The Sacred Mountain Shiveet Khairkhan (Bayan Ölgiy aimag, Mongolia) and the Centering of Cultural Indicators in the Age of Nomadic Pastoralism

Abstract

Located in the upper valley of Tsagaan Gol, in northwestern Mongolia's Altai Mountains, the sacred mountain Shiveet Khairkhan is surrounded by archaeological monuments extending in time from the Bronze Age (early third millennium BCE) through the Turkic Period (sixth to ninth centuries CE). The character of the high valley it centers and the extended physical context including rivers and glaciated mountains call to mind a sacred diagram involving a mountainous landscape, directionality, and color symbolism. Such general associations with Buddhist concepts would not be the reason Shiveet Khairkhan is considered sacred, however. The wealth of archaeology around the mountain's base and lining the Tsagaan Gol river valley indicates that this status might go back for several thousand years, to a period much earlier than Buddhism. The material presented here derives from two decades of original archaeological survey and documentation and draws on the approaches of several different disciplines. By considering this topic in terms of integrated approaches, it is possible to suggest the complexity of Shiveet Khairkhan within its larger cultural and geographical context and to explore the ways in which this mountain might have become designated as sacred.