How Genghis Khan’s family ended: tragic story of last queen of Mongolia

Queen Genepil was the last queen or, more correctly, the Khan (princess) of Mongolia. She inspired the image of Queen Amidala in Star Wars. She was the last of the Borjigin family (direct descendants of Genghis Khan). Genepil suffered during the repressions along with other representatives of the ancient Mongolian clans.

They were ordered to be destroyed, wiped off the face of the earth, along with all national traditions and relics. In this regard, the history of the last khans is most revealing. But once, an old seer predicted her a martyr’s death at the hands of traitors.

Khan the reformer

The political repressions of the 1930s claimed the lives of several tens of thousands of people in Mongolia. Among them were representatives of the aristocracy, ministers, officials, lamas, and ordinary Mongols. Not only were men arrested, but there were also many women. One of them was unlucky to become the last Khanate VIII Bogdo khan Genepil.

The eighth Bogd Khan was a highly religious theocrat. He took over the country’s rule at the end of 1911, after its liberation from the rule of the Manchu Empire. Bogd VIII tried with all his might to consolidate the country and avoid social upheavals. He always advocated strengthening the family institution, called for an end to all civil strife and, tried to do everything so that the upper classes did not oppress the poor.

His decrees dealt with all possible topics – religion, government regulation and management, international relations, finance, customs regulations. Khan took care of nature conservation, always compensated people who suffered as a result of various disasters. He took all measures to defeat hunger in the country.

Khan Bogd organized the upper and lower chambers, founded five ministries. He significantly eased taxes and transport duties. Important laws were issued that governed all areas of the state’s existence.

Under Bogd VIII, workshops and factories, hospitals, a power station, a telegraph, and many other essential infrastructure facilities were built. Khan encouraged not only religious but also secular education called for respect for their history.

Bogd Khan’s wife

It was customary to worship the Khan. Buddhists considered him a living divine incarnation. At some point, Bogd decided to get married. It was an unheard-of event. This has never happened with any of his previous seven embodiments. The Khan’s chosen one, who received the religious name Dondogdulam. In 1902 she received the title “Mother Dakini of the State” and “White Tara” and the official title of the wife of Khan Bogd.

Dondogdulam was a very educated woman at that time. She perfectly knew how to read and write and knew the Tibetan language, in her homeland, she was called a “master” in her land. White Tara initiated the adoption of children from low-income families where they were dying. One of these children later became a famous composer and author of the Mongolian anthem.

The mistress died in 1923, having lived in a happy marriage with the Khan for more than two decades. But it will not be about her at all, but about a completely different woman—a woman who became, albeit for a short time.

Minister Bogd selected a dozen women who matched the Khan’s date of birth. A lot was cast according to the canons of Buddhism. The name Tseyenpil dropped out. The ruler gave her a new name – Genepil. She was designated the next reincarnation of the Dondogdulam.

She did not live a year in marriage with the Khan. He died, and Genepil was sent back to her parents with rich gifts. She remarried. Her chosen one was a former wrestler named Luvsandamba. As a result of this union, three children were born: two girls and a boy.

False accusation

Unfortunately, the repressions did not escape this woman. The Soviet government, albeit the former, but still the queen was a direct threat to the communist ideology. In 1932, the khatun were saved from arrest and execution. But the purges of 1937-1939 did not pass her by.

At the end of the thirties, the Soviet government specially fabricated a case to fight the Mongol intelligentsia. It said that some counter-revolutionaries wanted to destroy the people’s power, resorting to the help of the Japanese imperialists.

Many arrests have been made in this case. The best representatives of the intelligentsia were killed. Among them was the last wife of Bogd khan, Genepil. She was charged with treason. The arrest decree was signed retroactively by a local representative of the Ministry of the Interior. It was a cruel and cheap farce from beginning to end.

It was necessary to give legality to the arrest of an innocent woman. Genepil has been in dungeons for more than a week and has survived more than one interrogation.

Torture and confession

Khentii, a compatriot of Genepil, learned well from the Chekists to conduct interrogations and obtain the necessary confession. Khatun was found guilty on all political issues. It was said that she called on the herders to revolt, overthrow the Soviet regime and restore the power of Bogd Khaan.

The white container has become a political criminal. From the surviving interrogation protocols, it is clear what kind of torture the innocent woman went through. Despite all this, there is no evidence of a confession. There is not even a signature under the protocols, although the Khatun was very good at writing. There are only fingerprints stained in purple ink.

Genepil was starved and not given water. She was tortured in the cold. It becomes scary at the thought of what this fragile, still so young woman had to endure, who was only to blame for the date of her birth. The arrest of the Khatun was signed retroactively, and so was the verdict.

When the special commission “decided” the fate of Genepil, she was already shot. In absentia, she was found guilty of the struggle against the people’s power and the desire to restore the monarchy in Mongolia with the support of imperialist Japan.

Only more than half a century later, when checked in connection with the cases of the repressed, her good name was restored.