Page 358 [358]
SURUN-KHANDA D. SYRTYPOVA — SUSAN C. BYRNE
monasteries existing in the territory of Mongolia in the late 19305." Actually the
reports had been done in the period 1936-1938 when the central authorities ordered
the aimag (province) governing bodies to investigate and prepare reports on all the
active monasteries in their territory. It is said that the primary motivation for the
reports was to assess the wealth of the religious institutions in the country in terms
ofthe flocks and herds of animals owned by them.
This number of “over 700” remained in the public sphere in Mongolia despite
a nationwide survey reported posthumously in 1979 by Academician B. Rinchen
locating and listing 941 “monasteries” in (Outer) Mongolia.'° The Documentation
of Mongolian Monasteries project concluded there were around 1,080 sites of mon¬
asteries in the country — whereas most were listed in the Rinchen survey many had
not been. While some of those omitted were small khural or branch monasteries of
a large khüree, the Rinchen survey had overlooked several large monasteries. One
example is the substantial monastery of Bragri Lam Damsigdorjiin Khiid in Saikhan¬
Owoo district in Dundgow’ province in Central Mongolia.
A significant challenge in collecting the data is identifying distinct datsan / khure
/ khurul given the multiplicity of names of many of these establishments. Most have
a Tibetan name although this will not always be known nowadays if there are no archive
records or local knowledge has lapsed. Then they could have the name of the founder or
a famous lama or a family / clan. As well as these two types of names, a datsan / khure
/ khurul may also be known by its geographic location. This multi-naming means that
reconciling different sources on the datsan / khure / khurul takes time and investigation
to ensure discreet entities are being identified. The lead researchers in each Republic
will have responsibility for determining the principal’ name for a datsan / khure /
khurul and the spelling of this name and others in Russian (and Tuvan) and English.
Tuva
As in Mongolia so it seems to be the case in Tuva where our early investigation
indicates that that the commonly quoted number of khure in the territory at the time
of the destruction is likely to be under-estimation.
In Tuva the view often sited is that there were around 30 khure in the territory in
the late 1920s. It seems this figure emanates from the report on the Congress on the
Lama Question in Tuva held by the governing authorities in Kyzyl in March 1928."
Monks were invited from all the khure in Tuva to come together to discuss the state
of Buddhist practice and level of education of the monk practitioners in Tuva. The
report issued after the Congress names 33 monasteries from which representatives
came and listed the number of monks from each. (One of the authors was told by
the project’s lead researcher in Tuva that a similar Congress was held in Buryatia in
'S Central Intelligence Agency Special Archive, Ulaanbaatar (TarayyaBix Epoxxuÿ razap Tycraïñ apxmB).
16 Rinchen, B. — Maidar, D.: Ugsaatnii sudlal khel shinjleliin atlas. Ulaanbaatar 1979.
17 MarepnarBi ramckoro cre3za B Tyse, Kb13bu1. 1928. Hayunprä apxm8 TUI TIM, geno 11, nm. 144-238.
356