(See Map In
Inscriptions De L'Orkhon, Helsingfors, 1892; A Plan Of The Vicinity And
Of The Erdeni Tso Is Given (Plate 36) In W. Radloff's Atlas Der
Alterthuemer Der Mongolei, St. Pet., 1892.)
[Illustration]
According to a work of the 13th century quoted by the late Professor G.
Deveria, the distance between the
Old capital of the Uighur, Kara
Balgasun, on the left bank of the Orkhon, north of Erdeni Tso, and the
Ho-lin or Karakorum of the Mongols, would be 70 li (about 30 miles), and
such is the space between Erdeni Tso and Kara Balgasun. M. Marcel Monnier
(Itineraires, p. 107) estimates the bird's-eye distance from Erdeni Tso
to Kara Balgasun at 33 kilom. (about 20-1/2 miles). "When the brilliant
epoch of the power of the Chinghizkhanides," says Professor Axel Heikel,
"was at an end, the city of Karakorum fell into oblivion, and towards the
year 1590 was founded, in the centre of this historically celebrated
region of the Orkhon, the most ancient of Buddhist monasteries of
Mongolia, this of Erdeni Tso [Erdeni Chao]. It was built, according to a
Mongol chronicle, on the ruins of the town built by Okkodai, son of
Chinghiz Khan, that is to say, on the ancient Karakorum. (Inscriptions de
l'Orkhon.)" So Professor Heikel, like Professor Pozdneiev, concludes that
Erdeni Tso was built on the site of Karakorum and cannot be mistaken for
Karabalgasun. Indeed it is highly probable that one of the walls of the
actual convent belonged to the old Mongol capital.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 817 of 1256
Words from 221805 to 222059
of 342071
