Oldal 358 [358]
OCR
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 monasteries 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 SaikhanOwoo 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
