HO'ELUN

Ho'elun entered the Borjigin clan and became Yesiigei's wife in true Mongol fashion. During a falconry trip with his two brothers, Yesiigei returned with more than the usual hunting trophies. He kidnapped and returned home to his yurt with a young woman from the Ongirrat tribe, part of the larger Merkit confederacy. Though she was already married to a Merkit man, Chiledu, whom she dearly loved, Yesugei made Ho'elun his

Mongol Khatun on the shores of Lake Sayram, north of Yingin in the Heavenly Mountains, Tian Shan, Courtesy of Xinjiang Qinshan Culture Publishing

Wife, and she eventually bore him four sons. She was a fortunate choice because when the family was still young, Temiijin's father died, believed poisoned by his archrivals and enemies the Tatars. Following traditional Mongol custom, Temiijin himself had been named after a slain Tatar chief whom his father had killed in battle. The Tatars exacted their revenge and Ho'eiLin soon found herself abandoned by family from both sides with five small children to rear. "The deep waters have dried up, the sparkling stone has. shattered," Temiijin was too young to lead the clan, and for reasons yet to be explained the Borjigin tribe in which Yesiigei had been a leading chieftain deprived the stricken family of most of their possessions and cast them out on the steppe in the area around the source of the Onon River. In addition to this, eight of their nine horses were stolen by thieves just as they were about to begin their sorry exile. The children became proficient

In hunting and fishing from necessify. One of Temujin's firsf prizes was the retrieval of those rustled horses, which with a lifelong friend, Bogorju, he hunted down and reclaimed.

It was Ho'eliin's tenacity and perseverance that held the family together through those hard and, for Temtijin, formative years. His mother had a profound influence on her son, and her admirable qualities and character had long been recognized by friend and foe alike. The Secret History of the Mongols depicts her grubbing for fruit and roots in the forests that flanked the Burkhan Khaldun range, a sharpened juniper stick to hand, or fishing along the banks of the Onon, her skirts hoisted around her waist, but all the while with her aristocrat's hat planted firmly and proudly on her head. During those lean years Temiijin would have tasted poverty and smelled destitution.

With wild onions and garlic

The sons of the noble mother were nourished

Until they became rulers.

The sons of the patient noble mother Were reared on elm-seeds.

And became wise men and law-givers.

The Secret History of the Mongols, translated by Urgunge Onon