In the lore surrounding Genghis Khan: his life, the rise of his empire, and perhaps the fall of the empire through succeeding generations, there is an enduring presence of the Eternal Blue Sky and the Burkhan Khaldun, or God Mountain in Mongolian.

When he was still known as Temujin, without tribe and seeking to retake his kidnapped wife, Genghis Khan went to Burkhan Khaldun to pray. He stripped off his weapons, belt, and hat – the symbols of a man’s power and stature – and bowed to the sun, sky, and mountain, first offering thanks for their constancy and for the people and circumstances that sustained his life. Then, he prayed and fasted, contemplating his situation and formulating a strategy. It was only after days in prayer that he descended from the mountain with a clear purpose and plan that would result in his first victory in battle.

When he was elected Khan of Khans, he again retreated into the mountains to seek blessing and guidance. Before every campaign against neighboring tribes and kingdoms, he would spend days in Burhkhan Khandun, fasting and praying. By then, the people of his tribe had joined in on his ritual at the foot of the mountain, waiting his return.

Burkhan Khaldun, God Mountain, casts shadows on Mongolian landscape

Each time he approached the mountain alone, without his belt, hat, or weapon. It is said that during those pilgrimages, he would lay out the reasons for the upcoming military campaign, weighing out carefully whether he was justified in his attack and recognized in his victory.

In those moments of solitude, naked in front of the harsh elements of nature, without title, fanfare or even bow and arrow, Genghis Khan contemplated the future of his family, his Empire, and wrestled with himself to define a vision and the values that would unite his ever-expanding tribe.

His empire would go on to become one of the largest in history, united by a vision that he came to express as “One tribe under the eternal blue sky.” His empire would set precedents such as freedom of religion, a merit based system, free trade agreements, and spurred innovations in everything from agriculture to medicine to technology that would only be seen again hundreds of years later.

A nation forms through a shared vision and understanding of a shared history or identity. At the heart of such an undertaking is a leader who is willing to set aside his or her own ambitions to champion a greater good and to stand by the values that underpin that vision. To become such a leader requires constant self-reflection, deference to the higher principles of the universe, and gratitude for the blessings that have placed them in such a position of responsibility and power.

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Statue of Genghis Khan (Photo Credit: Francois Philipp via Flickr)

The rise of great civilizations requires a foundation of universal principles and shared values that form the foundation of an ethic that holds the people to a shared identity and destiny. A civilizations’ rise is attributed to the people’s resonance to enduring principles and their demise results from the people’s dissonance with their core values.

In Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, Jack Weatherford presents an intimate retelling of the life of Genghis Khan, from his tragic youth to his pursuit of a vision to unite the whole world under the Eternal Blue Sky.

The story recounts the rise of one of the largest civilizations in history, stretching from Europe to China and the Middle East that began with one individual inspired by a vision. Genghis Khan was then able to give substance to that vision through the promulgation of laws and a system that upheld the principles and values of that vision.

The Yassa, or Great Law of the Mongol Empire, “recognized the ultimate supreme law of the Eternal Blue Sky over all people.” It allowed for freedom of worship, acknowledging individual merit and more, all expressed in the laws and culture of the Empire, which created social cohesion in a wide-ranging and hugely diverse population.

Weatherford observes that Genghis Khan held himself to these laws. “At a time when most rulers considered themselves to be above the law, Genghis Khan insisted on laws holding rulers as equally accountable as the lower herder.”

As Genghis Khan detailed in a letter he sent to a monk in China, he strove to treat his subjects “like his children” and treat talented men “as his brothers”, despite their differences. He worked with his officials closely, and although he differed in culture and even religion, he wrote, “We always agree in our principles and we are always united in mutual affection.” In this way, Genghis Khan was able to expand the notion of kinship to go beyond blood ties based on loyalty to principles with the warmth and care of mutual respect.

At the end of his life, Genghis Khan warned his sons to continue to follow the Great Laws or face ruin. His warning ominously speaking to the breakdown over the next three generations who grew farther and farther from the origins of their legacy, as they became preoccupied by protecting their power and assets rather than pursuing their father’s dream.

From this example of the Mongol empire, one can conclude that there are certain core principles and values which form the natural bedrock of strong civilizations. These principles and values are vitally instrumental in articulating a vision that can inspire ancient founders of civilizations as well as continue to inspire succeeding generations.

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A closeup of the Mallorquín Atlas depicting Marco Polo traveling to the East during the Pax Mongolica (Photo Credit: Abraham Cresques, Atlas catalan)

Tribalism describes the way human societies have operated for nearly the whole of human history. As an organizing principle based on the notion of shared kinship ties, tribalism makes distinctions between those of the tribe and those who are not.

The danger of this kind of thinking is that it implicitly creates an “us versus them” mentality. With such a worldview, peace, cooperation and prosperity becomes limited to the accepted boundaries of the tribe. If there was cooperation between tribes, even this might  be only temporary or very limited in scope.

War then becomes a natural outcome of this type of thinking and many of the worst examples of human behavior emerge when one tribe has effectively “de-humanized” those who stand outside of the tribe. Moreover, tribalism and the conflicts that arise with it limit the exchange of information, ideas and, subsequently, any kind of development or advance beyond a single group.

A look back into history shows how civilizational progress was made possible, when the notion of identity expanded rather than retracted. One example is the era dubbed “Pax Mongolica” in the 13th and 14th centuries during the rule of the Mongols. This period is all the more remarkable when considering the constant warfare and subsistence-level living standards common among the various Mongol tribes before the rise of Genghis Khan.

A largely nomadic people, looked down upon as “barbarians” by even those they conquered, the Mongols were nonetheless able to establish an empire that spanned across Southeast Asia, and as far as Eastern Europe at its peak. More notable still was the fact that the Mongols were able to extend the notion of kinship to include even those of the captured population. Jack Weatherford notes in his book Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World:

“Genghis Khan was not merely making alliances between his family and their ruling families. He was accepting the entire tribe or nation into his empire as familial members, since, in the political idiom of the tribes, granting kinship to the khan was tantamount to recognizing family ties with the whole nation. In this way, the idiom of kinship has expanded into a type of citizenship.”

In order to substantially maintain these ties, Genghis Khan turned to principles and values as instituted in the Great Yasa, the Mongol code of law:

“As he smashed the feudal system of aristocratic privilege and birth, he built new and unique systems based on individual merit, loyalty and achievement […] He created an international law and recognized the ultimate supreme law of the Eternal Blue Sky over all people.”

This change was significant in a time when the concept of rule of law was unimaginable. And this was only possible because the Great Khan himself believed himself to be but an instrument of the universal order and subject to failure if he were to deviate from it, insisting “on laws holding rulers as equally accountable as the lower herder.”

Global Peace Festival featured performers at Wreath Laying Ceremony at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in 2011.

As the empire expanded, a hugely diverse population became an asset. The relatively free exchange of ideas and information helped to develop innovations and developments in everything from trade, agriculture, medicine, the arts and beyond.

The empire eventually declined after Genghis Khan’s death as his descendants created new lines of identity, and the notion of a greater empire collapsed into the incipient factionalism and tribalism that had come before it.

It is instructive today to revisit the lessons from Pax Mongolica as a pattern of new kinds of “tribalisms” is now observed around the world in the 21st century. This alarming trend of negative values poses a threat to the many social, technological, scientific advances that we have made as a global community.

We are called now to remember again that great things are possible when we transcend parochial interests and work for something bigger.

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Credit: Anonymous court painter

For centuries since his passing, Genghis Khan has taken on mythic proportions as a blood-thirsty barbarian who destroyed and plundered his helpless and hapless victims during a horrific reign of terror. Yet, in what is only recently being discovered, is what Mongolians – the direct descendants of the great Khan himself – have long recognized: Genghis Khan was a man before his time.

In Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, Jack Weatherford chronicles the life of Genghis Khan, an illiterate son of nomadic origins, and his legacy. His ability to organize and administer a diverse population spread across thousands of miles, cultures and languages has long been obscured by his more infamous renown as a tactical military genius.

In modern terms, Genghis Khan created a meritocratic rule of law and consolidated huge territories into a secure zone of free trade that spanned continents. Weatherford suggests that Genghis Khan was driven to create this system through the hardship and despair he had personally experienced as a young boy on the Steppes. In his rise, he strove to realize a world without internecine conflict between tribes and nations and for greater prosperity for all. This, and the system that he created sparked innovations and informational exchange that molded the modern world through advances in trade, technology, communication, economics, governance, medicine, education and more. This exchange set the stage for civilizational progress on countless levels and in a myriad of ways.

Credit: Bkkbrad

And yet what remains more notable than all of these accomplishments is that his efforts to unite the people under the rule of the “Eternal Blue Sky” was not an autocratic, tyrannical rule imposing his own particular beliefs but an effort to align with the principles of the universe. While Genghis Khan had his own spiritual beliefs and practices, he recognized and respected the rights of others to their own beliefs, becoming a defender of religious freedom for many persecuted minority religious groups.

While he was unable to fully pass down the principles and values that he had learned through his lifetime onto his sons and grandsons, there are valuable lessons we can learn from this oft-misunderstood man of incredible will, ability and destiny.

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