Must Visit: Genghis Khan Exhibit at Ronald Reagan Library

When we were growing up, my dad would tease us at the dinner table: if you don’t think the meat is tender enough, put it under the saddle, like your ancestors did!  Little did we know that not only did the galloping Mongol armies actually cook their meat this way as they conquered great swathes of Asia, but they are credited with inventing the ground meat hamburger.  The term steak tartare derives from the Tatars, AKA Mongols.  There are also theories that the meat was indeed being tenderized, and they added garlic (popular in tartare) to disguise the flavor of the saddle!

And hamburgers are only one of the several culinary accomplishments of the great leader that came to be universally beloved.  And the culinary aspect only touches on all of the extraordinary achievements of the Khan empire, all the more astonishing since the conquering Mongols led a nomadic life.

Genghis Khan’s reputation as the greatest conqueror is well-deserved – he dominated three times more land in his lifetime than any other leader in history.   His accomplishments as innovator and lawmaker advanced civilization with  13th Century Mongolian-style democracy and progressive laws, have previously been downplayed in Western lore, with a focus on barbarianism.

The current,  most comprehensive  Genghis Khan exhibition, along with the story of his conquests and his contributions. at the Ronald Reagan Library through August 19 changes this image.

It shows how the young, charismatic Genghis Khan united warring tribes in order to form an unrivaled cavalry. It displays the equestrian culture and innovations in weaponry, and his innovative, brilliant, means of leadership based on merit. Genghis created the nation of Mongolia and its written language, but his lineage established the modern borders of nations from India to Iran, Korea to China, and singlehandedly opened the trade routes that united East and West, forever after.

Instead of invading Europe (which he considered having less wealth than Asia) he utilized the vital trade route along the Silk Road to enable an exchange of both goods and ideas between cultures.

Genghis Khan introduced wearing to the west, the wearing of pants (instead of tunics and robes).  The west began using a              fork in addition to a spoon and knife, at the table because the tool that is “not effeminate.” paper money, skis, violins, bakhlava and the Mongolian  expression of “hooray!”

He created the first version of the pony express, although the Khan army messengers also delivered false messages to be intercepted by enemy armies.   He cobbled together the inventions of other nations to make grand new ones.  He combined Chinese gunpowder, European bell making and middle eastern to create the first cannons.

For the great leader, hospitality was key  – the empire spread this concept in every way, from the safe passage for envoys and inventing the passport for safe travel from one country to another, to making the carpet an everyday household.  The performance room depicts a wall-size mural of a carpet bazaar.

At the same time, possessions for Khan and his followers are a minor factor, while sleeping on the road a very major one.  Their far and wide travels range and expanded the known world.  It was not so much an empire of the invention as of discovering the finest artisans in every land they conquered and introducing their wares throughout the empire.

The nomads of Mongolia sustain their lives directly from the products of domesticated animals such as cattle, horses, camels, yaks, sheep, and goats, as well as a game. Meat is either cooked, used as an ingredient for soups and dumplings (buuz, khuushuur, bansh, manti), or dried for winter, called borts.

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The magnificent Genghis Khan Exhibit at the Ronald Reagan beautifully displays the accomplishments of the Mongols with displays of artifacts, murals, vivid interactive lessons, a dance and violin performance, short but informative video lessons (one in every 200 males today may be a descendant of Genghis Khan), and even honoring them with a special cafe menu.

The Khans conquered an empire that stretched from the Pacific to the Mediterranean, an area roughly the size of Africa.  That the Mongols accomplished this feat when their population was perhaps a million people, of which only around 100,000 comprised the military, less than many corporations employ today.

The many progressive accomplishments of the empire include chopped meat (made more famous on its own as steak tartare in honor of the Tatars; advancement based on merit; a postal service, passports for traveling from country to country; safekeeping of all envoys away from home; lower taxation (no taxes for religious or education groups) and promoting the work of artisans everywhere.

The must-see exhibition features loans by private collectors from Mongolia, Azerbaijan and the United States.  Hooray!  For more information and tickets, please see: //www.reaganfoundation.org/library-museum/special-exhibits/genghis-khan/