Please join the Harriman Institute for the first installment of the Inner Eurasia Colloquium: a lecture by Dotno Pount. Moderated by James Meador.

Political sovereignty across Mongol space was dominated for centuries by the descendants of Chinggis Khan. At the core of these Chinggisid dominions was a ritual tradition that positioned itself as their center. The Cult of Chinggis Khan is a set of wagon-mounted shrines in Inner Mongolia, kept by hereditary priestly custodian lineages known as the Darkhad. The latter trace their founding moment to a decree by Kublai Khan (r. 1260-1294) at the heyday of the Mongol Empire. While there are sufficient textual sources from the early centuries of this shrine’s existence to construct its history, even if they are not as many as the last three centuries, there is a middle “Dark Period” from the late 14th through early 16th century during which no contemporary written sources are available. In this talk, Dr. Pount will present her newest research on what we can learn about the cult’s existence, Mongol elite culture, and ideology from Chinese sources contemporary to the so-called “Dark Period.”