chinese roof tiles and roof ridge orna¬ ments excavated on both sides of the road suggest that this was the vibrant quarter of Chinese craftsmen described by Wil¬ liam of Rubruck, even though excavations have not yet produced a complete “foot¬ print” for a single building (fig. 18.3). The regular size and arrangement of vari¬ ous plots or enclosures indicate that the CROSSROADS IN KHARA KHORUM 141 18 8 Storage Vessel Found set into the floor of a metal workshop at Khara Khorum, this storage vessel dates to the latest period of the city’s occupation. It contained a small bronze Buddha (fig.18.9) and a necklace, valuable objects that may have been abandoned as a result of the city's turbulent ending. 18.9 Buddha Sakyamuni This corroded 13th-century bronze Buddha was found with the storage vessel (fig. 18.8) in a workshop dated to the latest occupation of the Khara Khorum site. The 3.5cm figure is seated in the meditation pose. settlement was organized by a central plan. Rectangular areas with short sides of three to four meters were placed next to each other on both sides of the road. These plots were first occupied by crafts¬ men who do not seem to have constructed workshops, as remains of wooden fenc¬ ing enclose installations for various man¬ ufacture. Similar land use is typical in modern Mongolia, where residential or work areas are first surrounded by wood fencing to delineate land ownership. The borders between the enclosed plots do not appear to have changed dur¬ ing the time of occupation. Four to five periods of settlement have been identi¬ fied in the area east of the road, and as many as six periods to the west. The outer walls of the houses were built mostly of sun-dried mud bricks. The early build¬ ings are characterized by smaller brick walls stabilized by wooden beams in what may be described as frame construc¬ tion. The most recent constructions, of the fourteenth century, are marked by brick walls laid out in a square. Smaller brick walls form the internal structure of the buildings. Roofs were supported by wooden beams placed on flat stone slabs. Behind the houses are open courtyards. Extensive evidence of handicraft pro¬ duction was uncovered during the course of the excavation. Technical installations, such as fireplaces and various types of ovens, as well as a spectrum of artifacts were found from all periods of occupa¬ tion. Metalworking seems to have been a popular trade. We also found evidence of ateliers specializing in glass working, gems and precious stones, bone carving, and processing of birch bark, attested by the recovery of raw materials, semi-finished objects, and workshop debris (fig. 18.4). One of the most interesting of these ate¬ liers is a metalworking site on the east side of the road. During the 2004 excava¬ tion season, several blocks of wood were discovered in the front of two structures. Each measured 30 to 40 cm wide and 80 cm high and had been erected side by side, 142 ERDENEBAT-POHL 18.10 Bodhisattva Head This green-glazed terracotta bodhisattva, representing one seeking salvtion for the benefit of all, was one of many small Buddhist objects found in 13th-century deposits at Khara Khorum. 18.11 Chinese Imports This blue-green glazed bowl of Jun ware, one of many types of Chinese ceramics imported to Khara Khorum, was produced in China and dates to the mid- late 13th century. After the city became fully established, foreign craftsmen began producing ceramics locally, but Khara Khorum studios never achieved the quality of the Chinese centers. parallel to the road. The blocks and the surrounding sediment were covered with bronze powder. The tops of the blocks have rectangular slots for anchoring an anvil. Several types of kilns and fireplaces were found within both of these enclosures. Two single-shaft furnaces for smelting metal were excavated at the rear of the southern workshop. Smaller furnaces of a different shape found at the front of the workshop near the blocks were used for later stages of metal processing. The dome-shaped furnaces may have been employed to melt raw materials; the round furnaces without domes were likely used to reheat metal for forging. These sites demonstrate that dif¬ ferent stages of bronze working were done in close proximity, from smelting copper or bronze through final production of fin¬ ished, hammered bronze objects. The latter finishing work is indicated by fragments of sheet bronze found together with leather and textile fragments used as padding. Perhaps the most intriguing discovery was a silver coin with Muslim inscrip¬ tions that mentions the name Khara Kho¬ rum, which was found on the floor of this metalworking shop (fig. 18.14). This coin is the first to be found carrying the name of the Mongolian capital and dates to 635 in the Muslim calendar, or 1237-38 in the calendar of the Common Era.7 Trade and Commerce William of Rubruck’s account of Khara Khorum makes clear that trade and com¬ merce were some of the engines of Genghis Khan’s capital city; archaeological evidence confirms his assertion. A gold bracelet made of two rectangular plates decorated with a central phoenix flanked by demon masks is one of the most exquisite objects recovered by our Mongolian-German excavations. The bronze sheet mold used to shape the bracelet was also found (fig. 18.12). Molds with various decorative motifs, a cast bronze spoon, and a small ceramic pot filled with mercury found nearby help elucidate the fabrication techniques of the gold and silversmiths. Elsewhere at the site, evidence of iron production has also been found in the form of a large number of complete or fragmented iron wheel hubs, along with farm tools like spades, and parts of a single¬ share plough. In 2005 a well-preserved storage ves¬ sel set into the floor of the metal workshop was found to contain the bronze figure of the Buddha, Chinese coins, and an entire CROSSROADS IN KHARA KHORUM 143 18.12 Gold Bracelet and Mold High-quality finished products, like this embossed and tooled gold bracelet, continued to be produced at Khara Khorum into the 14th century. The decoration features a phoenix flanked by demon masks. The bronze mold used to make this piece was also recovered, indicating local manufacture. 144 ERDENEBAT-POHL 18.13 Treasury Seal This treasury stamp made of copper alloy was found in the upper level of the Khara Khorum crossroads excavation. Writing in the 'Phags-pa script dates it to 1371-72, only three years after the return of Mongol leadership from China. necklace (figs. 18.8, 9). Given the high value of these objects in the fourteenth century, it is unlikely that the owner parted with them willingly. Perhaps work came to an abrupt halt during a sudden raid on Khara Khorum that the owners did not survive or that prevented them from returning to collect their possessions. After 1368 the city regained its for¬ mer status as a capital after the return of the Mongol khans who had been driven out of China. The excavation recovered a critical historical document that dates to this time: a treasury seal produced in Khara Khorum in 1371-72 (fig. 18.13).8 The remarkably high quality of other ar¬ tifacts of that period, including several bronze mirrors, a porcelain lion, and the finds associated with the above-mentioned workshop, found in the uppermost layers of the excavation areas, suggest that mem¬ bers of the former royal court may have returned to Khara Khorum with the family of the Mongolian khan (fig. 18.7). After hard-fought battles, the Ming Chinese laid waste to Khara Khorum in 1388; no other city was established as the Mongolian capital until construction of Ulaan Baatar began at the end of the nineteenth century. 1. Cleaves 1952; Abramowski 1976. 2. Abramowski 1979 3. Pelliot 1959-73, 126-28; Rossabi 1988: 53-62, X03-14. 4. Cleaves 1952, 25-26; Pelliot 1959-73, 168; Farquhar 1990, 396-98. 5. Pelliot 1959-73, 169. 6. Kiselev et al. 1965, 173-82. 7. Heidemann et al. 2006. 8. Nagel 2002. 18.14 Silver Coin This Muslim silver coin (both sides shown) was found in a metalworking shop at the Khara Khorum crossroads. It carries the name Khara Khorum and is dated 635 in the Muslim calendar (1237-38 in the Common Era), only a few years after the founding of the city. CROSSROADS IN KHARA KHORUM 145 19- The Search for Khara Khorum and the Palace of the Great Khan Hans-Gf.org Huttel Until recently the precise location of Khara Khorum, the capital of the medieval Mongol empire, was con¬ troversial. Although ruins are found throughout the Orkhon Valley in central Mongolia, the exact loca¬ tions of the city and the palace of the Great Khan have remained a mys¬ tery. In the early eighteenth century, the French scholar A. Gaubil, citing Chinese historical sources, correctly identified the Buddhist monastery of Erdene Zuu as the site of the ancient capital.1 Most scholars of the nine¬ teenth and early twentieth centuries, however, mistook the conspicuous ruins of Khar Balgas (fig. 19.3), the capital city of the Uyghur empire (CE 745-840; see Chapter 9), for those of Khara Khorum. This argu¬ ment is supported by the account of Ata-Malik Juvaini, a high-ranking Persian official and historian who visited the imperial court in Khara Khorum several times between 1249 and 1253 and wrote History of the World Conqueror, one of the most important sources of Mongolian history.2 Therein he reports that the Great Khan Ogodei chose “for his [new] residence and the capital of the kingdom a place in the region of the river Orkhon and the Khara Khorum mountains. There had pre¬ viously been no town or village in that place except for the remains of a great wall called Ordubalik.”3 Ordubalik (Ordu-Baligh) was the ancient name of the Uyghur capi¬ tal city before it was renamed Khar Balgas. Ordubalik was constructed 450 years before the Mongol empire emerged in the early thirteenth cen¬ tury, and the site is even today much more than a single wall, comprising ruins of a massive town with central walled palace or citadel. Juvaini’s description leaves no doubt about which ruins were meant: “Outside the ruins of the palace opposite the gate there lie stones engraved with inscriptions which we have seen ourselves.” J.A. Boyle is probably right in asserting that these stones are the fragments of the famous in¬ scribed stele of Khar Balgas, which still stands near the walled citadel.4 This inscription, in Chinese, Uyghur, and Sogdian, relates the conversion of the Uyghur people to the Persian Gnostic religion of Manichaeism. The first field scholar to search for Khara Khorum was I.O. Pader- in, the Russian consul in Urga (the modern Mongolian city of Ulaan Baatar). Paderin visited Khar Balgas in 1871. Viewing its monumental earthen walls and 12-meter high “tower” (a stupa) looming high on the Orkhon steppe, he became con¬ vinced that he stood before ancient Khara Khorum.5 Not too long after Paderin’s visit to the Orkhon, how¬ ever, discovery of the inscriptions linked to the Mongol city within Erdene Zuu monastery raised new questions about whether Mongol Khara Khorum had ever been es¬ tablished atop the old Uyghur city. Visiting Erdene Zuu in 1877, the Russian scholar Alexei M. Pozd- neyev observed several stone in¬ scriptions related to ancient Khara Khorum in several temples of the impressive sixteenth-century mon¬ astery. This material evidence, in addition to information from Mon¬ golian chronicles, led Pozdneyev to conclude that Erdene Zuu mon¬ astery had been established above the ancient Mongolian capital city and consequently that the ruins of Khara Khorum should lay beneath Erdene Zuu.6 Pozdneyev had obvi¬ ously not taken careful notice of 19.1 Khara Khorum and Erdene Zuu This oblique photograph showing Khara Khorum in the foreground and the walled Erdene Zuu monastery toward the hill reveals little of the buried city. A similar view, shot with digital terrain imaging (fig.19.2), exposes more of the site's archaeological features. 146 HUTTEL 19.2 Terrain Model Digital terrain analysis enhances minute changes in vertical topography, using color to simulate stereo and shadow effects. The rectangular outline of the Erdene Zuu monastery enclosure is seen in white. The crossroads at the center of the city, its rectilinear temple compound, and other urban features stand out more clearly in this image than in standard aerial photographs. Like other cites of this period, Khara Khorum was laid out on a rough square or rectangular plan, a central crossroads, and a grid plan of temple and dwelling enclosures. 19.3 Khar Balgas The confusion surrounding Khara Khorum's location begins with Khar Balgas, a well-preserved urban site in the Orkhon Valley. Its walled citadel was the most impressive ancient site in the valley, and its inscribed monuments gave it an aura of greatness. When its inscriptions were translated, however, its true identity was found to be Ordubalik, capital of the 8th—9th— century Uyghur empire. the low-lying walls, mounds, and artifacts of a ruined town extending north of the monastery (fig. 19.i). If credit must he assigned for discovery of Khara Khorum then the Russian geographer Nikolai M. Jadrincev must be regarded as the discoverer. In July of 1889, he became the first scholar to identify the physical ruins of the Mongo¬ lian capital based on topographical features and stones with inscriptions related to events in the history of the famous city. The first plan of the ru¬ ins of Khara Khorum was prepared by the German-Russian Turkologist, Wilhelm Radloff, head of the Rus¬ sian Orkhon expedition. Radloff’s Atlas der Altertbiimer der Mongolei, published in 189Z, marks the true beginning of Mongolian archaeol¬ ogy. Like Jadrincev, Radloff recog¬ nized the ruins north of Erdene Zuu as the remains of Mongolian Khara Khorum, and he proposed that the palace of the Great Khan might lie somewhere under Erdene Zuu. The first excavations at Khara Khorum were carried out in 1933 as part of a Russian-Mongolian collaborative expedition. The area was investigated systematically with small test pits, but the results were disappointing because finds were almost entirely from Buddhist- related contexts. Consequently, the leader of the expedition, D. Bukinic, began to question the Khara Kho¬ rum identification. His report was never published but was obviously known to the Russian archaeolo¬ gist, Sergej Kiselev, who directed Soviet-Mongolian excavations at Khara Khorum in 1948 and 1949. Kiselev was the first to carry out larger-scale excavations intended to confirm that the site was indeed Khara Khorum and to discover the location of the khan’s palace within the ruins. He chose to investigate a walled area in the southwestern part of the site, which he supposed to be the ancient “palace area” (fig. 19.2). In this area as large as two soccer fields, he excavated several large trenches in the summer of 1949. Based on archaeological observa¬ tions and drawing on statements in the Persian, Chinese, and European historical texts, Kiselev advanced his “palace hypothesis” concluding that the larger and more elevated cen¬ tral building in this area must have been the palace of the Great Khan.7 After Kiselev’s breakthrough, im¬ perial Khara Khorum lay untouched for more than fifty years. In 2001, at the invitation of the Mongolian gov¬ ernment, a team from the German Archaeological Institute in collabo¬ ration with Mongolian archaeolo¬ gists began to reexamine the “palace SEARCH FOR KHARA KHORUM 147 19.5 Votive Tsha-Tsha Among the finds recovered from the so-called khan's palace were masses of tsha-tsha, tiny molded clay stupas and figures of the Buddha. These objects connected with Tibetan Buddhist ritual served to ward off evil and provide good fortune and add evidence thatthe site was a Buddhist temple, not a palace. 19.4 Kiselev's "Palace" Redefined In 2004 archaeologists reopened the area where Sergei Kiselev in 1949 thought the Khan's palace would be found. Instead of palace materials and remains of the famous Guillaume Boucher "silver tree" beverage fountain described by William of Rubruck in 1254, the finds proved to be the foundation and central hall of an early 13th-century Buddhist temple. 19.6 Temple Frescos Many fragments of painted wall frescos were found in the temple courtyard. Visitors in the 13th century reported that artisans from all corners of the Mongol empire were brought to the city to build and decorate its temples and palace and develop industries and fine arts. hypothesis.” Our results have pro¬ vided a very different perspective on this sector of the imperial city. Near¬ ly all of our stratigraphic observa¬ tions, as well as most of the artifacts found in the “palace” area, contra¬ dict Kiselev’s contentions. The stra¬ tigraphy of the palace area is much more complex than originally inter¬ preted (fig. 19.4). About 90 percent of our discoveries, as well as most of the interior architectural features of the “palace-level” strata, belongs to a Buddhist inventory that is very different from that used in the con¬ struction of Erdene Zuu monastery. The stratigraphical evidence as well as the dating of the Buddhist an¬ tiquities places this area of the site between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries and proves that Kiselev’s so-called palace sector in fact holds the ruins of a Buddhist temple con¬ temporary with the imperial city of Khara Khorum (fig. 19.5). All of the ceramics and wall painting fragments (fig. 19.6) found by Kiselev and by the Mongolian- German expedition display features of the “International style” of the twelfth to fourteenth centuries that incorporates Indo-Nepalese, Tibet¬ an, Tanghut, and Chinese elements. Our stylistic chronology is confirmed by dates of Chinese and local ce¬ ramics associated with the Buddhist antiquities (fig. 19.9). We found no Chinese pottery in the structure dat¬ ing later than the second third of the fourteenth century. The stylistic and typological data are also consistent, with two different kinds of labora¬ tory dating (radiocarbon and ther¬ mo-luminescence analyses) pointing to a date at the beginning of the thirteenth century. All of these data confirm that the great hall unearthed in the palace area was in fact the central hall of a Buddhist temple of the early thirteenth century. These results suggest we have found the “Temple of the Rising Yuan” commemorated in the in¬ scribed stone of 1346 or at least a very large temple of the same type. One fragment of this important Khara Khorum inscription was discovered a few meters from the large granite sculpture of a tortoise standing in front of the excavated temple, while other fragments of this inscription had been reused as build¬ ing material in Erdene Zuu monas¬ tery. According to this inscription, the temple hall, its roof, and the great stupa inside were completed in 1256. The temple hall is described as having seven open chambers on each side, which suggests that the temple must have been a quadran- 148 H U T T E L 19.7 Erdene Zuu Stratigraphy A trench cut in 2005 into the outer side of Erdene Zuu's north wall revealed a buried wall made of bricks identical to those found in the early 13th-century temple. More importantly, stamped marks on bricks indicated their use in palace construction. 19.8 Beneath Erdene Zuu, Palace of the Khan Identification of the temple renewed interest in earlier suggestions by Wilhelm Radloff thatthe khan's palace was beneath Erdene Zuu. gular construction of eight by eight columns, corresponding exactly to the ground-plan of our excavated hall. The inscription explains that the temple was restored between 1342 and 1346, which occasioned the commission of the inscribed stone.8 These dates match the ar¬ chaeological evidence for a recon¬ struction of the hall around 1340. 19.9 Porcelain Dragon Bowl This early 13th-century blue-and-white bowl with an elaborate dragon motif, which was found in the temple, is a glazed ceramic known as Qingbai ware. This highly prestigious class of porcelain with pale blue underglaze decoration, produced in Song and Yuan periods in China, was a popular commodity in Khara Khorum, as it was elsewhere in Asia. Unfortunately, by identifying Kiselev’s palace as a Buddhist temple we are left once again with the original problem of locating the palace of the Great Khan. The Persian sources describe the palace sub-sector as a walled area with four main gates oriented in cardinal di¬ rections. All written sources indicate that the palace was situated outside the city proper, but near or beside the city wall, and was known to have had an artificial river flowing through it. The only construction in the vicinity matching these features is Erdene Zuu monastery itself. Reconsidering Wilhelm Radloff’s original and mostly forgotten hy¬ pothesis that Erdene Zuu was con¬ structed above the Khan’s palace of Khara Khorum, we excavated six trenches into the monastery’s foun¬ dation walls (fig. 19.8). Here, we discovered the bases of much earlier 8-meter-thick walls of mud brick with masonry facing (fig. 19.7). Recognizable stamps on the bricks indicate they were made as part of a palace construction. The bricks fac¬ ing the clay walls are similar to the bricks of the great Buddhist temple hall, and both brick types have been dated by thermo-luminescence analysis to the early thirteenth cen¬ tury. This result is also confirmed by radiocarbon dates and by the pot¬ tery found in the wall excavations. Based on the evidence available so far, the walls discovered below Erdene Zuu were constructed in the early thirteenth century and most probably surrounded what Marco Polo described as the mighty castle or palace city near Khara Khorum, which was indeed the palace of Ogodei and Mongke Khaghan. 1. Cordier 1893. 2. Juvaini 1958. 3. Juvaini 1958. 4. Juvaini 1958. 5. Paderin 1874 6. Pozdneyev 1997. 7. Kiselev 1965 8. Cleaves 1952; Sagaster 2005, 150-52. SEARCH FOR KHARA KHORUM 149 20. John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck David Morgan summits €a&r&i ttllcuttf ftmo'Duof «t» Di £vatt ttt«# * mtttfflf tf Pope Innocent IV was elected in 1243, in the immediate af¬ termath of the Mon¬ gol invasion of eastern Europe. He convened a church council at Lyons, which met in 1245. The menace of the Mongols was inevi¬ tably on the council’s agenda; no one then knew that the Mon¬ gols would not return to invade the rest of Europe. Pope Innocent was so concerned that, even before the council met, he had dispatched three separate embas¬ sies to Mongol-held territory. Of these, the best known and most momentous was that headed by the Franciscan friar John of Plano Carpini (1180- 1252). Carpini traveled through the devastated lands of eastern Europe, eventually arriving at the camp of Batu, khan of the newly established Golden Horde. He had expected to hand over the Pope’s letter and then return home, but Batu decreed that Carpini should go on to Mongo¬ lia, to the court of the Great Khan. After a long and arduous journey, he arrived in time to witness the enthronement in 1245 of Guyiig. The letter that Carpini brought back to the Pope (see Chapter 1) was characteristically uncompro¬ mising. The Great Khan professed not to understand Innocent’s com¬ plaints about Mongol destruction and massacre, and ordered him, together with the kings of Europe, to proceed to Mongolia forthwith, to offer their submission (fig. 20.2). 20.1 William of Rubruck This illumination appears in a manuscript copy of William of Rubruck's Itinerarium, an account of his trip to Mongolia in 1253-55, which included a six-month visit at the court of Mongke Khaghan in Khara Khorum in 1254. The top panel shows Friar William and his companion meeting with King Louis IX of France, who was residing in Acre leading a crusade against Egypt. The lower panel depicts the two friars on their journey. This letter1 is among the first un¬ equivocal pieces of evidence for the Mongol view of the world: that, by divine commission, the world and the Mongol empire were iden¬ tical. Carpini followed much the same route back, and was received on his return to Europe with ex¬ traordinary interest. His journey to report to the Council at Lyons was something like a lecture tour. Several accounts of the embassy have survived. The most important is Carpini’s own report, called Ysto- ria Mongolorum,2 which provided a systematic account of what he had learned about the Mongols, their history, their military organization, and—potentially, most important of all—a series of rec¬ ommendations about how the Mongols might best be resisted. William of Ru¬ bruck was, like Carpi¬ ni, a Franciscan friar. But unlike him, he was not an officially accredited ambas¬ sador. Rubruck went to Mongolia at his own initiative, though he reported to King Louis IX of France (fig. 20.1). Louis’s earlier contacts with the Mongols had not encouraged him to believe that they were truthful or reliable, so he with¬ held the title of ambassador from Rubruck, who was always care¬ ful to emphasize this lack of status (whether the Mongols believed him is another matter). Instead, he trav¬ eled as a missionary, in the first instance to minister to some Ger¬ man Christians who had been cap¬ tured during the invasion of 1241 and deported to Central Asia. The early stages of Rubruck’s journey were different from Car¬ pini’s. He left in 1253 from Acre, capital of what was left of the cru¬ sader kingdom of Jerusalem, where King Louis was residing at the time. He then went to the Crimea by way of Constantinople, on to the court of Batu’s son, Sartaq, who sent him to Batu, who sent him on to Mongolia as he had Carpini some years previ¬ ously. By now, the political situation in the Mongol empire was very differ¬ ent from when Carpini had visited: in 1251, Batu’s cousin and ally 150 MORGAN y c: ff-^C ArM,h ... |/k , > ,’r- / c. - i®l|g^ 5^J ^/j^i*,x^t) L>J ^ ^4sit>4A?j'bK&& JjfeCi ""'^•V^Vv'.-V'.i ^%£3& -tfe Mongke had seized the throne. Rubruck met him at the Mongol capital, Khara Khorum, which by this time had been transformed from a camp to a small city. He remained at court for around six months. He was not much impressed with the capital of the world’s larg¬ est empire, which he compared unfavorably with St. Denis, north of Paris (see Chapter 18). But he found many people of interest there, notably, a Parisian goldsmith, Guillaume Boucher, who had con¬ structed a drink fountain of gold and silver for the Great Khan. He also encountered many local Chris¬ tians. But these were Nestorians, heretics from Rubruck’s Roman standpoint, and he formed a very dim view of their characters and attainments. Some of them partici¬ pated, at Mongke’s instigation, in a religious debate in his presence, between Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists. The various monotheists ganged up against the Buddhists, with Rubruck as their spokes¬ man. Rubruck was the debate’s runaway winner. Or so he says. Rubruck returned, bringing with him a letter from the Great Khan to 20.2 Giiyiigs Letter to Innocent IV One of the most interesting Mongolian documents to survive is this letter of 1246 from Giiyiig Khaghan to Pope Innocent IV (see Chapter 1). Bearing Giiyiigs personal seal, it is written in Persian and responds to a letter from the Pope that had been delivered by John of Plano Carpini, The khan, who had just been enthroned and was relatively tolerant of Christians, chastizes the Pope for complaining about Mongol attacks in Europe and demanding that the khan convert to Christianity. Giiyiig closes with: "Thou thyself, at the head of all the Princes, come at once to serve and wait upon us! At that time I shall recognize your submission. If you do not observe God's command, and if you ignore my command, I shall know you as my enemy. Likewise I shall make you understand. If you do otherwise, God knows what I know."4 King Louis. This has not survived, but to judge from Rubruck’s own account of its contents, it was rather less harsh in tone than Guytig’s let¬ ter to Innocent IV had been. He did not receive anything approaching the reception with which Carpini had been greeted; the Mongol men¬ ace had receded a little, Rubruck was not an ambassador, and, in any case, he reported to King Louis in Acre, out of Europe’s mainstream. He did write an account of his jour¬ ney, the Itinerarium,3 which never achieved the celebrity of Carpini’s Ystoria. Four independent manu¬ scripts of it have survived, and they are all in England, perhaps because Roger Bacon, the English Franciscan polymath, knew Rubruck and incor¬ porated some of his information in his Opus Mains of around 1258. It is very fortunate that the Itin¬ erarium did survive; it is almost twice as long as Carpini’s Ystoria, and in the judgment of many, a good deal more than twice as interest¬ ing and valuable as a contempo¬ rary source on the Mongol empire at its height. Carpini’s account is a period piece which reflects faith¬ fully the concerns, even the panic, which Europe’s initial uncompre¬ hending contacts with the Mon¬ gols had inspired. Rubruck’s book is much more a straightforward travel narrative. It is full of fasci¬ nating detail, and is the work of the most perceptive and penetrat¬ ing of all the European travelers who have left us their impressions of Asia under Mongol domination. 1. Tr. in De Rachewiirz 1971, 213-14. 2. Tr. in Dawson 1955. 3. Tr. in Dawson 1955; Rubrick 1990. 4. Dawson, 1955, 86. CARPINI AND RUBRUCK 151 21.1 Twin Stupas of Baisikou These twin towers are all that remain of the large royal cloister nestled in the Alashan foothills at Baisikou, about 50 km northwest of the former Tanghut capital. SSII1S 152 D U N N E L L 2i. Xi Xia THE FIRST MONGOL CONQUEST Ruth W. Dunnell In August 1227, after a long campaign led by Genghis Khan, the Mon¬ gols celebrated their first victory over a non-Mongol state in East Asia. The victory, however, had a bitter coda for both sides. While the Tanghuts, or Xi (western) Xia, as they are called in later Chinese records, suffered devasta¬ tion of their long-resisting capital and its environs, the Mongols lost their revered leader, who died around the time of the surrender (fig. 21.2). Much of the mate¬ rial record of Xia civilization disappeared in the carnage of the prolonged Mongol campaign. Yet, from bits and pieces of the rubble recovered over the past one hundred years, scholars have begun to reconstruct the contours of a creative and devoutly Buddhist culture. Xia on the Eve of Mongol Expansion Xi Xia refers to a state in the northwest of present-day China that was founded in the early eleventh century by people who had migrated during the Tang dynasty (618-907) from the eastern Tibetan plateau into the modern province of Gansu. Western writers call the people Tanghuts (the Turk version of their ethnonym). The Tanghuts, in turn, named their state the Great White High State of Xia (1038-1227). Its meaning eludes us, but perhaps it invoked the snow-clad moun¬ tains, extolled in Tanghut literature, of Gan¬ su and northeastern Qinghai, their ancestral homeland.1 Mostly consisting of elevated plateau, deserts, mountains, and a few arable river valleys, the land was dry and windy, the temperatures extreme, and rainfall and veg¬ etation were scarce, though not as scarce as today. Snowmelt from the mountains that fed rivers and springs was the crucial resource that made life and civilization possible. A multiethnic, multilingual state with a mixed economy based on herding, agri¬ culture, and trade, Xia was home to hardy people of Chinese, Turk, and Tibetan, as well as Tanghut, origin, all of whom later writers subsume under the label “Tanghut.” Though small in size compared to its East Asian neighbors, Xia marshaled sufficient military prowess to command respect and guard its independence. At home the Tan¬ ghuts displayed their own Chinese-style sovereignty, while abroad they acknowledged tributary status to the Song (960-1127) and the Liao (907-1125), a north Asian steppe empire founded by Khitans, a pro¬ to-Mongolian federation, in the eleventh century. In the twelfth century, the Tan¬ ghuts accepted a subsidiary relationship to the Jurchen Jin state (1115-123 5), which served them well when the Jurchens over¬ threw the Liao and took over all of North China from the Song dynasty, with which the Tanghut had warred for over a century. Cut off from the Song, which had regrouped XI XIA 153 21.2 Map of Xi Xia, 1226-27 This map illustrates Genghis Khan's second campaign against the Tanghuts of Western Xia, which coincided with his death in 1227. in the south with its capital at Hangzhou (1127-1279), the Tanghuts entered an age of peace and cultural efflorescence. Although heavily indebted to Chinese models, the Tanghuts carved out a unique identity, symbolized in the complex script they invented to write their Tibeto-Burman language. Numerous books and manuscripts in Tanghut and Chinese have survived, but unfortunately none of them is an histori¬ cal chronicle. In the early twentieth century, Russian explorers unearthed a vast library in a Buddhist stupa buried in the sands of Khara-Khoto, along the Sino-Mongolian border (fig. 21.3). The books, manuscripts, drawings, religious objects, and paintings found there are today housed in St. Pe¬ tersburg.2 Khara-Khoto also yielded items of Yuan origin, indicating continuous oc¬ cupation of this border fortress. Smaller- scale finds in Ningxia, Gansu, and Inner Mongolia continue to augment the archive of Xia culture, an archive predominantly Buddhist in content.3 These finds include the world’s earliest extant texts printed with moveable type, which was invented in China in the eleventh century (fig. 21.7).4 Glimpses of the Xia royal court—in woodblock-printed illustrations to Buddhist texts and in donor portraits set in the lower corners of Buddhist paintings illuminate the throne’s and its courtiers’ involvement in devotional projects (fig. 21.5). From its beginnings, the Tanghut dynastic clan made Buddhism a foundation of the state,5 devot¬ ing scarce resources to temple construction, repair, and staffing, and to translating texts from Chinese and Tibetan into Tanghut and Chinese (fig. 21.6).6 Such largesse spread the reputation of the Xia monarch as a saintly Buddhist king, a “dharma lord” in Tibetan sources, and a “burhkan-khan” (Buddha- king) to the Uyghurs and Mongols.7 Beyond the capital region, the stark rocky landscape was studded with Bud¬ dhist monasteries and shrines (fig. 21.1). Among them, the famous cave temples at Dunhuang and Yulin, which date from the fourth century, preserve in murals the artistic genius of Tanghut culture and its contributions to Chinese temple art.8 De¬ votion to religion permeated all levels of 154 D U N N E L L etery, where today ruins with nine imperial tombs and some 200 smaller satellite tombs occupyio square kilometers in the Alashan foothills west of the capital.10 Each rect¬ angular walled park encloses an elaborate layout of lavishly adorned buildings, halls, formal gates, and watchtowers. Ten meters north of the underground burial chamber, one majestic pyramid-shaped mound, evoca¬ tive of Buddhist stupas (shrines for the rel¬ ics of the Buddha), marks each imperial tomb. Remains of kilns and a compound for tomb priests and guardians lie to the east and north of the cemetery. Mongol armies and later grave robbers stripped away most of the structures and their decorations, smashed the steles inscribed in Chinese and Tanghut eulogizing the deceased emper¬ ors, and plundered many burial chambers. Yet the dignity and domesticity of Tan¬ ghut sovereignty still suffuses the vestiges of this once-sacred space (figs. 21.9, 10). Tanghuts: The First Mongol Conquest in East Asia In the 1170s, the political landscape of East Asia showed few signs of the profound trans¬ formations soon to overwhelm it. The currents that brought Genghis Khan to power in north Asia rippled throughout the subcontinent, washing refugees up on the shores of civili¬ zations south of Mongolia.11 Early portents 21.4 Tanghut Royai Cemetery Complex The ruins of the 12th-13th century Tanghut royal cemetery stand out clearly in the desert lands near modern Yinchuan City, in China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The cem¬ etery includes nine royal tomb complexes and two hundred other burial features. Each tomb, like the two shown in this aerial view, had rectangular walled enclosures that once contained decorated buildings, gates, engraved steles, and watchtowers. An ornate pyra¬ midal mound at the center of each enclosure marked the site of the burial chamber. Although plundered by Genghis Khan's troops, and many others over the centuries, the ruins are a vivid reminder of the advanced architecture and artistic achievements of this strongly religious Buddhist kingdom. 21.3 Khara-Khoto Fortress This photograph, taken during a 1908 Russian expedition led by P.K. Kozlov, shows the ruins of the walls and stupas of Khara-Khoto, the "Black City." This complex was a Tanghut city located near today's Eljin Banner, Alxa League, Inner Mongolia. After its conquest by the Mongols it took on the name, Edzina. Khara-Khoto was one of the first cities attacked by Genghis in the 1226-27 campaign. Once an irrigated land, the region was ravaged by Mongols and was later subsumed by dunes. this highly stratified society. In a natural environment so seemingly ill-endowed to the manufacture of fine books, the karmic merit accrued through reproducing religious texts ensured a steady supply of customers, copiers, engravers, and the refinement of production technologies from the materials at hand.9 Ownership of books and manu¬ scripts conferred social and religious power, which was channeled through monasteries and temples, the repositories of most books. Close ties with local monasteries enabled even those of modest means to advance their religious practice, be it through group sponsorship of a text or a ritual service. All these streams met in the royal cem- XI x I A 155 21.5 Portrait of a Monk This fragment of a 12th—13th century tanka, a Tibetan-style painting on cotton, was found at Khara-Khoto. Depicted in the lower corners are a monk, honored by the donors, who are also seen, dressed in the opulent garb and hairstyle of the Tanghut aristocracy. reached Xia and Central Asia in the form of nomad aristocrats driven out of the Mon¬ golian plateau by rival contenders to power. The winds of change reached Jin and Song as rumors of plots against those courts by schemers colluding with the Kara-Khitai, a Khitan state in Central Asia established by royal remnants of the fallen Liao dynasty. Suspicion that the Tanghuts were spying at the border figured in the Jin closure of sev¬ eral frontier markets with the Xia, which severely restricted Tanghut access to prized Chinese goods.IZ These tremors echoed clan struggles over the Kereyid throne in central Mongo¬ lia that impinged so closely on the fortunes of the future Genghis Khan. Disinherited 156 D U N N E L L Kereyid princes sought shelter among the Kara-Khitai and Xia. One of these refugees, Toghril (or Ong Khan, a title he earned from the Jin), had been restored to his throne with help from Termi jin’s fa¬ ther and later became Temiijin’s senior ally. His rivals, taking their turns in exile, cul¬ tivated ties in Xia governing circles. One, Toghril’s younger brother, gave a daughter in marriage to the Tanghut emperor.13 After Temujin defeated and absorbed his Kereyid allies in 1203, the flight of the Kereyid crown prince into northeastern Tibet, abutting Tanghut territory, opened Xia to direct probing by an expansive Mon¬ gol power. In early spring of 1205, a Mon¬ gol raiding party plundered some western Xia forts and drove off cattle and camels. Its aftershocks may have figured in the 1206 coup that put a new ruler on the Xia throne, the first but not last usurpation of Xia history. The formalization of Mongol unity under Genghis Khan in 1205-1206 heightened tensions both within and among the East Asian states of Xia, Jin, and Song, exposing the fault lines of their triangular division of power to Mongol plucking. In winter of 1207, Mongol cavalry tar¬ geted the northern Xia outpost of Wulahai, on the edge of the Gobi near the Jin frontier, withdrawing early in 1208 with more cam¬ els. The Xia turned to the Jin court, seeking support against a common adversary. Har¬ ried by a brief but disastrous war with the Song, by defections to the Mongols in 1207 of tribal groups serving as border wardens, and by food shortages owing to flood and drought, the Jin snubbed the proffered alli¬ ance against their underrated outer vassal.14 A new Jin emperor of disputed legitimacy supposedly opined, at the end of 1208, “It is to our advantage when our enemies at¬ tack each other. Wherein lies the danger to us?”15 Long-standing relations between the courts of Xia and Jin rapidly crumbled. Taking advantage of this disarray, Genghis launched the first real test of Xia intentions. In winter of 1209, Genghis’s armies seized the border fort at Wulahai; then the invaders pressed south to lay siege to the capital, defeating several armies along the way. Having, as yet, little experience with 21.6 Buddhist Ritual Text This sheet is one of nine surviving pages from a late 12th-century Buddhist ritual text from Khara- Khoto, printed in Tanghut script and accompanied by engraved illustrations. The engraving depicts an eight¬ armed Ushnishavijaya (the embodiment of a powerful dharani, or incantation), a popular cult figure in Xia, with a stupa over her head, and four figures in two rows to her right side. Depictions of Ushnishavijaya are rare in East Asian Buddhist art; her image also appears in cave murals at Yulin (Anxi, Gansu), suggesting court sponsorship of her cult. 21.7 Moveable Type Printing The Tanghuts were a learned society who used moveable clay type to produce publications like this late 12th-century translation of a Tibetan version of the Samputa tantra. This document in the Tanghut language was found in the ruins of the square stupa at Baisigou, in the Alashan, about 50 kilometers northwest of the Xia capital at present-day Yinchuan. Ii . , la* 1 H a * fr # 1* m » it M M M It nl Jft 4t Hi Tl ii H ■irn 4.1 l ■ n it t J§ if if®- 1 t fa m fill frafli f IM1 SMI* S? i % * Oft Itti =« I iT ft SI fj a * it a • & M ® flft * AT.* Jsk $ i • M * # a ut sut ft* in Am a_ *, * * ft id ii Ik nft ill i & & at ■ 4ft if a §i % a ^ il ft m m 4i S f i& ft # Ilk J|i 41 M i§ Ik Hk It Ii _ M # jH S f§ § If iH 4nk ft M ilm ^ # If ^ -- II i§ it, # i & lilt i®i iri & M ,P ff % # # at I if m m | l f if ri ft ft M § If ns. M ft ft ft iff ft M ii if ft M ft $ i & n| itife # i Ti In 4K I * M afc Sfi $ * Sf 3? & I $1 # SI XI XIA 157 21.8 Gold Bowl This lovely bowl with its rolled rim and engraved flower-and- scroll decorations closely resembles designs on Yuan silver and gold cups and bowls, but it is attributed to the Xi Xia period. walled fortifications, the Mongols could not breach the city’s defenses. Instead, they diverted the Yellow River canals nearby to flood it, but when the dikes broke, in¬ undating their own camps, they had to withdraw. First, however, Genghis sent a Wulahai captive into the city to negoti¬ ate. The panicked ruler tendered his al¬ legiance and a daughter to Genghis Khan, along with much livestock and goods. The Secret History of the Mongols re¬ counts the Tanghut emperor’s offer, al¬ though not the campaign, perhaps because of its inglorious conclusion. Styled “Bur- khan-khan” (the Uyghur word for “Bud¬ dha” [Burkban] elided with the steppe royal title), the Xia ruler mentioned above promises Genghis, “[wje shall become your right wing and we shall serve you.” But he warns that because the Tanghuts live in permanent camps and walled towns, when the Mongols go to combat, “We won’t be able to rush off and fight beside you. But if Chinggis Khan will spare us, we Tan¬ ghut will give him the camels we raise... We’ll give him the woolen clothing and satins we weave. We’ll give him the best of the birds we’ve trained for the hunt.”16 Evidently, the Tanghuts hoped to minimize their commitment, promising provisions rather than manpower. With Wulahai now neutralized, the Mongols secured their rear flank and an open route to North China. A three-sided war ensued between the Xia, Jin, and Mongols. In 1211, the Mon¬ gols launched a reconnaissance campaign against the Jin; another coup in the Tan¬ ghut capital brought a learned prince to the throne at a time when no good choices remained. The Tanghuts’ promised role as “right wing” to the Mongols material¬ ized only opportunistically, after Mon¬ gol operations against the Jin opened in earnest from 1212. Tensions arose again when the Xia rebuffed a Mongol demand for troops to support their Central Asian campaign (1219-23). The Secret History puts “haughty words” in the mouth of a certain Asha Gambu, a powerful court minister, who during the interview with Genghis’s envoy (late in 1217) rudely asks why the khan comes begging help if he thinks he’s so mighty?17 Genghis departed westward in 1219, vowing to deal with the Tanghuts later. Compounding their earlier defiance, the Tanghuts refused to send a hostage son to serve in Genghis’s guard, as Mongol custom required.18 158 D U N N E L L his death was carefully concealed. Fol¬ lowing his final instructions, the Mon¬ gols sacked Zhongxing, slaughtered the remaining population, and ravaged the royal Buddhist tomb complex west of the capital (fig. 21.4). With the execu¬ tion of the surrendered monarch, both the Xia dynasty and state ended. The extreme carnage of this last battle may have been intended to tame and tap the religious potency of the Xia royal house, thereby to provide the khan “a suitable escort in the afterlife,”20 suitable in the sense of noble and (once) powerful. Despite the devastation of their civi¬ lization, the surviving Tanghut people were to influence Asian culture for cen¬ turies. When it came time to govern the vast domain that Mongol-led armies had wrested from the Chinese, many Tanghuts who had entered imperial Mongol ser¬ vice, before and after 1227, made distin¬ guished careers as privileged members of the new ruling elite, well prepared by their cultural and linguistic versatility, and background as synthesizers of diverse traditions, Chinese, Tibetan, and steppe. Moreover, emerging forms of tantric Bud¬ dhism being developed by Tanghut and Tibetan lamas in the twelfth and thir¬ teenth centuries passed into the purvey of their new patrons, the Mongol rulers of China, and became a prominent feature of the Yuan dynasty’s imperial landscape. 21.9 Copper Cow This large bronze cow was found in the ruins of the royal Tanghut cemetery at Khara Khoto, apparently too sturdy to be carted off by thieves or destroyed by marauding armies. Animals important to the pastoral economy of the Tanghuts often accompanied their royal masters to the afterlife. 21.10 Stone Horse Like the cow, this sculpture of a resting horse was recovered from the ruins of the royal Tanghut cemetery of Khara- Khoto. Mongol armies invaded in the spring of 1226 and reduced the northern and western garrisons of the Xia one by one (fig. 21.2). Summering in a mountain retreat, the khan directed military operations. After early resistance and the slaughter that inevitably followed, cities and towns began surrender¬ ing as the invaders worked their way south and east to conquer districts along the Xia- Jin border.19 Genghis, by this time very ill, was camped in the Liupan Mountains of southeastern Ningxia, from which his gener¬ als oversaw the six-month siege of Zhongx¬ ing, the Xia capital. By the time the Tanghut king capitulated in summer of 1227, Genghis had perhaps already succumbed, although 1. Kychanov 1997, 30-37. 2. Piotrovsky 1993; Kychanov 1999; Samosiuk 2006. 3. Lei et al. 1995. 4. Shi and Yasen 2000. 5. Shi 1993; Dunnell 1996. 6. Lei et al. 1995, 76-101, 250. 7. Dunnell 1992, 94-95; Kahn 1998, 162. 8. Liu Yuquan 2002. 9. Kychanov 1998. 10. Xu and Du 1995. 11. Dunnell 1991; 1994. 12. Tuotuo et al. 1975, vol. 50, 1114. 13. Dunnell 1994, 206. 14. Buell 1979b. 15. Yuwen Maochao 1986, vol. 21, 23-24. 16. Kahn 1998, 149. 17. Kahn 1998, 157. 18. Song et al. 1976, vol. 1, 23. 19. Dunnell 1994, 211-13. 20. De Rachewiltz 2004, 975-77. XI XIA 159 ’':'T.»-y4W . ' C. ,L '^•vp* if d Ui p ^ <0O taxer S gttpw •-'! if H la :’.;*■ • l] M t >■: SBEajttvg^ ' j llll -