Burkhan Khaldun
Chingis Khan Pilgrimage Site Frequented by Zanabazar
48º44.119 / 109º02.643 (Location of the campground
at the base of the mountain) Khentii Aimag. The base of the mountain can
be reached by four-wheel drive vehicle from the sum center of Möngönmort
if there have been no recent rains and the road is dry. Otherwise access
is by horse from the Möngönmort area. From the campgrounds at the bas
of the mountain to the summit is a climb of 2144 vertical feet. The ascent
can be made in one day on foot, although horses are certainly preferable.
The mountain is in Khentii Khan National Park and a permit is required
to enter the area.
Another locale in the Khentii Mountains frequented by Zanabazar was 7724-foot Khentii Khan Uul, also known as the Burkhan Khaldun of the Khamug Mongols. The top of this mountain is where, according to legend, Chingis Khan went to pray for guidance before going into battle. (It should not be confused with the Burkhan Khaldun of the Uriankhai, where Chingis, in an famous episode in his early life, hid from the Merkit tribesmen who had kidnapped his wife Börte and tried to kill him, now identified by most historians as 7534-foot Erdene Uul, about twenty miles southwest of here.) According to the Rosary of White Lotuses, an exhaustive history of Buddhism in Mongolia, Chingis, although not a Buddhist himself, was an emanation of Vajrapani, the protector deity of Mongolia. By the mid-seventeenth century Chingis had become an accepted figure in the Buddhist pantheon and Burkhan Khaldun (Khentii Khan Uul) had developed into a pilgrimage site for Buddhists who wanted to honor his spirit.
To accommodate Buddhist pilgrims to Burkhan Khaldun Zanabazar established a temple at the base of the mountain, in the valley of the Bogdiyn Gol, a tributary of the upper Kherlen This temple was completely destroyed—apparently by the communists in the 1930s, although even local herdsmen are unaware of the exact details— and today not a trace of any buildings remains. There is a khadag-draped post to indicate there the temple once stood, and the flat area which once made up the temple grounds now serves as an attractive campground. In 2001 a large delegation of Mongolian dignitaries headed by Mongolian President Bagabandi stopped here while making a pilgrimage to the summit of the mountain, and plans were subsequently announced to built a new temple here, although to date nothing seems to have been done
. 
Khadag-draped post indicating the site of the former temple at the base of Burkhan Khaldun
From the old temple site a horse trail continues to the summit of the mountain. On a flat shelf about a third of the way up the steep hillside above the valley of the Bogdiyn Gol Zanabazar built a smaller temple where pilgrims ascending the mountain could stop to rest and make offerings. This temple was also destroyed, but bricks and roofing tiles can still be found scattered around the area. Lacking a temple, recent visitors have created a huge ovoo draped with thousands of blue khadags (prayer scarves) and piled high with offerings of brick tea, alcohol, dairy products, small bills, and coins.
Ovoo marking the location of former temple on the way to the summit
Although the worship of Chingis Khan was proscribed during the communist era, starting in the early 1990s large groups of Mongolians have visited the mountain and lamas now hold yearly ceremonies both here at the site of Zanabazar’s smaller temple and on the so-called Black Crown of the summit itself.
The Black Crown of Burkhan Khaldun
Ovoo at the summit of Burkhan Khaldun
By tradition, women were not allowed to ascend to the top of Burkhan Khaldun. Instead they went to a nearby lake and took refreshments while the man went to the summit. Many Mongolian women still hesitate to climb the mountain. The Mongolian woman, the wife of a local herdsman, who accompanied me to the summit got a special dispensation from a local lama to make the trip. This prohibition apparently does not apply to Mongolian women working as guides and translators and to non-Mongolian women, although some local herdsmen are still not all that pleased by the presence of any of them on the summit where Chingis Khan once went to pray.
The lake where by tradition women waited while the men went to the summit