ULAANBAATAR — When we walked into the Gandan Khiid monastery this morning, I immediately felt I was somewhere familiar. The gold-painted prayer wheels, the square, white central building and the many colorful stupas all reminded me of Tibetan monasteries I have visited in western China.
L: Gandan Khiid, Ulaanbaatar; R: Ganden Sumtseling Gompa, Shangri-La
It turns out that Mongolian Buddhists belong to the same Gelugpa or Yellow-Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism that is practiced by the monks at the Labrang Monastery in Xiahe and the Ganden Sumtseling Gompa in Shangri-La. In fact, a Mongolian ruler, Altan Khan, actually created the title of Dalai Lama for the head of the Gelugpa school. Khan’s dreams of becoming the next Genghis Khan never materialized. But with his encouragement, Buddhism established deep roots throughout Mongolia. Its role in society was so great that centuries later, in between the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 and the Mongolian Communist Revolution in 1921, the country was ruled by the Bogd Khan, a “living Buddha,” as a theocratic state.
After the Communists came to power, Buddhism was suppressed, but it has been revitalized since the end of the Mongolian People’s Republic. We saw evidence of this at the monastery, where young boys in monks’ robes participated in morning prayers and ran around the compound. Mongolian visitors prayed in temples and in front of stupas, burned juniper and offered birdseed to the large and unexplained population of monastery pigeons.
Today’s our last day in Mongolia — this evening, we’re catching a train to Irkutsk, Russia. Before that, we’ll be taking a break from Mongolian food and grabbing dinner at Veranda, an Italian restaurant that somehow makes Lonely Planet’s list of the top five things in Ulaanbaatar. We are intrigued…
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Wishing you both continued safe travels.