Page 40 [40]
OCR
SUSAN C. BYRNE oral transmissions and dsod initiation.”* He regards these two teachers and Ven. Luwsandamba as his gurus, greatly admiring them for their valuable contribution to the revival of Buddhism after 1990. At some stage he completed a Buddhist Studies degree atthe Dsanabadsar Buddhist University in Gandan Monastery in Ulaanbaatar after which he returned to Baganuur. It seems he attended the second revival, Ontsar Esheelin, where he re-met Ven. NB who had been a monk with him in Yengar Shaddüwdarjaalin. The two founders of this temple — Informant 3 and Ven. NB — make a very strong claim to be the true revival of Kherlengiin dsüün khüree (Khögshin khüree). Both had been monks in the first revival; one joined the temple not long after it began in 1990 and was described as “the last disciple of Ven. Luwsandamba” and the other was a novice. They base their legitimacy to claim to be reviving Khögshin khüree on the fact that they took over the mantle directly from the old monks: they had received a direct transmission of the traditions, rhythms (aya dan) and püja practices of the old monastery. Informant 1 told me how Ven. Luwsandamba passed on clear advice and instructions on running the revived temple. “Even though it is impossible to revive the Khögshin khüree as a whole, we wanted to preserve (it) and pass down its traditions into next generation and prevent that the khüree being forgotten in the future ... (It is) important to preserve and pass down to the youth whatever I heard and learnt from the elderly practitioners from the Khögshin khüree.” The idea of reviving a monastery ‘as a whole’ is something monks I met in the early 1990s had talked to me about although as the 1990s moved into the 20008 it was clear few had succeeded. This is mainly due to lack of funds and / or a local population big enough to be able to support a revived temple economically as well as having a body of educated monks. (In the early years of the Buddhist revival many monasteries in the countryside sent young monks to Gandan Monastery, who in turn, the Head Abbot Ven. D. Choidsamts told me in the early 1990s, had a policy of educating monks from all over the country. However, I learnt that as the years passed that many of these student monks did not return to their home place on completing their Buddhist education preferring to stay in the capital either to continue being monks or taking up lay life.) Today I know of only a handful of monasteries in the country having, what could be described as, a full sangha (body of monks) and fully revived cycle of ceremonies and rituals not to mention all the monastic buildings that once functioned. The best example is the aforementioned Gandan Monastery, in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, designated as the Head Monastery in the country after 1990. This monastery having been closed at the time of the purges, was re-opened in 1944 and operated, under heavy control, throughout the Communist years. Even so the monastery, which has re-built three philosophical temples (Gungaachoilin, Idgaachoinzinlin and Dashchoimbel) has, in addition restoring the Avalokitesvara Temple (Migjid Janraiseg), incorporated 26 The integration of Nyingma or Red tradition practices such as dsod into Gelugpa monasteries was common throughout Mongolia and could be said to be a differentiating factor when Mongolian Buddhist practice is being compared with Buddhist practice in the Tibetan sphere. 38
