1. ABOUT THE PROJECT AND ITS TERRITORY

The project is to create  “Baikal-Mongolia”  International Park of Eco-Tourism” (IPE) by means of unification of a part of Tukinskiy National Park in Russia, Khuvsgal National Park in Mongolia and the Okinskiy region of Buryatia. The geographic center will be Khuvsugal Lake in Mongolia.  Also of great interest for the project is feasibility of inclusion of eastern parts of Tuva Republic, Russia, into the IPE...

Why do we call it  Baikal & Mongolia Asia…?

There’re several reasons which allow us to name as “Baikal and Mongolia Asia” travel and geographic destination occupied by some parts of Northern Mongolia (lake Hovsgol area) and its Henty Highlands – the birthplace of Chinggiz Khan, and Lake Baikal area, Altai and Tuva in Russia.
These are natural and geological factors as well as historical ones which make the two great lakes of Asia satellite ones:
-  Common rift zone shared by the area between Lake Baikal in Russia and Lake Hovsgol in Mongolia,  
-  The two lakes are directly linked with each other through the Egiin-gol river – the only one flowing out of Lake Hovsgol and then joining the Selenga river while the latter being the major inflow of Lake Baikal.
-  Lake Hovsgol and Lake Baikal area with Tuva are closely interlinked environmentally and tend to become in near future one of the most popular eco-tourism and cultural travel destinations which calls for the need of establishing a a special complex of nature preservation and protecting area – such as International Baikal-Mongolia Asia Park of Eco-Tourism – the project proposed by our friend Vladimir Berezhnikh and supported by Adventure Travel Society.

And, certainly, great cultural similarity of the indigenous people inhabiting this trans-border area and its ancient history of the area make “Baikal and Mongolia Asia” a proper name for this stunningly interesting destination. In no way at any times we associate this name with any geo-political reason.

 Divided by state borders, united and linked by ancient history & water… 
  

Lake Baikal, often referred to as “sea”, the deepest fresh water lake in the world containing  one fifth of  the world’s fresh water, situated in the Buryat Autonomous Republic and Irkutsk Region of Russia,  plays a momentous role in Mongol history.
The Secret History of The Mongols relates, through its ancestral myth, how the Mongol people came into being: “The blue-gray wolf and his wife, the reddish-brown deer, came from Siberia and traveled together across the "inland sea" - that is Lake Baikal.  When they had reached the Eastern shore of Baikal, their first son, Batachikan, was born. Batachikan was then the first human ancestor of Chinggis Khan.  Mythologically speaking, traveling across water is symbolic of transcendence, of reaching new stages.
The Baikal Sea was thus the catalyst of emergence of the Mongol nation as well as the bridge between the two main constituents of the spiritual ancestry of the Mongols: The Northern, Siberian forest and taiga element, and the grassland and plain element. In accordance with this significant role of Lake Baikal in Mongol history, in the vicinity of Lake Baikal  two key figures in the history of the Mongols were born:  the founder of the Mongol Empire and Subedei his  greatest politician, his forever faithful and most gifted commander.
 It merits mention that "chinggis" in all probability comes from Turkish “tengiz”, which means "large body of water, sea." Chinggis Khan will then mean "Khan from the Sea."   We can easily guess from which sea Chinggis Khan took his name, and this implies that the real meaning of his title is "Khan from the Baikal Sea," once more emphasizing the crucial role of Baikal in the Mongolian spiritual universe… 

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