Relics of a bygone age
If Genghis Khan were alive, what would he make of being the star of a show in an integrated resort with casino?
'I think he wouldn't like it at all,' says Don Lessem, the creator of Genghis Khan: The Exhibition, now on at Marina Bay Sands ArtScience Museum.
'For one thing, he had no taste for partying or being in a luxurious situation. For another, he didn't like attention on himself.'
More than 200 artefacts related to the man and his reign (1206-1227) will be on display in the touring exhibition, which is making its debut in Asia after stops in Texas, Colorado and California. About 40 items were added for the Singapore leg. Among these is a mummy of a Mongolian aristocrat who lived around the Khan's time, with three sets of her robes and jewellery.
Another highlight is a circular pass, or paiza, which grants the Khan's messengers or other bearers safe passage through his empire. On loan from a private collector from Kazakhstan, it is made of iron and inscribed in silver using a technique that has since been lost. Aptly, by sheer chance, the Marina Bay Sands' VIP club for high rollers is called the Paiza Club.
Visitors are given a card when they enter, which gives them an identity ranging from spies and soldiers to princesses. Along their journey through the exhibition, they can tap the card at touch-screen computer terminals scattered throughout the galleries to find out what happens to their character and their descendants. There is also a recreated ger, or traditional Mongolian dwelling, as well as roving Mongolian performers and weapons demonstrations.
Touted as the largest collection of Genghis Khan artifacts ever to be assembled, the million-dollar exhibition was conceived and financed by Lessem, an American former science journalist who has written many children's books on dinosaurs and was an adviser on the Hollywood blockbuster Jurassic Park and its theme park ride.
Years in the making, the show's gestation was 'worse than an elephant pregnancy,' he jokes. Having learned about Genghis Khan and his cultural and historical legacy - he is credited for inventing libraries, postal services, paper money and even trousers - on a visit to Mongolia in 1988 to excavate dinosaur bones, Lessem then spent almost seven years persuading the Mongolian government to lend him key artefacts. 'They knew from the number of times I went there, especially in winter, that I was serious about the project,' he recalls.
Describing the sensory experience that he has developed, such as a multimedia projection of horses on the Mongolian grassland, complete with traditional throat-singing, he adds: 'I kind of built it for me.'
