It’s more than 800 years since Genghis Khan and his Mongol horde galloped out of central Asia, but today Khan looms large in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar. He is the face of commerce emblazoned on bank notes and multiple brands of vodka. There is even a Grand Khan Irish Pub.
From the steps of parliament, a statue of Khan glares down from a bronze throne. On the banks of the Tuul River, 54 kilometres east of the city, he sits mounted on the world’s largest steel horse, one hand grasping a golden whip.
Under Khan’s advance, all those centuries ago, cities fell, east and west, their civilian populations put to the sword. At his peak, Khan ruled a quarter of the world’s population. Only the Black Death halted his men and heralded his empire’s gradual decline, which culminated in the humiliation of Mongolia’s annexation by Russia in 1783.
Mongolia emerged from the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union a dusty backwater, but with its culture mostly intact, isolated by a national language spoken only by its own people and a population of around 2.5 million. The once mighty empire was now sandwiched between two dominant neighbours, Russia and China, with combined populations almost 500 times their own.
Still, the last 20 years have seen a meteoric rise in the fortunes of Mongolia. The country is experiencing its most profound social and economic changes since Khan’s reign.