Museum of Mongol-Yuan Culture

Museum of Mongol-Yuan Culture

The Museum of Mongol-Yuan Culture is a privately-run museum in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which began preparations in 1998. Located in the Jinchuan Development Zone of Hohhot, the museum covers an area of 132,000 square meters. Through complete relocation, over 800 Ming and Qing dynasty buildings demolished during the renovation of Hohhot’s old city were moved into the museum to reflect the urban landscape of Hohhot more than 300 years ago. The museum houses a collection of over 5,000 cultural relics from the Mongol-Yuan period, including seals, tally tokens, clothing, gold and silverware, stone carvings, ceramics, paintings, and weapons, covering various aspects such as politics, economy, culture, military, and technology of the era. Notably, the collection of Nasij woven gold brocades and various silk and wool textiles from the Mongol-Yuan period has enriched the variety of costume and textile collections in China, filling gaps in the historical costume and textile collections of certain periods. The Mongol-Yuan period holds an extremely important position in both world and Chinese history, yet artifacts from this era are scarce in Chinese museum collections. With its unique and highly valuable collections, the Museum of Mongol-Yuan Culture has significantly enriched China’s holdings of Mongol-Yuan historical relics. Currently, the museum’s collection of Mongol-Yuan relics ranks first globally in both quantity and quality, leading the world.

The museum has organized a team of domestic and international experts in ancient scripts, achieving major breakthroughs in deciphering a large number of relics from the Mongol-Yuan period inscribed with various scripts, including Uyghur, Old Uyghur Mongolian, 'Phags-pa, Old Persian, and Syriac. Among them, the inscription “Temujin” in Old Uyghur Mongolian was deciphered on a jade zun (wine vessel), which also bears a large amount of Persian script currently being translated. This is the only known sacred artifact in the world inscribed with the name of Genghis Khan.

Mongol-Yuan Period Weaponry: The museum’s collection includes a fire lance (1298, the second year of the Dade era) inscribed with 'Phags-pa script, which is currently the earliest known tubular firearm in the world. The invention and use of tubular firearms once changed the course of world history. This significant discovery has drawn high attention from regional and national cultural heritage authorities.

Mongol-Yuan Textiles: The museum houses royal robes made of Nasij woven gold brocade, Nasij zhansun robes, and Nasij wide-sleeved robes, all of which were recorded in Mongol-Yuan history but had no surviving physical examples. The museum’s collection includes these three types of Mongol-Yuan garments, all of which are unique in the world and considered priceless national treasures.

Gold and Silver Artifacts: The museum possesses two silver pagodas from the Mongol-Yuan period, both unique in the world, with the larger one standing over 90 cm tall.

Additionally, the museum holds a page from a silver imperial edict documented in Mongol-Yuan history but previously without any known physical specimen. It is inscribed in Old Uyghur script and is also a unique artifact in the world and a national treasure.

The museum houses a Mongol-Yuan period gold plaque weighing 860 grams, inscribed with Chinese and Khitan scripts. According to authoritative experts, this plaque was bestowed by Genghis Khan to Muqali during his western campaign to govern the Central Plains. It is the only known example in the world, holding immense historical and cultural value.

Other world-unique relics in the museum’s collection include: a four-script "Fang 0 Plaque," a "Patrol Plaque," a gold seal with a mythical beast knob, and a Yuan dynasty diamond-shaped official hat, among dozens of other items.

These world-unique cultural relics have been confirmed through five years of research and verification by multiple domestic and international museums and expert teams. Their significance is immense.

In-depth study of these collections can effectively advance research on Mongol-Yuan history and culture, deepen understanding of ancient Chinese military history and East-West cultural

exchange history, and achieve major breakthroughs in the field of Mongol-Yuan historical and cultural studies.

The mission of the Museum of Mongol-Yuan Culture is: to collect and preserve ethnic cultural relics, to display and promote ethnic culture, to advance research on ethnic history, and to develop the Mongol-Yuan cultural industry.