- Genghis Khan
(IPA: ; ; classic Mongolian: (see below for alternative spellings); ca. 1162 -August 18, 1227) was a Mongol "Khan" (ruler; posthumously "Khagan", emperor). Born with the name Temüüjin into the Borjigin clan, he became one of the most significant and successful military leaders in history. He united the Mongol tribes and founded the Mongol Empire, (1206 - 1368), the largest contiguous empire in world history.
- Nambaryn Enkhbayar
Nambaryn Enkhbayar (born June 1, 1958, in Ulaanbaatar) is the current President of Mongolia. He took office on June 24, 2005 after winning the May 2005 elections. Enkhbayar is the ex-chairman of former communist party - Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP). Enkhbayar was the Prime Minister of Mongolia from 2000 until 2004 and Speaker of Parliament between 2004 and 2005.
- Bogd Khan
Bogd Khan, (Mongolian ; 1869-1924), was enthroned as the Emperor (Khan) of Mongolia on the 29th of December of 1911, when the country declared independence from the Qing Dynasty. As the eighth Jebtsundamba Khutugtu, he had already been the spiritual leader of Mongolia's Tibetan Buddhism. He was placed under house arrest when the Chinese troops occupied the country in 1919, but he was freed and reinstated by Baron Ungern's forces, …
- Roy Chapman Andrews
Roy Chapman Andrews (January 26, 1884-March 11, 1960) was an American explorer, adventurer and naturalist who became the director of the American Museum of Natural History, primarily known for leading a series of expeditions through the fragmented China of the early 20th century into the Gobi Desert and Mongolia. The expeditions made important discoveries and brought the first-known fossil dinosaur eggs in the world to the museum.
- Byambasuren Davaa
Byambasuren Davaa, really Davaagiin Byambasüren is a Mongolian film maker currently residing in Germany. Between 1995 and 1998 she studied at the Movie Academy in Ulaanbaatar. In 1998 she began to work as a moderator and director's assistant with the Mongolian National Television in. In 2000 she moved to Munich, Germany to study documentary film and communication sciences at the Munich Television and Movie Academy.
- Jack Weatherford
Jack Weatherford is a professor of Anthropology at Macalester College, specializing in Mongolia. He recently received media spotlight for his 2004 book, "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World". In 2006, he was awarded the Order of the Polar Star, Mongolia’s highest national honor.
- David Mitchell
David Mitchell (born January, 1969) is an English novelist. He has written four novels, two of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The latest, "Black Swan Green", was longlisted for the 2006 award. Mitchell was born in Southport, Merseyside, in England and educated at the University of Kent, studying for a degree in English and American Literature followed by an MA in Comparative Literature. He lived for a year in Sicily, then moved to Hiroshima, Japan, …
- Altan Khan
Altan Khan (Chinese: 俺答汗, Mongolian: Алтан Хаан), whose given name was Anda, was the de facto ruler of the Right Wing of the Mongols and exercised his power over the whole of Mongolia. He was the second son of the Bars Bolud Jinong and a grandson of Dayan Khan, who had re-unified the Mongolian nobility in an attempt to regain the glory of Yuan Dynasty.
- Tom Terry
Tom Terry (1963 -) is an American author and broadcaster currently residing in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Terry is the author of two books (When Shadows Dream: Twilight, and Faith and Freedom), and writes a regular blog about Christianity, politics, and media in Mongolia.
- Paul Sereno
Paul Callistus Sereno (born October 11, 1957) is an American paleontologist who is the discoverer of several new dinosaur species on several continents. He has conducted excavations at sites as varied as Inner Mongolia, Argentina, Morocco and Niger. He is a professor at the University of Chicago and a National Geographic "explorer-in-residence." The son of a mailman, Paul grew up in Naperville, Illinois.
- Natsagiin Bagabandi
Natsagiin Bagabandi (born April 22, 1950 in Zavkhan Province) was the president of Mongolia from 1997 to 2005, and a member of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party. He became speaker of the State Great Khural in 1992 for four years, then ran for presidential elections in 1997, winning them. He won re-election in 2001. In the presidential elections on May 22, 2005, …
- Galsan Tschinag
Galsan Tschinag, born "Irgit Schynykbai-oglu Dshurukuwaa", (* December 26, 1944 in Bayan-Ölgii Province, Mongolia) is internationally known as a writer of novels, poems, and essays in the German language, though he hails from a Tuvan background. He is also often described as a Shaman, a teacher, and an actor.
- Tolui
Tolui,also rendered Toluy or Tolui Khan, was the youngest son of Genghis Khan by Börte. His ulus, or territorial inheritance, at his father's death in 1227 was the homelands in Mongolia, and it was he who served as civil administrator in the time it took to confirm Ögedei as second khan. Before that, he had served with distinction in the campaigns against the Jin Dynasty and the Khwarezmid Empire, …
- Richard Freeman
Richard Freeman (born Nuneaton, England, in 1970) is the zoological director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ). An early obsession with the classic ScFi series Doctor Who, with Jon Pertwee in the title role, sparked an interest in him or all things weird. After school he became a zookeeper at Twycross Zoo in the West Midlands and became head keeper of reptiles. He worked with over 400 exotic species from ants to elephants but had a special interest in crocodilians.
- Subutai
Subutai was the primary strategist and general of Genghis Khan and Ögedei Khan. He directed more than 20 campaigns during which he conquered (or overran) more territory than any other commander in history. He gained victory by means of imaginative and sophisticated strategies. He routinely coordinated movements of armies that were more than 500 km away from each other. Usually he maneuvered the enemy into a position of weakness before accepting battle.
- Ted Simon
Ted Simon is a British journalist born in Germany. He wrote for the English newspapers Daily Mail, The Observer and The Times. In late 1973, Simon began traveling around the world on a Triumph Tiger 500cc motorcycle. For four years he travelled over 78,000 miles through forty-five countries. Most accounts from his trip are detailed in his book, "Jupiter's Travels", while some of the books gaps are filled in its second part, the book "Riding High".
- Yunus Emre
Yunus Emre was a Turkish poet and Sufi mystic. He has exercised an immense influence on Turkish literature, from his own day until the present. Because Yunus Emre is, after Ahmet Yesevi and Sultan Veled, one of the first known Turkish poets to have composed their works in the spoken Turkish of their age and region rather than in Persian or Arabic, his diction remains very close to the popular speech of his contemporaries in Central and Western Anatolia, …
- Hoelun
Hoelun was the mother of Mongol Khan Genghis Khan and the grandmother of Ogedei Khan. She was the wife of Yesükhei, the chief of the Kiyad clan. After Yesükhei's death, his clan abandoned Hoelun and her sons including Genghis Khan ("Temujin" by birth). Therefore Genghis Khan was raised in the harsh environment of the Mongolian steppes. According to Mongolian legend, Hoelun taught Genghis and his brothers the basics of unity and support for one another, …
- Möngke Khan
Möngke Khan (also transliterated as Mongke, Mongka, Möngka, Mangu) was the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire from 1251 to 1259. He was the son of Tolui and Sorghaghtani Beki, brother of Hulagu, and a grandson of Genghis Khan. Möngke is noted as participating in the European campaign of 1236-1242, in the campaign against the steppe peoples to the southeast of the Russian principalities, the destruction of Kiev, and the assault of Hungary.
- Jerry Yan
Liao Yangzhen, born January 1, 1977) is an actor and a member of Taiwanese boy band F4, better known as Jerry Yan. He was the lead actor in the popular Taiwanese drama "Meteor Garden" and its sequel, "Meteor Garden II", which made him a popular idol among teenage girls and elder women alike, not only in Taiwan but across Asia. He worked as a fashion model before venturing into acting, Meteor Garden was his breakout drama.
- James Gilmour
James Gilmour (1843-1891) was a Scottish Protestant Christian missionary in China and Mongolia. He served with the London Missionary Society.
- Eve Mavrakis
Eve Mavrakis (born June 22, 1966) is a French film production designer of Greek descent. She was born in Dordogne, and her credits include "Bandit Queen", "Innocent Sleep", "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Imagine Me & You". Mavrakis met actor Ewan McGregor on the set of the British television series "Kavanagh QC", and they were married on July 22, 1995, in a village in France.
- Roman Ungern von Sternberg
Baron Roman Friederich Nickolaus von Ungern-Sternberg was a Baltic German-Russian lieutenant-general, one of the military commanders on the side of the White movement during the Russian Civil War, later an independent warlord in pursuit of pan-monarchist goals in Mongolia and territories east of Lake Baikal. Although born with the name "von Ungern-Sternberg", he later changed his name to "Ungern von Sternberg".
- Khorloogiin Choibalsan
Khorloogiin Choibalsan was the Communist leader of the Mongolian People's Republic from the 1930s until his death. Choibalsan originally trained as a lamaist monk. He made contact with Russian revolutionaries when he travelled to Siberia. He founded his first revolutionary organisation in 1919 and in 1921 joined up with Damdin Sükhbaatar to form the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party.
- Benedykt Polak
Benedykt Polak (c. 1200 – c. 1280 probably in Kraków) was a Polish Franciscan priest, traveller and explorer. He was a companion of Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, and the author of the brief chronicle "De Itinere Fratrum Minorum ad Tartaros", concerning the first Franciscan missions to the Tatars (Mongolia) in 1245-1247. This journey preceded that of Marco Polo. The report of Benedykt is important for the curious letter of the Great Khan to Innocent IV.
- Miyeegombyn Enkhbold
Miyeegombyn Enkhbold (born 1964) is the current Prime Minister of Mongolia. He took office on January 25 2006 following the controversial collapse of Tsakhiagiyn Elbegdorj's Government. Since 2005 he is the chairman of the ex-communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP). Previously he had been the Mayor of the capital Ulan Bator.
- Phil Currie
Phil Currie, formerly the head of Dinosaur Research at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta is now a researcher and prominent palaeontologist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Over the last 25 years he has worked on fossil discovery in Mongolia, Argentina, Dinosaur Provincial Park, Dry Island Provincial Park and many other locations.
- Lakva Sim
Lakva Sim, (born March 10, 1972 in Ulan Bator, Mongolia as Lkhagva Dugarbaatar,), is a professional boxer. Sim was the first Mongolian boxer to capture a recognized World Title. He has held belts as both the WBA Lightweight Champion and the WBA Super Featherweight Champion. A fighter with a heavy punch, Sim turned pro in 1995 and won the WBA Super Featherweight by defeating Takanori Hatakeyama. In that same year he later lost the belt to Jong Kwon Baek, …
- Rinchen Barsbold
Dr. Rinchen Barsbold (Rinchyengiin Barsbold) is a Mongolian paleontologist and geologist. He works with the Institute of Geology, at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. He is world-renowned and an acknowledged leader in vertebrate paleontology and Mesozoic stratigraphy. He has been instrumental in the discovery and recovery of one of the largest dinosaur collections in the world.
- Hu Qing
Hu Qing (born January 19, 1986) is an amateur boxer from China who competed at the 2006 Asian Games in the Lightweight (60 kg) division winning the gold medal in the match against Mongolia's Munkh Erdene Uranchimeg.
- Susan Shirk
Susan Shirk is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State during the Clinton administration. She was in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs (People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mongolia).
- Demchugdongrub
Prince Demchugdongrub (February 8, 1902 - May 23, 1966) was the leader of a Mongol independence movement in Inner Mongolia. His Chinese courtesy name is Xixian (希賢). He assumed the Mongolian chairman of Mengjiang, a Japanese puppet state in WWII. Some see him as a Mongol nationalist promoting Pan-Mongolism. Others view him as a traitor and as the pawn of the Japanese during World War II.
- Karma Pakshi
Karma Pakshi (1203 - 1283) was the 2nd Gyalwa Karmapa. He was a child prodigy who had already acquired a broad understanding of Dharma philosophy and meditation by the age of ten. His teacher, Pomdrakpa, had received the full Kagyu transmission from Drogon Rechen, the first Karmapa's spiritual heir. Pomdrakpa realized, through certain very clear visions, that the child in his charge was the reincarnation of Dusum Khyenpa, as indicated in the letter given to Drogon Rechen.
- Mendsaikhan Enkhsaikhan
Mendsaikhany Enkhsaikhan was the prime minister of Mongolia from July 7 1996 to April 23 1998, the first in 80 years not to belong to the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party.
- Asashoryu Akinori
born as Dolgorsuren Dagvadorj on September 27, 1980 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, is the first sumo wrestler ("rikishi") from Mongolia to reach the rank of yokozuna, the highest sumo rank. He is considered one of the greatest sumo wrestlers in history.
- Yu Qian
Yu Qian (1398-1457), a native of what is now Hangzhou, was a Chinese defense minister of the Ming dynasty. He is best known for saving China when the Zhengtong Emperor fought the Mongol leader Esen Tayisi in 1449 and was taken prisoner. The Mongol armies came within 80 km of the capital Beijing, but Yu took control of the army and managed to repel the assault and the Jingtai Emperor was installed as ruler of China.
- Giocangga
Giocangga was the grandfather of Nurhaci, the man who was to unify the Jurchen peoples and begin building the Manchu state. Both he and his son Taksi went to the aid of Nurhaci's uncle Atai whose city was being besieged by a rival Jurchen cheiftan Nikan Wailan, who promised the governance of the city to whoever would kill Atai, one of Atai's underlings rebelled and murdered him.
- John Blofeld
John Eaton Calthorpe Blofeld (Born Anthony, April 2, 1913-June 7, 1987) was a British scholar of Asian thought and religion, especially Taoism and Chinese Buddhism. Blofeld was born in London and educated at Haileybury College, then Downing College, Cambridge University where he read natural sciences but did not complete his degree. Instead he left in his second year for travels to China. From 1933-1939 he resided in and wandered around China, …
- Khashbaatar Tsagaanbaatar
Khashbaatar Tsagaanbaatar (born March 19, 1984) is the single medal winner from Mongolia at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He won a bronze medal in judo. He also took gold medal in the 2006 Asian Games. Recently he also won a gold medal at the 2007 New York Open in the under-66 kg weight division. He won with a traditional Mongolian technique, the kata guruma (shoulder wheel).
- Luvsangiin Erdenechuluun
Luvsangiin Erdenechuluun (born October 10 1948 in Ulan Bator, Mongolia) was the foreign minister of Mongolia from August 2000 until September 2004. He is a member of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party. He lost his post when the Mongolian parliament approved a coalition government following the 2004 parliamentary elections.