The Mausoleum of Genghis Khan is a mausoleum dedicated to Genghis Khan, where he is worshipped as ancestor, dynastic founder, and deity. The mausoleum is better called the Lord's Enclosure (i.e. shrine), the traditional name among the Mongols, as it has never truly contained the Khan's body. It is the main centre of the worship of Genghis Khan, a growing practice in the Mongolian shamanism of both Inner Mongolia, where the mausoleum is located, and Mongolia.

The mausoleum is located in the Kandehuo Enclosure in the town of Xinjie, in the Ejin Horo Banner in the city of Ordos, Inner Mongolia, in China. The main hall is actually a cenotaph where the coffin contains no body (only headdresses and accessories), because the actual tomb of Genghis Khan has never been discovered.

The present structure was built between 1954 and 1956 by the government of the People's Republic of China in the traditional Mongol style. It was desecrated and its relics destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, but it was restored with replicas in the 1980s and remains the center of Genghis Khan worship. It was named a AAAAA-rated tourist attraction by China's National Tourism Administration in 2011.

Location

thumb|In 1995

The cenotaph is located at an elevation of on the Gandeli or Gande'er Prairie about southeast of Xilian<!----> and about south of the county seat of Ejin Horo Banner, Inner Mongolia. It is the namesake of its surrounding banner, whose name translates from Mongolian as "the Lord's Enclosure".

The site is north of Yulin, south of Dongsheng, and from Baotou. There is a new interchange on highway 210 leading directly to the site.

== History ==<!-- This section is linked from Jinong -->

Early sites

thumb|upright=0.9|A detail from [[Philip Johan von Strahlenberg|Strahlenberg's 18th-century map of "Great Tartary", showing "Karakoschun, or, the Tomb of the Great and Famous Genghis Khan" in the southern "Ordus"]]

After Genghis Khan died in or around Gansu on 12 July AD1227, his remains were supposedly carried back to central Mongolia and buried secretly and without markings, in accordance with his personal directions. His actual burial site remains unknown but was almost certainly not in Ejin Horo, which had only recently been conquered from the Tangut Empire. Without a body, the Mongols honored the khan's memory and spirit through his personal effects. These ceremonies allegedly date to the same year as his death.

After the fall of the Yuan in 1368, The site's rituals became more local, more open to lower-class people, and more Buddhist.

The Mongolian prince Toghtakhutörü and the Darkhad built a permanent mausoleum in Setsen Khan Aimag in 1864. This traditional Chinese structure was described by a Belgian missionary in 1875 but was destroyed at the Panchen Lama's suggestion in order to end an outbreak of plague among the Darkhad in early 20th century. Some Mongolians planned to remove some of the ritual objects—particularly the Black Sülde, an allegedly magical heaven-sent trident—to the independent northern Mongolian territory from the Inner Mongolian shrine;

In 1915, Zhang Xiangwen (<small>t</small> <small>s</small> <small>p</small>Zhāng Xiāngwén, <small>w</small>Chang Hsiang-wen) began the scholarly controversy over the site of Genghis Khan's tomb by publishing an article claiming that it was in Ejin Horo.

During World War II, Prince Demchugdongrub, the notional leader of the Japanese puppet government in Mongolia, ordered that the mobile tomb and its relics be moved to avoid a supposed "Chinese plot to plunder it". This was rebuffed by the local leader Shagdarjab, who claimed that the shrines could never be moved and locals would resist any attempt to do so. the IJA colonel Kanagawa Kosaku constructed a separate mausoleum in Ulan Hot consisting of 3 main buildings in a estate. A few days later, the Gansu governor Zhu Shaoliang held a similar ritual before enshrining the khan's relics at the Dongshan Dafo Dian on Xinglong Mountain in Yuzhong County.

Present-day mausoleum

Ejin Horo fell to the Communists at the end of 1949 and was controlled by their Northwest Bureau until the establishment of Suiyuan Province the next year.

In 2017, the Genghis Khan Mausoleum averaged about 8000 visitors a day during its peak season and about 200 visitors a day at other times.

Administration

The site is overseen by the Genghis Khan Mausoleum Administration Bureau. It consists of the Sulede Altar, the Sightseeing District for the Protection of Historic Relics, the Conservation District for Ecosystem Preservation, the Development-Restricted District of Visual Spectacles, the long Sacred Pathway of Genghis Khan between the entrance and the cenotaph, the long scenic pathway around the Bayinchanghuo Prairie, a Tourist Activity Centre, a Tourist Education Centre, the Sacrificial Sightseeing District, the Mongolian Folk Custom Village, the Shenquan Ecological Tourism Region, the Nadam Equestrian Sport Centre, and the Hot Air Balloon Club.<!---->

The tomb complex consists of the Main Hall, the Imperial Burial Palace, the Western Hall, the Eastern Hall, the Western Corridor, and the Eastern Corridor.<!---->

The Main Hall (正殿) is octagonal, high,

The mausoleum is guarded by the Darkhad or Darqads but also singing.

Performance

The mausoleum complex is also hosts three plays concerning the khan and Mongolian culture: Proud Son of Heaven: Eternal Genghis Khan, The Mighty Genghis Khan (), or The Grand Ceremony of Genghis Khan (), and An Ordos Wedding Ceremony (). There is also an annual Genghis Khan Mausoleum Tourism Cultural Week.

Notes

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  • Map of the site
  • Photos of the rituals on the 21st day of the 3rd lunar month, from China Daily
  • Photos of the mausoleum, from People's Daily
  • Photos of the mausoleum, from Getty Images