为什么无法找到成吉思汗墓 - BBC

While the great warrior’s tomb may contain treasure from across the ancient Mongol Empire, Mongolians want its location to remain a mystery.

19 July 2017
This is an outsized land for outsized legends. No roads, no permanent buildings; just unfurling sky, tufted dry grass and streaming wind. We stopped to drink salted milk tea in nomads’ round ger tents and to snap pictures of roaming horses and goats. Sometimes we stopped just for the sake of stopping ‒ Ömnögovi Province, Mongolia, is endless by car. I couldn’t imagine tackling it on a horse.
But this is the country of Genghis Khan, the warrior who conquered the world on horseback. His story is full of kidnappings, bloodshed, love and revenge.

That’s just history. The legend begins with his death.
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Genghis Khan (known in Mongolia as Chinggis Khaan) once ruled everything between the Pacific Ocean and the Caspian Sea. Upon his death he asked to be buried in secret. A grieving army carried his body home, killing anyone it met to hide the route. When the emperor was finally laid to rest, his soldiers rode 1,000 horses over his grave to destroy any remaining trace.

In the 800 years since Genghis Khan’s death, no-one has found his tomb.

Genghis Khan once ruled everything between the Pacific Ocean and the Caspian Sea
Foreign-led expeditions have pursued the grave through historical texts, across the landscape and even from space ‒ National Geographic’s Valley of the Khans Project used satellite imagery in a mass hunt for the gravesite. But most interest in locating the tomb is international; Mongolians don’t want it found.

It’s not that Genghis Khan isn’t significant in his homeland ‒ quite the reverse. His face is on the money and on the vodka; he probably hasn’t been this popular since his death in 1227. So it can be difficult for outsiders to understand why it’s considered taboo to seek his grave.

Genghis Khan did not want to be found
The reluctance is often romanticised by foreign media as a curse, a belief that the world will end if Genghis Khan’s tomb is discovered. This echoes the legend of Tamarlane, a 14th-Century Turkic-Mongolian king whose tomb was opened in 1941 by Soviet archaeologists. Immediately following the tomb’s disturbance, Nazi soldiers invaded the Soviet Union, launching World War II’s bloody Eastern Front. Superstitious people might call that cause and effect.

But Uelun, my translator, was having none of it. A young Mongolian with a degree in international relations from Buryat State University in Ulan-Ude, Russia, she did not seem superstitious. In her opinion, it is about respect. Genghis Khan did not want to be found.


One thousand horses trampled the grave of Genghis Khan to destroy any trace
“They went through all that effort to hide his tomb,” she pointed out. Opening it now would violate his wishes.

This was a common sentiment. Mongolia is a country of long traditions and deep pride. Many families hang tapestries or portraits of the Grand Khan. Some identify themselves as ‘Golden Descendants’, tracing their ancestry to the royal family. Throughout Mongolia, the warrior remains a powerful icon.

The search for Genghis Khan’s tomb
Beyond cultural pressures to honour Genghis Khan’s dying wish for secrecy, a host of technical problems hinder the search for his tomb. Mongolia is huge and underdeveloped ‒ more than seven times the size of Great Britain with only 2% of its roads. The population density is so low that only Greenland and a few remote islands can beat it. As such, every view is epic wilderness. Humanity, it seems, is just there to provide scale: the distant, white curve of a herdsman’s ger, or a rock shrine fluttering with prayer flags. Such a landscape holds on to its secrets.

Mongolia is more than seven times the size of Great Britain with only 2% of its roads
Dr Diimaajav Erdenebaatar has made a career overcoming such challenges in pursuit of archaeology. Head of the Department of Archaeology at Ulaanbaatar State University in Mongolia’s capital city, Dr Erdenebaatar was part of the first joint expedition to find the tomb. The Japanese-Mongolian project called Gurvan Gol (meaning ‘Three Rivers’) focused on Genghis Khan’s birthplace in Khentii Province where the Onon, Kherlen and Tuul rivers flow. That was in 1990, the same year as the Mongolian Democratic Revolution, when the country peacefully rejected its communist government for a new democratic system. It also rejected the search for Genghis Khan, and public protests halted the Gurvan Gol project.

Uelun and I met Dr Erdenebaatar at Ulaanbaatar State University to talk tombs ‒ specifically similarities between his current project and the resting place of Genghis Khan. Since 2001 Dr Erdenebaatar has been excavating a 2,000-year-old cemetery of Xiongnu kings in central Mongolia’s Arkhangai Province. Dr Erdenebaatar believes the Xiongnu were ancestors of the Mongols ‒ a theory Genghis Khan himself shared. This could mean similar burial practices, and the Xiongnu graves may illustrate what Genghis Khan’s tomb looked like.

Many believe Genghis Khan's tomb could be filled with treasures from across the Mongol Empire
Xiongnu kings were buried more than 20m underground in log chambers, with the sites marked above ground with a square of stones. It took Dr Erdenebaatar 10 summers to excavate the first tomb, which had already been hit by robbers. Despite this, it contained a wealth of precious goods indicating the Xiongnu’s diplomatic reach: a Chinese chariot, Roman glassware and plenty of precious metals.

Dr Erdenebaatar took me to the university’s tiny archaeology museum to see the artefacts. Gold and silver ornaments were buried with the horses sacrificed at the gravesite. He pointed out leopards and unicorns within the designs ‒ royal imagery also used by Genghis Khan and his descendants.
There already aren’t enough lifetimes for this work ‒ history is too big
Many believe Genghis Khan’s tomb will be filled with similar treasures gathered from across the Mongol Empire. It’s one reason foreign interest remains strong. But if the Grand Khaan was buried in the Xiongnu style, it may be difficult ‒ if not impossible ‒ to know for sure. Such a tomb could be hidden by simply removing the marker stones. With the main chamber 20m down, it would be impossible to find in the vastness of Mongolia.

When I asked Dr Erdenebaatar if he thought Genghis Khan would ever be found, he responded with a calm, almost indifferent, shrug. There already aren’t enough lifetimes for his work. History is too big.
A possible lead in a forbidden location
Folklore holds that Genghis Khan was buried on a peak in the Khentii Mountains called Burkhan Khaldun, roughly 160km north-east of Ulaanbaatar. He had hidden from enemies on that mountain as a young man and pledged to return there in death. Yet there’s dissent among scholars as to precisely where on the mountain he’d be ‒ if at all.

Legend has it that Genghis Khan was buried in the Khentii Mountains
“It is a sacred mountain,” acknowledged Dr Sodnom Tsolmon, professor of history at Ulaanbaatar State University with an expertise in 13th-Century Mongolian history. “It doesn’t mean he’s buried there.”

Scholars use historical accounts to puzzle out the location of Genghis Khan’s tomb. Yet the pictures they create are often contradictory. The 1,000 running horses indicate a valley or plain, as at the Xiongnu graveyard. Yet his pledge pins it to a mountain. To complicate matters further, Mongolian ethnologist S Badamkhatan identified five mountains historically called Burkhan Khaldun (though he concluded that the modern Burkhan Khaldun is probably correct).

Theories as to Genghis Khan’s whereabouts hang in unprovable limbo
Neither Dr Tsolmon nor I could climb Burkhan Khaldun; women aren’t welcome on the sacred mountain. Even the surrounding area was once closed to everyone but royal family. Once known as the Ikh Khorig, or ‘Great Taboo’, is now the Khan Khentii Strictly Protected Area and a Unesco World Heritage site. Since achieving this designation, Burkhan Khaldun has been off-limits to researchers, which means any theories as to Genghis Khan’s whereabouts hang in unprovable limbo.
Honouring a warrior’s final wish
With the tomb seemingly out of reach, why does it remain such a controversial issue in Mongolia?

Genghis Khan's rule enshrined the concepts of diplomatic immunity and religious freedom
Genghis Khan is simply Mongolia’s greatest hero. The West recalls only what he conquered, but Mongolians remember what he created. His empire connected East and West, allowing the Silk Road to flourish. His rule enshrined the concepts of diplomatic immunity and religious freedom. He established a reliable postal service and the use of paper money. Genghis Khan didn’t just conquer the world, he civilised it.

Genghis Khan didn’t just conquer the world, he civilised it
He remains to this day a figure of enormous respect ‒ which is why Mongolians like Uelun want his tomb to remain undisturbed.

“If they’d wanted us to find it, they would have left some sign.”
That is her final word.
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艾琳·克雷格  (Erin Craig)   2017年 8月 4日

这是一片富有传奇色彩的广袤土地。这里没有道路，没有永久性建筑，只有无尽的天空，丛生的干草和呼啸的烈风。我们停下来在牧民的圆顶蒙古包里饮用咸味的奶茶，抓拍那里马匹和羊群信步的美景。有时我们只是为了停下而停下——蒙古国南戈壁省 (Ömnögovi Province)一望无际，我们一路驾车前行。我无法想像在这片土地上策马奔驰的情形。
但这就是成吉思汗的国家，他就是在马背上征服了世界的勇士。他的故事充斥着绑架和杀戮，爱恨情仇交织在一起。这就是历史。直到他去世后，他的传奇才拉开序幕。

成吉思汗曾经统治着太平洋与里海之间的一切。他临死前要求将自己秘密埋葬。一支悲痛的军队把他的尸体运回家乡，沿途遇到的人都被格杀勿论，只为保守这一秘密。当这位君主终于入土为安，他的1000名士兵在他的墓地上骑马踩踏，毁掉一切痕迹。

在成吉思汗去世后的800年里，没有人能找到他的陵墓。
外国人主导的探险队曾试图在史书、地面甚至空中寻找他的陵墓——《国家地理》杂志的"可汗谷项目" (Valley of the Khans Project) 就曾使用卫星图像大规模搜索，试图找到陵墓所在。最关注寻找陵墓都是些外国人，但是蒙古人自己却并不希望找到它。

这并非由于成吉思汗在他的家乡不受重视——事实恰恰相反。他的头像被印在纸币和伏特加酒瓶上。自 1227 年去世后，他恐怕从未像今天这般深受欢迎。所以对于局外人而言，或许很难理解为什么当地人把寻找他的陵墓视为禁忌。

这种不情愿常常被国外媒体浪漫地解释为一种诅咒。据信，世界将随着成吉思汗墓的发现而终结。这种说法与帖木儿传奇遥相呼应。帖木儿是14世纪的突厥蒙古国王。1941 年，他的陵墓被苏联考古学家发掘。在帖木儿陵墓被发掘之后不久，纳粹军队就入侵苏联，开辟了第二次世界大战血腥的东方战线。迷信的人可能将此视为因果关系。

但是我的翻译乌伦 (Uelun) 却不以为然。作为一名在俄罗斯乌兰乌德 (Ulan-Ude) 布里亚特国立大学 (Buryat State University) 获得国际关系学位的蒙古年轻人，她并不迷信。在她看来，这件事只关乎敬畏。成吉思汗并不希望自己被人找到。

一千匹马在成吉思汗的墓地踩踏，毁灭一切痕迹."他们费尽心机想要把他的陵墓藏起来，"她说。现在打开它将有违他的心愿。

这是人之常情。蒙古是一个拥有悠久传统和崇高荣誉感的国家。很多家庭都挂着印有成吉思汗肖像的挂毯或他的画像。有的人自认为是"黄金后代"，因为他们的祖先可以追溯到古代皇室。在整个蒙古，这位勇士始终是他们一个强大的象征。
寻找成吉思汗墓

除了敬畏成吉思汗临终遗愿的文化压力外，大量技术难题也阻碍着陵墓的搜寻。蒙古地域辽阔，属于欠开发国家——它的面积是英国的7倍多，但是道路却只有英国的2%。这里人口密度极低，只有格陵兰和一些偏远岛屿的人口密度比它更低。自然，这里放眼望去，遍地都是荒野。人类在这里存在似乎只是为了在茫茫大地上提供一些参照物：远方，牧民蒙古包的白色曲线，还有岩石寺庙上迎风飞扬的经幡。这片土地坚守着自己的秘密。

蒙古的面积是英国的七倍多，但是道路却只有英国的 2%（图片来源：Samuel Bergstrom）
在考古生涯中，迪马扎布·额尔德尼巴特尔(Diimaajav Erdenebaatar) 博士曾多次克服了这样的困难。额尔德尼巴特尔博士是蒙古首都乌兰巴托州立大学 (Ulaanbaatar State University) 考古系主任，也是为寻找陵墓成立的首个联合探险队的成员之一。这个由日本和蒙古的合作项目名为"Gurvan Gol"（意思是"三条河流"），它重点研究成吉思汗的出生地肯特省 (Khentii Province)，也就是鄂嫩河 (Onon)、克鲁伦河 (Kherlen) 和图勒河 (Tuul) 的交汇之地。那还要回到1990 年，也是蒙古民主革命爆发的同一年。当时，这个国家和平终结了共产党政府的统治，建立了新的民主体制。同样终结的还有成吉思汗陵墓的搜寻行动，民众的抗议致使"Gurvan Gol"项目中断。

乌伦和我在乌兰巴托州立大学见到了额尔德尼巴特尔博士，我们谈到了陵墓，特别是他手头的项目与成吉思汗墓之间的相似之处。自2001年以来，额尔德尼巴特尔博士已经在蒙古中部的后杭爱省 (Arkhangai Province) 发掘了一个拥有2000年历史的匈奴国王陵墓。额尔德尼巴特尔博士认为，匈奴是蒙古族的祖先，这也是成吉思汗本人认可的理论。这可能意味着他们有类似的墓葬习俗，这些匈奴陵墓也可能与成吉思汗墓类似。

很多人都相信，成吉思汗墓里可能充斥着从蒙古帝国各地搜罗来的珍宝.匈奴国王被埋葬在地下20多米深的木质墓室内，在地面上设有方形石头作为标记。额尔德尼巴特尔博士花了10年时间才发掘出第一个墓室，而且当时这个墓室已历经盗墓者洗劫。尽管如此，墓室里面仍然有许多珍品，它们反映了匈奴的外交触角所及：其中有有一辆中国战车、罗马的玻璃器皿和大量的贵重金属。

额尔德尼巴特尔博士带我参观了大学的小型考古博物馆，那里收藏着这些文物。墓地中葬有金银饰品和殉葬的马匹。他指出藏品图案中的豹和独角兽——成吉思汗和他的后人也将其用于皇室图像。

很多人都相信，成吉思汗墓里可能充斥着从蒙古帝国各地搜罗来的类似珍宝。这也是外国人寻找陵墓的兴趣依然浓厚的一个原因。但是，如果成吉思汗也按照匈奴的方式埋葬（即便有此可能），情况无疑就将难以掌握。通过移动标记石块，这样的陵墓很容易就能隐藏起来。要在蒙古广袤的土地找到地下20米深的墓室，几乎是不可能的事情。

当我询问额尔德尼巴特尔博士他认为能否找到成吉思汗墓时，他镇定而又冷淡地耸了耸肩。他的有生之年已经不足以完成自己的工作了。历史太过久远。

禁入之地可能的线索
民间传说成吉思汗被葬在肯特山 (Khentii Mountains) 一个名为不儿罕合勒敦 (Burkhan Khaldun) 的山峰上，那里距乌兰巴托东北部约160公里。成吉思汗年轻时曾在那座山上成功躲过敌人，他曾发誓死后要魂归于此。但是学者们对于陵墓在这座山上的确切位置仍有争议——如果事实果真如此。

传说成吉思汗被葬在肯特山 (Khentii Mountains) 上."那是一座圣山。"乌兰巴托州立大学专门研究13世纪蒙古历史的历史学教授索德诺姆·朝勒蒙 (Sodnom Tsolmon) 博士说道，"但这并不意味着他就埋葬于此。"

学者们还利用历史记录来寻找成吉思汗墓的位置,，但是他们的说法往往自相矛盾。1000匹奔马表明陵墓所在地形为山谷或平原，如同匈奴墓地一样，但是成吉思汗的誓言又指向山脉。更为复杂的是，蒙古的民族学者S·巴丹哈坦 (S Badamkhatan) 发现，历史上有5座山都叫做不儿罕合勒敦（不过，他认为现在这座不儿罕合勒敦山可能是正确所在）。

朝勒蒙博士和我都无法爬上不儿罕合勒敦山，这座圣山并不欢迎女性,，甚至周边地区也曾一度只向皇室开放。曾经被称作"Ikh Khorig（"禁忌重地"）的地方如今是汗肯特严格保护区 (Khan Khentii Strictly Protected Area)，也被认定为联合国教科文组织世界文化遗产地。自从获得上述认定以来，不儿罕合勒敦山就禁止研究人员进入，这就意味着任何关于成吉思汗墓的猜测都无从证实。

对勇士遗愿的致敬、陵墓似乎无法找到，但是为什么它始终都是蒙古的一个富有争议的话题呢？成吉思汗的统治奉行外交豁免和宗教自由的理念，成吉思汗是蒙古最伟大的英雄。西方人只记得他的征服，而蒙古人则记得他的创造。他的帝国将东西方连接起来，促进了丝绸之路的繁荣。他的统治奉行外交豁免和宗教自由的理念。他建立了可靠的邮政服务，并推行纸币的使用。成吉思汗不仅征服了世界，还推动了世界的文明发展进程。

直至今天，他依然广受尊重——这也是像乌伦这样的蒙古人希望他的陵墓不被打扰的原因所在。7"如果他们想让我们找到，就会留下某种记号。"这是朝勒蒙博士最后的结论。