The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,230 pages of information about The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1.

The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,230 pages of information about The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1.

According to Rashiduddin, Chinghiz was buried at a place called Burkan Kaldun ("God’s Hill"), or Yekeh Kuruk ("The Great Sacred or Tabooed Place"); in another passage he calls the spot Budah Undur (which means, I fancy, the same as Burkan Kaldun), near the River Selenga.  Burkan Kaldun is often mentioned by Sanang Setzen, and Quatremere seems to demonstrate the identity of this place with the mountain called by Pallas (and Timkowski) Khanoolla.  This is a lofty mountain near Urga, covered with dense forest, and is indeed the first woody mountain reached in travelling from Peking.  It is still held sacred by the Mongols and guarded from access, though the tradition of Chinghiz’s grave seems to be extinct.  Now, as this Khanoolla ("Mount Royal,” for khan here means “sovereign,” and oolla “mountain”) stands immediately to the south of the Kentei mentioned in the quotation from S. Setzen, this identification agrees with his statement, on the supposition that the Khanoolla is the Altai of the same quotation.  The Khanoolla must also be the Han mountain which Mongol chiefs claiming descent from Chinghiz named to Gaubil as the burial-place of that conqueror.  Note that the Khanoolla, which we suppose to be the Altai of Polo, and here of Sanang Setzen, belongs to a range known as Khingan, whilst we see that Setzen elsewhere applies Altai and Altan-Khan to the other Khingan near the Great Wall.

Erdmann relates, apparently after Rashiduddin, that Chinghiz was buried at the foot of a tree which had taken his fancy on a hunting expedition, and which he had then pointed out as the place where he desired to be interred.  It was then conspicuous, but afterwards the adjoining trees shot up so rapidly, that a dense wood covered the whole locality, and it became impossible to identify the spot. (Q.  R. 117 seqq.; Timk. I. 115 seqq., II. 475-476; San.  Setz. 103, 114-115, 108-109; Gaubil, 54; Erd. 444.)

["There are no accurate indications,” says Palladius (l.c. pp. 11-13), “in the documents of the Mongol period on the burial-places of Chingiz Khan and of the Khans who succeeded him.  The Yuan-shi or ’History of the Mongol Dynasty in China,’ in speaking of the burial of the Khans, mentions only that they used to be conveyed from Peking to the north, to their common burial-ground in the K’i-lien Valley.  This name cannot have anything in common with the ancient K’i-lien of the Hiung-nu, a hill situated to the west of the Mongol desert; the K’i-lien of the Mongols is to be sought more to the east.  When Khubilai marched out against Prince Nayan, and reached the modern Talnor, news was received of the occupation of the Khan’s burial-ground by the rebels.  They held out there very long, which exceedingly afflicted Khubilai [Yuan shi lui pien]; and this goes to prove that the tombs could not be situated much to the west. 

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The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.