Burkhan Khaldun

In the Khan Khentii mountains of northeastern Mongolia, where steppe gives way to Siberian taiga, stands Burkhan Khaldun, the mountain at the center of Mongolian sacred geography. The Secret History of the Mongols records the young Temujin escaping his pursuers onto the mountain and vowing to it, and the mountain has been revered ever since, woven into the worship of sacred mountains, rivers and ovoo cairns that Mongolia's state tradition revived in the twentieth century. UNESCO inscribed the Great Burkhan Khaldun Mountain and its surrounding sacred landscape as a World Heritage Site in 2015, citing both the mountain worship and the belief that the mountain holds the birth and burial of Genghis Khan.

The mountain's rules are the tradition's own: the upper reaches have traditionally been closed, with ascent forbidden to most, and those restrictions are part of the living practice, not obstacles to it. Ovoo ceremonies today blend shamanic and Buddhist forms, as they have for centuries. The site lies within the Khan Khentii Strictly Protected Area, where entry requires permission from the state protection administration, and this entry publishes the mountain as a region, not a pin.

Visiting

Within the Khan Khentii Strictly Protected Area, entry requires permission from the state protection administration; there are no tourist facilities on the mountain, and the traditional closure of its upper reaches governs where anyone may go.

Photo: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burkhan_Khaldun_mount2.jpg), CC BY-SA 2.0, Ganzorig Gavaa.