A ruin.
Por-Bajin ('clay house' in Tuvan) is a walled complex on an island in Lake Tere-Khol in south-east Tuva, close to the Mongolian border and about 8 km west of Kungurtug. Tree-ring and radiocarbon dating place it about AD 777, and its excavators link it to Bögü Qaghan of the Uyghur khaganate: a summer palace that was turned into a Manichaean monastery. It measures 215 by 162 m and covers 4.14 ha, with a main gate in the middle of the east wall, two large yards, a central building in Tang Chinese style (rammed-earth walls, dougong brackets) and a chain of small yards along the walls; the outer walls stood about 11 m high when new.
The page we read says the Uyghurs abandoned it after Bögü's death and the end of Manichaeism, and that fires and earthquakes later brought down parts of the walls; it does not say whether anyone lived there in the twelfth century. On 1 January 1200 it is an empty ruin in the half-remembered country of the Uyghur khaganate, which the Kyrgyz broke in 840, on ground that no named lord holds.
Who holds it
- Name
- No lord (a ruin)
- Title
- None; the ruin stands on ground no named lord holds
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not applicable
- Confidence
- low
Wikipedia 'Por-Bazhyn' (coordinates 50.615 N, 97.385 E).
Lord in 1200
No lord (a ruin)
Overlord
None shown.
What the town holds
- A ruined walled island palace and monastery of the Uyghur khaganate
How it was acquired
Not applicable.
Allies and rivals
None shown.
How things stand that morning
An empty ruin on a frozen lake. The ground belongs to the herders and hunters of the south Tuva forest edge; the Oirat forest lies to the north and the Naiman steppe to the south. Nothing was found of a later occupation.
Charter
None known; not a town.
Walls and castle
Rammed-earth walls enclosing 215 by 162 m on the island; the southern and eastern walls and the north-west bastion fell in a later earthquake, date not given (the page says 'late Middle Ages').
Where the sources disagree
- The sheet assignment lists 'Por-Bajin and Tere-Khol' as ruined Uyghur fortresses; they are one site, the fortress on the lake. The attribution to the Uyghurs and to Bögü Qaghan is the excavators' interpretation and some older literature called the site a border fort, a ritual site or an observatory.
Evidence: The site and its dates are well attested (excavations and dating reported by Wikipedia); its condition and use in 1200 are not known.
On the map: A point at the island; the compiler will place it on the unit round it.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.