Taikhar Rock, Jargalant, Mongolia
Mongolia is full of interesting and beautiful places. In the central region, along the Tamir river stands the Taikhar chuluu.
This is a huge rock, there is nothing similar in the neighborhood. The stone itself is not as interesting as the inscriptions on it and the legends connected with it. Long time ago the rock was called dai gürü. Dai is a Chinese loan-word meaning big, while gürü means rock in Mongolian. The modern name Taikhar is a compound of these two words.
Therefore it is unnecessary to add to the name chuluu which means ‘stone’, because this would mean something like “Big rock rock”. The rock has a large number of inscriptions. Unfortunately, our contemporaries also leave their scraps on it, and as a consequence several old inscriptions are disappearing. Among the graffitis there are many very old ones, some written in the Turkic age [A.D. 6th century].
The Turkic inscriptions are not just epigraphic relics, their importance goes far beyond this. In fact, they attest that the rock was revered already in the Turkic period, and this tradition was uninterruptedly transferred to the Mongols. Thus the Turkic, Mongolian and other inscriptions prove the cultural relations and continuity between the various people following each other.
Epic Mongolia Culture & Adventure Route © Monika Newbound
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