Erdene Zuu monastery

Stupas around Erdene Zuu monastery in Karakorum

Karakorum (also Khara-khorin, Qara Qorum in Classical Mongolian) was the capital of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century, although for only about 30 years. The Erdene Zuu monastery (Эрдэнэ Зуу is probably the most ancient Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. The Erdene Zuu monastery (Эрдэнэ Зуу is probably the most ancient Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. The Mongol Empire ( Mongolyn Ezent Güren or mn Их Mонгол улс Ikh Mongol Uls; 1206–1368 was the largest contiguous Empire Its ruins lie in the northwestern corner of the Övörkhangai Province of Mongolia, near today's town of Kharkhorin, and adjacent to the Erdene Zuu monastery. Övörkhangai (Өвөрхангай southern Khangai) is one of the 21 aimags (provinces of Mongolia, located in the south of the country Mongolia (mɒŋˈɡoʊliə, literally Mongol country/nation,) is a Landlocked Country in East Kharkhorin (Хархорин is a city and sum (district center in the Övörkhangai Province in Mongolia. The Erdene Zuu monastery (Эрдэнэ Зуу is probably the most ancient Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. They are part of the upper part of the World Heritage Site Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape. A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site (such as a Forest, Mountain, Lake, Desert, Monument, Building, complex Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape sprawls along the banks of the Orkhon River in Central Mongolia, some 360 km west from the capital Ulaanbaatar.

History

Foundation

The Orkhon valley had already been a center of the Xiongnu, Göktürk and Uighur empires. The Xiongnu ( Turkish: Doğu Hun were a confederation of nomadic tribes from Central Asia with a ruling class of unknown origin and other subjugated tribes Göktürks ( Turkish: Gök Türkler) were a Turkic people of ancient Central Asia. The Uyghur (also spelled Uygur, Uighur, Uigur, Uyghur: ئۇيغۇر) are a Turkic people of Central Asia. To the Göktürks, the nearby Khangai Mountains had been the location of the Ötükän, and the Uighur capital Karabalgasun was located close to where later Karakorum would be erected. The Khangai mountains ( mongolian mn Хангайн нуруу Khangain nuruu) are a mountain range in central Mongolia, some 400 kilometres west of Ötüken is one of the names given to Mother Earth in Tengriism. Ordu-Baliq (also spelled Ordu Balykh Ordu Balik Ordu-Baliq Ordu Balig Ordu Baligh, meaning "city of the court" also known as Mubalik This area is probably also one of the oldest farming areas in Mongolia^[1].

In 1218/19, Genghis Khan rallied his troops for the campaign against the Khwarezm Empire in a place called Karakorum^[2], but the actual foundation of a city is usually said to have only occurred in 1220. Genghis Khan ( or;, Chinggis Khaan, ʧiŋgɪs χaːŋ Činggis Qaɣan; 1162–1227 born (meaning "ironworker" was the Mongol founder The Khwarezmian Empire, more commonly known as the empire of the Khwarezm Shahs ( Khwārezmšhāḥīān, "Kings of Khwarezmia " Until 1235, Karakorum seems to have been little more than a yurt town, only then, after the defeat of the Jin empire did Genghis' successor Ögedei erect walls around the place and build a fixed palace. A yurt is a portable Felt -covered wood lattice -framed dwelling structure used by Nomads in the Steppes of Central Asia. Ögedei Khan, (Өгэдэй Ögedei; also Ogotai or Oktay, 窩闊臺 c ^[3]

Prosperity

Silk routes of the Great Silk Road, including two hypothetical routes leading to Karakorum (lighter blue). The Silk Road, or Silk Routes, are an extensive interconnected network of Trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East South and Western Asia with the No actual route to Karakorum has ever been found.

Under Ögedei and his successors, Karakorum became a major site for world politics. Möngke had the palace enlarged, and the great stupa temple completed. ^[3]

William of Rubruck

William of Rubruck, a Flemish Franciscan missionary and papal envoy to the Mongols reached Karakorum in 1254. William of Rubruck (c 1220 in Rubrouck Flanders - c 1293 was a Flemish Franciscan missionary and explorer The County of Flanders was a historical region in the Low Countries. The term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic History See also History of the Papacy Catholics recognize the Pope as a successor to Saint Peter, who Jesus named as the "shepherd" and The Mongol Empire ( Mongolyn Ezent Güren or mn Их Mонгол улс Ikh Mongol Uls; 1206–1368 was the largest contiguous Empire He has left one of the most detailed, though not always flattering, accounts of the city. He compared it rather unfavourably to the village of Saint-Denis near Paris, and stated that the monastery in said village is ten times as important as the Khan's palace. Saint-Denis is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. On the other hand he also described the town as a very cosmopolitan and religously tolerant place, and the silver tree he described as part of Möngke Khan's palace has become the symbol of Karakorum^[4]. He described the walled city as having four doors in the four directions, two quarters of fixed houses, one for the "Saracenes" and one for the "Cathai" ( = Northern Chinese), twelve pagan temples, two mosques, as well as a nestorian church. A "mosque" in English refers to all types of buildings dedicated for Islamic worship although there is a distinction in Arabic between the smaller privately owned mosque and the larger Nestorius Nestorius (c  386 &ndashc  451) was a pupil of Theodore of Mopsuestia in Antioch in Syria (modern ^[3]

Civil Wars

When Khubilai Khan took the throne of the Mongol Empire in 1260, he relocated his capital to Shangdu, and later to Dadu (Beijing). Early years Kublai Khan studied Chinese culture and became enamoured of it Xanadu, also Zanadu, Shangdu, or Shang-tu ( was the Summer capital of Kublai Khan 's Karakorum was reduced to the administrative center of a provincial backwater. Even worse, the ensuing civil wars hit the town hard. In 1260, Khubilai disrupted the town's grain supply, in 1277 Qaidu took Karakorum, only to be ousted by Yuan troops and Bayan of the Baarin in the following year^[5], in 1298/99 prince Ulus Buqa looted the markets and the grain storehouses. Kaidu or Qaidu, (1230 - 1301 was the son of Kashin a grandson of Ögedei Khan and a great-grandson of Genghis Khan and Börte. The Yuan Dynasty ( Pinyin: Yuáncháo Dai Ön Ulus (Дай Юан Улс was a ruling Dynasty founded by the Mongol leader Kublai Bayan of the Baarin (1236-1295 also known as "Bayan chingsang" ( or to Marco Polo, as "Bayan Hundred Eyes" served as a Mongol general However, the first half of the 14th century proved to be a second time of prosperity: in 1299, the town was expanded eastwards, in 1311 and again from 1342 to 1346 the stupa temple (after 1346 known as "Pavillion of the Rise of the Yuan (pinyin: Xinyuange) were renewed. Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use ^[3]

Decline

After the collapse of the Yuan dynasty in 1368 Karakorum became the residence of Biligtü Khan in 1370. Biligtü Khan, born Ayushiridara (Аюушридар Билигт хаан ( Temple name: 昭宗 Zhaozong r In 1388, Ming troops under General Xuda took and destroyed the town. The Ming Dynasty ( or Empire of the Great Ming ( was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol -led Saghang Sechen's Erdeni-yin Tobči claims that a khuriltai in 1415 decided to rebuild it, but no archeological evidence for such a venture has been found yet. The Erdeniin Tobchi is a national chronicle and set of Mongolian judicial Laws over historical content in the 17th century However, Karakorum (still or again) was inhabitated at the beginning of the 16th century, when Batu-Möngke Dayan Khan made it a capital once again. Batumöngke Dayan Khan (Батмөнх Даян Хаан (given name Batumöngke; 1464-1543 was a Mongol Khan who reconstructed the Mongol Empire In the following years, the town changed hands between Oirads and Chinggisids several times, and was consequently given up for good. ^[3]

Excavations

In 1585 Abadai Khan of the Khalkha built the Tibetan Buddhist Erdene Zuu monastery near the site. The Khalkha, or Halh (Classical Mongolian qalq-a, Khalkha Mongolian mn Халх) are a subgroup of the Mongols. Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including The Erdene Zuu monastery (Эрдэнэ Зуу is probably the most ancient Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. Various construction materials were taken from the ruin to build this monastery.

The actual location of Karakorum was long unclear. First hints that Karakorum was located at Erdene Zuu were already known in the 18th century, but until the 20th century there was a dispute whether not the ruins of Karabalgasun were not in fact those of Karakorum. Major contributions to the solution of the problem came from Aleksei Pozdneyev, N. M. Jadrintsev, and Wilhelm Radloff. Vasily Vasilievich Radlov or Friedrich Wilhelm Radloff (Васи́лий Васи́льевич Ра́длов – May 12, 1918) was a German First excavations were done in 1933/34 under D. Bukinich. After his Soviet - Mongolian excavations in 1948/49, Sergei Kiselev concluded that he had found the remains of Ögödei's palace, however this conclusion has been put into doubt by the findings of the 2000 - 2004 German - Mongolian excavations, which seem to point to the great stupa temple rather than Ögödei's palace. ^[6]

Findings of the excavations include paved roads, some brick and many adobe buildings, floor heating systems, bed-stoves, evidence for processing of copper, gold, silver, iron (incl. A brick is a block of Ceramic material used in Masonry construction laid using mortar. Adobe bricks are a Natural building material made from Sand, Clay, water and some kind of fibrous or Organic material ( Sticks, The Kang ( Manchu: nahan) is a long (2 meters or more sleeping platform made of Bricks or other forms of fired Clay. iron wheel naves), glass, jewels, bones, and birchbark, as well as ceramics and coins from China and Central Asia. Birch is the name of any Tree of the genus Betula ( Bé-tu-la) in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the Four kilns have also been unearthed. ^[7][8]

Modern times

There have been repeated calls to relocate Mongolia's capital to Kharkhorin. This is supposed to heal all kinds of ills which currently plague Mongolia, however no tangible measures have been implemented so far.

See also

• Khara-Khoto the Black City

Literature

• Dschingis Khan und seine Erben (exhibition catalogue), München 2005
• Qara Qorum-City (Mongolia). Khara-Khoto ( mong Khar Khot chin 黑城 Heicheng literally "black city" probably identical with Marco Polo 's Etsina) is 1: Preliminary Report of the Excavations, Bonn 2002

References

External links

• This article incorporates public domain text posted on-line by The United States Library of Congress: A Country Study: Mongolia.
• Silk Road Seattle - Karakorum and Cities along the Silk Road, posted at the web site of the University of Washington, 2004.
• Treasures of Mongolia - Karakorum, Mongolia, UNESCO Courier, by Namsrain Ser-Odjav, March 1986.
• William of Rubruck's Account of the Mongols
• Picture story by German photographer Marc Steinmetz for GEO magazine
• Mongolian-German excavations (in German)