The Burkhan Khaldun (

Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...

: Бурхан Халдун) is one of the

Khentii Mountains The Khentii Mountains ( mn, Хэнтийн нуруу) are a mountain range in the Töv and Khentii Provinces in North Eastern Mongolia. Geography The mountain chain overlaps the Khan Khentii Strictly Protected Area and includes Mongolia's ...

in the

Khentii Province Khentii ( mn, Хэнтий) is one of the 21 Aimags of Mongolia, aimags (provinces) of Mongolia, located in the east of the country. Its capital is Chinggis City. The aimag is named after the Khentii Mountains. It is best known as the birthplace ...

of northeastern

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

. The mountain or its locality is believed to be the birthplace of

Genghis Khan ''Chinggis Khaan'' ͡ʃʰiŋɡɪs xaːŋbr />Mongol script: ''Chinggis Qa(gh)an/ Chinggis Khagan'' , birth_name = Temüjin , successor = Tolui (as regent)Ögedei Khan , spouse = , issue = , house = Borjigin , ...

as well as his tomb. It is also the birthplace of one of his most successful generals,

Subutai Subutai (Classical Mongolian: ''Sübügätäi'' or ''Sübü'ätäi''; Modern Mongolian: Сүбээдэй, ''Sübeedei''. ; ; c. 1175–1248) was a Mongol general and the primary military strategist of Genghis Khan and Ögedei Khan. He directed m ...

. The mountain is part of the

Khan Khentii Strictly Protected Area The Khan Khentii Strictly Protected Area is a government administered Strictly Protected Area in the Khentii aimag (province) in Eastern Mongolia. Strictly Protected Areas are regions of land designated by the Mongolian government as wildlife pre ...

established in 1992. It had strong religious significance before Genghis Khan made it a powerful landmark and is considered the most

sacred mountain Sacred mountains are central to certain religions, and are usually the subjects of many legends. For many, the most symbolic aspect of a mountain is the peak because it is believed that it is closest to heaven or other religious realms. Many rel ...

in Mongolia since it was designated as sacred by Genghis Khan. It was inscribed as a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

on 4 July 2015 under the title "Great Burkhan Khaldun Mountain and its surrounding sacred landscape." Under a Presidential Decree of 1995 the worship of this mountain has been formalised and the mountain declared a national monument. Its ecosystem is complex with unique biodiversity with flora of the Central Asian steppe. It has 50 species of fauna and 253 species of birds.

Location

Burkhan Khaldun is in the northeast of Mongolia in the middle of the Khentii mountain range. The mountain is integral to the

established in 1992, which extends over an area of .

Geography

Burkhan Khaldun means the "God Mountain" and is also called Khentii Khan (The King of the Khentii Mountain range). It is one of the

in the

of northeastern

. It is the highest mountain of the region, rising to an elevation of , and is crescent-shaped. It is the source of several rivers: the Onon and Kherlen rivers flow into the

Amur The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's List of longest rivers, tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China, Northeastern China (Inne ...

, which has its outfall in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

; and the rivers Tuul, Kharaa and Yeruu flow northwards to join the Selenge, which empties into the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

. It is in a complex ecosystem with unique biodiversity which is defined as a "transition zone from Siberian permafrost land forms to great steppe".

History

(also known as Chinggis Khan) lost his battle against the

Merkit The Merkit (literally ''"skillful/wise ones"''; mn, ᠮᠡᠷᠬᠢᠳ ; Мэргид, translit=, Mergid; ) was one of the five major tribal confederations (''khanlig'') of probably Mongol

(one of the major tribal confederations (''khanlig'') of the Mongols) and escaped death by seeking protection in the sacred precincts of the Burkhan Khaldun mountains. An old woman saved him and a few others. As mark of great reverence, which in Mongolia is considered a highly sacred mountain of spiritual significance, and to the sun above, he offered his respects to the spirits of the mountain around him, sprayed milk into the air and sprinkled it on the earth. He removed his girdle strap, unwinding it from his outfit, and then put it around his neck. Symbolically by this act he surrendered his Mongolian man's pride and expressed his submission to the gods. He took off his hat, crossed his hand across his chest and knelt in obeisance nine times offering worship to the sun and the mountain. He spent three days on the mountain offering prayers and thus established a strong bond of spirituality with the mountain and derived special strength from it. In the ''

Secret History of the Mongols ''The Secret History of the Mongols'' (Middle Mongol: ''Mongɣol‑un niɣuca tobciyan''; Traditional Mongolian: , Khalkha Mongolian: , ; ) is the oldest surviving literary work in the Mongolian language. It was written for the Mongol royal fam ...

'', Genghis Khan, who later became the "World Conqueror" believing in his own destiny, said: Genghis Khan then started his campaign to unify the land and people of Mongolia as a strong force. He gave the Burkhan Khaldun the status of a royal sacred mountain. The history is chronicled in the ''Secret History of the Mongols'', which UNESCO recognised in 1990 as a "literary creation of outstanding universal significance". In this document Burkhan Khaldun is described in detail and mentioned 27 times, which signifies the unique position of the mountain in Mongolia‘s heritage. This document establishes the authenticity of the site, stating: A Presidential Decree of 1955 formalised the worship of the Burkhan Khaldun Mountain as a national monument. Special worship is offered to the mountain according to a prescribed procedure at the main "Ovoo of the Heaven"; it is reserved for a few officials of the state and local administration,

shamans Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...

and a few

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

lamas (monks).

World Heritage status

Burkhan Khaldun was inscribed as a

at the 39th session of the World Heritage Committee on 4 July 2015 under the title "Great Burkhan Khaldun Mountain and its surrounding sacred landscape", covering an area of and an additional buffer zone of , categorised under Criterion (iv) for its unique cultural tradition of mountain and nature worship of past several millennium, and (vi) for its universally known historical and literary epic of immense importance.

Religious significance

Burkhan Khaldun has a spiritual significance unmatched by any other mountain in Mongolia and is given the symbolic status of the “cradle” of Mongolia's nationhood fully representing the "heritage and traditional ways of life of nomadic people of Mongolia". The (unconfirmed) Mongolian belief that Genghis Khan was born here and is buried somewhere in this mountain has added to its sanctity, particularly since Khan offered worship here and declared the mountain as the most sacred in the country. It has given authenticity to the spiritual nature of the mountain. As a result, regular pilgrimage is undertaken by the people to the three sacred major

ovoo Ovoo, oboo, or obo ( mn, овоо, bua, обоо, kjh, обаа, Traditional Mongol: , "heap"; Chinese: 敖包 ''áobāo'', lit. "magnificent bundle .e. shrine) are sacred stone heaps used as altars or shrines in Mongolian folk religious p ...

s or stone

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...

s at the sacred sites along a specified route where Mongolian shamanic worship is offered. The specified route is unique and covers: ''Main Ovoo of Heaven'' at the pinnacle of the mountain via ''Gurvan Khoriud'' ("Three Forbidden Precincts"); the ''Uud Mod'' ("Two Trees of Entrance"); the ''Bosgo Tengeriin Davaa'' ("Threshold Pass of Heaven"); the catchment of the Kherlen River and the Sacred Bogd Rivers; and finally to the ''Beliin'' ("Lowest") ovoo.

Flora

The flora found in the mountain belongs to the Central Asian steppe and consists of coniferous forests of the

taiga Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruce ...

. The plant species reported are 28 listed in the Mongolian Red Book, 15 very rare species, and 28 species listed as rare species. The species listed in the IUCN Red List are found here: two critically endangered species, four endangered species, and eight vulnerable species.

Fauna

In the faunal geographical province of the Burkhan Khaldun Mountain in the Khentii district the fauna reported are more than "50 species of 27 genera of six orders including five species of

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

insectivore A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores wer ...

s, 4 species of

hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order (biology), order of insects, comprising the sawfly, sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are Par ...

, four species of

lagomorpha The lagomorphs are the members of the taxonomic order Lagomorpha, of which there are two living families: the Leporidae (hares and rabbits) and the Ochotonidae (pikas). The name of the order is derived from the Ancient Greek ''lagos'' (λαγ� ...

, 19 species of

rodents Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are nat ...

, 13 species of predators, five species of

ungulate Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Ungulata which primarily consists of large mammals with hooves. These include odd-toed ungulates such as horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; and even-toed ungulates such as cattle, pigs, giraffes, cam ...

, one species of

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

, and 253 species of birds". According to the Mongolian Red Data Book the very rare mammal species are

musk deer Musk deer can refer to any one, or all seven, of the species that make up ''Moschus'', the only extant genus of the family Moschidae. Despite being commonly called deer, they are not true deer belonging to the family Cervidae, but rather their fa ...

(''Moshus moshiferus'') and

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult mal ...

(''Alces alces''); the very rare bird species are the

Siberian white crane The Siberian crane (''Leucogeranus leucogeranus''), also known as the Siberian white crane or the snow crane, is a bird of the family Gruidae, the cranes. They are distinctive among the cranes: adults are nearly all snowy white, except for their ...

(''Grus luecogeranus''),

Greater spotted eagle The greater spotted eagle (''Clanga clanga''), occasionally called the spotted eagle, is a large bird of prey. Like all typical eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. Its feathered legs indicate it is a member of the subfamily Aquil ...

(''Aquila clanga''), Pallas’s fish eagle (''Haliaeetus leucoryphus''),

white-naped crane The white-naped crane (''Antigone vipio'') is a bird of the crane family. It is a large bird, long, about tall, and weighing about , with pinkish legs, a grey-and-white-striped neck, and a red face patch. Distribution The white-naped crane br ...

(''Grus vipio'') and

hooded crane The hooded crane (''Grus monacha'') is a crane native to East Asia and a frequent migratory bird in Japan. Description It has a grey body. The top of the neck and head is white, except for a patch of bare red skin above the eye. It is one of t ...

(''Grus monacha''); the fish species is the

Amur sturgeon The Japanese sturgeon, or Amur sturgeon (''Acipenser schrenckii'') is a species of fish in the family Acipenseridae found in the Amur River basin in China and Russia. Claims of its presence in the Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the ma ...

(''Acipenser schrenckii).''

References

Bibliography

External links

Doncroner.com

Unesco.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burkhan Khaldun Mountains of Mongolia Khentii Province World Heritage Sites in Mongolia Two-thousanders of Mongolia