the agitated scholar argued that the populations of these areas were one tribe and one kinship family: “Formerly they represented one great nation—Oirot. To bring them together again into one family and into one state is crucial because all these tribes craving for unii cation are now neglected by everybody. h
ese tribes will give rise to a great Asian republic that will occupy an area exceeding Germany and France together.” 13
In 1911, taking advantage of the collapse of the Chinese Empire, the Tibetans revolted against the Chinese, kicking out their inspectors and troops. Still, in the northeastern part of the country, the warriors of the Forbidden Kingdom had to i ght repeatedly against the Chinese from 1913 to 1919 before they i nally secured the Tibetan borders and sovereignty. In the meantime, the Dalai Lama returned from exile in India and began to move his theocracy toward full-l edged nationhood. To empower his emerging nation, the Lhasa ruler made a few modest steps to modernize. He had a telegraph line built between northern India and Tibet and a small electric power station erected. Yet his major goal was raising an army equipped with modern weapons, requiring additional taxes. Now everybody, including monasteries, which previously enjoyed tax-exempt status, had to contribute to this defense project. h e clergy were not enthusiastic about this project at all and were equally upset 33
C H A P T E R T W O
Figure 2.4. h e Panchen Lama, spiritual leader of Tibet, standing in front of a Mongol dwelling at er his escape during one of his tours of Inner Mongolia, 1930.
about the power station, telegraph, and English military instructors the Dalai Lama invited to drill Tibetan soldiers.
Conservative monks, fearful that these innovations would corrupt Tibetan Buddhist tradition, began to look to the Panchen Lama for support. h e abbot of the Tashilumpho monastery, who was simultaneously a powerful lord in eastern Tibet, did not like the infringement on his privileges and refused to pay taxes. In 1921, his followers erected a large statue of the Buddha Maitreya, and he invited the Dalai Lama 34
P O W E R F O R T H E P O W E R L E S S
Figure 2.5. h e Tashilumpho monastery, headquarters of the Panchen Lama, 1910s.
to consecrate the project. h e Lhasa ruler was infuriated and severely rebuked the abbot for wasting so much money at a time when Tibet needed a modern army to defend itself. h ere was so much bad blood between them that the Panchen Lama became paranoid about his safety, and in 1923 he l ed from Tibet to Chinese Mongolia and never came back. 14 He became popular with the Mongols, who accepted him as their spiritual leader at er their Bogdo-gegen died in 1924. h e runaway abbot liked to visit their nomadic camps, performing public Kalachakra initiations for thousands.
Ja-Lama: Amursana-Mahakala and a Budding Dictator In the meantime, in western Mongolia another spiritual celebrity rose in power and captivated the minds of local nomads. It was the aforementioned notorious Ja-Lama, who in 1911 declared himself the 35
C H A P T E R T W O
reincarnation of Amursana, rallying the disgruntled Mongols, who wanted to free themselves from the Chinese and were ready to accept the legendary redeemer. 15 He showed up at the right place and right time. h e nomads of the Altai and western Mongolia were already scanning the horizon for someone with marks of Amursana and Oirot, who would come from the north and rescue them. h e Russian folklore scholar Boris Vladimirtsov, who visited Western Mongolia in 1913, stressed that the loss of land and Chinese domination stimulated the Mongols to search for signs of the legendary redeemer. 16
Ja-Lama grew up in the lower Volga River area, where his fellow Kalmyk, the runaway splinters of the Oirot confederation, had resided since the 1600s. His family eventually moved back to Mongolia, where the boy was put in a monastery for education. Ja-Lama proved to be a smart student and was sent to continue his training in Tibet. Yet the youth had a wild temper and allegedly killed a fellow monk during a heated argument. To take the life of a fellow Buddhist was a very serious crime, and the youth had to escape to Beijing, where for a few years he earned his living by printing Buddhist calendars. His i rst attempt to plug himself into the Amursana prophecy took place as early as the 1890s, when he wandered into western Mongolia and declared himself the grandson of the prince. Although many nomads followed him, the situation was not yet right. At that time, Chinese authorities quickly apprehended the rascal, and the “royal of spring” had to l ee southward to Tibet.
At er the 1911 Chinese revolution, when the Mongols rose up against the “yellow peril,” the timing was perfect. h e spiritual trickster resurfaced in Western Mongolia, where local nomads welcomed him. At one point, to enhance his legendary northern origin Ja-Lama donned a Russian oi cer’s military uniform with chevrons; according to the prophecy, Amursana escaped to the land of the “maiden tsarina” (Elizabeth of Russia) and became one of her generals before coming back to save his people.
Professor Ossendowski portrayed Ja-Lama as a desert magician who suddenly popped out of nowhere with a Colt revolver under his 36
P O W E R F O R T H E P O W E R L E S S
Figure 2.6. h e notorious Ja-Lama, a Kalmyk expatriate who declared himself the manifestation of Mahakala and took charge of western Mongols, c. 1912–13.
C H A P T E R T W O
sash. At er an intellectually stimulating dialogue, the Avenging Lama, impressed the professor with his supernatural power by slashing the abdomen of a comrade and then quickly repairing it without leaving any scars. Unlike authors of other accounts of Amursana, Ossendowski was a very perceptive observer who did not restrict himself to simply listing the miraculous deeds of the notorious Kalmyk. h e writer correctly described Ja-Lama as an ardent nationalist who worked to bring the various tribes of western Mongolia together into one nation. Taking full advantage of the Mongols’ dislike of the Chinese, Ja-Lama invoked
“blood and soil” sentiments among his followers. His major military coup was the successful seizure of Kobdo, the only major battle during the Mongols’ liberation movement in 1911–13. Before storming the town, Ja-Lama blessed his nomadic warriors with words that appealed not only to their religious feelings but also to their nationalistic sentiments: “You must not fear death and must not retreat. You are i ghting and dying for Mongolia, for which the gods have appointed a great destiny. See what the fate of Mongolia will be!” 17
Figure 2.7. Mongol warriors during the liberation war against the Chinese, 1911–13.
38
P O W E R F O R T H E P O W E R L E S S
To boost his spiritual power in the eyes of followers, from time to time, Ja-Lama visualized and merged with the powerful god Mahakala, one of the “eight terrible ones,” defenders of the Buddhist faith. He was also prone to literal interpretations of Tibetan Buddhist mythology and iconography. At er the victory over the Chinese at Kobdo, Ja-Lama performed a public tantra session for his warriors. It was scripted according to ancient Kalachakra texts and involved a sickle, skull cups, blood, and hearts ripped out from the chests of the enemies. During this ceremony, Ja-lama, in a trance, turned into wrathful Mahakala, using the blood and hearts of prisoners to i ll his skull cup the way Mahakala was portrayed doing on sacred scrolls. When a representative of the Bogdo-gegen rode into the crowd and confronted Ja-Lama with orders from the Bogdo-gegen to stop the ritual, he was killed in the ensuing melee.
By morning, mixed with blood and soil, the sparks of civic notions lay dead, sacrii ced to the altar of faith and race. 18
Figure 2.8. A Mongol commander during the liberation war against the Chinese.
Battle banners smeared with the blood of enemies are in the background.
39
C H A P T E R T W O
Ja-Lama awed nomads of western Mongolia with his power and embarked on building his own i efdom, where he began to rule as a modern dictator. About two thousand people recognized him as their ruler.
Order and discipline were his obsessions. Near the monastery of Mun-jok-kurel, he erected a tent town populated by lamas and regular shepherds. Felt yurts were pitched in strict geometrical lines in straight rows rather than chaotically as the Mongols normally did. “Amursana” demanded complete obedience and enforced a strict religious discipline, humiliating and punishing lamas who dared to drink or smoke, which was against traditional Tibetan Buddhism. h ose who broke the code of faith were forced to get married and were turned into soldiers. Ja-Lama announced that in his new-era state, there would be “few lamas, but only good ones.” h e rest of the clergy had to become productive labor-ers. In his tent town all people, clergy and laypeople, were subjected to regular physical labor, kept busy building a dam and digging an artii -
cial lake to provide a permanent water supply. Nobody was allowed to just hang around as in the past.
h is budding dictator was dei nitely up to something serious. On the one hand, he preached the return to original teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. On the other, he wanted to make his people modern. He planned to build schools, import machinery from Russia, and teach the Mongols the art of agriculture. Besides order and discipline, another obsession was hygiene, which he relentlessly promoted, in stark contrast to the i lth of the surrounding nomadic encampments. All of his town was neat and clean, unusual for contemporary Mongols, who dumped their garbage near their dwellings. In fact, when Ja-Lama saw people throwing trash around or drinking liquor, he severely punished the culprits.
h ose who continued to disobey were simply beheaded. 19
