The media is having a field day with this Hulegu and the New Mongols thing. From the Arab outlet Gulf News see Letter from Baghdad: The New Mongols and Suicide on the Walls of Baghdad. The relevant quote here is: "President Saddam did not refer to Bush by name but alluded to him as Hulegu, the Mongol chief who destroyed Baghdad in 1258. His speech was remarkably laden with historical allusions." And everyone thought I was crazy when I compared George Bush to Hulegu . . .

Now slate.com, the Microsoft mouthpiece, has weighted in on the Hulegu issue with a news wrap-up entitled Khan You Believe It?

Is George W. Bush the Reincarnation of the 13th Century Mongol Khan Hulegu?

Ever since last November, when I reread the 13th century Persian historian Juvaini’s book The History of the World Conqueror I have been entertaining the notion that George W. Bush is the reincarnation or at least the emanation of Khan Hulegu, the son of Chingis Khan’s son Tolui and the brother of Qubalai Khan who founded the Yuan Dynasty in China. I mentioned this to several people, but as they had never heard of Hulegu in the first place and could not understand his connection with George Bush my comments were met with blank stares. It was Hulegu, you students of Mongolian history will recall, who in the 1250s wiped out the terrorist group known as the Assassins (our English word “assassin” comes from the name of this group) which had been founded by Hassan Sabbah, the 12th century equivalent of Osama bin Laden.

Now it appears that Saddam Hussein himself agrees with me! For starters see the CNN article Saddam: 'New Mongols' Face Defeat. Saddam’s blustering about the New Mongols (Americans led by George W. Bush) even spooked Wall Street: for this see the Wall Street Journal. See the Full Text of Saddam’s Speech. Also, it was Hulegu and his army who laid waste to Baghdad in 1258, an event from which in the opinion of some observors the city has never recovered. See for instance the comments of the famous Sufi Idries Shah (aka Rafael Lefort), writing in The Teachers of Gurdieff. "Baghdad is not the gem of the desert as it was described in the book of Muqadass the Arabian geographer that I had read. Admittedly he wrote in the thirteenth century, before the advent of Genghis Khan, who paid the city a visit from which it never recovered. It has had plenty of time to recover, but seemingly lacks the energy." Shah got his khans confused; Genghis died in 1227; his grandson Hulegu sacked Baghdad in 1258, but his point stands.

Note that in his speech Saddam mentions Hulegu no less than twelve times.

I recently had the great honor of being initiated in the Golden Order of Buuts by Buutsiyn Khatun Oyuna (May Her Name be always Exalted!), shown here with her perfect buuts.


Oyuna (May Her Luster never Fade!) is widely recognized in Mongolia as a high-ranking Buuts Adept.

Photos from my recent Tibet trip: On January 1 we visited Drak Yerpa, a cave and temple complex 28 miles by jeep from Lhasa. There are over 80 caves here (108 by traditional count), some of them currently being used by meditators on extended retreats. Although the temples were badly damaged during the 60s upheavals some have been restored.


Temples at Drak Yerpa

Looking down the valley from the entrance of the main temple

More photos from 9200 foot Emei Shan in south China:


This is the temple at the summit in the near white-out conditions that prevailed on Christmas Day. For this same photo with much of the fog removed by the wonders of digital photo-editing see Here.


Arguably the world's largest incense sticks. These babies are six feet long and five inches in diameter.

The Potala in Lhasa
Finally made it back to Ulaan Baatar after my wanderjahr in south China (Emei Shan) and Tibet. More updates to follow . . .


Pint-sized Pilgrim on the Summit of Emei Shan

I am now in back in Chengdu, China. I have just returned from six days in Tibet. Spent New Year's Eve in Lhasa, but I admit I did not celebrate much; in fact, I was asleep at midnight. Lhasa was warm in the afternoons and cool in the evenings. I visited the Potala, Drak Yerpa, a complex of temples about thirty miles outside of town, Drepung, Sera, the Naga Temple behind the Potala, the Gomang Temple, the Jokhang Temple, and did the Kora around the Jokhaing about a dozen times. Great time, details to follow . . .

Just returned from the top of Emei Shan, a 9200 foot mountain in Sichuan
Province, China. I arrived in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan on the 21st
and the next day took a bus to the base of the mountain. On the backside of
the mountain there is a road up two-thirds of the way and then a cable car
to the top. This is the route for sluggards. Up the front of the mountain
there is a trail which climbs up about 7000 vertical feet to the summit.
This is the way I went. The first day I walked in the steady rain about
halfway up the mountain and stayed in a monastery. It started to snow just
as I got there. Ten or hundreds of thousands of people visit this mountain
in the summer but now I was the only guest at this monastery. There was no
heat in the rooms and it was very cold and damp. The next morning I started
up the trail now covered with new snow and ice. Again I was the only
foreigner I saw all day and indeed I did not see any Chinese for several
hours at a time. It was very foggy and visibility was limited to about 50
feet. There are numerous Buddhist temples on the way up where you can stop
for a break, and most of them have a tea house in the vicinity where you can
get noodles and whatnot. Trudged up all day and arrived at a guest house
about an hour and half short of the summit. Again I was the only guest in
the place. I was also the only customer in the restaurant. Here I spent
Christmas Eve. The next day, Christmas, I got up an hour and a half before
dawn and headed up the trail to the summit. Most people go here for the
sunrise but today there would be no sunrise. It was very, very foggy and
visibility was only about 50 feet. Right at the summit of the mountain is a
big Buddhist Temple. There were perhaps a dozen Chinese people and a few
Tibetans here who had come up on the road and the the cable car. I stayed on
the summit all day and that night slept in the monastery attached to the temple.
Again I was the only foreigner there. The next morning was no clearer, so I did not
get to see the the sunrise . . . I headed back down to the base of the mountain
and took the bus back to Chengdu, where I am now. So that was my Christmas for 2002!

It snowed here in Chengdu today, the first time this has happened in years, according to locals . . .

It' a Heat Wave! This morning at 6:00 it was 0 degrees F. (that's 17 below 0 to you Europeans). Yesterday it went up to a scorching 21 degrees F. (that's 6 below 0 to you Europeans) in the afternoon! That's 62 degrees F. warmer than it was last Sunday morning.

Also see Don Croner's World Wide Wanders

Weather Update: at 8:00 am Sunday morning it is now 41 below zero F. (40 below zero C. to you Europeans). Since the sun just came up I suspect this might be the low for the night.

Spent an immensely enjoyable Saturday evening curled up on the sofa in my warm apartment with the current object of my infatuation: Volume III of History of the Civilizations of Central Asia, which contains an excellent section on the ancient country of Sogdiana, which from the 3rd to 7th centuries occupied most of the Transoxiana region in what is now Uzbekistan. I have always had a soft spot in my heart for the Sogdians, but more on that later . . .

This morning it is 39 degrees below zero F. in Ulaan Baatar. Oddly, it is also 39 below zero C. (for all you Europeans). 39 below zero is where the two types of temperature, F. and C. coincide. The good news is there is zero wind, so there is no wind chill factor. So it also feels like it is only 39 degrees below zero, F. or C. This reminds me of the notorious winter of '78 in Fairbanks, Alaska, when it never got above 40 below zero F. for the whole month of February and went down to as low as 65 below zero F. at night. Chilly . . .

It is a chilly 37 below zero F. here in Ulaan Baatar this morning. That's 38 below zero C. for all you Europeans.

Met today with 90-year old Lama Gombo (left), bareheaded despite the 8 below zero F. temperature.