(A) The Tibet/Mongolia Connection in Context

Tibet and Mongolia have been brother/sister countries since ancient times, and the borders between them constantly changed. Often Tibetan kings ruled large parts of Mongolia, and conversely the Mongolian khans frequently played major roles in the administration of Tibet. Mongolia’s expanding Khunnu Empire brought them into conflict in the second century BC, but generally their relationship was mutually beneficial.

In the early seventh century the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo made Buddhism the national religion of the country. He incorporated large sections of the Mongolian Silk Road into his empire, and this territory was expanded by later generations of Tibetan rulers, especially King Trisong Deutsen and King Tri Ralpachen. The Tibetan script therefore began making inroads into Mongolia at that time.

In the mid-eighth century King Trisong Deutsen brought Padma Sambhava to Tibet. Two of Padma Sambhava’s twenty-five chief disciples – collectively known as “the 25 siddhas of Chimpu” -- were Mongolian, the most important being Sogpo Lhapal. Sogpo Lhapal brought Padma’s lineages to Mongolia – some accounts even say that he brought Padma himself to Mongolia for a brief period -- and from that time on Tibetan Buddhism began to replace the earlier versions of Indian Buddhism that had come to the Mongol regions via the Silk Road. The Tibetan renaissance of the 11th century in Tibet produced a smorgasbord of new sects in Tibet, and teachers from many of these also traveled and taught in Mongolia. The early Karmapas were probably the most significant.

Chinggis Khan radically altered the maps of Asia, and his successors continued his work. Chinggis had taken the Sakya lama Drakpa Gyaltsen as his guru, and later his grandson and successor Kublai Khan took the Sakya patriarch Chogyal Pakpa as his family mentor. The Sakya School of Tibetan Buddhism became the national religion of Mongolia and Tibet during this period.

Kublai Khan had Chogyal Pakpa devise an easy version of the Tibetan script for use throughout his empire, and until today Mongolian monasteries continue to study Buddhist philosophy and also to chant liturgical texts in Tibetan, albeit with something of a unique pronunciation. The National Library at Ulan Bataar today has one of the largest collections of Tibetan texts in the world.

The Third Dalai Lama’s visit to Mongolia in 1578 at the request of Altan Khan had a dramatic effect on Mongolian spiritual culture, and from that time on the Yellow School became the principal spiritual force in the country. “Dalai” is a Mongolian translation of the second part of the Third’s monastic ordination name, Sonam Gyatso. The Third’s reincarnation was discovered in the family of a grandson of Altan Khan. Thus he was a Mongol, and a direct descendent of Chinggis Khan. In 1640 the Mongolian king Gushri Khan, distressed by the chaos created by the ongoing year civil war in Tibet, invaded and captured the country. In 1642 he placed his guru the Fifth Dalai Lama on the throne of spiritual and temporal leadership. His relationship with the Great Fifth was modeled on that of Kublai Khan and Chogyal Pakpa in the days of the great Mongolian empire, a relationship termed cho-yon or “Priest-Patron” by historians.

During the Fifth Dalai Lama’s lifetime the great Mongolian Lama Zanabazar (a Mongolian pronunciation of Jnanavajra, the Sanskrit form of his ordination name Yeshe Dorje) traveled to Tibet and studied with the Fifth Dalai Lama and the First Panchen Lama (Lobzang Chokyi Gyaltsen). The latter was also the guru of the Fifth Dalai Lama. Zanabazar returned to Mongolia and became known to history as the First Jetsun Dampa. In 1691 he became spiritual and temporal head of the country, with a role much like that of the Dalai Lamas in Tibet. This position continued with his subsequent reincarnations, ending with the Communist murder of the Eighth in 1924. Usually either the Dalai Lama or Panchen Lama – whoever was the older at the time -- would be consulted in the search for the Jetsun Dampa reincarnations, an indication of the closeness of the two cultures.

Over the centuries most Mongolian lamas went to one of the six great Yellow School monasteries in Tibet for higher Buddhist studies. Tashi Lhunpo was a favorite, because Zanabazar himself had studied there with the First Panchen Lama. Labrang Tashi Khyil in Amdo was another, because of its connection with the great Mongolian lama Jamyang Shepa. Kumbum in Amdo was another favorite, because its construction was largely sponsored by Altan Khan and overseen by the Third Dalai Lama. Drepung Gomang became more important in recent centuries. From the time of the Seventh Dalai Lama’s chief disciple Changkya Rolpai Dorje, who was a Mongol, all Mongols had a kong, or hereditary right, to request admission into it. However, they were not bound by this kong, and many Mongols continued to study in whichever of the other six monasteries they chose. For example, the greatest Mongolian lama in modern times was probably Lharam Geshey Senge, who was in Sera during the Chinese Communist takeover of Tibet in 1959, and went to prison in Tibet from then until the early 1980s, as did many lamas. After release from prison he became abbot of Sera in Tibet, and was a major force in assisting the Panchen Lama rebuild Tibetan culture during the 1980s. His picture can be seen on most household altars in Mongolia today.

(B) The Communist Period
The Tibet/Mongolia link was severed by the Soviet-sponsored Communist takeover of Mongolia in the 1920s and the cultural purges that followed. During the 1930s the Buddhist culture of Mongolia came under full attack, and tens of thousands of the monks and nuns were murdered, deported to concentration camps in the Soviet Union, or driven into exile. All but a half dozen of Mongolia’s 1000 temples were destroyed, and the few that were not destroyed were converted into military or storage facilities for the Communist army. Libraries were burned, artworks melted down for metal content or cut into blocks for building material, and buildings put to the torch. The cultural purges of the 1930s saw complete destruction of all pre-communist culture, and Buddhism was at the top of the list of targets.

Many Mongolian lamas fled into Tibet, where they had a twenty year respite before the Chinese Communists invaded. Some of the survivors made it to India. Geshey Wangyal, who established the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery in America, was among them. One curious event occurred in the mid-1940s. In 1943 American Vice-President Henry Wallace visited the Soviet Union, and was taken to both Buryatia and Mongolia. Stalin wanted to demonstrate that religious freedom still thrived in the Soviet Union, so he sent out the command that one temple be reopened in Ulan Ude of Buryatia and another in Ulan Bataar of Mongolia.

Lamas were hurriedly pulled out of prisons and concentrations to staff these two monasteries, and the Soviets proudly showed VP Wallace the thriving face of traditional Mongolian spiritual culture under the benevolent hand of Comrade Stalin. These temples remained open as showcase religious institutions over the decades to follow. They were always kept under strict KGB control, and the monks closely monitored.

(C) The 1979 Turn-around, Relaxation in the 1980s, and Independence in 1990
In 1979 the Dalai Lama was invited to visit the Soviet Union and the Mongol regions. This included Buryatia, that had been taken over by the tsars over a century earlier; and also Mongolia, that had become a Soviet satellite during the 1920s.
His Holiness managed to convince the Soviets that it would be a good idea to allow two Buryatias and two Mongols each year to come to Dharamsala to study and thus restore the Tibet-Mongolia cultural bridge.

This program has been in effect ever since, and during the 1980s many Mongolian lamas availed themselves of it. Hhambo Lama Cho Gyamtso, the head of Ganden and thus the head monk in Mongolia today, was among them, as was Hhambo Lama Dambajaa, the second ranking lama in the country. Khachupa Kuntu Zangpo, the head lama of the Gangkar Choling Temple, which for 200 years has been the Drepung Loseling headquarters in the country, is another product of this excellent program. Today he usually serves as translator for His Holiness during HH’s visits to Mongolia.

I personally met many of these monks during that period, because most of them studied in the Tsennyi Labdra, where I myself was a student. In addition, my first Buddhist book was an Indian edition of the Third Dalai Lama’s Lam Rim Ser Zhunma, or “Essence of Refined Gold for the Path to Enlightenment,” that the Third had written while abbot of Drepung Monastery, and later taught widely throughout Mongolia. His Holiness took fifty copies with him during his 1979 visit to give to dignitaries and officials, because it was the only Mongolia-related Tibetan Buddhist book in English at the time.
Later that year Khambo Lama Gombojav, the head lama of Mongolia, invited me to come to Mongolia to help establish an English language publishing house and to rebuild Buddhism in the country. I was unable to do because of my studies in Dharamsala, but promised to come and help later, when conditions ripened.

The fall of the Soviet Union in 1989 brough dramatic changes to the Mongol regions inside and outside of Russia. Mongolia managed to overthrow Communist control in 1990, and since then the country entered a rebuilding phase. In 1990 there was only the one monastery in the country, Ganden Tegchenling, that had been re-opened by Stalin for VP Wallace in 1943. There now are well over a hundred. Most of these are small fledging institutes, but that are a positive beginning.

(D) The Maitri Mongolia Project : A General Survey and Report
In 2004 a number of us who had strong connections with both Tibetan and Mongolian lamas formed an informal organization for assisting with rebuilding and preservation in Mongolia and the Mongol regions of Northeast Tibet (especially the Kokonor).

What follows is a survey of what has been accomplished, and what more we would like to accomplish. It is prepared by way of a general financial report. After a preliminary field study, we decided to organize our activities into four categories, each having a number of facets. The four are as follows:
(1) Rebuilding temples and meditation centers;
(2) Helping museums in which important Buddhist art is being preserved;
(3) Supporting Mongolian organizations involved in rejuvenating Mongolian culture; and
(4) Supporting international fund raising efforts.

In the two years we have been in operation, we have been able to make some headway in all four of these areas.
Area One: Helping Museums in which Important Buddhist Art is being Preserved
The Communist cultural purges of the 1930s saw the destruction of much of Mongolia’s traditional Buddhist art. What survived largely did so because of the brave efforts of heroic men and women who hid art treasures during the purges. Later, when things had cooled down, the government began a program to encourage people to give what had been saved to the central museum in their province. Later this was redistributed to various national museums
.
1.a The Zanabazar National Fine Arts Museum
The Zanabazar National Fine Arts Museum is the principal repository of Buddhist art in the country, with over 10,000 Buddhist artifacts in its holdings.

We met with the Zanabazar director, Batdorj Damdensuren, and asked him for his thoughts on how we could best help.
He felt that, with the small budget we had to work with, the best approach would be to upgrade the computer system, and link it to a good digital scanner and camera. Their old computers were all Pentium I machines, and were completely obsolete for modern software. A decent digital system would allow them to photograph and record their holdings, which is very important for security purposes. It would also allow them to share their art digitally with other institutions around the world. Finally, it would provide a morale boost to their highly educated yet underpaid staff workers.

We therefore opted for this route, and provided the museum with a $5,000 grant. With this they purchased three Pentium VI computers, with printers and scanners, as well as one digital camera.

At the same time we undertook a program to photograph roughly a thousand paintings in their Buddhist collection for the Himalayan Art Project website. This took approximately five weeks of work with a team of four workers. The total cost was approx. $6,500.

Thirdly, it seemed that a website for the museum would be useful in linking them to other institutions around the world. We worked with a local web design company for this, and rented space in Germany for it, paying for a three year maintenance package in advance. Total expenses in creating and maintaining the site came to $4,000. The site can be viewed at www.zanabazarmuseum.org The bulk of the financing came from grants generously provided by the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation.

Total cost: $15,500.

1.b Study of the Erdene Zuu and Arhanghai Museums
After the Zanabazar Fine Arts Museum in Ulan Bataar, the two most important museums for Buddhist art in the country are Erdene Zuu in Kharakorum and Arhanghai Museum in Tsetserleg.

Erdene Zuu was originally a temple complex created by Zanabazar’s grandfather and consecrated by the Third Dalai Lama in the then capital city of Kharakorum. It was dedicated to the Dalai Lama connection, and today houses many of the works created by various Mongolian kings and lamas in honor of Dalai Lama visits, teachings and other events. It still has numerous sets of Dalai Lama biographical paintings, as well as a large collection dedicated to Zanabazar and his connection with the Fifth Dalai Lama and First Panchen Lama.

What today is the Arhanghai Museum was once the traditional monastic seat of Zaya Pandita, the country’s second most important lama. Just as Tibet had the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama as its two principal tulkus, Mongolia had the Jetsun Dampas and Zaya Pandita incarnates. And just as the Panchen Lamas played major roles in the minority years of the Dalai Lama incarnations, the Zaya Pandita incarnations were very important during the minority years of the Jetsun Dampas.
The Zanabazar director felt that it would be very useful for us to visit these two institutions and access their situations, with an eye to later involving them in one of our projects. Therefore in August of 2005 eight of us piled into a minivan and made a one week field trip. The Zanabazar director and also the chief curator came along to lead the way.

We met with the directors and curators in both institutions, and discussed their visions of what they felt was most needed. Again they too felt that digitizing and recording their holdings is a priority, and that modern equipment is the main stumbling block. We made small symbolic offerings to them, and agreed to try to find some funding for these projects in the future

Total cost: $2,500.

1c. The Danzan Rabjaa Museum in the Gobi
Tenzin Rabjaa, the fifth reincarnation of the Gobi Tulku (1803-1853), is one of the most unique characters in Mongolian history. Author of hundreds of poems and dozens of books, he also built a dozen monasteries and retreat facilities, composed and staged over 20 Western-style operas, and was a talented painter. Although a high lama, he is said to have drunk three bottles of vodka a day, and made love to over 5,000 women during his lifetime. His Kama Sutra paintings are famous with Mongols today. In recent decades he has become a national hero because of his emphasis upon writing in Mongolian rather than Tibetan, Chinese or Manchu.

His work and image came under special attack by the Soviet Communists during the 1930s because of the nationalistic sentiment associated with him. However, one brave monk managed to carry sixty-five trunks of his treasures out of the monastery, one trunk a night for 65 days, before the Communist hammer came down. He buried these in the Gobi, and cared for them over the decades to follow. When he became old he recruited his grandson Altangerel to assist him, and Altan continued this work until after independence from Communism in 1990s. Altan then established a museum in Danzan Rabjaa’s honor. So far about 20 of the 65 trunks have been unearthed and placed in the museum. The others will be brought out as facilities allow. We had requests from two sides to make visits to this museum. The first came from the Zanabazar museum director, who felt that we should know the Danzan Rabjaa Museum story and think of ways to help.

The second came from an American scholar friend who had applied for a grant from Cambridge University to digitize the surviving library of books belonging to Danzan Rabjaa.

For this we made three trips. In the first, we took a team of ten scholars from Ulan Bataar to the Gobi, including the Zanabazar director and two curators, two photographers, two video film-makers, and five lamas. There we met with Altangerel and his staff, and discussed their work. We also photographed three texts needed by Cambridge University in the grant application related to the digitalization project. The one week for the entire group cost $2,000, including a donation we made to Altangerel for his work.

Two weeks later we went back, this time with a smaller crew comprised of two Ulan Bataar scholars, two lamas and a photographer. Again we photographed texts needed by Cambridge for processing the grant application for the digitizing project. This outing cost $1,500, Our third trip came six months later, when we went down to photograph a set of twenty-five paintings that Danzin Rabjaa had created from his dreams of his previous lives. The set is most unique, and it was imperative to make a digital record as quickly as possible. Again we took the Zanabazar director, as well as a team of experts and photographers. The trip, together with a donation to the museum, cost $1,000.

Total project cost to date: $4,500.
Area Two: Rebuilding temples and meditation centers
Here we have undertaken two specific projects.

2a. Balden Khajod Ling. Balden Khajod Ling was an important female hermitage for study and practice, originally built by the Mongolian mystic Tenzin Rabjaa in the 1830s. It was destroyed by the Communists in the 1930s, and the land on which it once stood has since been converted into a park. In the mid-1990s a group of female practitioners began to form under the direction of Khajiidma, a female disciple of the late great Ser Od Lama. I met this community in 2004, and we discussed strategies for rebuilding their institution.

The first step was to acquire land, and we applied to the government for this shortly thereafter. The land was granted in Aug of 2005. In terms of funding, to date I have given Khajiidma $5,000 in cash to cover the costs of the land, paperwork processing fees, and building a fence around the property, which is necessary to prevent encroachment in the contemporary land-grab situation. In addition, there has been a total of $1,500 in expenses related to this project, including things like presents to the Deputy Mayor, lunches with peoples involved in making the project work, etc.

We have decided to model the main building after a Mongolian gher style temple, and plan to put in the foundations this summer. The architect Oyunbilek, who is trained in traditional Mongolian building, will assist with technical aspects of the project. Buddhapia in Korea has offered to help find sponsors for individual nuns.

We need to raise approximately $10,000 each year for the next three years to complete this project, and are delighted at how well it has gone so far. One method of fund-raising I will use will be the “working holiday tour” idea, in which people come to Mongolia for a few weeks, and profits from their visits (usually distributed between tour agencies, hotels, restaurants, etc) will go to materials for the temple. We have found agencies willing to participate. Participants will also work on the temple for one week of their visit, to give then an ongoing connection and interest in its survival.

Total project costs to date: $6,500

2b. Kunzang Dekyi Ritro.
All of Mongolia’s meditation centers were destroyed in the 1930s, and although quite a few small replicas of temples and monasteries have been rebuilt since independence in 1990, no meditation centers are up and operating. We feel that this type of facility is especially important for the young people, because meditation was one of the great jewels of their traditional culture.

We began our search for an auspicious site, and decided on a small valley half way between Ulan Bataar and the ancient meditation center of Manjushir. It is just 20 miles from the city, so can easily be accessed, yet is sufficiently far away so as to offer the tranquil atmosphere required for meditation. Different temples and monasteries will use it for weekend intensives on a “time share” basis. The small valley has a view of the sacred Bogd Mountains, where Zanabazar and the early Jetsun Dampas made many retreats. We will design it as a traditional gher meditation site, with the buildings all being round gher tents. We will begin with seven three-person gher this spring, and a larger gher for teaching events. We also need to put in a well, and of course a bath and toilet gher.

So far we have given $1,000 to the land office in Tuv Amick, and spent approximately $1,500 on related expenses. We plan to spend another $5,000 this spring putting in basic gher facilities, and another $5,000 for the two years to follow in order to upgrade the site.

Total outlay to date: $2,500.
Area Three: Supporting Mongolian Organizations Involved in Rejuvenating Tibeto-Mongolian Culture

The rejuvenation of Tibetan Buddhist culture after 70 years of Soviet oppression is a staggering undertaking, and many small organizations are involved. We have been able to help several of these in small ways.

3a. In the section above, under the discussion of our visits to the Danzan Rabjaa Museum, I mentioned our assistance to the project of Cambridge University in digitizing Danzan Rabjaa’s library. Our expenses for that assistance remain classified under the museum umbrella, but nonetheless are worthy of mention here.

3b. Two laptop computers and a digital camera for The Ornament of Wisdom Society (Onnothuinchimeg) This small organization is involved in publishing Tibetan Buddhist books in Mongolian, aimed at a young audience. Its workers are all volunteers. We provided them with two laptop computers (Pentium IIIs) and a decent digital camera, to help with their valuable work. Total cost: $2,100.

3c. A subsidy in publication of the Seventh Dalai Lama’s Gems of Wisdom in both English and Mongolian. This is a long spiritual poem written by the Seventh Dalai Lama for his Mongolian disciple and principal spiritual heir Changkya Rolpai Dorje. In the publication each page has a verse in both English and Mongolian, so it also can be used as a language learning tool by young Mongols. Total cost: $500.

3d. One Computer for the Urga Translation Team. This small translation team specializes in studying and translating Korean materials on Mongolian and Tibetan culture. Korea was part of the empire consolidated by Kublai Khan, who made the Sakya School of Tibetan Buddhism the court religion. Even today many Koreans consider themselves to be a far eastern strain of Mongolians. We felt that supporting this small group would be a worthwhile undertaking. Total expense: $850.

3e. Computer equipment for the Buddhist Association of Mongolia. This small organization publishes a student newsletter, organizes lectures and other cultural events on university campuses, and in general engages in a hundred small but beneficial activities. They have only one computer, and their monitor died when we were coordinating an event with them. We decided to provide them with a new monitor, a printer and also a dvd player.The total cost was $450.
Total cost of these projects: $3,900

Area Four: Supporting International Fundraising Efforts
In the past I have personally done much of the fund-raising for these projects, using my lecture tours as a means of generating interest in Mongolia and its endangered culture. I have also relied heavily upon several generous organizations and friends to help with the most pressing projects, and I am eternally indebted to them for coming through.
However, we feel that it would be best if Mongolians could do as most of the fundraising themselves. To do this they have to get out and around. In February of this year we sent our first two lamas on tour, and later plan to send two yoginis.

4a. Two Mongolian lamas take America by storm.
We began the program by sending two wonderful Mongolian lamas – Baasan Lama and Khachupa Kuntu Zangpo -- to the “Portals to Shangri-La: Masterpieces from Buddhist Mongolia, an art exhibit that opened in Atlanta at the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art on Feb 12th. Baasan Lama is the Mahatma Gandhi of Mongolia. He was one of the “group of thirteen” who overthrew the Communist government in 1990, and was the one entrusted with the declaration of independence. Baasan Lama served as chant master at Ganden, then the only monastery in the country, from 1979 to 1989. He is presently the head lama at the Chojiin Lama Temple in Ganden.

The other lama, Khachupa Kuntu Zangpo, is one of the most learned lamas in the country, and is the head of Gangkar Choling Temple in Ganden. This temple was established 200 years ago by the Fourth Jetsun Dampa as the Mongolian seat of Drepung Loseling Monastery. Kuntu Zangpo translates for the Dalai Lama whenever His Holiness teaches in Mongolia.
After the Oglethorpe Museum opening these two lamas were invited to a special breakfast in the Carter Center, with heads of the various Center projects in attendance. President Carter personally received them after the breakfast.

From Atlanta the two have continued to Washington and New York. They will be guests of honor at the Asia Society opening of the Rockefeller Mongolia Collection, and will serve the Mongolian communities in NY, DC, NJ and Philadelphia for the next month.
Their air tickets cost $1,130 each, and visa fees $100 each. In addition, we gave each of them $250 in traveling pocket money, and bought them several hundred dollars of Mongolian bric-a-brac each to take and give as gifts to hosts and sponsors.
Total project cost: $3,500.


4b. We plan to send Khajiidma, the female lama who is the head of Balden Khojod Ling, in mid-March, together with her artist sister Soyolma. The two will do Dharma activities in Atlanta for approximately a month, and will then go to the Dharma Center in Maryland. After this they will serve the Mongolian communities in NY and DC.

Our project costs for them will be less than the two lamas, because we have complimentary tickets for them from Beijing. The total cost should be approx. $2,000 for both.

Future Plans, Hopes, Dreams and Visions
Much of what we have initiated in Mongolia remains as works in progress. Our efforts with the Zanabazar Museum have more or less come to a successful conclusion, but the other areas are in various phases of development.

We look forward to making significant progress on both the Balden Khajod Ling and Kunzang Dekyi Ritro projects in the upcoming spring and summer. Not a lot can be done in the winter months. Our success will depend on numerous factors, but our hopes are high that auspicious conditions will arise.