Some medical facts: Bruises on a child’s body are often considered proof that a
baby has been battered. A visible bruise on the buttocks, the shape of a hand
and five fingers is almost ‘undeniable’ proof. In fact, there was a very
celebrated instance of a GP in the UK having discovered that so many of the
Asian babies in the practice were showing signs of being ‘battered’ that the
children’s welfare people were called in and an enormous number of children
taken away. However, the highly observant GP was wrong!
In Thailand, and the rest of Asia, a new-born baby with the
‘handprint’ bruise is very common, while child abuse is not common at all. The
problem, or rather the condition, relates back to Genghis Khan and the Mongol
hordes. It is a wonderful piece of folklore and also a fine example of applied
genetics.
Let’s look at the folklore first, and you are going to have
to dig very deep to get this tale anywhere else! A Mongolian baby, called
Tanujin, was born just over 1,000 years ago, but did not breathe. His father, in
desperation, held his new-born son upside down and smacked him severely over the
bottom, so much so that the baby drew breath and lived, but carried the life
giving bruise for the rest of his days. That baby later became Genghis Khan
(which means King of the Earth), and by the time he died in 1227 he was the
ruler of a large chunk of it, including the area which later became known as
Thailand.
History has chronicled that the Mongol hordes raped, pillaged
and annexed countries from China to Persia. His highly mobile troops traveled
the difficult terrain of Siberia. Famous cities were captured and looted such as
Tashkent, Baghdad (still a good place to stay away from, thanks George) and
Bokhara. Cities that surrendered were spared but those that resisted were razed
and the people slaughtered. The Mongols conquered northern India and
Afghanistan. In 1222, they defeated the Russian and Bulgarian armies. At the
time of Genghis Khan’s death, his empire stretched from China’s Yellow River to
the Dnieper, in Russia.
And now back to some interesting folklore. The descendants of
Genghis Khan also showed the hand-shaped bruise on the buttocks, beginning with
his four sons Ogdai, Jagatai, Juji and Tule, who were given one quarter of the
empire each after their father died. They in turn passed on this ‘trademark’ and
so this continues till today. If your “Luk Krung” children have the sign of
Genghis Khan, called Mongolian Blue Spot, you can claim descent from the warrior
king. However, there is quite a number of you, so I think there won’t be much
left in Genghis’ estate by today.
Now Mongolian Blue Spot, as a clinical condition, is well
documented, and I came across figures suggesting that at least one Mongolian
spot is present on over 90 percent of Native Americans and people of African
descent, over 80 percent of Asians, over 70 percent of Hispanics, and just under
10 percent of fair-skinned infants (Clinical Pediatric Dermatology, 1993).
Medically we describe Mongolian Blue Spot as flat bluish to
bluish gray skin markings that commonly appear at birth (or shortly thereafter)
and scientifically they are called congenital dermal melanocytosis. They are
flat, pigmented lesions with nebulous borders and irregular shape. They appear
commonly at the base of the spine, on the buttocks and back, but also can appear
as high as the shoulders and elsewhere. The medical text books also warn that
occasionally Mongolian Blue Spots are mistaken for bruises and questions about
child abuse arise. Obviously a text book that the UK GP did not read! Mongolian
Blue Spots are birthmarks, not bruises.
So, for all of you with children with a peculiar blue
birthmark on their bottoms, or for those interested in checking friends and
neighbors (or the young ladies dancing in the chrome pole palaces), it seems
fairly positive that the lineage is verified. You really have found descendants
of the man who conquered more of the world than Alexander the Great. And guess
what - my children have it too!
