Ancient Mongolian custom of "secret burial"

When it comes to the Mongolian custom of "secret burial", the first thing that everyone thinks of should be the mystery of Genghis Khan's tomb. The "secret burial" custom practiced by the Mongolian people has a lot to do with the place where Genghis Khan's tomb has become a mystery. Let's take a look at the specific introduction.

Regarding the tomb of Genghis Khan, more than 100 inspection teams have searched for it, but no results have been achieved. According to records, before Genghis Khan died of illness in 1227, he had a will: in order to trick Xixia into surrendering,"there will be no funeral after death." On August 25 of the same year, Genghis Khan died in the army of Lingzhou, Xixia (now Lingwu County, Ningxia). After the Western Xia surrendered, they "returned to Mongolia with the coffin, not wanting Khan's death to be known." In order to ensure that "no one knows","the soldiers guarding the coffin kill everyone they encounter during the long journey." When Lingshu was quietly transported to Genghis Khan's Dawoer (residence, camp) in the Qilulian River area to hold the funeral, the participants were limited to the kings and princesses. After the funeral,"a small number of people took his body to the burial site" and buried it under a tree. In this way, a few years later, the "minority" died one after another, and the burial site of Genghis Khan was buried underground together with the "minority".

The custom of "secret burial" practiced by the Mongolians has a lot to do with the mystery of the burial site of Genghis Khan. The two main characteristics of the ancient Mongolian custom of "secret burial" are: First, the funeral is simple, and the wood is cut out to make a coffin. 2. The cemetery is confidential and buried underground. No graves will be erected or marked. The Holy See envoy who came to Mongolia in 1246 wrote in his mission diary: "They secretly went to the open place, where they removed everything on the grass and dug a big pit. On the edge of the pit, they dug a catacombs." After putting in the dead,"they filled the big pit in front of the tomb, still covered it with grass, and restored it to its original appearance."

There is also a legend among the people of Mongolia: In order to ensure that the specific location of his tomb was not known to outsiders, the loyal followers of Genghis Khan, that is, the generals of the Mongolian cavalry, first built many fake Genghis Khan mausoleum, set out at the same time on the day of burial, and then mobilized thousands of horses to lift and flatten the real tomb where Genghis Khan was buried, and replant it with lush pasture, making the Mausoleum of Genghis Khan integrated with the surrounding environment. Then he killed her camel in front of a female camel, and then sent an army to guard it from afar. In the following year, the grass grew and the surrounding grassland became green and could not be distinguished. Only then did the camp withdraw to ensure that everything was safe.

The reason why Genghis Khan killed his own baby camel in front of a mother camel at his burial site was so that he could find the cemetery in the future, because camels have the nature of identifying their own blood relatives. When looking for Genghis Khan's tomb in the future, you will be able to find the place where the baby camel died only with the female camel as the lead-that is Genghis Khan's tomb.

The Mongolian tradition of building tombs instead of tombs may be seriously related to the constant fighting and vendetta between tribes before the Mongolians were unified. In order to prevent enemies from destroying tombs and flogging corpses to vent their anger, the Mongolians developed this strange custom. The Mongolian sacrificial method seems to contradict the burial method again. Judging by the way Genghis Khan was buried, it seemed that the Mongolian aristocrats did not want anyone to know. But they seemed to pay special attention to sacrifice, so they came up with a way to kill the baby camels and then release the female camels to find the tomb. But in fact, Mongolian aristocrats in successive dynasties would build separate tombs, which were equivalent to the cenotaph of the Han people, for future generations to pay homage. What secrets are there in this way of concealing the truth and revealing the fake?

The Genghis Khan Mausoleum always brings some mysterious questions to everyone that are incomprehensible! However, the ancient Mongolian custom of "secret burial" was contradictory. How many secrets there were still needed to be verified by science.