Karakorum was the capital of the Mongol Empire between 1235 and 1260, and of the
Northern Yuan in the 14–15th centuries. Its ruins lie in the northwestern corner
of the Övörkhangai Province of Mongolia, near today's town of Kharkhorin, and
adjacent to the Erdene Zuu monastery. They are part of the upper part of the
World Heritage Site Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape.
History = Foundation=
The Orkhon valley was a center of the Xiongnu, Göktürk and Uyghur empires. To
the Göktürks, the nearby Khangai Mountains had been the location of the
Ötüken, and the Uighur capital Karabalgasun was located close to where
later Karakorum would be erected. This area is probably also one of the oldest
farming areas in Mongolia. In 1218–19, Genghis Khan rallied his
troops for the campaign against the Khwarezm Empire in a place called
Karakorum, but the actual foundation of a city is usually said to have occurred
only in 1220. Until 1235, Karakorum seems to have been little more than a
yurt town; only then, after the defeat of the Jin empire, did Genghis'
successor Ögedei erect walls around the place and build a fixed palace.
Ögedei Khan gave the decree to build the Tumen Amgalan Ord in 1235 the year after
he defeated the Jin Dynasty. It was finished in one year. In the Yuanshi it
is written in the section for Taizong Ögedei Khan: "In the seventh year, in
the year of the blue sheep the Wanangong was established in Helin." One of
Genghis Khan's nine ministers the Khitan Yelü Chucai said the following poem
during the ridge raising ceremony of the Tumen Amgalan Ord: "Installed ridge well
fit and stone foundation, The parallel placed majestic palace has been raised,
When the bells and drums of the Lord and officials sound pleasantly, The setting
sun calls the horses of war to itself from the mountain peaks." The Mongolian
version of the poem is as follows: "Tsogtslon tavih nuruu chuluun tulguur,
Zeregtsen zogsoh surleg asriig bosgovoi, Ezen tushmediin honh hengereg ayataihan
hanginan duursahad, Echih naran uuliin tolgoigoos dainii agtadiig ugtnam.
The name Karakorum or "Kharkhorin" in Mongolian language might be translated
as "black quarter/space" or literally "black imprisonment." "Khar" means
"black" and "khorin" probably shares the same root as the verb "khori" as in
"khorigdoh" that means "to be imprisoned/held". "Khori" also means
"twenty" like "khorin mori", but it is unlikely that there would be a "black
twenty". = Prosperity=
Under Ögedei and his successors, Karakorum became a major site for world
politics. Möngke Khan had the palace enlarged, and the great stupa temple
completed. They also commissioned the famous Silver Tree of Karakorum at the
city center. The sculptor was the Parisian Guillaume Bouchier. A large
tree sculpted of silver and other precious metals rose up from the middle
of the courtyard and loomed over the palace, with the branches of the tree
extended into the building. Silver fruit hung from the limbs and it had four
golden serpents braided around the trunk. At the top of the tree rose a
trumpet angel. When the khan wanted to summon the drinks for his guests, the
mechanical angel raised the trumpet to his lips and sounded the horn, whereupon
the mouths of the serpents began to gush out a fountain of alcoholic beverages
into the large silver basin arranged at the base of the tree.
William of Rubruck William of Rubruck, a Flemish Franciscan
missionary and papal envoy to the Mongols reached Karakorum in 1254. He
has left one of the most detailed, though not always flattering, accounts
of the city. He compared it rather unfavourably to the village of
Saint-Denis near Paris, and was of the opinion that the royal abbey there was
ten times as important as the Khan's palace. On the other hand, he also
described the town as a very cosmopolitan and religiously tolerant
place, and the silver tree he described as part of Möngke Khan's palace has
become the symbol of Karakorum. He described the walled city as having four
gates facing the four directions, two quarters of fixed houses, one for the
"Saracenes" and one for the "Cathai", twelve pagan temples, two mosques, as
well as a Nestorian church. = Later times=
When Kublai Khan claimed the throne of the Mongol Empire in 1260—as did his
younger brother, Ariq Böke—he relocated his capital to Shangdu, and later to
Khanbaliq. Karakorum was reduced to the administrative center of a provincial
backwater of the Yuan dynasty founded in China in 1271. Even worse, the ensuing
Toluid Civil War with Ariq Böke and later a war with Kaidu hit the town
hard. In 1260, Kublai disrupted the town's grain supply, in 1277 Kaidu took
Karakorum, only to be ousted by Yuan troops and Bayan of the Baarin in the
following year. In 1298–99 prince Ulus Buqa looted the markets and the grain
storehouses. However, the first half of the 14th century proved to be a second
time of prosperity: in 1299, the town was expanded eastwards, in 1311 and
again from 1342 to 1346 the stupa temples were renewed.
= Decline= After the collapse of the Yuan dynasty
in 1368, Karakorum became the residence of Biligtü Khan in 1370. In 1388, Ming
troops took and destroyed the town. Saghang Sechen's Erdeni-yin Tobči claims
that a khuriltai in 1415 decided to rebuild it, but no archeological
evidence for such a venture has been found yet. However, Karakorum was
inhabited at the beginning of the 16th century, when Batu-Möngke Dayan Khan
made it a capital once again. In the following years, the town changed hands
between Oirads and Chinggisids several times, and was consequently given up
permanently. Excavations
Erdene Zuu monastery stands near Karakorum. Various construction
materials were taken from the ruin to build this monastery.
The actual location of Karakorum was long unclear. First hints that Karakorum
was located at Erdene Zuu were already known in the 18th century, but until the
20th century there was a dispute whether or not the ruins of Karabalgasun, or
Ordu-Baliq, were in fact those of Karakorum. In 1889, the site was
conclusively identified as the former Mongol capital by Nikolai Yadrintsev,
who discovered examples of the Orkhon script during the same expedition.
Yadrintsev's conclusions were confirmed by Wilhelm Radloff.
The first excavations were done in 1933–34 under D. Bukinich. After his
Soviet-Mongolian excavations in 1948–49, Sergei Kiselyov concluded that he had
found the remains of Ögödei's palace. However, this conclusion has been put
into doubt by the findings of the 2000–04 German-Mongolian excavations,
which seem to identify them as belonging to the great stupa temple rather than to
Ögödei's palace. Findings of the excavations include
paved roads, some brick and many adobe buildings, floor heating systems,
bed-stoves, evidence for processing of copper, gold, silver, iron, glass,
jewels, bones, and birch bark, as well as ceramics and coins from China and
Central Asia. Four kilns have also been unearthed.
Modern times In 2004, Prime Minister Tsakhiagiin
Elbegdorj appointed a working group of professionals to develop a project to
build a new city at the site of the ancient capital Karakorum. According to
him, the new Karakorum was to be designed to be an exemplary city, with a
vision of its becoming the capital of Mongolia. After his resignation and
appointment of Miyeegombyn Enkhbold as Prime Minister, this project was
abandoned. See also
Architecture of Mongolia Ordu-Baliq
The Black City of Khara-Khoto Shangdu
Notes References
This article incorporates public domain text posted on-line by The United States
Library of Congress: A Country Study: Mongolia.
Further reading Dschingis Khan und seine Erben, München
2005 Qara Qorum-City. 1: Preliminary Report
of the Excavations, Bonn 2002 External links
Silk Road Seattle - Karakorum and Cities along the Silk Road, posted at the web
site of the University of Washington, 2004.
Treasures of Mongolia - Karakorum, Mongolia, UNESCO Courier, by Namsrain
Ser-Odjav, March 1986. William of Rubruck's Account of the
Mongols Mongolian-German excavations
"Karakorum". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911.