Gaden Relief’s Mongolia Project helped in the reconstruction of the Delgeruun Choira* Monastery in the “Gobi” or desert province of Dundgovi in southern Mongolia.

Delgeruun Choira is the traditional seat of Zava Damdin Rinpoche, a lineage of lamas whose stature was almost as great as the Bodg Khans of Mongolia. The previous incarnation was a famed scholar, yogi, healer and mahasiddha who wrote 16 volumes on commentaries to Buddhist Sutras and Tantras and many ritual texts also.

Before the Stalinist Red Terror gripped Mongolia in an iron fist, there were 900 monks studying with this Rinpoche at Delgeruun. The monastery was a famous place of logic, debate and meditation. It was a veritable spiritual heart of this desert province; the center of village life for a population whose faith and devotion more than made up for its simplicity and challenging desert life-style.

The Gobi’s landscape of unique ecosystems and local shamanic power places frames the site of Delgeruun and still awes today’s visitors. Under Communist rule, the monastery was completely destroyed in 1939.

Gaden Relief’s spiritual director, Zasep Rinpoche, and the current Zava Damdin Rinpoche made the long journey to Delgeruun Choira in the summer of 2004. These two lamas share a special, close connection – both have an interest in making the Buddhadharma flourish in Mongolia and both would like to see the restoration of this famed, albeit modest, monastery in the Gobi province.

The purpose of the visit was to see the beginning phases of reconstruction. The local villagers and nomadic people are very excited about the prospect of once more having their sacred place of prayer and pilgrimage.

Zasep Rinpoche met locals who remember, at the height of the Stalinist purges, Communist forces sweeping into the Gobi and looting the temple’s precious artifacts and destroying the complex. Delgeruun’s hundreds of monks were rounded up, arrested and “disappeared” – never to be seen alive again.

The night after this tragedy, locals risked everything to creep back to the ruins to salvage what they could for posterity. They were able to collect a small amount of temple items and personal effects of the previous Zava Damdin Rinpoche, who had died a few years earlier. These they carefully preserved in large cooking pots that they buried in the sand of a nearby cave.

When the newly recognized and enthroned Zava Damdin Rinpoche made his first visit to Delgeruun Choira monastery a few years ago, weeping villagers and nomads joyously presented him with these priceless antiques as a welcoming gift – their precious lama had finally returned home!

With these kinds of stories flowing from local people’s lips, it’s easy to see why the lamas want to restore Delgeruun to its former glory as an active center of Buddhist wisdom, arts, counseling and healing in this region.

Some of the foundational construction has recently been accomplished. At present, the interior of the building is painted and re-furbished. Zava Damdin Rinpoche ordered, from Beijing, some beautiful traditional Manchu tiles that now proudly make up the roof.

It is Zava Rinpoche’s dream to make Delgeruun a modern facility with sanitary conveniences for both the monastic community as well as the sojourning visitors. There are plans for proper plumbing and electricity, showers, toilets, solar panels and a collection of gers or yurts serving for quarters.

Gaden Relief’s Mongolia Project is looking to raise approximately $10,000-12,000 U.S. to cover these costs by the summer of 2005 so the construction can continue in the good weather before its evitable halt during the Gobi’s notorious winter. Further details and information regarding the funding needs as well as the progress on the temple will be updated on our website as it becomes available.

Please give – this project is one that will not only add to the flowering of Buddhism in Mongolia but it will also be a gift to the local Gobi community giving them back that spiritual dimension to their community that they’ve missed for so long.

For an update on the reconstruction work at Delgeruun Choira, please visit our Rebuilding Delgeruun Choira Temple page.

The summer of 2004 marked the completion of Mongolia Project’s Amarbayasgalant Well Project. This project was both swift and inspiring. Zasep Rinpoche found that the health of the sangha (community of monks) there improved almost immediately with its installation and that the monks are planning further infrastructure work around it, such as the construction of a heated hut to keep the pipes warm as well as showers and a new kitchen. See the report and pictures of Amarbayasgalant’s well.

For more information about Gaden Relief’s Mongolia Project, please visit our Mongolia Project page or contact project coordinator Matthew Richards.

*Previously transliterated as “Delgertsog Choir”. The current spelling is derived directly from the Mongolian literation.

Related reading:

• Amarbayasgalant Monastery – One of the monasteries in Mongolia whereby Dorje Shugden is propitiated.
• Zasep Rinpoche – A highly realized master whose teachers were the peerless Kyabjye Trijang Dorje Chang and Zong Rinpoche.
• Lobsang Tamdin – Mongolian adept who is as eminent as the Bogd Khans.

There is no Lama more highly respected and loved within the Mongolian Buddhist community than Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa Rinpoche, in every of his incarnations. (Khalkha is one of the largest regions of Mongolia, and Jetsun Dhampa meaning “Lord of Refuge”).

The first Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa was recognized by the 5th Dalai Lama, whose incarnation lineage and name was itself also given by the Mongolians. Since that time, both have enjoyed a very close relationship that has also contributed to the rapid growth of Tibetan Buddhist lineages and teachings within Mongolia. Today, Mongolian communities throughout the world has as much respect for Jetsun Dhampa as they do for the Dalai Lama.

All incarnations of Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa are strongly remembered for the pivotal role they have played in bringing Buddhism to Mongolia, causing it to grow and keeping it alive to this very day. They have become leaders of the country in their own right, with some of them even leading the country in secular and political affairs.

In remembrance of the late Ninth Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa who passed away recently in March 2012, DorjeShugden.com would like to offer a tribute to this illustrious line of incarnations, particularly the Fourth who was known for his special contribution to spreading Dorje Shugden’s practice. May his incarnations continually return to this world to bring Dharma to innumerable beings.

For more information about this great master’s line of incarnations, check out these links:

Biography of the Ninth Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa
jetsundhampa.com

Jebtsundamba Khutuktu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jebtsundamba_Khutuktu

9th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9th_Jebtsundamba_Khutughtu

All of us at DorjeShugden.com make this virtual offering of a butterlamp to the incomparable master His Holiness the 4th Kalkha Jetsun Dhampa, requesting his line of incarnations to remain for another 1,000 years to continue turning the wheel of Dharma and benefiting countless beings.

Biography

With highly realized incarnations recognised in all the lineages, Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa’s incarnation lineage traces back to Taranatha, a renown historian and practitioner who is most remembered for his the mastery, teachings and practices of Tantra.

To this day, Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa is respected as one of the revered teachers of the Kalachakra and Tara Tantras, and the practice of Maitreya. Prior to Taranatha, his incarnations trace back to Jamyang Choje, one of Tsongkhapa’s foremost students who had helped to build Drepung Monastery.

Over the centuries, by his powerful practice and dedicated efforts, Jetsun Dhampa rose high and quickly within Mongolia, to assume a strong spiritual leadership that is respected to this day. Some of his incarnations also held prominent leadership roles within a political sphere, in particular the 8th who guided the Mongolian people during the Communist upheavals in Russia and its neighboring countries.

The Jetsun Dhampa lineage formally began during the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama, who officially recognised him as the unmistaken incarnation of Taranatha. It was this “first” incarnation of the Jetsun Dhampas who played a pivotal role in bringing the Gelug lineage and teachings to Mongolian Buddhists. He was so highly regarded that he was even formally recognised by the Chinese Emperor Kang Xi (Qing dynasty) and granted special protection. It was because of this special relationship between Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa and the Chinese royalty that many monastic institutions were built within Mongolia under this Chinese Emperor’s patronage.

Since this time, Jetsun Dhampa and the Dalai Lama are regarded among the Mongolians as the two highest incarnations of Mongolia. Jetsun Dhampa is to the Mongolians what the Dalai Lama is to the Tibetans. He is also reverentially referred to as “Bogdo Gegen”, “Urga” or “Panchen Boghda” which means that he is the head of all Mongolian Buddhists.

Amarbayasgalant Monastery, the location of Kalkha Jetsun Dhampa

The Fourth Jetsun Dhampa, of the 18th Century, rose to fame for creating many Buddhist images and texts, making many offerings in his life and for establishing numerous monastic institutions for learning with specialties in debates and meditation. Jetsun Dhampa also had a connection with the very famous Amarbayasgalant Monastery in Mongolia, having built temples in the area. After he passed away, his remains were also enshrined here.

With a special aptitude for grasping the many teachings of both Sutra and Tantra, this incarnation was known for both strong commitment to his personal practice and for creating the foundation for Gelug teachings to flourish throughout Mongolia. It is now the most widely practiced school of Buddhism throughout the country.

It was around this time too, that Dorje Shugden’s practice was starting to take more prominence within the Gelugpa schools of Tibet. Many notable praises to Dorje Shugden were being written at this time by other Lamas.

Jetsun Dhampa’s contribution to these cannon of texts was unique for the references he made to Shambhala in the texts he wrote. While Shambala is known to be one of the places where Dorje Shugden resides, Jetsun Dhampa’s previous incarnation Taranatha was very famous for having mastered the Kalachakra Tantra and frequently passing on the initiation.

The Kalachakra practice is very closely associated with Shambhala for it is believed that the Tantra was first taught there by Shakyamuni and strongly preserved there. The prayers written by Jetsun Dhampa calls upon this connection that Dorje Shugden has with Shambhala, thus helping practitioners too to create an affinity with this deeply spiritual place and its realized beings.

Below is a short torma offering prayer composed by the 4th Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa which was also included in the rituals of monastic institutions established by him.

OM! Magnificent Buddha of Shambhala,
Ruler of the three worlds with a brilliant red face,
Protectors of the most scholarly beings of Loseling,
Including Dorje Shugden, please come here!

I offer to you pleasing samaya substances which create harmony,
Huge palaces, red tormas and white tormas,
A mountain of flesh and an ocean-wide pile of bones
And all the objects of desires.

As you pleasingly and happily partake in these offerings,
May it cause the increase of study, listening, contemplation and all virtues of theory and practice.
I request you: Please increase conducive conditions and remove hostile circumstances,
Guide us as we walk this path of wisdom and compassion.
Please grant auspiciousness for all Sangha who uphold the three trainings!

Today, the Jetsun Dhampas continue to maintain very close relationship and mutually supportive relationships with the many incarnations of the Dalai Lamas. Even within this lifetime, the current Dalai Lama and 9th Jetsun Dhampa spent much of their childhood together, studying under the same tutors, playing and at family gatherings. It was probably from this long-standing relationship that Mongolia and Tibet has long enjoyed a strong friendship and that Buddhist practices have been able to spread so quickly and firmly among Mongolian communities.

All of us at DorjeShugden.com wish to pay tribute to this great master, and to thank him for his tireless work to help countless practitioners over so many centuries. We eagerly await the return of the next (10th) incarnation, to continue the incredible works of his illustrious and beautiful lineage in Mongolia and beyond.

Its glory long-since faded, the Amarbayasgalant Monastery nonetheless stands out on the almost deserted Mongolian steppes, its chipped red and gold paint contrasting against a green backdrop of mountains. The dilapidated monastery, which dates back to the 1700s, in many ways serves as a metaphor for Buddhism in this country.

Twenty years after the fall of communism, which saw brutal purges that pushed the religion to the brink of extinction, Mongolian Buddhism is struggling to survive in the face of weak finances, a lack of education, suspicious intellectuals, a gnawing religious schism and encroaching Christianity.

In two short decades, the hopes raised when democracy returned to Mongolia appear to have been dashed, even as old monasteries are being renovated and new ones built all over the country; young monks are being sent to India, Tibet and Switzerland to study; and a lay movement continues to grow.

Buddhism arrived in Mongolia from Tibet in the 13th century, during the time of Genghis Khan. The religion thrived until the beginning of the 20th century, when there were some 100,000 monks – one-third of Mongolia’s male population were Buddhist lamas – living in 700 monasteries.

Communism began to take hold in the country in the 1920s and, after more than a decade of attempts to wipe out Buddhism failed to shake the faith, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and his Mongolian protege, Khorloogiin Choibalsan, unleashed a brutal purge in 1937, destroying temples and decimating the clergy.

No one knows exactly how many monks and nuns were killed but mass graves uncovered in recent years indicate tens of thousands disappeared between the 30s and 60s. Some put the figure at 30,000 killed, with another 10,000 banished to Siberian labour camps. By 1940, institutional Buddhism had ceased to exist in the Mongolian People’s Republic.

Erdene Zuu, about 300 kilometres from the nation’s capital, Ulan Bator, is one Mongolia’s largest monasteries and was once its grandest. Built in 1585 in the ancient capital of Karakorum, the sprawling complex is ringed by a massive wall dotted with 108 stupas and once contained 70 temples and shrines. It was home to some 1,500 monks. Now, only about 20 buildings remain and there are about 50 monks – mainly young boys – and, on most days, fewer visitors. It feels like a ghost town.

Not far from Erdene Zuu is the Shankh Monastery, which is falling apart due to a lack of funds. The site, which was founded in 1647 by Zanabazar, the country’s first Jetsun Damba, or living Buddha, was also home to 1,500 monks and was one of the foremost centers for teaching Buddhism. In 1937, the monastery was shut down, its temples burned and most of its monks arrested, executed or sent to labour camps.

Just outside Ulan Bator lie the ruins of the once-splendid Manjushri Monastery. The pictures in the Manjushri museum, which sits on the grounds of the old monastery, depict a monastic community that at one time included 10,000 monks. Russian tanks used the site for target practice and left it as a pile of rocks.

Ulan Bator’s Gandan Monastery faired somewhat better. Formerly home to 10,000 monks, the monastery was shut down by the communists and the temples were used as garages. However, in 1944, Stalin, under pressure from American president Franklin Roosevelt, ordered the reopening of the monastery.

‘At that time, Mongolia was cut off from the outside world and there was no freedom of expression or religion,’ says Gunid, abbot of one of the monasteries in the Gandan complex. ‘It was just for show that they opened this monastery.’

Gunid says a handful of monks who survived the purges of the 30s were allowed to teach Buddhism under the watchful eye of intelligence agents. The lamas spent more time on political than religious lessons. He says that if they met foreigners, they were instructed to lie and say Buddhism was being revived.

‘That was a very difficult time for anyone choosing this path,’ he says. ‘If one wanted to become a monk, this was the only place.’

Gunid, who joined Gandan in 1974, says the Mongolian KGB acted as an admissions board for anyone wanting to enter the monastery, with agents reading each applicant’s biography and then deciding who to admit.

A year after the Berlin Wall fell, in 1989, signaling the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union, Mongolia shook off communism and a democratic government came to power. Buddhism began to enjoy a resurwgence and the surviving faithful threw their energy into re-establishing their religion.

Gunid, rotund and dressed in a rust-colored robe with greyish-blue cuffs and brass buttons, explains what happened while seated on a platform, legs folded neatly beneath him. There is a picture of the Dalai Lama on the wall.

‘People went to restore the temples and many, many people entered the monasteries,’ he says. ‘But it all happened very fast. And then the whole system collapsed.’

During the seven decades of religious suppression, few monks had been trained in Gandan, the only functioning monastery. The result is that today’s Mongolian monasteries are populated only by very young abbots and a large proportion of shaven-headed boy monks. It’s estimated there are just 2,000 to 3,000 monks in all of Mongolia, with another 300 to 500 studying in India.

As the sun goes down at the Amarbayasgalant Monastery, monks, many of whom are of primary-school age, move about the complex doing chores. Some are wearing crimson robes, others tracksuits, their shaven heads the only sign of their vocation.

‘People always ask me how come you’re so young and the head monk,’ says Olonbayar, the 28-year-old abbot of Amarbayasgalant. ‘The reason is there are not enough monks in Mongolia. The problem with Buddhism in Mongolia is that you have very old monks and very young monks, but no one in the middle.’

Olonbayar says his monastery now has 60 monks, half of them children.

‘We don’t know what they’ll do when they grow up. It’s their choice,’ he says. ‘It’s a hard life. Some of them lose their way.’

Olonbayar is wearing a watch and, on his feet, a pair of Crocs, and he has a mobile phone tucked under his robes, which he occasionally answers. He has a sense of humour and is not afraid to show it. When a visiting journalist comments that the monastery appears to have been forgotten by many Mongolians, he smiles wryly and suggests, ‘Maybe you should learn how to pronounce it.’

One of the greatest obstacles to the advancement of Buddhism is a lack of funding to fix crumbling buildings and to support monks.

Canadian Glenn Mullin, author of numerous books on Tibetan Buddhism and a long-time resident of Ulan Bator, says that while there was just one temple in 1990, today there are 200, but they are mostly small rooms, no larger than 100 square meters, inhabited by just three to five monks.

‘They’re trying to restart the tradition from that,’ says Mullin.

‘I don’t have money for restoration,’ says Olonbayar. ‘The government should restore the temple. It’s their duty.’ But he says, he is aware the government is also short of funds.

His monastery has received a US$570,000 grant from the United States embassy in Ulan Bator, but that’s just enough to cover the cost of repairing the roof of the main building and installing fire and security systems. Due to the lack of funds, the monastery is not recruiting at the moment, says Olonbayar.

Vesna Wallace, an expert on Mongolian Buddhism at the University of California, Santa Barbara, says that if monks cannot live in monasteries, they must live at home, where they face many temptations. Some have to find jobs to survive and many get married.

‘First, Mongolia needs educated monks,’ says Olonbayar. ‘Second is the monasteries. Without monks, a monastery is just an empty building. So monks first, monasteries later.’

Bassa, the 33-year-old abbot at Erdene Zuu, agrees. ‘We don’t need such big monasteries; that’s not what’s important. The big problem now is the lack of teachers. Building good schools and bringing in good teachers from India, that’s what’s important.’

Gunid says that in the 90s, when expectations were running high, many children came to study at the monasteries, but the numbers have gradually decreased since.

‘Some parents hoped their children would become good lamas but they saw there were no good teachers – the monasteries could not give a good education,’ he says.

Morris Rossabi, a professor of Mongolian history at New York’s Columbia University, says. ‘[Parents] thought it would be the same kind of instruction mode that existed before 1921, but a lot of monks were not particularly well educated.’

The lack of an inspiring religious leadership has left intellectuals wary about organised Buddhism. Wallace says the perception that there is corruption, or at least ulterior motives, in Mongolian Buddhism has long existed, stretching as far back as the 17th century.

‘We know historically that there was a long waiting list of people who wanted to join monasteries, because they were exempt from paying taxes to the Manchus, could maintain their own animals and stay out of the military,’ Wallace says.

The Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Government, with the encouragement of Stalin, cemented these suspicions with allegations of corruption transmitted via radio, films and even novels, says Wallace. The message was that the monasteries were the last strongholds of feudalism and that the religion was hindering the country’s economic development.

As a result of this decades-long campaign, ‘the younger generation today have not devoted their minds to Buddhism,’ says Gunid.

Ulan Bator’s Museum of Political Repression portrays monks as ‘social parasites living off the people’. Exhibits include paintings produced during communist times of monks swallowing human hearts and owning houses – an unthinkable notion among devout Buddhists. Some newspapers and television programs continue to raise doubts about the religion.

‘There are those who are suspicious of monks and monasteries because many monks are partially ordained or are not ordained,’ Wallace says. ‘When you see monasteries being rebuilt, you think, ‘Not bad’, but many of the monks can’t survive if their families can’t support them. They have to find a job. Many get married. They still function as monks but they’re not really monks.’

Rossabi says biographies from the beginning of the 20th century often refer to a ‘virulent opposition to Buddhism and corruption in the Buddhist establishment’. ‘That might be in the backs of minds,’ he says.

On the other hand, says Rossabi, ‘A lot of people I deal with, the intellectual class, are very much interested in Buddhism and in their own way are going back to Buddhism. But I don’t think it’s related to the formal monastic establishment. That hasn’t jumped out.’

Rossabi describes friends who display ritual objects in their homes, read Buddhist writings and are well informed on the subject. He tells of one group of about 50 Mongolian intellectuals who meet to read sutras.

‘It doesn’t translate into a formal religion though.’ Furthermore, he says, ‘economic problems have superseded the interest in Buddhism.’

Buddhist religious leaders also speak about the growing attraction of Christianity and Mormonism, both of which are making major inroads in Mongolia.

‘Young people worship foreign countries and cultures,’ Gunid says. ‘We worshipped Russia for 70 years; now we worship America. Young people gave up Buddhism and betrayed their parents.’

He points to his belly and says: ‘Their brains are in their stomachs. They’re thinking about what to eat today.’

He says Christian missionaries are aggressive. ‘They knock at the door and say, ‘Please become a Mormon, please come to our church.”

Wallace says that in 2001, there were 182 registered religious organisations in Mongolia, of which 110 were Buddhist, but that latter number has fallen to just 30. Meanwhile, Christian organisations have expanded to some 300 in number. According to Wallace, one popular Christian slogan is: ‘We give, Buddhism takes.’

The spiritual attacks do not end there. Adherents of shamanism – which pre-dates Buddhism – have begun to accuse Buddhism of being foreign, saying Mongolia should return to its national religion, which is growing in popularity.

Buddhism is further hampered by a lack of a central organizing body. While many experts say the Gandan Monastery is Buddhism’s headquarters in Mongolia, some monasteries do not recognize its authority. And there is no recognized leader, unlike in Tibetan Buddhism.

In 1991, Mongolian lamas asked the Dalai Lama for information about the Ninth Bogd, Jambalnamdalchoijijantsan, who was born in Tibet in 1932 and was for years recognized as the reincarnation of the Eighth Bogd. He visited Mongolia in 1999, where he was recognized as the head of Mongolian Buddhism, but the visit met with complaints from China because of his close ties to the Tibetan government-in-exile and the Dalai Lama.

‘The Bogd recognized by the Dalai Lama is not as revered as the ones in the past,’ Rossabi says. ‘He has come back on occasion but has not attracted the loyalty and following one would expect.’

Another distraction is Dorje Shugden, a relatively new Tibetan deity and a source of dispute around the world. In 1996, the Dalai Lama declared the deity an ‘evil spirit’.

The cult of Dorje Shugden has been promoted in Mongolia by Tibetan adherents in Switzerland, India and Nepal, leading to friction. Of the 200 monasteries in Mongolia, some 25 per cent are said to worship Dorje Shugden, one of which is the grand Amarbayasgalant Monastery.

‘It’s sad that there is this problem, which is a Tibetan problem and not a Mongolian one, that has been transplanted to Mongolia,’ Wallace says. ‘Some people believe the Dorje Shugden group is funded by the Chinese. I don’t know if there is evidence for that but people prominent in that movement seem to have connections with the Chinese. Whoever is against the Dalai Lama they see as their ally.’

When told that Olonbayar believes Mongolian monasteries are independent and that there is no central authority, Gunid looks irritated.

‘Of course, he would say that,’ Gunid says. ‘They are against the Dalai Lama. That monastery doesn’t listen. The American government did a really bad job [by donating funds] – they should have given the money to Gandan. Maybe I should write to [US president Barack] Obama and have the ambassador recalled.’

Gunid, who studied in India and worked as an interpreter for the Dalai Lama during a visit to Mongolia, further defends his mentor.

‘He only has beads as a weapon while China has an atomic bomb. But he is stronger and the Chinese are afraid of him.’

Mongolian Buddhism may be down, but it is not yet out.

‘I’m optimistic because there is a certain lay movement that was not there before,’ Wallace says. ‘When I came in 2000, there was hardly anyone in the monasteries. You could hardly see any young people. There was a lot of suspicion.’

She says today she sees a different kind of movement, one in which lay practitioners are establishing Buddhist centres and offering Buddhist teachings for lay people, meditation retreats and lectures for university students.

Mullin says some people may feel discouraged because the monasteries ‘don’t have their act together’.

‘But you can’t blame them,’ he says. ‘It’s only been 20 years.’

‘When you scratch an inch below the surface of the socialism they grew up with, you find they’re Buddhists. This is very deep in the Mongolian psyche all over the country. ‘Buddhism is still deeply rooted in the Mongolian blood.’

Editor’s Note:
It seems that Dorje Shugden’s influence is getting stronger in Mongolia due to the efforts of Dorje Shugden Lamas and practitioners there. We rejoice to see so much work being done to spread Dorje Shugden in Mongolia. As Dorje Shugden spreads all over the world, more causes will be created for the ban to be lifted faster.

Source: http://www.pjmooney.com/en/Most_Recent_Articles/Entries/2011/1/9_Entry_1.html

Two miles to the west of the monastery, on the hillside on the opposite side of the Even River, is the newly constructed Dorje Shugden Temple. Formerly there were three temples here dedicated to Zanabazar, Dorje Shugden, and the Eighth Bogd Gegen. These were destroyed in the late 1930s.

The Dorje Shugden Temple was rebuilt and two large stupas constructed in place of the temples of Zanabazar and the Eighth Bogd Gegen. Between these stupas eight slightly smaller stupas have also recently been constructed. The lone stupa higher on the hill is an original dating from 1868.

Within the temple itself is a large statue of Buddha flanked by hundreds of clay statues of Zanabazar fashioned by local monks. There is also a thangka of Dorje Shugden. According to the caretaker, devotees of Dorje Shugden from many foreign countries have come here in recent years to do meditation retreats.

Extracted from “Don Croner’s World Wide Wanders” (http://www.doncroner.net/2008/08/mongolia-selenge-aimag-amarbayasgalant.html)

Prime Minister of Mongolia Nambar Enkhbayar visits Amar Mur,
Amarbayasgalant Monastery’s center in Ulan Bataar, capital of Mongolia

Guru Deva Rinpoche’s Amarbayasgalant Monastery in Mongolia

Visitors streaming towards Amarbayasgalant

The Even Valley from one of the ovoos behind the monastery

The Dorje Shugden Temple, located about a mile from Amarbayasgalant

Eight ovoos at the Dorje Shugden Temple, said to
represent the Eight Bogd Gegeens of Mongolia

Dorje Shugden, one of the Protectors of Amarbayasgalant