Travels in Northern Mongolia [Paperback]

Don Croner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 21, 2004

Travels in Northern Mongolia describes Don Croner's search deep into the heart of the Khangai Mountains of Mongolia for the source of the Yenisei-Angara-Selenga River System, the fifth longest river system in the world; his visits to locales connected with the life of Zanabazar (1635-1723), founder of the Gelugpa Sect of Buddhism in Mongolia, a world-class artist, and the first of Mongolia's eight Bogd Gegens; and a horseback trip to the upper Onon Valley, an area known as the Birthplace of the Mongols, including an ascent of Burkhan Khaldun, the mountain worshipped by Genghis Khan.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Don Croner has traveled 15,950 miles by jeep, 2430 miles by horseback, 477 miles by camel, and worn out over half a dozen pairs of boots walking an indeterminate amount of miles through twenty of Mongolia's twenty-one provinces. When he is not traveling he resides in Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From Part 1: Zagastayn Pass is also of some geographical interest, marking as the does the Continental Divide of Inner Asia. Little Khatarch Creek, which we had followed toward the pass, flows into a river system draining westward into one of the salt lakes of the Great Lakes Depression, none of which have an outlet to the ocean. On the north side of the pass begins Zagastayn Creek which flows into the river systems eventually draining into the Arctic Ocean thousands of miles to the north. To find the source of the greatest of these river systems, the Yenisei-Angara-SelengeIder, is of course the raison d'etre of this trip.

From Part 2: The little boy born here in 1635 on the steppe of this broad valley bottom would later be named the Bogdo Gegen at Shireet Tsagaan Nuur; he would travel to Tibet and study with the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama; he would become the most revered leader in all of Khalkha Mongolia, founding many monasteries and creating great works of art; he would spend over a decade of his life in the Chinese capital of Beijing as a guest of the great Kang Hsi, emperor of the Ch'ing Dynasty, and his fame as miracle worker would spread throughout China; he would eventually die in Beijing and later the magnificent monastery of Amarbayasgalant would be built in his honor and serve as the final resting place of his remains; and in 1937 those remains would be destroyed in a bonfire by Mongolian and Soviet soldiers under the orders of a communist government goaded on by Joseph Stalin.

Part 3: According to the thirteenth-century chronicle entitled Secret History of the Mongols the people now known as Mongols first appeared at the headwaters of the Onon River just north of a mountain called Burkhan Khaldun in the latter half of the eighth century. These people, then still just one tribe among the many which inhabited what is now Mongolia, soon expanded into the valleys of the nearly Kherlen and Tuul rivers. The upper basins of these three rivers-the Onon, the Kherlen, and the Tuul-make up the so-called "Three Rivers Region" considered to be the traditional homeland of the Mongols. Also, the mountain known as Burkhan Khaldun, located between the headwaters of the Onon and Kherlen, figured in several episodes recounted in the Secret History and was the scene of a crucial event in the life of Chingis Khan himself. As a result he worshipped this mountain, and he gave specific instructions that it should be honored by his descendants' descendants forever. As I would learn, modern-day Mongolians have not forgotten this injunction. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 238 pages
• Publisher: Xlibris, Corp. (April 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1413442749
• ISBN-13: 978-1413442748
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,537,025 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #91 in Books > Travel > Asia > Mongolia

More About the Author

Don Croner is currently in Occultation.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book by foreign person, July 1, 2001

By 

Dambijantsan Bulag (Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Travels in Northern Mongolia (Paperback)

I was very surprised to find this book about my wonderful country Mongolia, and I am very proud that a foreign person would take such interest in my country Even when a child I heard about the famous mountain Burkhan Khaldun, but I have never gone there. Now Don Croner goes to this mountain! I have visited the museum of our Bodg Khan, but I did not know the story of Zanabazar. Now I read about it in this book by a foreigner! And my mother's mother was born in Zavkhan aimag, near Uliastai town, which is in the book. For me, this is a very interesting book. Please, if you want to know something interesting about my country read this book.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good part of the puzzle, January 13, 2000

By 

William P. Stenwick (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Travels in Northern Mongolia (Paperback)

I found this book to be very will written, interesting and highly informative. It covers Northern Mongolia very well, and in concert with "Gobi", which I just completed, gives a great profile of all except the Kazakh part of Mongolia in the West of the country. The only downside of this book is that it contains many, many errors in English which suggest that it may have been edited by a non-native speaker. The wrong suffixes are selected for many words, etc. There was also nothing about the author, who seems a very interesting personality. I recommend it for anyone interested in either adventure travel or background on the history, religion and geography of Mongolia.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars In Search of Don Croner, June 20, 2000

By 

"valinca" (Woodland Hills, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Travels in Northern Mongolia (Paperback)

This book presents a fascinating view of Mongolia, written by an American who has seen and done much more than the typical American tourist. I would agree with others who commented about the strange combination of a highly literate author and a non-native English-speaking editor. This didn't detract from the book at all for me; it merely deepened my curiosity about Don Croner. Who is he? Why would an author who took pains to design the Book and cover, painstakingly draw the book maps, and even select the book's typography- (for heaven's sake!)- allow the most basic grammatical errors to creep into the manuscript?

Most good travel writers, like Paul Theroux for example, bounce the stories of their journeys off of personal revelations. This invigorates their travelogue and allows readers to identify with them as they travel. "Hmmmm," we say, turning the page, "I too would have found that funny, or alarming, or interesting, because I have parents who were hippies in the 60s, or because I once lived next to a Chinese gardener." But although Don Croner's narrative is chock-full of thick description, it contains maddeningly few personal glimpses. We find ourselves reading passages of intelligent observation or wry humor without any knowledge of the writer.

Croner's reticence about himself merely feeds his readers' eagerness to gather together what few facts we can find on him: He's a self-described American of European descent, tall, thin, speaks Russian fluently, and identifies with the American National identity but not at all with American mass culture (although he's very knowledgeable about mass culture). He's a voracious reader, and tends toward history books, but will probably devour anything in English that crosses his path. Like any experienced traveller, he will eat anything, sleep anywhere, and showers when he can- hot, cold or no water. He has a technical background and holds down a favored job- some type of employment with access to sufficient official connections to secure all those visas he needs for moving about a part of the world still notorious for difficulty in procuring travel docs. He either grew up abroad or is an ex-runner who blew out his knees when he was younger, because Americans simply do not walk for enjoyment as much as he does. His editor has learned english from a book or institute of British english, not American english, and displays "spell-check literacy"- that is, has run a computer spell check over the manuscript so that there aren't any glaring spelling errors. What errors there are result from incorrect word endings and grammar errors- stuff that would make it through a spell check.

At any rate, Croner's contribution is his description of places rarely seen, his speculations on the movement of historic personages, and his curiosity about native-held beliefs. With regard to this last point, he queries the locals incessantly in order to differentiate folklore from faith, to separate romantic legend from divine action. An interesting read from several perspectives.