What, no pictures?

Temujin's brutal captivity

The Cangue

The cangue is a device of captivity and torture used in Asia from ancient times into the twentieth century. Notice no pictures? It’s for a reason.

Alert: spoilers ahead.

A cangue consists of a slab of wood fashioned with a latch and a hole that fits around the captive’s neck. The collar part of the cangue is often large enough to prevent the captive from reaching his mouth with his hands, thereby forcing him to crouch like an animal to eat and drink.

It is significant that Temujin (the young Genghis Khan) was captive for a time, yoked in a cangue. I’ve written a brief article about the cangue on World Anvil which includes a photograph of prisoners in cangues on the article header. I’ve also posted a thread on X.

Caveat: spoilers in both posts.

For the curious, photographs of 19th and 20th century examples of cangues in use can be found on Wikipedia. I, for one, cannot bear to look at the pictures and will spare the reader, as well.