Promotion of Mongolian World Heritage
This project involves the preparation of illustrated English-language guide booklets to Mongolia's cultural World Heritage Sites.
The booklets are being prepared as a synthesis of existing ethnographical and archaeological materials, archival photographs and documents, maps, and information gathered from original field surveys. Research for this project is being conducted with assistance from the Mongolian National Commission for UNESCO, the Mongolian National Committee for World Heritage, and the Institute of Archaeology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences.
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The Orxon Valley Cultural Landscape World Heritage Site
The Orxon Valley Cultural Landscape is Mongolia's second World Heritage Site (inscribed in 2004), and the first cultural property in Mongolia to obtain the World Heritage designation. It encompasses an area of approximately 150-thousand hectares at the source of the Orxon River, and includes an abundance of historical and archaeological monuments attesting to the continuous human occupation of this region since the early stone age.
Heritage of the Region
Among its most significant properties are the Türkic memorial complexes devoted to Kül-Tegin and Bilge Khaan, the vast Uighur capital city Xar Balgas, the Mongolian imperial capital Karakorum, and the monasteries of Tövxen and Erdene Zuu. The Orxon Valley also contains a great number of monuments representing a mixture of cultural traditions - such as temples and palaces bearing the influence of Tibetan, Chinese and Mongolian architectural styles, and stelae and similar inscriptions combining Turkic, Sogdian, Mongolian, Chinese and Tibetan scripts.
Today the Orxon Valley remains the focus of a vibrant nomadic culture, whose traditional technologies, spiritual worldview and folk arts make a significant contribution to the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. It also retains an important symbolic value for the Mongolian people, through its association with the lives and works of national historical figures such as Chingis Xaan (Genghix Khan), Ögedei Xaan, and Öndör Gegeen Zanabazar.
The Need for Better Visitor Interpretation
Unfortunately the overall significance of the Orxon Valley remains unknown to most visitors, whose travels generally remain limited to the immediate region of Xarxorin, and who have no access to reliable, in-depth interpretation of this outstanding World Heritage Site. Currently there are no official materials to promote and interpret the site to foreign tourists, other than a small brochure produced by the Erdene Zuu Museum, and no on-site interpretive facilities have been installed. Consequently there is an evident need, in the short term, to produce and distribute printed English-language interpretive materials describing the unique value of the World Heritage Site and its component monuments, and serving as a reference to their history and culture.
Guidebook
A guidebook with colour illustrations has been prepared, presenting the Orxon Valley Cultural Landscape World Heritage Site on the basis of existing scientific materials, the World Heritage nomination dossier, and new field research and photographs.
This publication is expected to be of benefit in promoting awareness of the World Heritage Site and, on a broader level, of Mongolia's tangible and intangible cultural heritage in general; in deepening visitors' understanding of the sites and living culture of the Orxon Valley; and sensitizing the international public to the need for safeguarding this valuable cultural heritage. It will also constitute an important scientific document, as the first English-language synthesis of Mongolian and Russian archaeological and ethnographical materials - many of which remain unpublished - and as a comprehensive survey drawing on new field research.
The booklet includes:
- A descriptive presentation of the Orxon Valley Cultural Landscape World Heritage Site;
- An overview of the historical and cultural value of the World Heritage Site;
- Descriptions of the individual monuments contained in the Orxon Valley, along with comprehensive bibliographical commentary;
- A discussion of the intimate relationship between the intangible heritage of the Mongol nomads and the physical and cultural landscape;
- Maps, archival photographs, and other illustrations presenting the significance of the Orxon Valley.
 | In commemoration of the legacy and teachings of His Holiness Dulduit Danzanravzhaa Fifth Wrathful Noble Xutagt of the Great Gobi (1803-1856) I did not overbearingly sophize Nor preach with pride and arrogance But having found a sense in this world Spoke the truth of my dear heart. |   |