The Cult of Chinggis Khan in the Dayan Khanid Period
type: CreativeWork
description: The importance of the Mongol Empire and its long-term effects across Eurasia have long been an object of fascination among historians. However, little has been written about how Činggis Qan and his empire were remembered in Mongolia in the post-imperial period — that is, from 1368, when the last Mongol emperor fled his capital in Daidu (present day Beijing), until the Mongol princedoms were rolled up into the incipient Qing Empire in the first half of 1600s. For the intervening centuries (fifteenth to sixteenth), the social, cultural, and religious aspects of the Mongols remain obscure, mostly due to a dearth of sources. Yet, the idea that no text survives from that ``dark period'' is false, because a large body of liturgical texts has been transmitted to our times – even if largely ignored by historians – through the Cult of Činggis Qan. Today, this institution remains an active among the Mongol communities in Ordos, Inner Mongolia. In particular, men of the Darqad lineages, whose families served as hereditary shrine custodians for generations, officiating the ceremonies and driving around the cult's camel-drawn tent-carts, have published many works sharing their knowledge and family memory. In Ordos, in an area known as Eǰen Qoro'a (Mo. `Lord's Sanctuary'), the replicas of the shrine's physical artifacts, the originals of which were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, are now the center-piece of a Museum, which is itself the focal point of a flashy tourist attraction. My dissertation includes, as an essential appendix, a critical edition along with a translation to English of the texts passed down in this Činggis Qan shrine – most of which have been published in facsimile and/or transcription by scholars in the last few decades. Based in this material as a novel primary source, the chapters are written with a goal to sharpen our understanding of the contexts in the cultic texts were produced, thus deepening the field's understanding of the social and cultura…
abstract: The importance of the Mongol Empire and its long-term effects across Eurasia have long been an object of fascination among historians. However, little has been written about how Činggis Qan and his empire were remembered in Mongolia in the post-imperial period — that is, from 1368, when the last Mongol emperor fled his capital in Daidu (present day Beijing), until the Mongol princedoms were rolled up into the incipient Qing Empire in the first half of 1600s. For the intervening centuries (fifteenth to sixteenth), the social, cultural, and religious aspects of the Mongols remain obscure, mostly due to a dearth of sources. Yet, the idea that no text survives from that ``dark period'' is false, because a large body of liturgical texts has been transmitted to our times – even if largely ignored by historians – through the Cult of Činggis Qan. Today, this institution remains an active among the Mongol communities in Ordos, Inner Mongolia. In particular, men of the Darqad lineages, whose families served as hereditary shrine custodians for generations, officiating the ceremonies and driving around the cult's camel-drawn tent-carts, have published many works sharing their knowledge and family memory. In Ordos, in an area known as Eǰen Qoro'a (Mo. `Lord's Sanctuary'), the replicas of the shrine's physical artifacts, the originals of which were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, are now the center-piece of a Museum, which is itself the focal point of a flashy tourist attraction. My dissertation includes, as an essential appendix, a critical edition along with a translation to English of the texts passed down in this Činggis Qan shrine – most of which have been published in facsimile and/or transcription by scholars in the last few decades. Based in this material as a novel primary source, the chapters are written with a goal to sharpen our understanding of the contexts in the cultic texts were produced, thus deepening the field's understanding of the social and cultura…
author: Pount, Dotno, Dashdorj
language: en
keywords: Asian Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, Religion
date published: 2023
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:45:49Z
provider: University of Pennsylvania
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Pennsylvania