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SUSAN C. BYRNE
to compare and contrast the situation found in Baganuur in 2016 as well as my own
experience of visiting revived temples from 1993 to the present.* The paper will
also examine some of the issues impacting on the revival as raised by the temple
heads and their views on the state of Buddhism in Mongolia twenty-five years after
it was re-introduced.
Khögshin Khüree, Möngönmor’t District, Töw Province
The full history of Khögshin khüree, the name most commonly used by locals, also
known as Kherlengiin Dsüün khüree and Öwgön khüree,* remains to be written
although partial accounts exist in a number of sources. It is known that the original
founder of this monastery, Chin Wan Gombodorj, gifted it in 1729 to the young
Second Bogd Gegeen (1724-1757) who renamed it Yengar Shaddüwdarjaalin and
this became his principal residence: [kh khiiree.
One source is in the book,® which draws its information on monasteries from
secret reports written by monks and others across Mongolia in the late 1930s
presently stored in the Archives of the General Intelligence Office. The account of
Khégshin khiiree was written by a group of monks in June 1937: “tsorj Rentsenjaw,
vice monk Nyamtseren, 7sogchin gesgiii Ochir, Namjil, Dagwa, Chuluundor], typist
Tsewenjav, Batstikh wrote the story.” These monks were forced to get together and
write “the account in 15 days by searching through old accounts, interviewing old
people and recounting old stories.”
The foundation date for Khégshin khiiree is variously given as 1665, 1701 and
1711.’ The monastery, as was common practice in Mongolia from the 17" century,
moved several times before settling above the River Kherlen at the foot of the Togos
Khairkhan Mountain. It became one of the largest religious centres in Central Mon¬
golia and is said to have had over 1,460 monks at its height in 1862 with six branches.
3 T worked with Tibet Foundation, a London based charity from 1993 to 2005 on their Buddhism in
Mongolia programme and was an initiator of the Documentation of Mongolian Monasteries Project
(DOMM) conducted in 2007. I visited many old and active monasteries in Ulaanbaatar and in different
regions of Mongolia whenever the opportunity arose.
4 Rinéen, B. — Maidar, D.: Ugsatni sudlal xel Sinjlelin atlas. Ulanbatar 1979, 445.
Erdenebileg, B. (ed.): Mongolin stim xidin tiixés ... (Barimtin emxtgel). (Second edition). Tagnilin
yerönxi gajar, Tusgai arxiw, Ulanbatar 2014; Pozdnjejev, A. M.: Mongolija i mongoly. Rjezultaty
pojezdki v Mongoliju, ispolnenniyje v 1892-93 gg. Vol. 2. Sankt-Petersburg 1896-1898; Chuluun,
S. — Yusupova, T. I. (eds.): Klyagina-Kondratiyeva, M. L.: Mongolian Buddhist Culture: A Study of
Monasteries and Temples in Khentii and Khangai. National Museum of Ethnology (Senri Ethno¬
logical Reports 113), Osaka 2013; Piirew, O. — Oyiinbileg, R.: Téw aimgin Möngönmor t sümin tüx.
Ulanbatar 2003; DOMM TOMM 051 Khögshin khüree Additional Materials (http://www.mongolian¬
temples.org/ampdfs/%D0%A2%D3%A8%DO%IC%DO%9IC_057_AM.pdf).
Erdenebileg, B.: Mongolin stim xidin tiixés, pp. 97-101.
Cf. Pozdnjejev, A. M.: Mongolija i mongoly.
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