Tsagaan Salaa — White Pass Rock Paintings
Цагаан Салаа · Tsagaan Salaa · White Salaa · Baga Oigor Rock Art
Neolithic to Mongol Empire (6000 BCE – 1300 CE)·Neolithic Altai, Afanasievo, Chemurchek, Karasuk, Pazyryk, Xiongnu, Turkic, Mongol·🇲🇳 Bayan-Ölgii Province, Tsagaannuur, Altai Tavan Bogd NP, Mongolia
About
About Tsagaan Salaa — White Pass Rock Paintings
Upper Tsagaan Gol (White River) valley within the Mongolian Altai World Heritage complex preserving over 10,000 petroglyphs and pictographs on 15 km of glacially polished argillite and sandstone. Sequence from Neolithic elk-moose (6000 BCE) through Afanasievo-Okunev masked shamans, Chemurchek-Halstad stelae, Scythian animal style, Turkic horsemen and Mongol tamgas documents the Altai as a Holocene cultural crossroads at 2100–3300 m altitude. The sacred White Pass (Tsagaan Salaa) itself carries huge deer-stone-like anthropomorphs and a unique library of Old Turkic runiform inscriptions overlooking the Baga Oigor river confluence with glacial moraines as natural frames.
Why it mattersCore zone of Mongolia's only UNESCO rock-art property; 8-millennia visual stratigraphy at extreme altitude proving year-round Holocene occupation above 2800 m.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Why massive Baga Oigor river boulders carry Siberian elk far south of historic range
- 02Origin of Halstad-type masked figures linking to Okunev
Theories
- 01Summer aggregation sanctuary synchronised with ibex migration through White Pass
- 02Funerary art for high-altai kurgan fields below Tsagaan Gol
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.6000 BCE – 13th c. CE; Bronze peak 3000–1200 BCE
- Period
- Neolithic to Mongol Empire (6000 BCE – 1300 CE)
- Culture
- Neolithic Altai, Afanasievo, Chemurchek, Karasuk, Pazyryk, Xiongnu, Turkic, Mongol
- Builders
- Altai pastoral communities sequentially occupying summer high pastures
- Purpose
- High-pasture sanctuary and clan burial-rock marking seasonal migration and funerary rites
- Abandoned
- 13th c. with shift to lower pastures; revered as ovoo-shrine to present
- Rediscovered
- 1970 Mongolian-Hungarian expedition; 2004 UNESCO inscription research
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
6000–4000 BCE
Elk-moose Neolithic peckings
3000–1800 BCE
Chemurchek stelae and masked shaman figures
2011
Inscribed as part of Petroglyphic Complexes of the Mongolian Altai UNESCO 1440
On the ground
Structures & features
49.3330° N · 88.2500° E · 2850 m · 3 mapped features
White Pass (Tsagaan Salaa) Main Panel
pass panelCentral pass with masked shaman and deer compositions
49.3335° N · 88.2505° EBaga Oigor Boulder Field
boulder fieldRiver boulders with elk-moose and chariot scenes
49.3280° N · 88.2450° EUpper Tsagaan Gol Turkic Runes
inscription ridgeRidge slabs with 6th–8th c. Orkhon-Yenisei graffiti
49.3380° N · 88.2550° E
Gallery