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SUSAN C. BYRNE
old monastery continue as they are and which of them, if either, will register with
the Ministry of Law and Interior as the revival of Khögshin khüree.
It is beyond the scope of this paper to address in detail the thorny issue of whether
or not Mongolian Buddhism is a distinct form or merely a regional variety of Tibetan
Buddhism. Suffice it to say that the two relatively young men running, what they
assert, are the revival of Khégshin khiiree feel strongly that they are the cultural in¬
heritors of a Buddhism that was practiced in Mongolia in the past while recognising
the need to adapt to modern circumstances. They feel their distinct form of Buddhist
practice is under pressure from Mongolian monks practising a modernised form of
the Tibetan Gelugpa Tradition studied in monasteries set up by Tibetans in exile. This
tension is largely a consequence of the decisions taken by the Head Monastery at
the time of democratisation in the best interests of the Mongolian Buddhist revival.
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