e escape of the Panchen Lama from Tibet provides an incredible opportunity to stage a revolt in the East.
8. Buddhism explains the reason for the negation of God.
9. h
e Soviet government needs to act quickly, taking into consideration cultural conditions and prophecies of Asia. 16
Posing as a representative of Hindu and Tibetan masses, the painter painted with wide strokes on a vast Asian geopolitical canvas: “If the Soviet Union recognizes Buddhism as part of the Communist teaching, our communities will furnish active assistance, and hundreds of millions of Buddhists scattered over the world will provide necessary and unexpected power. We need to adopt measures to introduce Communism as the step in the coming evolution.” 17 h e Roeriches nourished hopes that the Bolsheviks would embrace this scheme and attach to their expedition a Red cavalry unit that would accompany them on the second leg of their journey through Inner Asia.
Although they swallowed some of the Roeriches’ bluf , Chicherin and other Bolshevik leaders were not so naïve as to immerse themselves totally in such a reckless plan. Chicherin and Trilisser made it clear that direct involvement of Red Russia in their Tibetan venture was out of the question. Besides, the Bolsheviks had mixed feelings about the painter himself. h
ey certainly enjoyed his praises of Communism as 191
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well as his utterances about the evils of private property and the joys of communal living. However, as atheists and materialists, they were not thrilled about Roerich’s talk of Buddhism, h eosophy, and spirituality.
It was little wonder that Trilisser, while supporting the Roeriches’ expedition, l atly refused to give them permission to print in the Soviet Union their books about the foundations of Buddhism and Agni Yoga.
To the chief of the Bolshevik foreign espionage network, this stuf was pure idealistic propaganda.
Despite the ideological dif erences, Chicherin and OGPU gave Nicholas the green light and also promised logistic and diplomatic support.
Trilisser instructed one of OGPU’s colorful characters, Jacob Bliumkin, to provide assistance of all kinds to Roerich’s party. h is young operative, who came from the Jewish quarters of Odessa in southern Russia, joined OGPU at the tender age of seventeen, right at er the revolution.
His favorite pastime was dining, wining, and bragging among Moscow’s bohemian poets and writers. Occasionally, this revolutionary romantic and “man of theater” (as one of his sweethearts called him) liked to toy with verses himself. By the early 1920s, Bliumkin was already a seasoned terrorist, provocateur, hit man, and master of disguise. He even managed to leave a visible trace in modern European history by murdering in 1918 a German ambassador to Russia in hopes of provoking a new round of war between Russia and Germany. Relating this episode to his friends, this revolutionary adventurer always stressed how he coni dently pulled out his Colt revolver, like characters from his favorite silent movies. At the same time, he usually omitted how, while escaping from the embassy, he received a bullet in his buttocks. 18
In 1926, Bliumkin was conveniently assigned to Mongolia as the chief advisor to the sister secret-police structure and arrived in the country of nomads simultaneously with the Roeriches. It is also highly probable that Trilisser or Bliumkin verbally gave the painter assignments.
Dr. Konstantin Riabinin, a participant of the second expedition, later remembered, “Since the time we let Urga [capital of Mongolia] and all the time en route, I was under the impression that Moscow had 192
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entrusted the professor [Roerich] with an important assignment related to Tibet.” 19
Back to Asia: Altai to Mongolia
On July 22, 1926, Roerich and his party were on their way back to southern Siberia. h ere, from the Altai, they planned to launch the second leg of their Asian venture. In the middle of August, the expedition crossed the borders of the Oirot Autonomous Region, an autonomy set up for the local Turkic-speaking nomads (half Buddhists and half shamanists) by the Bolsheviks to butter up nationalistic feelings of local nomads.
h is was the Mountain Altai, the homeland of the Oirot prophecy that the painter viewed as a local version of Shambhala.
Roerich was especially thrilled to learn that in this area, on the fringes of the Mongol-Tibetan world, many nomads were shedding shamanism and switching to Buddhism. He believed this shit coni rmed his spiritual forecast regarding Inner Asia: people were phasing out dark rituals and moving toward the ancient teachings of Buddha. Of course, he too would ride this movement. As earlier in Darjeeling, Roerich could not resist the temptation to step into the local prophecy. He started toying with the idea of impersonating Oirot, the legendary redeemer of the Altai nomads. He listed the places he had visited during the i rst leg of his Asian journey as if they were sites visited by Oirot and then hinted that local nomads already knew that “the Blessed Oirot is already traveling throughout the world, announcing the great Advent.” Another hint was even more explicit: “About the good Oirot all know. Also they know the favorite Altaian name—Nikolai.” 20 Blindly loyal to her guru, Roerich’s secretary, Fosdick, immediately caught the mood of the teacher when they entered the Altai and suddenly began referring to Roerich as Gegen (a reincarnated one). 21
As the reincarnate Oirot, Roerich would proceed through the Altai, then enter Mongolia from the north (from northern Shambhala!), and, accompanied by the host of legends, triumphantly continue his route 193
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southward to Tibet. h e “Blessed One” was convinced that all pieces of his occult puzzle were placed incredibly well. What he did not see behind the Oirot prophecy, taking it as a local version of the Shambhala legend, was naked Altai nationalism wrapped in spiritual garb. Singing hymns to Oirot and Burkhan (the face of Buddha), who commanded Oirot, nomads of the Altai craved unity and sovereignty. Since they shared a similar culture and fate, the Altaians tried to empower themselves by dropping clan-based shamanism with its impromptu rituals and rallying around the Oirot prophecy familiar to all of them, then layering traits of Buddhism on top of this. In other words, it was an unconscious ef ort of these people to help bond themselves into an Oirot or White Altai nation, as they sang in their hymns.
Unlike Roerich, the Bolsheviks knew better. h ey understood that the Oirot people were restless, awaiting the legendary redeemer who would shield them from Russian advances into their land and culture.
h e Bolshevik answer to this explosive spiritual brew was simple and clever. h e Communist Revolution, they explained to the nomads, was a fuli llment of the prophecy, and Lenin was the reincarnation of Oirot. To sugarcoat this message, autonomy was of ered to the people of Oirot with their own indigenous Oirot Bolshevik leaders at the top.
Many frustrated nomads, who at i rst did not trust the Bolsheviks and were about to leave the Altai for Mongolia and China, swallowed this bait and stayed home. By the end of the 1920s, the explosive prophecy would gradually subside.
As Roerich proceeded, a few months later the same blinders prevented him from detecting pure nationalism behind the Shambhala prophecy, which the Red Mongols milked during their i ght against the Chinese.
Still worse, not only did Roerich not understand the demonic power of nationalism over people, but also, as a true citizen of the world, he refused to acknowledge it, thinking only in terms of global humanity.
Quoting the song of northern Red Shambhala composed by Mongol revolutionary soldiers in 1921, but dropping the i rst lines that mentioned a mortal i ght against Chinese ini dels, Roerich retained only its 194
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“spiritual” verses: “We march to the holy war of Shambhala. Let us be reborn in the sacred land.” 22
At the end of August 1926, the party safely crossed the Mongolian border. Again, on orders from the Bolshevik secret police, their baggage safely bypassed customs. In Mongolia, an unpleasant surprise awaited the painter and his wife. h ey had to wait for seven more months for permission from Chinese and Tibetan authorities to enter their countries. Yet, as always, the couple did not lose their spirits and did not waste time. While Roerich worked on his paintings, his wife was able to publish a small book on the basics of Buddhism, one of the texts Trilisser would not allow them to print in Red Russia.
h ere is also circumstantial evidence that while in Mongolia Roerich did get in touch with the Panchen Lama. With the help of his Bolshevik benefactors, he might have made a quick automobile trip to Beijing to meet the runaway Tibetan abbot, who resided in the Chinese capital at that time. A Soviet diplomat named Boris Pankratov remembered meeting the painter in Beijing in the spring of 1927: “Roerich nourished a hope to enter Tibet as the twenty-i t h king of Shambhala, of whom people would say that he came from the north and brought salvation to the whole world and became king of the world. For this purpose, the painter was dressed in a ceremonial lama priest robe.” 23 Since Roerich was prone to all kinds of adventurous tricks, one cannot totally exclude the possibility of a secret visit to the Chinese capital and talks with the Panchen Lama. Still, whether Roerich met him or not, the cautious abbot never became involved in the painter’s scheme.
While in Mongolia, the Roeriches were in close contact with Bliumkin, their guardian angel from OGPU, and with Leo Berlin, another secret police oi cer working in Mongolia under the cover of the Soviet Commissariat for Foreign Af airs. 24 Roerich’s son George, who spoke Tibetan l uently, helped Bliumkin close an arms deal with a representative of the Dalai Lama. Moreover, the two spies helped the Shambhala warriors with logistics and supervised the departure of the “artistic and archeological expedition” from Urga. 25
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The Tibetan Venture: High Hopes and Grand Failure When all permissions were i nally secured, the party departed on April 13, 1927. h e Soviet embassy provided automobiles, which allowed the Roeriches to quickly reach the southernmost border of Mongolia. h ere
they switched to camels and entered western China, an area populated by warlike tribes, infested with bandits, and contested by several Chinese warlords. Moscow OGPU sent a radiogram to a warlord friendly to the Bolsheviks, asking him “to provide all possible help to Roerich’s expedition.” 26 h e party again took the form of a spiritual march. In addition to the Stars and Stripes, the expedition proceeded under the Shambhala banner, a sacred tanka attached to a l agpole. Anticipating the grand historical mission that awaited them, Roerich wrote, “With this holy banner, we can reach the most beautiful lands and we can awaken ancient cultures for new achievements and for new splendors.” 27
