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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Mongols honor conqueror 800 years after the hordes


Horsemen in traditional apparel perform Tuesday in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. Mongolians celebrated the 800th anniversary of Genghis Khan's march to world conquest.
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Charles Hutzler Associated Press

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia – Mongolians celebrated the 800th anniversary of Genghis Khan’s march to world conquest on Tuesday with festivities that mixed commercialism with appeals to nationalism.

In the capital’s Central Stadium, men dressed like warriors in Genghis Khan’s 13th-century horde paraded on stout brown horses. In one section of the grandstands, people held up cards to form pictures of the conqueror and the national flag. An actor played Genghis Khan in a white robe and head gear.

“We Mongolians must be united and have one goal: to develop our country. Remember Genghis Khan and his great deeds,” said President Nambaryn Enkhbayar, who was dressed in a traditional gold and cream silk robe for the occasion.

Mongolians and their leaders are reveling in Genghis Khan, finding a source of identity at an unsettling time.

Sandwiched between a voracious China and an assertive Russia, Mongolia faces challenges abroad, while at home the democracy and free markets that followed communism’s collapse in 1990 have created wealth for some but left a third of the 2.8 million people in poverty.

The greatness of Genghis Khan is something that most Mongolians agree on.

“I feel so proud to have been born in the land of the Great Khan who conquered most of the world,” said Tserendulam, a recently retired cook who was among 800 singers at the ceremony. Like many Mongolians, he uses one name.

The anniversary marks Genghis Khan’s unification of fractious Mongol tribes in 1206 – an event that gave Mongolians a nascent national identity and set them on a course to forge an empire that stretched from the Pacific to Central Europe.

Though the celebrations will last a year, Tuesday’s ceremony was timed for maximum public impact: the start of an annual festival of horse racing, archery, wrestling and camaraderie known as Naadam.

In the rush to capitalize on his name, Genghis Khan’s legacy as a brutal conqueror is being played down. Instead, he’s being cast as an agent of world change, a visionary statesman who promoted low taxes on trade, diplomatic immunity and religious tolerance.

“We are forefathers of globalization,” says one government slogan.