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Waters and people, not land
Mongolians define their world by water, and the word they use for the earth is dalai, the ocean. The rules about water date to Genghis Khan's time. A camp sits roughly a kilometer back from the river, since animals and people would pollute it, and flash floods in summer can wipe out a camp right by the water. Animals are taken to the river to drink and then away, and nobody bathes in it. People carry water away from the river to bathe.
Genghis Khan also forbade moving water into an area to irrigate it, which he treated as violating the earth and the water. Armies that destroyed irrigation systems did it as policy, to return the land to pasture. It takes more work to destroy an irrigation system than to create it, so it was no accident. Kublai Khan changed the policy and allowed irrigation.
Where does the Dalai Lama's title come from?
Dalai is the Mongolian word for ocean. In 1578 the Mongol ruler Altan Khan gave the title Dalai Lama to the Tibetan monk Sonam Gyatso, meaning ocean of wisdom. Sonam Gyatso was then recognized as the third holder of the line. The first two were named retroactively.
What did ulus mean to the Mongols?
Ulus meant a people, and by extension the realm they formed, rather than a fixed territory. Genghis Khan divided the empire among his sons by assigning them followers and pastures. The Golden Horde was known as the Ulus of Jochi. Later the word came to mean a state or country.
How did the Mongols destroy Urgench?
In 1221 the Mongols besieged Urgench, the capital of the Khwarezmian Empire. After the city fell, they broke the dam that held back the Amu Darya. The flood submerged what remained of Urgench. Contemporary Persian historians, including Juvayni, described the destruction.
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