Who "owns" Chinggis Khaan?

Chinggis Khaan's statue, Mongolia

Poor Chinggis Khaan. He is "confused" and doesn't know who he is anymore. Japanese say, he is ours. Chinese say, he was one of the Chinese ethnic minority leaders, claiming that Mongols were one  of their many ethnic minorities. Today with the Mongols living in so called Inner Mongolia, China has a minority group of Mongols, numbered few millions, but not in times when Mongol tribes existed in modern-day Mongolia's territory and around it,  or after they were united as a nation 800 plus and more years ago.  Chinggis Khaan was not a "minority leader" when he united Mongol tribes and founded Mongol Empire. In fact he and his grandson Khubilai should be hated by the Chinese people, like by the Russians or Arabs, for his invasion of Chinese territory and causing so much trouble to  the natives.

But no, in contrary, they would praise him as "Chinese" hero. You know why? Here is the trick. By claiming  Chinggis Khaan and other Mongol Khaans they would justify their claim about Mongolia's territory, saying, you know, those kings are ours and so is the land. Since the establishment of modern Chinese statehood (after 1911) they wouldn't stop  claiming  Mongolia as  part of China, although  not officially. In museums the Mongol kings (khaans) were displayed as  "Chinese Mongol khans" and in schools were taught that the whole Mongolia once belonged to China.

Overseas  Chinese restaurants are named "Genghis Khan" (like the one in Cairo, Egypt or in Melbourne, Australia, etc.) and their menus include a dish called "Mongolian beef" when such a dish never existed in Mongolia.  A Chinese meal with such a name should make the customer believe that Mongolians and Chinese are somewhat "connected". Why wouldn't they name  their restaurants after "Mao Zedung" or "Zhu Xi"  (1130-1200), a famous Chinese philosopher?  Do they have any pride to use the names of  their own famous Chinese personalities? No, Chinggis Khaan  should attract more customers than Zhu Xi and besides Chinggis Khaan is a "Chinese Mongol king".

A  piece of land called  "Inner Mongolia" (aka  Southern Mongolia ), former part of Mongolia proper, is now within Chinese border and Mongolian nomads living in that territory have become eventually a  minority like Tibetans. The whole deal how this piece of land became "Chinese territory" was played after the WW2 between the two neighbors, Russia and China, despite the efforts   for unification of two Mongolian territories by Mongolia proper and Inner Mongolian leaders.

If you read  decent and not biased or falsified  sources about Mongolia-China relationship in the past, you will find out that China was indeed "part" of Mongolia (then Mongol Empire) and not vice versa. But we don't "claim" it because we know that particular territory south of the Great Wall of China belongs to Chinese people.
Unfortunately, Chinese policy crosses the line.  Chinese claim derives from the time of Manchu Empire (1644-1912)  which included the territories of China, Mongolia , Tibet, East Turkestan and of course Manchuria (the homeland of Manchu people).
But Manchu people are not Chinese and  have a nomadic life style like Mongols. Actually Manchus are more related to Mongols. When they became once so powerful, they conquered China, Mongolia, Tibet and East Turkestan (now Xinjiang). They ruled until 1911 when Chinese people revolted and tore down the Manchu Empire. Chinese declared their independence and Mongolia did it, as well as Tibet. Manchu's rule was the second foreign occupation after the one of the Mongols (Yuan Empire, 1279-1368) under which Chinese population much suffered.

Territories comprised the current China

Now, claiming somebody's (in this case Mongolia's) territory as its own when both (Mongolia and China) suffered under somebody else's (Manchu's) rule,  is ridiculous and funny.  Chinese original territory is not much bigger than that of Mongolia's  today. With  "original" territory I mean  excluding  Tibet, Manchuria (to the east of Southern Mongolia, marked as blue on the above image) ) , East  Turkestan and Inner Mongolia (aka Southern Mongolia)  from the current China's map. (see the pic. above)

In the earlier times, Chinese couldn't think a  better way to protect themselves from the danger to be raided by the nomadic people from the north, than to build a huge wall which should become a physical barrier, but it didn't help much , except becoming a tourist attraction  these days. The  Great Wall of China marks also the border of the Chinese original territory. Anything north of that wall belonged to the nomadic people who formed a united Mongol statehood in 1206  declaring Temuujin, a chief of Borjigon tribe, as the Great Khaan, and giving him a title  "Chinggis" Khaan.

E.Temuujin (a childhood statue dedicated to Chinggis Khaan)

By the way, some Mongolian scholars think that the word  "Chinggis" derives from "Tenggis", a word  meaning  "sea". Over the time, "Tenggis" became "Chinggis". Mongolians have the tradition to compare to and name things big or great as  "ocean" or "sea". Like the title "Dalai" Khaan with "Dalai" means "Ocean" in Mongolian. For example, a well-known  person who  owns this kind of title is "Dalai lama" , Tibetan spiritual leader whose actual name is different. (lama means priest or monkh)

Chinggis Khaan was chosen as the King (Khaan)  and the united  Mongol state was built. One can find many sources of information today  about the wars led against the southern neighbor (China) and northern neighbor (today's Russia), and far into the west under Chinggis Khaan's leadership and later by his sons and grandsons. Some are really biased and full of hatred against the Mongols, but hey, times  were different.
It makes no sense  to apply Geneva Convention terms to those times.

Chinese "claim" of Chinggis Khaan (with all other following kings) and Mongolia proper wouldn't cease until today. They would distribute all kind of  materials, online and offline,  with  distorted history related to Mongols  all over the world and  keep brainwashing their citizens from the childhood on. Even top Chinese military officials expressing their disappointment  openly by saying that "losing" Mongolia proper was a big mistake on China's  part.

Meanwhile there are coming others who would like to claim Chinggis Khaan as well. Kazakhs are saying that Chinggis was their hero because Kazakhs were one of the turkic people lived among Mongol tribes. They say "Temuujin" is a turkic name and he was born as Kazakh. One of every  100 Kazakhs is allegedly a descendent (blood relatives) of Chinggis khaan, they say.
Ukrainians also want to "own" Chinggis Khaan and, a man named Alexander Sinukhov wrote even a book called "Chinggis Khan- son of  Kievan Isaac". He claims that Chinggis Khaan was a smart Jew who went to the not so smart nomadic people and helped them to unite and became their king. According to him, Chinggis was  a close relative of the Emporer Kievan Isaac and  a Jew.

God knows, who else would claim him as own. As funny as it sounds, this kind of ridiculous claims will do lead to lot of misunderstandings and confusions which bring nothing but damages and bad consequences in people's relationship and friendship between the affected nations. Dislike and hatred are caused by this kind of disrespect and insults. Without stopping  such nonsense and  accepting the truth, one shouldn't talk about respect, let alone  friendship.

p.s. Please,stop also pronouncing Chinggis Khaan's name incorrectly. If it's spelled like Genghis, it should be pronounced as "Jenghis". Not with "G" as in "Gift" but with "G" as in "General". I hope nobody wouldn't like his/her name to be mispronounced.
p.p.s. For some info about Chinggis Khaan see:        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genghis_Khan

Another wrestler in the Parliament

D.Sumyabazar

One of disputed problems was solved recently by a revote- a  continuation of the Parliament's election of 2012. One seat  was  still not filled in the new Parliament, and voters of the Songinokhairkhan electorate district had to decide whom to choose as the third  MP to represent them. Two candidates were on the ballot and both had not sufficient amount of votes back in 2012 to be elected directly. One is Sumyabazar D., a well-known wrestler in Mongolia, a nomination of the Mongolian Peopl'e Party (MPP- former communist party), and his opponent is the Democratic Party candidate named Erkhembayar.
It turned out that Sumyabazar got the most of the votes and  probably will be declared as the winner.

Even though he does not represent the majority of all voters of electoral district Songinokhairkhan , he will be allowed to become an MP soon anyway. Nothing personal, but it itches me when he, or anybody else in that matter, is is going  to be declared as the Representative of that electorate having only 33 thousand votes out of  180 thousand possible. Even though it was a revote it still seems  not right. I am just saying. It is not possible to haul all voters (in total of 180 thousand people) to voting place and it would be also difficult to repeat the procedure again due to lack of participation  by the voters because of the costs. So there is nothing one can do to do it right, until some changes are made in the appropriate laws and our citizens become more responsible and be aware of one's obligations.

B.Bat-Erdene (MP)

Electoral district Songinokhairkhan has 180 thousand registered voters. Three representatives must be elected in the Parliament from this electorate. In 2012 election only two reps can be elected but a revote was needed for the third seat among two candidates because neither of them won the necessary minimum votes.
Sumyabazar  won the 55% of the votes in the revote. Sadly, only 33% of the total numbers of the  voters on the list  showed up to vote. That is 60 thousand people. 55% of this 60 thousand would be 33 thousand. So  33 thousand people voted for Sumyabazar who will represent 180 thousand voters of this district. He has changed his career from the one of wrestler's to politician. Sumyabazar has a tutor already in the Parliament- the most famous wrestler B.Bat-Erdene who is serving  his third  term since 2004.  Since both wrestlers are in the same party- MPP, they will be close partners and companions for sure.

Asashoryu, 68th Yokozuna

Sumyabazar is the older brother of Asashoryu , the 68th Yokozuna, the most famous Mongolian professional Sumo wrestler who won the cup 25 times in Japan. Sumyabazar competed in Mongolian national wrestling, free style wrestling  and later  he tried  kickboxing too but was not so successful as expected. So he gave up and  decided to compete in the political ring.
Let's see how is gonna do it.

Sumyabazar (sitting) with Asahsoryu

Below are some videos  about how he performed  in different types of competition:

1. Mongolian national  wrestling (Winner at Mongolian National Wrestling Championship in 2006)

2. Freestyle wrestling (at Sydney Olympic Games in 2000)

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA2D6k1lIsM


3. Kickboxing (against Bob Sapp- former American football player)

Mongolian woman freed from abusive Nigerian man

S.Enkhmaa

A Mongolian woman, S.Enkhmaa, mother of  four, stranded in Nigeria was rescued by the Synagogue Church Of All Nation (SCOAN) so that she and her two children can go back to Mongolia.  Her name is Enkhmaa. She has two children from her first  marriage and two from  the man she met while she was in China, a businessman named  Christopher Anakuba, a Nigerian citizen. According to Enkhmaa, he beat her a lot, even when she was 7 month pregnant or after birth,  and  kept her locked  in his house without food or with little food. When they met he was nice and lovely, but after  they arrived in Nigeria, his behavior changed and he  started treating her like his slave. As  Enkhmaa says, such assholes are everywhere in the world  including Mongolia as well, and she was just not lucky by choosing  one of those.

Christopher Anakuba

I am very thankful to  SCOAN for helping Enkhmaa and her two children  with the accommodation, food and obtaining the necessary documents  for  coming back home to Mongolia. That was a humane thing to do and SCOAN gets credit for that. I was also amazed how SCOAN people managed to do everything to save Nigeria's reputation by persuading Enkhmaa to forgive the father of her two children, Mr."Businessman", and  to allow him to visit his children in Mongolia anytime he wants. In return Enkhmaa gets all the help she and her children needed. But no word about being sorry or apology from that abusive man who, as it seems to me, does not care anyway what happens  to his two children and their mother.

He seems to respect the God and came to the church after he got invited, but has no respect for  his children and the woman who gave birth to them. He has no love for his children. Why would he go to Mongolia to see his children when he doesn't care? If he loved his children, forget about their mother, he would have had tried to keep them with him and let  their mother go alone. But he let all of them go because he does not need them. His belief about treating woman and children differs from the one God  follows. I bet he has many children with many women in his own country.

Njideka, oldest daughter

Nevertheless, Nigeria's image is hurt anyway by this evil man named Anakuba despite SCOAN's effort and Enkhmaa's  assurance that "Mr.Businessman"  does not represent Nigeria as a whole. It is true but we all know how one single incident, one single human being can damage the whole picture,  or his  or her  nation's name.

Ifunnaya, younger daughter

By the way, I didn't understand why the crowd in the church was laughing when Enkhmaa presented her children by their names. I think Enhkhmaa gave  them  Nigerian names, but what was so funny about?  I couldn't understand. (watch the scene beginning at 17:52 min in the video below). One can easily see that these two girls are of "mixed race"- a product of yellow mother and black father. The priest "discovers"  that those girls are Nigerian descends  because of their Abia names and the abusive man was their father, but he called the man as Enkhmaa's husband which is not true because she said that they were not married.  The church-goers were for some reason really entertaining in that scene.

Anyway, thanks again the SCOAN and its priest and anyone who helped those poor three creatures with donations  or otherwise. I am sure that  "Mr.Businessman"  will never put his feet on Mongolia's soil for the reason I mentioned above, and I don't know what his two girls would think about  their negligent and abusive father who just abandoned them as if they meant  nothing to him, when they grow up. Lastly, just wanna wish them a good life and happiness!

p.s. Watch the video.