Öndör Gongor was a very tall man in early-20th century Mongolia

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

. He was measured 2,36 m (7 feet 9 inches) high by Roy Chapman Andrews

Roy Chapman Andrews

Roy Chapman Andrews was an American explorer, adventurer and naturalist who became the director of the American Museum of Natural History. He is primarily known for leading a series of expeditions through the fragmented China of the early 20th century into the Gobi Desert and Mongolia...

, but some other sources even give 2,45 m (8 feet). He is known all over Mongolia, and also mentioned or pictured in some accounts of contemporary western travellers.

According to an interview with his daughter G. Budkhand (†), published in 1997, Gongor was the third child of a herder named Pürev, who lived in the Dalai Choinkhor wangiin khoshuu, or what is today Jargalant

Jargalant, Khövsgöl

Jargalant is a sum of Khövsgöl aimag. The area is about 2,550 km², of which 1,470 km² are pasture. In 2000, the sum had 5068 inhabitants, mainly Khalkha...

 sum of Khövsgöl aimag. He was not particularly big as child, only had long fingers. Because of him always eating a lot, he became a bit unpopular with his parents, and eventually was sent to Ikh Khüree

Ulaanbaatar

Ulan Bator or Ulaanbaatar is the capital and largest city of Mongolia. An independent municipality, the city is not part of any province, and its population as of 2008 is over one million....

. One day, he was summoned to the Bogd Khan

Bogd Khan

The Bogd Khan was enthroned as the Great Khaan of Mongolia on 29 December 1911, when Outer Mongolia declared independence from the Qing Dynasty after the Xinhai Revolution. He was born in the Kham region of eastern Tibet, today's Sichuan province of the People's Republic of China...

, given fresh clothes, and after a while he was even made to marry a woman who worked as one of the Bogd Khan's seamstresses, on the grounds that according to a horoscope by the Bogd Khan

Bogd Khan

The Bogd Khan was enthroned as the Great Khaan of Mongolia on 29 December 1911, when Outer Mongolia declared independence from the Qing Dynasty after the Xinhai Revolution. He was born in the Kham region of eastern Tibet, today's Sichuan province of the People's Republic of China...

, their fates were connected.

The accounts are a bit at odds about what Gongor's occupation at the Bogd Khan's court was: accountant and keeper of the Bogd Khan's elephant

Elephant

Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...

, the Bogd Khan's bodyguard, or wrestler. In 1913, he travelled to Russia with a delegation headed by Sain Noyon Khan Namnansüren. Later, he is said to have worked at the toll office.

Gongor had four children. He died in his home area in the late 1920s, before reaching the age of 50. His corpse is said to have been stolen during the funeral - at that time, the deceased were laid out in the steppe to be devoured by birds and other animals - and now on display in a US

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

museum .

One of Gongor's grandsons, D. Davaanyam, is a well-known children's author in Mongolia.