Books: In Search of Genghis Khan

In Search of Genghis Khan

(Extract)

'The herdsman handed the conch shell to his youngest son, the one in purple, and the lad walked in turn to the four corners of the obo, faced outwards, and each time blew the long, haunting blasts of the conch call over the distant valleys. In a lamasery it would have been the sound to call the faithful to prayer. On the windswept summit of the Mountain of the Shaman Spirit I knew that we were witnessing the return to the ancestor worship of Genghis Khan. Then we remounted our horses and rode down off the crest.'

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