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RegisterPosted by: Zhang Caizhi
« on: November 21, 2025, 10:06:44 pm »https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_Genghis_Khan
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Ejin Horo fell to the Communists at the end of 1949 and was controlled by their Northwest Bureau until the establishment of Suiyuan Province the next year.[10] The district's Communists set up rituals honouring Genghis Khan in the early 1950s, but abolished the traditional religious offices surrounding them like the Jinong and controlled the cult through local committees with loyal Party cadres.[10] Without the relics, they relied largely on singing and dancing groups.[10] In 1953, the PRC's central government approved the recently formed Inner Mongolian provincial government's request for 800,000 RMB to create the present permanent structures.[3] Early the next year,[15] the central government permitted the return of the objects at Kumbum to the site being constructed at Ejin Horo.[10] The region's chairman Ulanhu officiated at the first ritual after their return, decrying the Nationalists for having "stolen" them.[10] After this ritual, he immediately held a second ceremony to break ground on a permanent temple to house the objects and the khan's cult, again approved and paid for by China's central government.[10] By 1956, this new temple was completed, greatly expanding the purview of the original shrine.[14] Rather than having eight separate shrines throughout Ejin Horo for the Great Khan, his wives, and his children, all were placed together; a further 20 sacred and venerated objects from around the Ordos were also brought to the new site.[14] The government also mandated that the main ritual would be held in the summer rather than in the third lunar month, in order to make it more convenient for the headers to maintain their spring work schedules.[14] With the Darkhads no longer liable for personally paying for maintenance of the shrine, most accepted these changes.[14] An especially large celebration was held in 1962 to mark the 800th anniversary of Genghis Khan's birth.[15]
In 1968, the Cultural Revolution's Red Guards destroyed almost everything of value at the shrine.[14] For 10 years, the buildings themselves were turned into a salt depot as part of preparations for a potential war with the Soviet Union.[27]
Following Deng Xiaoping's Opening Up Policy, the site was restored by 1982[3] and sanctioned for "patriotic education"[14] as a AAAA-rated tourist attraction.[3] Replicas of the former relics were made, and a great marble statue of Genghis was completed in 1989.[28] Priests at the museum now claim that all of the Red Guards who desecrated the tomb have died in abnormal ways, suffering a kind of curse.[29]
Mongolians continued to complain about the poor state of the mausoleum.[30] A 2001 proposal for its refurbishment was finally approved in 2004.[30] Unrelated houses, stores, and hotels were removed from the area of the mausoleum to a separate area 3 km (1.9 mi) away and replaced with new structures in the same style as the mausoleum.[30] The 150-million-RMB (about $20 million)[31] improvement plan was carried out from 2005 to 2006, improving the site's infrastructure, expanding its courtyard, and decorating and repairing its existing buildings and walls.[32] The China National Tourism Administration named the site a AAAAA-rated tourist attraction in 2011.[33]
