Mongolia’s New Year, Tsagaan sar, started on Friday, a fitting day for the the world’s most extensive exhibition dedicated to Chinggis Khaan which opened at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in Simi Valley, California.
The goal of the exhibition is to make the public aware of another side of Chinggis Khaan, the conqueror who dominated three times more land in his lifetime — 1162-1227 — than either Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great, said library spokeswoman Melissa Giller.
“Khaan was also a civilizer and a lawmaker and a democratiser, and that’s what we’re trying to show,” she said Thursday as the finishing touches were being put on the exhibit, which will run until 19 August.
Visitors will learn that Chinggis Khaan not only created the nation of Mongolia and its written language, but his lineage established the modern borders of China, India, Iran and Korea and opened trade routes that united East and West, Giller said.
Chinggis Khaan’s empire brought such innovations to the West as Mongolian-style democracy, pants, the pony express, passports, cannons, paper money, skis, violins, baklava, noodles, lemons and tea, said the exhibit’s creator, Don Lessem.
“He is responsible for so many things that we didn’t realize,” said Lessem, calling Chinggis Khaan “perhaps the greatest civilizer in the history of the Earth.” Not that the exhibit whitewashes Chinggis Khaan’s ruthless, violent side. It includes a formidable array of swords, bows, arrows, saddles and armour.
In all, the exhibit features more than 200 objects, including costumes, jewels, ornaments, instruments and numerous other relics and elaborate artifacts from 13th-century Mongolia.Visitors will experience the exhibit through the eyes of a Mongolian resident, receiving a civilian identity card at the beginning of their tour. As a warrior or a spy or a princess, they will follow their character’s life throughout the rise of the great Mongol Empire.
The re-creation of Karakorum, a walled city that became the capital of the Mongolian Empire after Chinggis Khaan’s son inherited the kingdom. The re-creation of the sumptuous Chinese palace of Xanadu, the centre of the empire of Chinggis Khaan’s grandson, Kubilai, who united China for the first time. Also presented is an exploration of the vital trade route along the Silk Road, which enabled the exchange of both goods and ideas between cultures.
