The nerge, the great hunt

[davetatch]

I understand the Nerge was an annual hunting expedition that was Chinggis employed to gather vast amounts of food for the winter as well as training for his army.

Does anyone know if this is something Chinggis developed with his men or was it already part of the Mongol custom?

I read that boys over 14 were considered warriors and permitted to go on these hunts, did women go too?

Eg. In the secret history, when the Tayichigud abandoned Holegun and her children it talks about the sacrifice to the ancestor's spirits, is this something they did after the great hunt?

thanks, Dave

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

That hunt was a general Steppe tradition, practiced centuries before by the Turkic nomads.