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INTRODUCTION to the Mongolian state he had granted once from the socialist government of Mongolia. The two-day conference had ten panels with interesting papers covering various topics. Due to the large number of presentations coffee breaks served for guestions and answers and the Embassy of Mongolia gave a reception as a closing event of the conference. The distinctiveness of the forum was the large number of participants: almost all scholars who study Mongolian Buddhism participated in the workshop. Another unigueness was the presence of Mongolian monk scholars, the professors of the National University of Mongolia and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, as well as the Mongolian television. Special events accompanying the conference were the visit of the Oriental Collection of the Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences where Buddhist manuscripts and blockprints from Mongolia were studied as well as the visit of the Collection of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Asiatic Arts in the repository of the Museum of Applied Arts where Mongolian Buddhist thangkas were introduced. We are grateful to Eötvös Loránd University, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Khyentse Foundation through the Budapest Centre for Buddhist Studies, the Dharma Gate Buddhist Church, and all co-operated institutes and Mongolian and Hungarian individuals who supported the event. During the conference special emphases was laid on the activity of Öndör Gegeen Dsanabadsar, Luwsandambiidsantsan (Tib. blo bzang bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan), the First Bogd Jebtsundamba Khutugtu. The camp or residence (6rgdd, Urga) where Dsanabadsar lived as a child, was established in 1639 at Shireet Tsagaan Nuur in the current area of Bürd sum, Ow6érkhangai aimag. After studying in Tibetan monastic universities, he received initiations from the most prominent Gelukpa masters: the Fifth Dalai Lama (1617-1682) and the Fourth Panchen Lama (1570-1662). The Fifth Dalai Lama recognised him as reincarnation of the Tibetan master, writer and historian Taranatha (1575-1634), the representative of the Tibetan Jonang stream. Returning from Tibet in 1651 started Dsanabadsar to found monasteries in his homeland and introduce religious life according to the Geluk tradition. He became a prominent Buddhist master and artist who crafted the most famous bronze masterpieces of Mongolian Buddhist art including the sculptures of Vajradhara, the five Tathagata Buddhas, the White and the Green Taras and several other deities. He also proved two scripts and laid the basis of the present-day capital city. It is stated that the assemblies founded by Dsanabadsar in his old age represented all the religious traditions (Gelukpa, Nyingmapa, Sakyapa and Kagyüpa) that had ever been followed in Mongolia. The papers and the articles of the conference and the present volume reflect on the great significance and manifold activity of Dsanabadsar including his biography, art, the scripts he developed, his monastery building activity, his incarnations, and many other characteristics. The other topics of the conference were also in close connection 14
