00:00Genghis Khan, how Mongols changed the world. A really exciting exhibition. It's got objects, all of them from Mongolia, many
00:09of them for the first time they've been not just in the UK, but in Europe, in the West. So
00:14we're really excited. It's all about two things, actually. The first one is Genghis Khan himself, or should I say
00:20Genghis Khan, really. So Genghis is how we know him, but Genghis is his name in Mongolia.
00:26So in the exhibition, we talk about Genghis and why that name changed as well, which is a really interesting
00:30story. He goes through a lot of hardship. He's sort of abandoned by his clan. He's taken prisoner, has to
00:36end up fighting his best friends for sort of control of the Mongol tribes, and then becomes Genghis Khan. Essentially
00:42creates the biggest land empire, I think, still in history. So I would say it's an amazing story of how
00:48they achieved that.
00:49Mongolia, of course, lost many objects during a previous time because Soviet period, they were sent to Russia to Hermitage.
00:59There's a time when also China took some of the objects.
01:03And so at the end, they have to recreate their own history and based on actual excavation and work. And
01:10that's what they are doing now.
01:11So every year they found new discoveries, new items, new artifacts. And our idea is really to put them into
01:19a narrative. But we also have to adapt our narrative to the new artifacts.
01:23So it's really a lively research that people can see in the museum.
01:27The Mongol peace all came about really with the idea of strengthening the silk roads, the trade routes between East
01:36and West that the Mongol Empire allowed to flourish.
01:40That story is extraordinary. And that is how we say that the Mongols changed the world. The world in the
01:4812th century, 13th century was centered, really. The civilization was centered around Eurasia.
01:54We obviously know about the conquest and the brutality of the Mongol horde. But really, we don't know a lot
02:01of what came after and what Chinggis Khan and the Mongols were able to create, not just in Asia, but
02:06Europe, but that whole Eurasian continent.
02:08It links to our African-Asia gallery. So we're really excited to show that Mongol lineage, how it affected all
02:15these different Asian cultures.
02:16The Mongols, when they created the empires, they also created new crafts, new style. And the blue and white porcelain
02:23that we associate usually with China, actually were created by the Mongols for the Mongols.
02:28So we are so happy to show that to the public and how they organize big banquets at court, eating
02:35together, like having ceremonies, but also having fun together.
02:40So we have to think about also this part of their life.
02:43Chinggis Khan, how the Mongols changed the world here at the Royal Armouries is going to open everyone's eyes, I
02:50think, into the extraordinary times of the Mongol Empire, the impact they had on so much of the world that
02:58we see around us today.
Comments