Page 38 [38]
SUSAN C. BYRNE
sidewall opposite the visitors’ chairs next to the lama’s desk, there was a bookcase
with many books and more photographs of his teachers. His wife sat in on the inter¬
view interjecting when she felt her husband’s answers were not exact enough: she
seemed keen to stress that her husband had attended the first (out of town) revival
of Khögshin khüree not the one in the city centre.
There are three buildings in the fenced enclosure: the Jergiitin’s room; a brick
built square temple with a well-furnished interior including a very elaborate balin;
an administration building where followers order prayers from an extensive list
each with a price and a small shop with a sparse collection of religious accessories
for sale. Anew ger-shaped brick temple was being built. I was told there were eight
monks in the temple all living locally with three of them having completed higher
Buddhist studies in Mongolia.
The Third Revival of Khögshin Khüree on Sergelen Hill,
Baganuur, 2013
The leader of the third revival (Informant 3) is the young monk now a young man
previously mentioned who joined the first revival, Yengar Shaddüwdarjaalin, as
a boy. This newish temple is set in a spacious walled complex with a small square
light-offering temple on the left of the entrance with a line of prayer wheels next to
it. Opposite the entrance is a brick ger-shaped temple building and the right of this
is a rectangular brick building housing the temple head’s room, the monks’ room
and a room where followers order prayers.
36