Chinggis Khaan expedition

Christopher Kaplonski (danzan@EDEN.RUTGERS.EDU)
Thu, 4 May 1995 23:46:42 EDT

John Gannon asked for some recent information on the Chinggis Khaan
expedition being organized by Maury Kravitz.
The latest I've heard is from January, but here it is:

He supposedly has a five year contract with the Mongolian gov't to look for
the tomb of Chinggis, after the Gurvan Gol (Three Rivers) project failed.
The project is supposed to be being coordinated with Bazargur, of the
Academy of Sciences, who studies nomadism and such. A John Woods of Chicago
is supposed to be the academic at this end. (As an aside, and not meant to
be a slight to Prof. Woods, I can't but help wonder why, if Kravitz is
supposed to be so serious and so sure, hasn't he gotten -- been able to get?
--a Mongolist as an advisor.)
Mr. Kravitz seems to have overlooked one basic fact in all of this -- I
don't know of any Mongolians who want the tomb to be found. For most of
them, it would be almost sacriligious. The standard view on Gurvan Gol when
I was there in 1993 (the project's last year) seemed to be that the academics
had taken the Japanese money in order to be able to do research, not to find
the tomb per se. (And they did find quite a number of other sites.)
I haven't heard anything else since January. You could try posting a
message on soc.culture.mongolian, to see if any of the other regulars have
any news.
Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Chris

P.S. -- if any junk messages accompany this, my apologies -- I was trying
something new with the mail system.