News
2007-08-31
Report: Genghis
Khan banned gay acts
Gay male
sex was punishable by death under Genghis Khan's rule,
according to researchers who spent more than a year
compiling the
Gay male
sex was punishable by death under Genghis Khan's rule,
according to researchers who spent more than a year
compiling the legendary Mongolian conqueror's code of
laws, the official Xinhua News Agency said Thursday.
Article 48 of the
code said men who ''committed sodomy shall be put to
death,'' according to experts at a research institute in the
Chinese region of Inner Mongolia.
The experts at
the Research Institute of Ancient Mongolian Laws and
Sociology said the ban was put into place because Genghis
Khan wanted to expand the Mongolian population, which
was about 1.5 million at the time. The rival Song
Dynasty, which dominated today's central China, was 100
million strong, Xinhua said. Khan's 13th-century empire
stretched across Asia all the way to central Europe.
The code also
said that damaging grassland with unauthorized excavations
or starting fires was punishable by death, Xinhua said,
without providing details.
Experts compiled
the Mongolian code based on historical texts, including
Marco Polo's travelogue, Xinhua said. The original text was
lost more than 600 years ago. (AP)
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