Karakorum (English spelling) Kharakhorum

The capital of the Mongol Empire before the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty. It is located southwest of the current Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar, on the right bank of the Hukhshin-Orkhon River. Karakorum means "land of black gravel." The ruins are located to the north of the Erdeni Mausoleum, famous as the oldest Tibetan Buddhist temple in Mongolia, and both are tourist destinations.

The Orkhon, Tola and Selenga basins, located almost in the center of the Mongolian Plateau, are home to good pastureland and transportation routes from north to south and east to west intersecting the plateau, making it the base of successive nomadic governments such as the Xiongnu, Turks and Uighurs. In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Kerait Kingdom was established here, and Genghis Khan, who defeated Wang Khan of the Keraits and conquered the Mongolian Plateau, also used this region as his base. The origin of the city is generally believed to be when a logistics base was established around 1220 during Genghis Khan's western expedition, and later, Ogedei Khan, who returned from an expedition to defeat the Jin Dynasty, built a surrounding wall and a Chinese-style palace called Wan'an Palace in 1235. A road network and relay system stretching to all parts of the empire were maintained from this center, allowing people from all over the world to travel between the two places. When the capital was moved to Dadu (Beijing) during the Yuan Dynasty, the temple gradually faded into obscurity, and during the Ming Dynasty, it fell into complete decline due to the East-West conflict between the Tatars and the Oirats, and during the Qing Dynasty, it was transformed into a large temple belonging to the Tushetu Khan tribe. It was discovered by the Russian Yadrintzev in 1889, and its identity was confirmed later when the plaque of the Xingyuan Pavilion, which was built during the reign of Mongke Khan, was found. A detailed report was published by a Soviet-Mongolian research team in 1948 and 1949.

[Masaaki Sugiyama]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

元朝成立以前のモンゴル帝国の首都。現在のモンゴルの首都ウランバートルの南西方、フフシン・オルホン川の右岸に位置する。カラコルムとは「黒い砂礫(されき)の地」の意。モンゴル最古のチベット仏教寺院として名高いエルデニ廟(びょう)の北隣に遺址(いし)があり、ともに観光地となっている。

　モンゴル高原のほぼ中央部にあたるオルホン、トラ、セレンガ流域は良好な牧地が広がり、高原の東西南北の交通路線も交差して、匈奴(きょうど)、突厥(とっけつ)、ウイグルなど歴代の遊牧政権の拠点となった。11、12世紀にはケレイト王国の王庭が置かれ、ケレイトのワン・ハンを倒してモンゴル高原を制覇したチンギス・ハンも同様にこの地方を根拠地にした。都市としての起源は、チンギス・ハンの西方遠征中の1220年ごろに兵站(へいたん)基地が設けられ、のち金国打倒の遠征から帰還したオゴタイ・ハンが1235年に周壁と万安宮という中国風の宮殿を造営したというのが通説となっている。ここを中心に帝国各地に伸びる道路網と駅伝制度が維持され、世界各地の人々が往来した。元代になって大都（北京(ペキン)）に首都が移ると、しだいに影が薄くなり、明(みん)代タタールとオイラートの東西対立によってまったく衰微し、清(しん)代にはトゥシェトゥ・ハン部に属する大寺院に変身した。1889年ロシアのヤドリンツェフによって発見され、その後、モンケ・ハン時代に創建された興元閣の扁額(へんがく)がみつかって確実となった。1948、49年ソ連・モンゴル調査団によって詳しい報告がなされている。

［杉山正明］

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