Kharkhorin Rock, also Kharkarin Rock or Phallic Rock, is a large statue of a

penis A penis (plural ''penises'' or ''penes'' () is the primary sexual organ that male animals use to inseminate females (or hermaphrodites) during copulation. Such organs occur in many animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, but males do n ...

raised on a platform on the

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslands, ...

, located near

Erdene Zuu Monastery The Erdene Zuu Monastery ( mn, Эрдэнэ Зуу хийд , Chinese:光顯寺, Tibetan:ལྷུན་གྲུབ་བདེ་ཆེན་གླིང་) is probably the earliest surviving Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. Located in Övörkha ...

(part of the World Heritage Site entitled

Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape Orkhon ( mn, Орхон) may refer to: * Orkhon River, Mongolia * Orkhon Valley, the landscape around that river * Orkhon Province, an Aimag (province) in Mongolia * several Sums (districts) in different Mongolian Aimags: ** Orkhon, Bulgan ** Orkh ...

) in

Kharkhorin Kharkhorin ( mn, Хархорин) is a town and sum (district) center in Övörkhangai Province in Mongolia. The sum population was 13,828 (1994), 13,964 (2000), and 14,765 (2017). The population of Kharkhorin town itself was 14,765 in 2017 and ...

Övörkhangai Province Övörkhangai ( mn, Өвөрхангай, ''Öwörhangai''; "southern Khangai") is one of the 21 aimags (provinces) of Mongolia, located in the south of the country. Its capital is Arvaikheer. The Shankh Monastery, one of the oldest and most ...

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 phallic rock statue has dual functions; primarily it is a reminder to the monks to remain

celibate Celibacy (from Latin ''caelibatus'') is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both, usually for religious reasons. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, th ...

, but it is also a symbol of fertility and human life. The newer, five metre tall stone statue also pictured on this page is incorrectly referenced as also being located near Kharkhorin, however, its location is noted by some as not being near the former capital city Kharkhorin, but near the smaller town of Khankhongor, much further south, in a different region. In fact, very few travel sites and blogs by frequent visitors to Kharkhorin report seeing this larger statue near the monastery. However it was removed soon after due to local people's heavy discontent

Legend

Legend states that a monk who had vowed to be celibate had turned out to be a womanizer. As punishment he was castrated to remind him of his vows of celibacy. As a warning to the other inmate monks of the monastery, a rock in the shape of a penis was prominently engraved as a stone phallus called "Kharkhorin Rock" within walking distance from the monastery, to remind them that they should not be indulging in any sexual activity with the local women.

Access

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says that the statue "points erotically to something interestingly called a 'vaginal slope'" which is hidden in a small valley, about to the southeast of Erdene Zuu Monastery. The river flowing in this basaltic rocky area originates from the Gyatruu range to Kharkhorin soum. It is accessed from the main road by a well-used path. One can see the larger statue from the road from

Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar (; mn, Улаанбаатар, , "Red Hero"), previously anglicized as Ulan Bator, is the capital and most populous city of Mongolia. It is the coldest capital city in the world, on average. The municipality is located in north ce ...

road and from Karakhorin hill. Many visitors seek the opportunity to visit the original statue, and many women also approach the site to seek blessings for a child to be born to them. The smaller, stone phallus is located within the grounds of the monastery itself, just to the northeast of the main monastery building. There are also four rocks in the shape of

turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...

s (considered to be symbols of protection and eternity) marking the four

cardinal direction The four cardinal directions, or cardinal points, are the four main compass directions: north, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials N, E, S, and W respectively. Relative to north, the directions east, south, and west are at ...

s of the monastery's ancient boundary limits. The stones are inscribed with their past history on the back.

References

Sources

* * *{{cite book, last=Shagda, first= Sh , title= A hundred routes through Mongolia: Mongolian tourism geography, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=idETAQAAMAAJ&q=Kharkhorin+Rock, year=2004, publisher= Indiana University, isbn= 9789992961452

External links

Photograph of the main statuePhotograph of the small statue, other angle
Phallic monuments Övörkhangai Province Mongolian culture Monuments and memorials in Mongolia

Legend

Access

See also

References

Sources

External links