In search of my roots - A visit to the Huhhot Museum (2004)

The Huhhot Museum of Inner Mongolia

Huhhot （呼和浩特, meaning "Green City" in Mongolian）is the capital of Inner Mongolia, China.  The Huhhot museum is a big, square, modern building erected in 1957, covering an area of 3,500 square meters.  The collections that it houses belong in four categories: natural history, (including the famed, enormous dinosaur fossils), archeology, folk customs, and modern history, the latter with emphasis on the social development of Inner Mongolia under communist rule since 1949.  For there can be no denying the magnitude of the social development that has taken place in this region.  Huhhot more than trebled its population since the late 1920s, after completion of the railway connecting it to Beijing and Tientsin to the east, and Baotou to the west. 

The sight of the construction sites that rise everywhere, and the chemical plants, and other evident marks of modernity, leave us no doubt that this is an important industrial center.  It is also the site of a university –the first medical school in Inner Mongolia was established here. But none of this is the main focus of our interest.  We have come impelled by the idea, perhaps inexcusably fanciful and overly romantic, of looking into the heart and soul of Mongolia, and on this score we begin to feel a little disappointed. 

 The Huhhot Museum receives the visitor with an equestrian statue of Genghis at the entrance (Fig. 1), a symbol of the pride universally felt for the renowned warrior in this land.  A justified pride admittedly; but not much else reminds us of his person inside the building.  This museum boasts a total collection of 10,000 objects, among which the most renowned are complete skeletons of fossilized pre-historical herbivore dinosaurs. The largest one is immense: 26 meters long, and a shoulder height of 6 meters, which could reach 12 meters with the extended neck and head.  Another smaller dinosaur, a special variety of the Mongolian highland, measures a “mere” 7.5 m in length.  In addition, there is also a complete skeleton of a mammoth, which stands 4.7 meters high and 9 meters long (Fig. 2).  

Fig. 1.  Statue of Genghis Khn at the entrance of the Huhhot Museum

Fig. 2  Skeleton of a mammoth

 Historically, the Han people, the dominant ethnic group in China, regarded the Mongols as unsophisticated, and in many ways inferior.   And what are we to say about the unalloyed racism with which they have been treated in the West?  Here, prominent intellectuals have been tainted with prejudice, always classifying the Mongols as ethnically “inferior” and denying them any important historical achievement, apart from acting as a plague for the rest of humankind.  One of the most infamous of them, the French aristocrat and distinguished man of letters, Count Arthur de Gobineau (1816-1882), went as far as to assert that the Mongols would have been incapable of accomplishing the astounding military conquests that they did if they had not been mixed with some “white” people, the Hakas of Southern Siberia.  Without the “felicitous presence” of these “white principles diffused throughout the yellow multitudes” and the consequent superiority of this admixing, wrote Gobineau, it would be impossible to account for the formation of the great armies “that at different times came out of Central Asia with the Huns, the Mongols of Genghis Khan, the Tartars of Timur…”.¹   Yet Mongoloid people form one of the major human ethnic groups, and archeological finds in the region that we now visit have included man-made objects dating back 700,000 years.  During the Neolithic era, the inhabitants of the grassland already produced beautiful artifacts.  A jade “hog-dragon,” a museum piece carved 5,000-6,000 years ago, was found in the Hong Shan (红山 “Red Mountain”) County of east Inner Mongolia, and may be one of the earliest jade dragons in China.  Among the exhibited items, I find especially striking a bronze dagger made 4,000 years ago.  We tend to think of bronze culture as exclusively Chinese, and it is astonishing to realize that similar progress had developed almost simultaneously in the grassland, so remote from the core of China.

 The displayed artifacts date long before the Mongol Empire (i.e., Yuan Dynasty) of the 13^th -14^th century. The people in this area may bear different tribe names throughout history, but they all had similar language and culture, and were similar, if not identical, in race.    

 The powerful grassland empire of the Hsiung-nu (匈奴) was just as ancient and strong as the famed Chinese Han Dynasty and this as far back in time as centuries before Christ.  Its territory, although bound on its southern reaches by the Great Wall of China, at one time surpassed in extension that of China proper, as it extended east to the Pacific Ocean, north to include Siberia, and west into Central Asia.  And it is particularly significant that long before the time of the Hsiung-nu Empire, during the historical period known as the Zhou dynasty (1120-249 B.C.), the northern tribes were already strong enough for the Chinese people to conclude that the better part of prudence was to build the Great Wall to keep them out. 

 Impressive as it is, the Great Wall did little to prevent invasion from northern assailants. Some of these tribes managed to smash a gap in the Wall and settled in China during the late Jin （晋） Dynasty (4^th century A.D.).  They were able to found their own dynasties during a period spanning the 4^th through the 6^th century, a historical era referred to as the Southern and Northern Dynasties (南北朝 439-589).  However, as happened more than once, in the end, the Han Chinese established their supremacy.  The defeat of the Hsiung-nu during Han dynasty may have been a historical determinant of their migration westward and the establishment of the mighty Hun Empire centuries later.

 That the epithet of “barbarian” is always a relative term, and that throughout history it has been applied by the victors to the subjugated, is attested by the brilliant artistic achievement of these northern tribes.  Surely, their artistic production is far from being the rude output of “barbarians.”  Among these works are the many gigantic stone statues of Buddha and the splendid, colorful murals that may be seen in the grottoes of Datong (大同), Dunhuang (敦煌), and other sites in the northern and northwestern provinces of China. 

 Various small gold and silver decorative artifacts of the earlier grassland inhabitants are on display in the museum.  Unfortunately, historical relics from the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), that is, the Mongol dynasty of China, were scarce, to say the least.  One wonders if most of the precious artifacts from China’s Mongol (Yuan) dynasty are now in the Taipei Palace Museum, in Taiwan.  During the communist revolution, as is well known, an enormous quantity of artistic treasures was removed from the mainland by the fleeing nationalist forces, and taken with them to their refuge in Taiwan.  One of the most priced possessions of the Huhhot Museum collection is a beautiful gold crown with an eagle made of semiprecious stones, which used to belong to one of the Hsiung-nu kings (Fig. 3).  Unfortunately, objects of this high value on display were rare.
 

Fig. 3.  The golden crown of a Hsiung-nu king (photo by Dr. Margaret Lin).

           

 A display that attracts our attention consists of models of tents used by Mongolian people in various regions.  The most commonly used, indistinctly called “yurt” (a Turkic word) or “ger” (in Mongolian), is round with a cone-shaped roof and made of white felt.  (White and blue, the colors of the sky, are the favorite colors of the Mongols).  The ger exhibited here is a modest one, approximately 3 to 4 meters in diameter and 2 to 2.5 meters high; it is provided with a roof-top that may be opened or closed and a wooden door.  This dwelling probably represents the kind used by common herdsmen (Fig. 4a and b).  Gers are easy to assemble, disassemble, and move around, thus being most suitable for nomadic life.   The ancient Mongols, without any knowledge of physics, built yurts incredibly resistant to the powerful wind of the grassland.  They are also water impermeable: neither torrential rain nor heavy snow can penetrate inside.  With wetting, as by rain or snow, the roof’s weight can increase to hundreds of pounds, yet a roof collapse has never been reported, even in the heaviest of rains or snow storms.  The ger also keeps the warmth within during the deep freezing Mongolian winter (fire is usually lighted inside the ger during the cold season), and the white color of the walls reflects the light and heat in the summer.  Although windowless, both the roof top and the wall can be opened by removing the felt, thereby letting the breeze in during the hot weather. 

Fig. 4a.  A ger in the museum.                                          

4b: Interior of ger (right).

 Unfortunately, there was no replica of an “ordo” in the museum, the huge tent used by Mongol nobles of ancient times.  We can only imagine the vast size and richness of the royal tents from various historical descriptions.  Friar Giovanni Di Plano Carpini (ca. 1180 - 1252), an envoy of Pope Gregory IX, wrote in his report of his journey to the Mongol court from 1245 to 1247: 
“Cuyuc (Guyuk) ² sent us to his mother where a court was solemnly held, and when we had arrived there, so great was the size of the tent which was made of white fabric, that we reckon that it could hold more than two thousand men.” ³ 

Approximately ten years later, another westerner, Friar William of Rubruck⁴  wrote in his famous Itinerary, the report to king Louis IX: 
“They made the tent so large, that it reaches 30 feet wide.  Once I measured the wheel tracks of a cart, and found that the distance between the two wheels was 20 feet.  When the tent is placed on the cart, it will extend outside the cart about 5 feet on each side.  Once I counted 22 oxen which pulled a cart….”.

A chariot so large that it can transport a 30 feet-wide tent, and is pulled by 22 oxen!  This description, if truthful, fills us with genuine admiration and wonder (Fig. 5).  We cannot help but doubt the veracity of the report, although perhaps this manner of transport was possible in vast stretches of flat grassland.  In past times, the Scottish orientalist, Henry Yule, went as far as to try to illustrate what Rubruck was describing. ⁵ Experts who have studied in detail the role of animal traction in human industry abstain from commenting on this remarkable description, ⁶ but note that in Europe, during the construction of great cathedrals, enormous boulders were transported by traction of many oxen or mules.  No definite affirmation may be made on whether the transportation of enormous yurts was actually practiced as reported by Rubruk.

Fig. 5.  A larger ger (ordo) on the move

Friar Capini also witnessed the enthronement of the Grand Khan Guyuk in a magnificent ceremonial tent erected for this occasion, and adds other descriptive details:
“… The tent [where Guyuk was to be enthroned] was supported by columns which were covered with gold leaf affixed with golden nails and other woods, and the ceiling above and the interior of the walls were made of a silken fabric though the exterior was of woolen cloth. …..
… The throne was entirely of ebony and wonderfully carved.  There were gold and precious stones and, if we remember rightly, pearls, and it was mounted by steps and was rounded at the back”. ⁷

         
 The door of a ger, usually a square frame made of wood and covered with felt, always faces southeast.  Inside the ger, there are strict rules for placing objects and sitting locations.  Men sit on the west side and women the east.  Friar Capini, when visiting the ordo of Batu (拔都),⁸ Khan of the Golden Horde, recorded the following:⁹
“Indeed, he (Batu) sits in the highest place, as on a throne, with one of his wives.  All others, however, whether brothers or sons, and other nobles, sit below in the middle on a bench.  The other men sit beyond them on the ground, with the men on the right and the women on the left.  He has great and beautiful tents of linen which belonged to the King of Hungary.” ¹⁰

 White, round gers clustered in the open prairie of the grassland are a common sight.  Here, no walls, no enclosures, no yards, and no gardens exist around a house.  Legend says that Genghis Khan’s courtiers proposed to him to build a large palace and a beautiful, enclosed garden, after he had established his empire.  Genghis Khan refused.  His answer was: “I don’t need a large palace and a beautiful garden.  If I don’t break the sacred skin of the golden earth, and if I don’t change the natural visage of the grassland, this one will be my garden.  There is no need to build one”. 

 A ger’s door is without a lock.  Under Genghis Khan, robbery, theft, and adultery were all punishable by death¹¹ regardless of the offender’s rank; in the case of adultery, both the man and the woman would be executed.  However, one author states that the ancient Mongols defined adultery in a way that differed from that most generally accepted in the world, since they exempted from this designation the sexual relations between a woman and the close relatives of her husband, or between a man and female servants or the wives of other men in his household. ¹²

 Carpini might have exaggerated somewhat when describing the severity of Mongolian laws.  The Great Yassa (Jassaq), Genghis Khan’s law, stipulated that a horse thief was to be executed if he could not pay a steep fine.  This, of course, was due to the great importance of horses in a Mongol’s livelihood.   Interestingly, the homicide did not have to pay for his crime with his life, but was obligated to pay a pricey compensation.¹³  Yet, this does not mean that the deceased man’s life was deemed valueless; rather, the intent was to emphasize that the life of the living man was of paramount importance.  In this militaristic society, under the constant threat of armed conflict, a man would be far more useful alive than dead.  The Mongol population has always been low, so that in war all men between the ages of 15 and 70 were drafted into the army.
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 All along, our museum guide, a young girl dressed in traditional Mongolian garb, has been reciting, apparently by rote, what sounds like an official speech extolling the social benefits that Mongolia has derived from a communist government.  Here, the rocks displayed are pretexts to praise the advances in mining exploitation; there, maps and charts point out the progress that the government has achieved in other fields.  Somehow, harangues speeches of this kind never seem to catch my undivided attention.  On this occasion, while the guide recites her encomium of the political system, my eye is caught by some very pretty garments displayed in a window.  Here the city of Huhhot puts on a fine show of the folk customs and elaborate attires typical of the various Mongol tribes.

 The ordinary men’s apparel varies little from tribe to tribe. It consists of a loose, long robe with a long, wide, brightly colored, leathern or silk belt hung with various objects of practical daily use, such as snuffbox, flints (usually decorated with intricate silver carvings and semiprecious jewels), smoking instruments, and the uniquely styled, small Mongolian knives with chopsticks (Fig. 6).  The belt is worn low, to protect the waist and lower back during long hours of riding.  The Mongolian boots look different from those usually seen in Western countries; they are made of leather, but are slightly incurved at the toes, although not so much as the medieval Arabian footwear. The boots may have embossed Mongolian designs composed of complicated squares or circles (Fig. 7). 

   

 

Fig. 6. Man’s costume and knife with chopsticks.                       

Fig. 7.  Mongolian boots.

The grandees’ apparel of the past must have impressed visitors as a striking example of colorful, barbarian extravagance, but not much of it remains.  Very few paintings are extant that show the costumes used at the peak of the Mongolian Empire’s glory.  We can only imagine them from the chroniclers’ descriptions.  In the early years of the empire, affairs of state were usually held in huge, magnificent tents, and were accompanied by feasts lasting many days. The most famous was the feast of Jisun (“color,” in Mongolian) or Jama (“garment,” in Persian).  During this extended celebration, the grassland was crowded with Mongol princes and foreign dignitaries and ambassadors. ¹⁴ All the Mongol nobles were required to wear a specified color for each day.  Wrote Friar Carpini:
“….  On the first day everyone dressed in purple coats and on the second in red, and then when Cuyuc came to the tent on the third day, everyone dressed in blue and on the fourth day in their best silk.” ¹⁵

A ceremony of great solemnity was the Khuriltai (council) meeting to elect the Grand Khan. A 13^th century Persian chronicler, Juvaini, ¹⁶ witnessed the election of the Grand Khan Ogodai ¹⁷ in 1229, and wrote that during a period of forty days the attendees donned each day new clothes of different color and drank abundant wine, at the same time discussing the affairs of the kingdom.   

The raiment of the nobles underwent marked elaboration during the Yuan dynasty.  However, unlike Chinese emperors and nobles, who were usually dressed in elaborately embroidered costumes, the Mongol noblemen preferred robes of a single color. Marco Polo described the festival for Khubilai Khan’s (忽必烈) ¹⁸ birthdays:
“Now, on his birthday, the Great Kaan [Khan] dresses in the best of his robes, all wrought with beaten gold; and full 12,000 Barons and Knights on that day come forth dressed in robes of the same colour, and precisely like those of the Great Kaan, except that they are not so costly; but still they are all of the same colour as his, and are also of silk and gold.  Every man so clothed has also a girdle of gold; and this as well as the dress is given him by the Sovereign.  And I will aver that there are some of these suits decked with so many pearls and precious stones that a single suit shall be worth full 10,000 golden bezants.
And of such raiment there are several sets. For you must know that the Great Kaan, thirteen times in the year, presents to his Barons and Knights such suits of raiment as I am speaking of.  And on each occasion they wear the same colour that he does, a different colour being assigned to each festival”. ¹⁹

We don’t know what colors were used for various occasions except that gold was used for the Khan’s birthday, and, according to Marco Polo’s narrative, white was favored for New Year’s day, on the belief that white clothing is lucky.  

The symbolic significance of clothes to Mongols is demonstrated in Marco Polo’s report that the ruler, when he wished to honor his subjects, bestowed clothes upon them as gifts:
“Now you must know that the Great Kaasn hath set apart 12,000 of his men who are distinguished by the name of ‘Keshican’ [royal guard – an honored position], as I have told you before; and on each of these 12,000 Barons he bestows thirteen changes of raiment, which are all different from one another: I mean that in one set the 12,000 of one colour; the next 12,000 of another colour, and so on; so that they are of thirteen different colours.  These robes are garnished with gems and pearls and other precious things in a very rich and costly manner.  And along with each of these changes of raiment, i.e., 13 times in the year, he bestows on each of these 12,000 Barons a fine golden girdle of great richness and value, and likewise a pair of boots of ‘Camut’ [*leather made from the back skin of a camel], that is to say of ‘Borgal’ [*Russian leather], curiously wrought with silver thread; insomuch that when they are clothed in these dresses every man of them looks like a king!” ²⁰

Mongol men pay special attention to the hat; not its style, but its symbolic meaning.  It is a sign of dignity, and in the past it was also a class symbol.  The chronicles pointedly note that when Genghis Khan punished his younger brother Khasar, he first took away his hat and belt. ²¹  Upon the death of a Khan or king, the ceremonial dictated that his subjects remove all decorative objects from their hats.  Hats were also removed when the noblemen swore allegiance to the new Khan.  Juvaini, described the ceremony in these terms:
 “In accordance with their ancient custom they [the nobles] removed their hats and slung their belts across their backs; and it being the year 1228-9 Chagatai [Ogodai’s older brother] took his [Ogodai’s] right hand and Otegin his left, and by the resolution of aged counsel and the support of youthful fortune, established him upon the throne. Ulugh-Noyan took a cup, and all present in and outside the Court thrice knelt down and uttered prayers, saying ‘May the kingdom prosper by his being Khan!’”. ²² 

There was a unique type of ancient Mongol hat that is illustrated in a famous oriental painting.  Visitors to the Taipei Palace Museum of Taiwan are always impressed by the portrait of Khubilai Khan’s wife, Empress Chabi, which is kept there.  It seems as if this lady were carrying a tall, flared-mouth vase on top of her head.  In effect, Chabi appears wearing a strikingly tall, vase-like hat called boghta or boghtaq (Fig. 8).  The materials used and the manner of its construction were described in detail by Carpini:

“They [the women] wear a round thing made of basketry or bark on the head, which stands up a foot and a half, and at the top spreads into four. From the base to the top it grows wider, and at the top it has a long a graceful wand of gold, silver, wood or even feathers and it is sewed onto a cap which drapes down to the shoulders.  And this cap, just like the outfit already described, is made either of buckram, felt or silk.” ²³ 

          

Fig. 8.  Portrait of Empress Chabi, wife of Khubilai.    (Original in National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan).

Fig. 9. Enthronement scene.  Redrawn from an early 14th century illustration (detail). Original kept in the City Library of Berlin.

This striking fashion was obviously popular in the Yuan (Mongol) court in the 13^th and 14^th centuries. That it was used throughout the empire is attested by its depiction in a 14^th century Persian painting (Fig. 9).  Unfortunately for lovers of colorful haute couture, this highly original headgear seems to have totally disappeared, leaving no trace in the Mongolian wardrobe. 

In ancient times, customs dictated that a hostess should wear her hat or headdress when receiving guests.  Elaborate headgear is uncommonly seen today.  Most women simply wear a scarf around their hair in the summer and a warm hat in wintertime.  Complex headdresses, reserved for important occasions, are of extraordinary richness and regional variety (Fig. 10).  The women of Ordos may be said to don the most intricate and laborious headdress, with many strings of semiprecious stones hanging on the side and back (Fig. 11).  The large headdresses of barhu and Khalkha Mongols, probably harking back to some ancient fashion, we found especially impressive, due to a unique style that looks like ox horns upside down (Fig. 12a).  This singular style passes for having inspired the hairdo of Queen Amidala, a personage in the immensely popular 1999 film, Star Wars, Episode 1 (Fig. 12b).  Regardless of the style, the headdress of Mongolian women is usually made of silver (gold for the wealthy) and heavily decorated with corals, agates, turquoises, pearls, and jades.

Fig. 10. Headdresses and costumes of women of various Mongol tribes shown in the museum.

Fig. 11. Headdress of Ordos women.  

Fig. 11b.  A young woman in traditional Ordos headdress.

Fig. 12a.  An old photograph of a Khalkha Mongol noblewoman. (photograph taken by Arthur de Carle Sowerby.  In:  Mongolia, Nomad descendants of the Golden horde.  The Amalgamated Press (1922) Ltd., London, 1923.  The article appeared in “Peoples of All Nations” magazine.) 

Fig. 12b.  Queen Amidala in the movie “Star War, Episode 1”. 

 In contrast to married women, single young women’s apparel is surprisingly simple and, except for the earrings, not too different from the men’s.  This custom also seems to date from the thirteenth century, as noted by a chronicler’s remark: “Maidens and other young women can be told from men only with great difficulty because they are dressed like the men.”  ²⁴ The fancy headdress belongs only to adult married women.

 We leave the museum feeling deeply intrigued by the uniqueness of some features of the culture on display here.  How was nomadic life for men, women, and children?  It is astonishing that Mongol women should have developed such intricate, convoluted adornments in the midst of an existence marked by deprivation and war alarms, and in a fierce climate of extreme temperatures.  Clearly, their lives left little place for hedonist self-indulgence.  Women drove the carts, placed the movable dwellings on and off the carts, milked the cows, made butter and other milk-derived products, and produced thread out of strong tendons of killed animals.  This thread they used to saw skins, boots, and clothing.  They made felt for their tents, or to wrap themselves with, and they looked after the sheep and goats in alternation with the men. They cooked and prepared the animal skins.  They had the babies under precarious conditions (never lying down during delivery, as chroniclers tell us), raised them, and were generally were in charge of the organization of domestic life.  

 Will the ancient ways of the grassland culture die out?  In Inner Mongolia they seem to us gravely threatened.  The Mongol ethnic population here is greatly outnumbered by the Han Chinese, in a proportion of approximately seven to one.  An American journalist commented with humor that finding a true ethnic Mongolian in Inner Mongolia “is like searching for a Sioux Indian in Sioux City.”  ²⁵ Not quite: ethnic Mongolians, although outnumbered, still constitute in this part of China a population of about three million.  Yet it is true that the living source of their traditions is being inexorably sapped.  A large part of the prairie that sustained their way of life is now bulldozed, giving way to buildings and factories.  Their religion is no longer actively suppressed by a communist government, but it is far from being fostered: priests are elderly, replaced only at their death, and must come from elsewhere, since local conditions do not induce the young to take up a religious calling.  And young people must look for jobs utterly alien to pastoral or nomadic life if they are going to survive.

 It is an inescapable law of life that those who fail to adjust to changing conditions must perish. My own father left the grassland to pursue a high education, first in a high school in Naking and later in the university 西南联大.  He never returned to his homeland.  Many Mongols did the same.  We don’t know how the Mongols will fare under the present challenging conditions.  But the Mongol people are indomitable, intense, and vigorous; such a race, I believe, shall find a foothold in the modern world, and will contribute to the common welfare of humanity with its endurance and resilience, just as it once shook humanity with the terror of its ferocity and irresistible might.  

(This article has been edited by F. G. Crussi.)
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NOTES:

1.                  Artur de Gobineau:  Essai sur l’inegalité des races humaines.  Book 3, chapter V.  In: Oeuvres. Vol. 1 Gallimard. Collection Pléiade. Paris, 1983, pp 596-597.

2.                  The Grand Khan Guyuk (古余克 or 贵由 ruled 1246-1248) was the son of Ogodai (窝阔台) and grandson of Genghis Khan.  Friar Carpini described him as a man “40 or 45 years old or more, of medium height, very wise and extremely clever and very serious, and strict in his morals, so that no one ever easily sees him laugh or make a joke”. Carpini: Story of the Mongols, p. 114. 

3.                  Ibid., p. 107.

4.                  Friar William of Rubruck, born in French Flanders, was sent by King Louis IX of France (St. Louis) to Mongolia (1253-55).  He met the Grand Khan Mongke （蒙哥）, son of Tolui （托雷）and grandson of Genghis Khan. Although sent by the French king, Friar William was not an official envoy.  He was more interested in missionary work.   When the Franciscan friar threatened the Khan with hellfire if he did not convert to Catholicism, Mongke is reported to have replied: “The nurse at first lets some drops of milk into the infant’s suck; only then does she offer him her breast.  In the same way you should persuade Us, who seem to be totally unacquainted with this doctrine, in a simple and rational manner.  Instead you immediately threaten Us with eternal punishments.”   Friar William was asked to join a public debate with Moslems and Buddhists, and did so before his return to France. (I. de Rachewiltz.  “Papal Envoys to the Great Khans”.  Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, 1971. pp. 137-8.  Henceforward referred to as Papal Envoys.)

5.                  Henry Yule: The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian.  (In 2 vols.).  Paris.  Henri Cordier. 1903. Vol. 1, engraving on page 247.  This author was awarded a gold medal by the British Geographical Society because of his explorations in Asia.  He made interesting researches on the Mongols in his book Cathay and the Way Thither. Hakluyt Society, London. 1866.

6.                  See the works of Commandant Richard Lefebvre des Noettes:  La Force Motrice Animale à Travers les Ages.  Paris, Berger-Levrault. 1924; and L’Attelage et le Cheval de Selle à Travers les Ages.  Paris, Picard. 1939.

7.                  Carpini: Story of the Mongols. p. 109 and 111.

8.                  Batu （拔都）, son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan, was the founder of the Kipchak Khanate (钦察汗国， Golden Horde), and the leader of the European campaign.  Friar Capini described him thus: “When he [Batu] rides, a canopy or little tent is carried over his head on a spear point, and most of the great princes of the Tartars do this and so do their wives.  This Bati (Batu) is very good to his people, yet they fear him greatly.  He is most savage in battle and very wise and most clever in war because he has fought so much”.  Ibid., p. 102.

9.                  Ibid., p. 101.

10.              The reference is to King Bela IV of Hungary, who was defeated by Batu in 1241.

11.              Carpini: Story of the Mongols, p. 53.

12.              Weatherford:  Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, p. 68.

13.              Li Dong-fang. (黎東方): Yuan Dynasty (細說元朝), chapter 21, p. 193.

14.              Friar Caprini wrote:  “Outside there were Duke Ierozlal of Russian Suzdal, and many Kytai and Solangi dukes, and two of the sons of the King of Georgia, the ambassador of the Caliph of Baghdad who was a sultan, and more than ten other Saracen sultans, which we believe and which was told us by officials. Indeed, there were more than four thousand ambassadors among them who brought tribute and gifts, and sultans and other dukes who came to submit as well as those whom the Tartars had sent for and those who are governors of territories.”  Carpini:  Story of the Mongols, p. 108. 

15.              Ibid., p. 107.

16.              Ala-ad-Din Ata-Malik Juvaini (1226 – 1283), Persian historian and a high official of the Mongol Empire, began writing his history of the Mongols (The Story of the World Conqueror) when he visited the Mongol capital, Karakorum, in 1252-1253.  He was with Ilkhan Hulagu, Khubilai’s younger brother, during the conquests of Almut and Baghdad (1258), and was subsequently appointed the governor of Baghdad, Lower Mesoptamia and Khuzistan.  Juvani attended a Khuriltai around 1282, a year before his death.

17.              Although Ogodai （窝阔台） was the designated heir by Genghis Khan, a Khuriltai was still held for his election.  According to Juvaini: “. …. all the princes with an unanimity unmingled with evil or strife said to Ogetei (Ogodai): ‘In accordance with the command of Chingiz-Khan it behooves thee with divine assistance to set thy foot upon the hand of kingship in order that all the mighty ones may with one accord gird the loins of their lives with the girdle of submission and servitude and incline their eyes and ears to obeying thy command.” The Mongol custom was to name the youngest son as heir.  Thus they debated for 40 days while they feasted and wined, in different clothes everyday.   Juvaini: World Conqueror. Vol. 1, pp. 185-6.

18.              Marco Polo wrote of Khubilai （忽必烈）: “He is of a good stature, neither tall nor short, but of a middle height.  He has a becoming amount of flesh, and is very shapely in all his limbs.  His complexion is white and red, the eyes black and fine, the nose well formed and well set on.”  Travels of Marco Polo: Vol. 1, pp. 185-6 and  356.

19.              Ibid., pp 386-7.

20.              Ibid., p. 394.

21.              Ardajab: Secret History, p. 446.

22.              Juvaini tells us that “after much importunity on their part and much refusing on the part of Ogetei, he obeyed the command of his father and followed the advice of his brothers and uncles ”  accepting the name of  Qa’an (Grand Khan).  Upon which, all the princes  “knelt three times to the sun ouside the ordu; then re-entering they held an assembly of mirth and sport and cleared the plains of merriment of the thorns of sorrow”. Juvaini: World Conqueror, p. 187.

23.              Carpini:  Story of the Mongols, p. 40.

24.              Ibid: Story of the Mongols, p. 41.

25.              Michael Kohn:  Dateline Mongolia.  An American Journalist in Nomad’s Land.  RDR Books, Muskegon, Michigan. 2006.  page 247.  Henceforward referred to as Kohn: Dateline Mongolia.