- The ALTAI here certainly does not mean the Great South Siberian
Range to which the name is now applied. Both Altai and Altun-Khan
appear sometimes to be applied by Sanang Setzen to the Khingan of the
Chinese, or range running immediately north of the Great Wall near Kalgan.
(See ch. lxi. note I.) But in reference to this matter of the burial of
Chinghiz, he describes the place as "the district of Yekeh Utek, between
the shady side of the Altai-Khan and the sunny side of the Kentei-Khan."
Now the Kentei-Khan (khan here meaning "mountain") is near the sources
of the Onon, immediately to the north-east of Urga; and Altai-Khan in this
connection cannot mean the hills near the Great Wall, 500 miles distant.
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.
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