The issue we are going to speak about is the greatest of mysteries which may possibly result eventually in the greatest of finds — Genghis Khan’s grave, or rather, the unknown whereabouts of his grave. Researchers from various countries have been exerting themselves to spot the tomb for decades, but so far with little success.
Few will know that Genghis Khan was born in the Trans-Baikal area, specifically in the Delyun-Boldok district on the Onon River, in the south of Russia’s current Chita region, supposedly in October 1155. His father Yesugei was the head of a clan of great antiquity. What is known of Genghis Khan’s infancy and adolescence has more to do with inventions and myths than hard facts. Temujin, which was Genghis Khan’s original name, had obviously defeated his main rivals during their struggle for power between 1183 and 1204, so when the chieftains of steppe tribes and clans met in a Kurultai, their council, in 1206, they acknowledged him “Khan” of all Mongols, and he took a new title Genghis, which is the Turkic for sea, or ocean. Genghis Khan means an absolute ruler, the one with ocean-wide powers, who governed from sea to sea. Following the required reorganization of his country and the Army he launched, within several years of the 1206 Kurultai, his invasions and conquests that actually shook the whole of the 13th century Eurasia. Genghis Khan died in the Tangut land known as Xi Xia during the invasion of that land that he started in 1226. Since by then he had been invariably escorted by his life chroniclers, the date of his death was accurately registered as the 25th of August, 1227.
After that his body was secretly taken to some place in Mongolia or China, with several such places officially named in the two countries to date. However, the surviving sources fail to report the exact location and none of the allegedly official whereabouts has offered final confirmation.
Russian orientalists have followed up the lead that Genghis Khan was buried in his birthplace on the Onon River. Legend has it that his war lords brought his dead body to the place and had a dam built near Delyun-Boldok mountain to make the river deviate from its riverbed. The sarcophagus with Genghis Khan’s body was placed on the riverbed, laid bare, and then the water was brought back to follow its original course.
Ancient people are known for secret burials of their chiefs. Legend says that the Great military leader Attila the Hun was laid to rest in a triple coffin made of gold, silver, and iron, along with some of the spoils of his conquests. His men diverted a section of the river Tisza, buried the coffin under the riverbed, and then were killed to keep the exact location a secret. The whereabouts have failed to be established to this day. The situation is perfectly similar to the Genghis Khan’s burial. All those who interred the Greatest of Mongols were killed afterwards, just as those who killed the grave-diggers.
So, why the grave location should be shrouded in complete mystery? The point is the nomads had a longstanding tradition to desecrate the graves of their enemies. The Turkis and Mongols believed that their community comprised all of their tribesmen, whether alive or dead. The soul of a dead relative may return to this world to get reincarnated in a descendant, but only if the entombed skeleton was complete with all its bones.
Mongol and Chinese chronicles offer a number of desecrations of dead enemy bodies. Tradition to desecrate enemy graves was alive in the steppe-land from the Bronze Age and was occasionally resorted to, to bring pressure to bear for political ends. Since the wise nomad chiefs were aware of this sort of things, they ordered their men to bury them in secret and with few of their riches. Genghis Khan was no exception to the rule. He proved perfectly far-sighted and told his sons, when about to die, to keep the location of his grave a secret to protect it from desecration by evil-doers.
But increasingly great numbers of researchers are set to uncover the secret of his grave whereabouts. The interment would beyond doubt prove of enormous value to archaeologists and historians. It is clearly premature to draw the line at the effort to search for the location of the tomb of the Great Mongol Ruler and War Lord Genghis Khan.
Source:The Voice of Russia
