Showing posts with label Bogd Khan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bogd Khan. Show all posts
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Monday, September 6, 2010
Consort Profile: Queen Genepil of Mongolia
Genepil, the last wife of the last Mongol Khan, is a woman shrouded in mystery yet one whose story has endured. She was queen consort for less than a year in 1924 but her story has captivated successive generations. At the debut of a film about the late queen her 70-year-old daughter Tserenkhand recalled the sudden disappearance of her mother as a child saying, “They took her away at night. She did not wake us, only left a piece of sugar on our pillows. I still remember the joy of a sudden discovery of that rare delicacy in the morning”. The VIII Jetsundhampa, the Bogd Khan, married his first wife, the famous Ekh Dagina, after falling madly in love with her and her death in 1923 effected the ailing monk-monarch profoundly.
By that time the Bogd Khan was monarch in name only with the country effectively under the control of the communist front-men for the Soviet Union. He would have been content to live out his remaining days alone but felt obliged to take another wife. The court was especially insistent, given the situation, that the full image of the monarchy be maintained. The guardians of the Bogd Khan took it upon themselves to pick a new bride for their sovereign even if she was to be wife in name only. In the summer of 1923 they began searching Khalkh Mongolia for a suitable bride. They finally narrowed their options to 15 girls ranging in age from 18 to 20. Their choice was a beautiful 19-year-old girl from a noble family in northern Mongolia at Baldan Bereeven named Genepil. She had also recently been married herself but the courtiers took no notice of this. As well as the different social norms of the time and place it must also be kept in mind that everyone knew this would most likely be a very short marriage and done mostly for appearances.
Genepil was, as her daughter related, taken in the night and carried to the Khan Palace where she first learned of what was to be her fate. What she thought about the arrangement can only be guessed at but she certainly knew that the Bogd Khan was 53-years-old, almost blind, practically immobile and very sick and she was assured she would soon be allowed to return to her first husband. When it came down to it though, Genepil balked and formally asked to return to her parents home. This was in keeping with Mongolian custom and the Bogd Khan had no choice but to agree. So, after only a few months the ailing Khan was single again and Genepil was back in the tent of her parents. However, courtiers soon came to find her and appealed to her to return to the palace. Her country and her monarch needed her and she was prevailed upon to return.
Queen Genepil lived with the Bogd Khan until his death when the monarchy was abolished. She then returned to her family though it is unknown if she went back to her first husband or ever remarried. Sadly, with the Khan gone, the communists were able to drop all pretences and instituted a vicious crackdown against all reminders of the old regime. Because of her former status Queen Genepil was targeted, arrested in 1937 and, along with her family, was executed in the purges of 1938. All that remained of her memory was a secret, forbidden song passed on to a historian by an old man who had been taught it by a former servant of the Bogd Khan, who taught it to him while the two were imprisoned by the communists.
By that time the Bogd Khan was monarch in name only with the country effectively under the control of the communist front-men for the Soviet Union. He would have been content to live out his remaining days alone but felt obliged to take another wife. The court was especially insistent, given the situation, that the full image of the monarchy be maintained. The guardians of the Bogd Khan took it upon themselves to pick a new bride for their sovereign even if she was to be wife in name only. In the summer of 1923 they began searching Khalkh Mongolia for a suitable bride. They finally narrowed their options to 15 girls ranging in age from 18 to 20. Their choice was a beautiful 19-year-old girl from a noble family in northern Mongolia at Baldan Bereeven named Genepil. She had also recently been married herself but the courtiers took no notice of this. As well as the different social norms of the time and place it must also be kept in mind that everyone knew this would most likely be a very short marriage and done mostly for appearances.
Genepil was, as her daughter related, taken in the night and carried to the Khan Palace where she first learned of what was to be her fate. What she thought about the arrangement can only be guessed at but she certainly knew that the Bogd Khan was 53-years-old, almost blind, practically immobile and very sick and she was assured she would soon be allowed to return to her first husband. When it came down to it though, Genepil balked and formally asked to return to her parents home. This was in keeping with Mongolian custom and the Bogd Khan had no choice but to agree. So, after only a few months the ailing Khan was single again and Genepil was back in the tent of her parents. However, courtiers soon came to find her and appealed to her to return to the palace. Her country and her monarch needed her and she was prevailed upon to return.
Queen Genepil lived with the Bogd Khan until his death when the monarchy was abolished. She then returned to her family though it is unknown if she went back to her first husband or ever remarried. Sadly, with the Khan gone, the communists were able to drop all pretences and instituted a vicious crackdown against all reminders of the old regime. Because of her former status Queen Genepil was targeted, arrested in 1937 and, along with her family, was executed in the purges of 1938. All that remained of her memory was a secret, forbidden song passed on to a historian by an old man who had been taught it by a former servant of the Bogd Khan, who taught it to him while the two were imprisoned by the communists.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Consort Profile: The Ekh Dagina
The first wife of the last Mongolian monarch was Empress Sharav Dondogdulam, also known as the Ekh Dagina. Like much of Mongolian history and historical figures, precise facts about her life are hard to pin down. Some sources give the date of her birth as sometime in 1870, the same year as her future husband, but others say it was later such as in 1874. Even the very nature of her existence is contested. One, more secular, version of her story is that she was born at Baldan Bereeven Khiid, Mongolia and lived a generally normal life for a Mongol girl until the Tibetan-born “Holy Shining One”, the Bogd Khan, married her and moved her into the Winter Palace. Others, however, insist that Empress Dondogdulam was not really human at all, but a divine being in human form (a fairly common Mongolian belief at the time and to a much lesser extent even still today). This was supposed to verified by the fact that the subject in question had no belly-button because they were not born to mortal parents. Whether or not the Empress had a belly-button is anybody’s guess I suppose.
Exactly what sort of consort the Ekh Dagina was is hard to acertain. The only sources which we have to go by are unreliable and contradictory. Some have portrayed her as a tragic figure, a victim of circumstance whose marriage to the Bogd Khan was something to endure rather than enjoy. My first response to that view is that most Mongolian wives even today would be viewed as tragic figures by women in the western world and although the Empress had her own hardships to endure, in a land where survival was often a struggle, she lived better than probably any other woman in the country. The “Holy Shining One” reportedly fell madly in love with her and this prompted a change in how things worked with the religious hierarchy perceiving that he was going to have Dondogdulam one way or another and better that he marry her than carry on an affair with an unofficial concubine. His attachment to her might discredit somewhat the idea that she was a figure to be pitied because of her husband. The history handed down by the communist stooges of the Soviet Union, on the other hand, portray her in the same unsavory fashion they portrayed her husband. Their accounts tell of an ambitious and scheming Empress who conspired against and assassinated nobles who might have been a threat to the theocratic monarchy. They even claim that she had the Mongolian prime minister poisoned in 1919.
On the opposite end of that spectrum we have the fact that she was extremely popular, even beloved, by the Mongolian people. She was not a very public figure and one might have thought the “Holy Shining One” renouncing his vows to marry would have made his wife a scandalous figure and yet that was not the way in Mongolia. The Empress was adored and revered by the public and it was maintained that she was the reincarnation of the goddess Tara. So, while her husband was the “living god of Urga” she was viewed as a living goddess herself and when her husband was formally enthroned as the Holy Emperor of Mongolia she too was hailed as the “Great Mother of the Country”. Long after her death in 1923 Mongolians flocked to a spring where the Empress used to go to worship believing that it had healing powers because of her association with the site. Of all the incomplete and contradictory information existing about the Ekh Dagina, that level of devotion may be the most revealing and most accurate measure of her life as the last Mongol empress but one.
Exactly what sort of consort the Ekh Dagina was is hard to acertain. The only sources which we have to go by are unreliable and contradictory. Some have portrayed her as a tragic figure, a victim of circumstance whose marriage to the Bogd Khan was something to endure rather than enjoy. My first response to that view is that most Mongolian wives even today would be viewed as tragic figures by women in the western world and although the Empress had her own hardships to endure, in a land where survival was often a struggle, she lived better than probably any other woman in the country. The “Holy Shining One” reportedly fell madly in love with her and this prompted a change in how things worked with the religious hierarchy perceiving that he was going to have Dondogdulam one way or another and better that he marry her than carry on an affair with an unofficial concubine. His attachment to her might discredit somewhat the idea that she was a figure to be pitied because of her husband. The history handed down by the communist stooges of the Soviet Union, on the other hand, portray her in the same unsavory fashion they portrayed her husband. Their accounts tell of an ambitious and scheming Empress who conspired against and assassinated nobles who might have been a threat to the theocratic monarchy. They even claim that she had the Mongolian prime minister poisoned in 1919.
On the opposite end of that spectrum we have the fact that she was extremely popular, even beloved, by the Mongolian people. She was not a very public figure and one might have thought the “Holy Shining One” renouncing his vows to marry would have made his wife a scandalous figure and yet that was not the way in Mongolia. The Empress was adored and revered by the public and it was maintained that she was the reincarnation of the goddess Tara. So, while her husband was the “living god of Urga” she was viewed as a living goddess herself and when her husband was formally enthroned as the Holy Emperor of Mongolia she too was hailed as the “Great Mother of the Country”. Long after her death in 1923 Mongolians flocked to a spring where the Empress used to go to worship believing that it had healing powers because of her association with the site. Of all the incomplete and contradictory information existing about the Ekh Dagina, that level of devotion may be the most revealing and most accurate measure of her life as the last Mongol empress but one.
Friday, November 20, 2009
The IX Bogd Gegen and Monarchism in Mongolia
I have seen recently a lack of information on the subject of monarchism in Mongolia with some being totally unaware of the situation in regards to monarchy in that country and others being confused as to whether the 'heir to the throne' so to speak is even well known there. To address this, I thought it appropriate to address the subject of monarchism in Mongolia and the current would-be monarch the IX Bogd Gegen. Information is not as forthcoming as I would like, but I will share what I know for the benefit of the curious concerning the spiritual heir of the imperial mantle in the modern Republic of Mongolia. To do that, it is probably necessary to back up a little and give some background information.
The history of Outer Mongolia, like the country itself, can be a little complicated. At the dawn of the 20th Century it was a vassal state of the Manchu Qing Empire. In 1911 the Manchu dynasty was overthrown and independence was declared with the position of monarch and head-of-state going to the leading Buddhist cleric the VIII Jebtsundamba Khutuktu (Holy Venerable Lord), also called the Bogd Gegen or Holy Shining One. His position is based on spiritual heredity; that is reincarnation and the Bogd Gegen is the third ranking leader of the Buddhist faith as practiced in the Himalayas and Mongolia; only the Panchen Lama and Dalai Lama outrank him. Well, when the VIII Bogd Gegen was made temporal as well as spiritual ruler of Mongolia (which at the time was an extremely devout Buddhist country) he was given the title of Bogd Khan or Holy Emperor, which is how most know him and how he is most often referred to in history books.
The Bogd Khan set up a parliament, prime minister and all of the normal trappings of a constitutional monarchy though at heart it remained a very theocratic monarchy. However, his reign was not a peaceful one. The Republic of China occupied Mongolia, put him under house arrest only to be chased out by the colorful Baron von Ungern who was himself in turn defeated by the Soviets who then placed a pliant Mongolian communist in power as the dictator and founding father of the Mongolian People’s Republic. The former Bogd Khan was allowed to remain on the throne as a powerless figurehead until his death in 1924 after which the communist regime declared there would be no more reincarnations and then set about an aggressive program to annihilate religion in Mongolia.
In fact, probably no other modern regime was so obsessive or successful in wiping out religion from the country than that in Mongolia. However, as usual in any country, faith does not follow political dictates and in 1936, in Tibet, Jampal Namdol Chokyi Gyaltsen was recognized as the reincarnation of the VIII Jebtsundamba Khutuktu by the Tibetan regent Reting Rinpoche after passing the traditional tests. However, because of the nature of the communist regime in Mongolia this was kept secret for many years. Jampal Namdol had been born on November 10, 1932 in Lhasa, Tibet near the Jokhang Temple. When he was only six months old his parents separated and left him in the care of his uncle who was a palace guard in the employ of the XIII Dalai Lama. He was four years old when he passed the three tests verifying his identity as the reincarnation of the former Bogd Khan but as this was a guarded secret he entered the Drepung Monastery at the age of seven as an ordinary monk to keep his identity safe.
When he was 25 Jampal Namdol renounced his monastic vows, married and had children. This was in keeping with the tradition of his position. The late Bogd Khan had also been married, his queen becoming a very popular and revered person in her own right. When the XIV Dalai Lama was forced to flee Tibet and go into exile in India in 1959 the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu did as well for fear that his identity would be discovered and he would be killed by the communists or taken prisoner as a propaganda trophy. Over the years he worked at various jobs in India including at the Tibet House in New Delhi and the Tibetan language section of All India Radio. He also closely followed events in the Soviet Union and Mongolia, waiting for the time when it would be possible to make himself and his true identity publicly known.
Over the years his first wife died and he remarried and then in 1975 moved with his family, and by then seven children, to Karnataka. In 1984 Jampal Namdol was able to visit Lhasa for the first time since the start of his exile and in 1990, with the Soviet bloc crumbling, the Dalai Lama issued a public statement revealing Jampal Namdol as the ninth Khutuktu. The following year he was formally installed in Madhya Pradesh and in 1992 he was formally enthroned as the ninth Jebtsundamba Khutuktu in Dharmsala. Of course, talk immediately began to stir about if or when he would return to Mongolia. Shortly thereafter the deputy abbot of the primary monastery in Mongolia said that they had asked the Mongolian government (still dominated by the communist party though the country had officially opened up and democratized) for permission to invite their spiritual leader home but received no reply. The request was made several times in 1990 but with the same result.
Mongol religious officials said that the government was afraid that Jampal Namdol would claim the political mantle of the Bogd Khan and attempt to restore the theocratic monarchy. Evidently they were afraid that their campaign to eradicate religious might not have been as successful as they thought. There was, however, a tourist visa given to Jampal Namdol in July of 1999 by which he traveled to Ulaanbaatar and was formally enthroned at the Gandentegchinlen Khiid Monastery by the XIV Dalai Lama. According to tradition it is only after his formal enthronement in Mongolia that he is addressed by the title of Bogd Gegen or ‘Holy Shining One’. However, he continues to live in exile in India which never ceases to raise questions about why he does not live in Mongolia permanently or when he will next return. The fact is, the government continues to view the aging Tibetan with distrust.
In July 2000 he was refused a visa to visit Russia but was later allowed to do so in August of 2003. While in Moscow the Bogd Gegen said that the authorities in Mongolia were afraid that he would try to claim political power and restore the monarchy though he insisted that he has no interest in politics. He did, however, stress that most Mongolians were his followers (probably slightly wishful thinking there) and that he had received numerous messages from Buddhist leaders throughout the country recognizing him as their spiritual leader (which is certainly true). One Buddhist affairs official with the Mongolian government said that his spiritual leadership is recognized only because of the loyalty the people have for the authority of the Dalai Lama and that there is no real tie to the Bogd Gegen who, he claimed, does not speak Mongolian, does not know or understand the people or their culture. Protesting too much perhaps?
Another official, a member of the Mongolian parliament, said that while the Bogd Gegen could be considered a religious instructor he would never be considered for the job of monarch nor, he argued, would most even accept him as the leader of Buddhism in Mongolia. However, a colonel in the Mongolian army, who said that he was not religious, was of the opinion that if the Bogd Gegen returned to Mongolia, "He could come back as president, but not with political power… Like the British queen." Which shows that even for those who are not devout Buddhists, his position as spiritual heir to the Bogd Khan has encouraged some to view him as a potential constitutional monarch.
When questioned on the subject of the Bogd Gegen Mongolian government officials have cited the laws enacted by the Mongolian People’s Republic stripping the Bogd Khan of his political power as precedent for any restoration of the theocratic monarchy as out of the question; even though the government that did so no longer exists. They have also said that his position as a religious leader is up to the Buddhists to decide to accept or reject him. They have also cited their constitutional separation of church and state as a permanent bloc to Jampal Namdol becoming Bogd Khan like his predecessor. There is also the difficult situation with Communist China, a government Mongolia has always viewed with caution.
When the Bogd came to Mongolia on his tourist visa in 1999 it was on the eve of a visit by Chinese communist leader Jiang Zemin (the guy who dismissed a top general for not being harsh enough with the Tiananmen Square protestors). Buddhist sources say people came from villages all across Mongolia when they heard that the heir of their last Holy Emperor was visiting. The Chinese thought the crowds were for them and when they heard who, in fact, they had come to see they were outraged and demanded that the Bogd be thrown out of the country within 24 hours as they took the whole thing as a personal insult (the Chinese were never fond of the late Bogd Khan either for obvious reasons). However, the Mongolian authorities refused saying he had come as a simple tourist and so was entitled to stay for 30 days if he wished. They were rather surprised that wherever the Bogd went he was given the place of honor and monks presented him with a seal in recognition of his authority as spiritual leader. Furthermore, from that time on, message came in to the government requesting that he be allowed to live in Mongolia permanently as supreme spiritual leader. To date no permission has been given and the whole event seemed only to solidify in the minds of the still mostly communist leadership in Mongolia that the Bogd Gegen retains a great deal of popular support which has only made them more wary of ever allowing him to return.
Recently the XIV Dalai Lama has appointed the Bogd Gegen to the post of representative of the Jonang tradition of Tibetan Buddhism but in regards to Mongolia the stalemate still stands and does not look likely to be resolved in the lifetime of the current incarnation. Many Mongolians travel to India to see him and hear his teaching and many also wish for him to return to Mongolia but the authorities do not seem likely to allow it. To date the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (communist) remains the dominant and most powerful political force in the country. There are other, slightly more conservative parties, but so far no major party exists to champion religious or monarchist issues and so the situation remains. I've gone on longer than I like to but I hope this sheds some light on a little known but still important front of the pan-monarchist effort.
The history of Outer Mongolia, like the country itself, can be a little complicated. At the dawn of the 20th Century it was a vassal state of the Manchu Qing Empire. In 1911 the Manchu dynasty was overthrown and independence was declared with the position of monarch and head-of-state going to the leading Buddhist cleric the VIII Jebtsundamba Khutuktu (Holy Venerable Lord), also called the Bogd Gegen or Holy Shining One. His position is based on spiritual heredity; that is reincarnation and the Bogd Gegen is the third ranking leader of the Buddhist faith as practiced in the Himalayas and Mongolia; only the Panchen Lama and Dalai Lama outrank him. Well, when the VIII Bogd Gegen was made temporal as well as spiritual ruler of Mongolia (which at the time was an extremely devout Buddhist country) he was given the title of Bogd Khan or Holy Emperor, which is how most know him and how he is most often referred to in history books.
The Bogd Khan set up a parliament, prime minister and all of the normal trappings of a constitutional monarchy though at heart it remained a very theocratic monarchy. However, his reign was not a peaceful one. The Republic of China occupied Mongolia, put him under house arrest only to be chased out by the colorful Baron von Ungern who was himself in turn defeated by the Soviets who then placed a pliant Mongolian communist in power as the dictator and founding father of the Mongolian People’s Republic. The former Bogd Khan was allowed to remain on the throne as a powerless figurehead until his death in 1924 after which the communist regime declared there would be no more reincarnations and then set about an aggressive program to annihilate religion in Mongolia.
In fact, probably no other modern regime was so obsessive or successful in wiping out religion from the country than that in Mongolia. However, as usual in any country, faith does not follow political dictates and in 1936, in Tibet, Jampal Namdol Chokyi Gyaltsen was recognized as the reincarnation of the VIII Jebtsundamba Khutuktu by the Tibetan regent Reting Rinpoche after passing the traditional tests. However, because of the nature of the communist regime in Mongolia this was kept secret for many years. Jampal Namdol had been born on November 10, 1932 in Lhasa, Tibet near the Jokhang Temple. When he was only six months old his parents separated and left him in the care of his uncle who was a palace guard in the employ of the XIII Dalai Lama. He was four years old when he passed the three tests verifying his identity as the reincarnation of the former Bogd Khan but as this was a guarded secret he entered the Drepung Monastery at the age of seven as an ordinary monk to keep his identity safe.
When he was 25 Jampal Namdol renounced his monastic vows, married and had children. This was in keeping with the tradition of his position. The late Bogd Khan had also been married, his queen becoming a very popular and revered person in her own right. When the XIV Dalai Lama was forced to flee Tibet and go into exile in India in 1959 the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu did as well for fear that his identity would be discovered and he would be killed by the communists or taken prisoner as a propaganda trophy. Over the years he worked at various jobs in India including at the Tibet House in New Delhi and the Tibetan language section of All India Radio. He also closely followed events in the Soviet Union and Mongolia, waiting for the time when it would be possible to make himself and his true identity publicly known.
Over the years his first wife died and he remarried and then in 1975 moved with his family, and by then seven children, to Karnataka. In 1984 Jampal Namdol was able to visit Lhasa for the first time since the start of his exile and in 1990, with the Soviet bloc crumbling, the Dalai Lama issued a public statement revealing Jampal Namdol as the ninth Khutuktu. The following year he was formally installed in Madhya Pradesh and in 1992 he was formally enthroned as the ninth Jebtsundamba Khutuktu in Dharmsala. Of course, talk immediately began to stir about if or when he would return to Mongolia. Shortly thereafter the deputy abbot of the primary monastery in Mongolia said that they had asked the Mongolian government (still dominated by the communist party though the country had officially opened up and democratized) for permission to invite their spiritual leader home but received no reply. The request was made several times in 1990 but with the same result.
Mongol religious officials said that the government was afraid that Jampal Namdol would claim the political mantle of the Bogd Khan and attempt to restore the theocratic monarchy. Evidently they were afraid that their campaign to eradicate religious might not have been as successful as they thought. There was, however, a tourist visa given to Jampal Namdol in July of 1999 by which he traveled to Ulaanbaatar and was formally enthroned at the Gandentegchinlen Khiid Monastery by the XIV Dalai Lama. According to tradition it is only after his formal enthronement in Mongolia that he is addressed by the title of Bogd Gegen or ‘Holy Shining One’. However, he continues to live in exile in India which never ceases to raise questions about why he does not live in Mongolia permanently or when he will next return. The fact is, the government continues to view the aging Tibetan with distrust.
In July 2000 he was refused a visa to visit Russia but was later allowed to do so in August of 2003. While in Moscow the Bogd Gegen said that the authorities in Mongolia were afraid that he would try to claim political power and restore the monarchy though he insisted that he has no interest in politics. He did, however, stress that most Mongolians were his followers (probably slightly wishful thinking there) and that he had received numerous messages from Buddhist leaders throughout the country recognizing him as their spiritual leader (which is certainly true). One Buddhist affairs official with the Mongolian government said that his spiritual leadership is recognized only because of the loyalty the people have for the authority of the Dalai Lama and that there is no real tie to the Bogd Gegen who, he claimed, does not speak Mongolian, does not know or understand the people or their culture. Protesting too much perhaps?
Another official, a member of the Mongolian parliament, said that while the Bogd Gegen could be considered a religious instructor he would never be considered for the job of monarch nor, he argued, would most even accept him as the leader of Buddhism in Mongolia. However, a colonel in the Mongolian army, who said that he was not religious, was of the opinion that if the Bogd Gegen returned to Mongolia, "He could come back as president, but not with political power… Like the British queen." Which shows that even for those who are not devout Buddhists, his position as spiritual heir to the Bogd Khan has encouraged some to view him as a potential constitutional monarch.
When questioned on the subject of the Bogd Gegen Mongolian government officials have cited the laws enacted by the Mongolian People’s Republic stripping the Bogd Khan of his political power as precedent for any restoration of the theocratic monarchy as out of the question; even though the government that did so no longer exists. They have also said that his position as a religious leader is up to the Buddhists to decide to accept or reject him. They have also cited their constitutional separation of church and state as a permanent bloc to Jampal Namdol becoming Bogd Khan like his predecessor. There is also the difficult situation with Communist China, a government Mongolia has always viewed with caution.
When the Bogd came to Mongolia on his tourist visa in 1999 it was on the eve of a visit by Chinese communist leader Jiang Zemin (the guy who dismissed a top general for not being harsh enough with the Tiananmen Square protestors). Buddhist sources say people came from villages all across Mongolia when they heard that the heir of their last Holy Emperor was visiting. The Chinese thought the crowds were for them and when they heard who, in fact, they had come to see they were outraged and demanded that the Bogd be thrown out of the country within 24 hours as they took the whole thing as a personal insult (the Chinese were never fond of the late Bogd Khan either for obvious reasons). However, the Mongolian authorities refused saying he had come as a simple tourist and so was entitled to stay for 30 days if he wished. They were rather surprised that wherever the Bogd went he was given the place of honor and monks presented him with a seal in recognition of his authority as spiritual leader. Furthermore, from that time on, message came in to the government requesting that he be allowed to live in Mongolia permanently as supreme spiritual leader. To date no permission has been given and the whole event seemed only to solidify in the minds of the still mostly communist leadership in Mongolia that the Bogd Gegen retains a great deal of popular support which has only made them more wary of ever allowing him to return.
Recently the XIV Dalai Lama has appointed the Bogd Gegen to the post of representative of the Jonang tradition of Tibetan Buddhism but in regards to Mongolia the stalemate still stands and does not look likely to be resolved in the lifetime of the current incarnation. Many Mongolians travel to India to see him and hear his teaching and many also wish for him to return to Mongolia but the authorities do not seem likely to allow it. To date the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (communist) remains the dominant and most powerful political force in the country. There are other, slightly more conservative parties, but so far no major party exists to champion religious or monarchist issues and so the situation remains. I've gone on longer than I like to but I hope this sheds some light on a little known but still important front of the pan-monarchist effort.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Monarchist Destinations: Winter Palace of the Bogd Khan
Continuing north from our last destination, any trip to the remote Republic of Mongolia will be incomplete for the modern monarchist without a visit to the Winter Palace of the Bogd Khan, Mongolia's last monarch. Head to Ulanbator and go south toward Zaisan and you will find the palace complex. Built in very traditionally east Asian style, the ornate gates and walls surround a number of temples as well as the Bogd Khan's actual residence, a two-story house built in a combination of eastern and western styles. The Holy Emperor actually had four palaces back in his time but the Winter Palace is the only one to survive the communist regime that followed him. It was a much more mysterious and haunting place in the past when it remained largely forgotten by the world, with everything left largely untouched from when the Bogd Khan had resided there. Today, sadly, it is more regulated, operates as a museum and is marketed as a tourist attraction.
The palace contains many relics of the last monarchial era in Mongolia, which speaks to the sacred nature of the sight to the Mongols of old since it was only in recent years that there was any security at all for the sight. In the Khan's day the rooms of the palace were filled with his many collections. Silk banners hung on the wall and one room would be filled with clocks, another with pianos, others with other assorted mechanisms, music boxes, magazines and such as well as an extensive collection of stuffed animals including a Russian bear, penguins and even a large crocodile hanging from the rafters. Most of these items are still on hand as is the Khan's ceremonial throne, his elaborate (but largely ceremonial) yurt, a pair of boots given to him by Czar Nicholas II of Russia. Probably the best thing about it (as with many of the places covered here) is the mysterious atmosphere of the place, being off the beaten path, not quite tourist-saturated and the feeling that you are exploring an old abandoned house out in the country. The *feeling* of the visit is as great if not greater than the things you will see when visiting.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Monarch Profile: The VIII Bogd Khan
The last Bogd Khan (Holy Emperor) of Mongolia was the eigth reincarnation of that line of the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu (Holy Venerable Lord) who were the spiritual rulers of Mongolia and the third ranking 'Yellow Hat' in the hierarchy of Gelugpa Buddhism just behind the Dalai and Panchen Lamas. When Mongolia became a devoutly Buddhist country the spiritual leaders became temporal leaders as well in many instances and none were higher than the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu who was also called the Bogd Gegen or "Holy Shining One". In the same fashion as the Dalai Lamas they were held to be something like living gods; more specifically (also like the Dalai Lama) the Bogd Gegen was a bodhisattva, one who had reached enlightenment but turned his back on nirvana to continue the cycle of birth and re-birth to help other souls along the path to blissful perfection. However, following the collapse of the Great Qing Empire in 1911 the Mongolians declared their independence from the new Republic of China and declared their reigning spiritual ruler the Bogd Khan or Holy Emperor of Outer Mongolia.The last Bogd Khan was probably born around 1869 and he was identified as the reincarnation at the age of four and taken to the capital then called Urga or the "Great Monastery" where in the 1890's he built his famous (but quite modest really) Winter Palace in the main temple complex. Although of the Tibetan nobility as was traditional he was a champion of Mongolian independence and led a rather "colorful" life though many of the lurid tales told about him can be chalked up to Soviet propaganda to discredit his memory. Unlike his other spiritual/secular rulers in Tibet the Bogd Khan lived more like a regular monarch and even had a wife, the Ekh Dagina, who was held to be the reincarnation of the goddess Tara. When Mongolian independence was declared they were hailed as the new political rulers. It was probably not a bad choice since one of the feudal lords (who all claimed descent from Genghis Khan) would have likely spelled civil war and the Bogd Khan was a shrewd political operator.
When the Chinese republic restored its rule over Outer Mongolia in 1919 they insisted that the Bogd Khan was their vassal, even forcing him to kowtow to a portrait of the President of the Republic in the absence of the Great Qing Emperor. There are numerous odd and funny stories about the Bogd Khan but perhaps those will wait for another post. In 1921 the Bogd Khan was liberated and restored to his throne by the White Russian general and pan-monarchist Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg. The Bogd Khan lavished praise on the Baron but also sent messages to the USSR and the Republic of China to try to gain the good graces of both powerful neighbors. It did no good and once the Baron's army was wiped out by the Red Army the Soviets worked through local Mongolian communist Damdin Sukhbaatar who became the new dictator. The Bogd Khan was allowed to remain on the throne, powerless but respected, until his death in 1924 (outliving his wife by one year) at which point the communists declared the reincarnations to be at an end and announced the birth of the Mongolian People's Republic.
*Note, evidently the gods of Buddhism are no respectors of communist declarations and a reincarnation was found though the successor Jebtsundamba Khutuktu was not enthroned in Mongolia until 1999 when the XIV Dalai Lama made the trip to perform the ceremony.
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