The Urton Postal Service of the Mongols, or "Mongolian Law in Three Days"
The paper deals with the system of urton postal stations which was the inescapable link in management of the Mongolian empire. On the basis of an ancient saying Mongol huuli gurvan honogt 'the Mongolian law in three days' the author emphasizes rapidity of the Mongolian horses and endurance of the Mongolian riders. Laws and decrees of the great Khan extended across all territory of the huge empire, in all subject countries of the East and Central Asia within three days, i. e. 72 hours. The author describes the mechanism of management of the system, the organization of stations at which the Kharchins served. The name of the Kharchins was derived from the name of their occupation which they were executing at court. They were engaged in special service on delivery to the court of the emperor har airag 'black fermented horse milk', where the adjective black means pure, crystal, high quality. The author supplies the map of urton way from Beijing to Khovd, which was used during the Qing period. This map was found by the author during the field expedition in 2005 in somon Dalanzadgad of Umnugobi aimag of Mongolia in the family of old man Harchin Mazhaa. There are 84 stations on the map and 44 of them were served by the Kharchins. After abolition of system of urtons at the beginning of the XXth century the Kharchins were offered to return home in Ordos, but they did not agree referring to the fact that it was impossible to leave dugans and monasteries, and also due to the fact that the Kharchins and the Khalkhas became as brothers.