h e expedition was not just a family business anymore. A few more people had joined the couple and their son George: Dr. Riabinin, an enthusiast of Tibetan medicine the Roeriches knew from their prerevolutionary days in St. Petersburg; a young h eosophist from Siberia named Pavel Portniagin; and the lama Danzan Malonov from Agvan Dorzhiev’s Buddhist Kalachakra temple in Leningrad. Malonov was a seasoned “Red pilgrim” who, two years earlier, had participated in the Bolshevik Lhasa venture headed by Sergei Borisov. Malonov was most likely attached to the party by OGPU or Chicherin to perform special tasks. Two more members, aristocrat-romantic Colonel Nikolai Kordashevsky and Alexander Golubin, a merchant who worked for an English trade company, joined the party in Chinese territory. As former White oi cers who fought against the Reds in Siberia, the two had not wanted to risk their lives entering Red Mongolia. h e expedition also included twenty Buryat and Mongol armed guards.
On the way, Nicholas Roerich watched for signs of the Shambhala prophecy, noting various anomalous phenomena and observing the behavior of the nomads. In the evenings, he conducted instructive 196
S H A M B H A L A W A R R I O R I N A W E S T E R N B O D Y
Figure 8.1. Nicholas Roerich holding tanka depicting Maitreya. Urga, Mongolia, March–April, 1927.
197
C H A P T E R E I G H T
Figure 8.2. Onward to Lhasa under the Stars and Stripes and the sacred Maitreya banner: the Roerich camp at Sharagol Valley, Inner Mongolia, December 1927–
January 1928.
spiritual talks, enlightening his comrades about the coming evolution of humankind, the advent of a spiritually superior sixth race, the world commune, cooperative labor, the evils of private property, Maitreya, Shambhala, and the sacred Great White Brotherhood. In the meantime, in her tent Helena engaged in dialogues with their otherworldly teacher, Master Morya. Occasionally, to boost the spirit of the Shambhala warriors, Roerich turned on an American gramophone, and over the mountains l ew the tunes of “Forging of the Sword,” “Call of the Valky-rie,” and “Roar of Fafner” by Richard Wagner, the painter’s favorite composer. Wagner’s pieces resounded high in the mountains, “radiating heroic realism.” 28
As before, special ef orts were made to promote rumors among local nomads about the party as messengers of Shambhala and the new age of Maitreya. h e painter constantly reminded his travel companions to remember that now they were all walking heroes: “All our steps 198
S H A M B H A L A W A R R I O R I N A W E S T E R N B O D Y
Figure 8.3. Nicholas Roerich with his Shambhala seekers on the eve of their departure to Tibet. Let to right: Konstantin Riabinin, George Roerich, Nicholas Roerich, Pavel Portniagin, Sina Lichtmann-Fosdick, Maurice Lichtmann. Urga, Mongolia, March–April, 1927.
are destined to become legends, which people will compose about our journey. And who knows, they might be great legends. On the thresh-old of the coming of the sixth race, all events are destined to become special.” 29 Morya was pleased with how the legend making was developing and encouraged his earthly students: “h e legend is growing. You
need to proceed to Tibet without hurry, sending around rumors about your Buddhist embassy. h e appearance of the embassy under the banner of Buddha is something that has never been seen before in the history of humankind. In the name of Maitreya Commune, you need to topple false teachings. . . . Each evening talk about Shambhala! Shambhala prepares the coming of Maitreya. . . . Plan your movement to make sure that each phrase you utter turns into a legend. Remember, you already stand above regular human beings.” 30
199
C H A P T E R E I G H T
Figure 8.4. A last photo in the company of Red Mongol troops before the Roerich expedition moved southward across the Mongolian border. Konstantin Riabinin is in white hat; on his right is George Roerich; Sina Lichtmann-Fosdick, second from let , has a holstered gun on her belt. Altan-usu, Gobi Desert, May 1927.
Part of this legend making was the erection of a Buddhist stupa (suburgan) in the Sharagol valley in Inner Mongolia. Into the foundation of the structure devoted to Maitreya, the Roeriches placed a specially minted order of All-Conquering Buddha, the text containing the Shambhala prophecy, in Tibetan, a silver ring with the word Maitreya, and a blue silk scarf (a traditional goodwill git in Tibetan Buddhism). Local Mongol chiefs accompanied by crowds of nomads l ocked to the Roeriches’
camp to take part in a consecration ceremony oi ciated by a local Gegen (reincarnated one). h at same evening, from the other world, Master Morya expressed his approval: “h e erection of the suburgan ai rms the legend, and therefore it is useful. h
e Teacher is happy with this.” 31
Overcoming various natural obstacles and brandishing their ril es to scare away bandits they met en route, the travelers proceeded through 200
S H A M B H A L A W A R R I O R I N A W E S T E R N B O D Y
western China, then crossed the most dangerous leg of the journey—
the vast salt desert of Tsaidam—and i nally, in October, reached the Tibetan border in the Nagchu area. Here the Shambhala warriors had to face a formidable problem, which eventually ruined their hopes to conquer Lhasa. Despite an oi cial permission to enter the Forbidden Kingdom issued by a Tibetan envoy in Mongolia, the party was detained by armed border guards. h e Roeriches could not i gure out what was going on. Although not formally arrested, they were blocked and not allowed to proceed further. Playing by the script he had prepared in advance, Nicholas explained to the local governor that they were emissaries of Western Buddhists on a mission to bring Western and Eastern believers under the benevolent wing of His Holiness. Yet all was in vain.
Roerich’s high talk and all his inquiries were brushed aside with the advice to stay and wait for Lhasa’s instructions.
Little did the travelers know that the formidable wall on their way to Tibet was erected not only by the Lhasa oi cials but also by Lt. Colonel Bailey, the English spy stationed in Sikkim entrusted with monitoring all Bolshevik activities in Inner Asia. In 1925 he had i gured out the Borisov “Buddhist pilgrims” mission sent to Lhasa by Comintern, OGPU, and the Commissariat for Foreign Af airs. h en, in 1927, through his Kalmyk and Buryat agents, Bailey had exposed another Moscow mission to Tibet, the one headed by Arashi Chapchaev, which had departed from Urga just before Roerich launched his own expedition.
To the seasoned English shadow warrior, Roerich, whom Bailey already knew from the painter’s stay in Sikkim, was no dif erent from such disguised Bolsheviks as Borisov and Chapchaev. And, besides, like his Red predecessors, Roerich was coming from the same place, Red Mongolia. In Bailey’s eyes, Roerich’s Buddhist trappings—vestments, sacred scrolls, and his Shambhala and Maitreya talk—was simply part of a devious and more sophisticated Bolshevik conspiracy to dislodge Britain from Asia. For his part, the Dalai Lama, who had just gotten rid of the phony Mongol pilgrim Chapchaev, again had to deal with another intruder of the same caliber. h e Lhasa ruler dei nitely did not
201
C H A P T E R E I G H T
want such a headache. h e English spymaster recommended that Tibetan authorities immediately block the movement of the “American”
expedition, and Lhasa followed this advice. Although Bailey was not totally wrong about Roerich’s mission, at that point he did not yet realize that the painter was playing his own game. All in all, it did not matter. h e lieutenant colonel would have hardly changed his plans had he found out Roerich was not actually a Bolshevik.
At er halting the Roeriches at Nagchu, the Tibetans did not know what to do with them. To allow these suspicious folk to proceed farther was dangerous. Yet forcing them back to Mongolia in the middle of winter would surely have killed all members of the expedition. h e Dalai Lama certainly did not want to place this sin on his shoulders. While Lhasa was mulling over what to do, the party of Shambhala warriors was literally marooned for i ve months in freezing weather and thin air on a high-altitude plateau. At one point, George Roerich blacked out, narrowly surviving a heart attack, which did take the life of one of them: Lama Malonov, the alleged secret police informer. On November 8, 1927, Portniagin wrote in his diary: “Temperature is minus 27 Cel-sius. h is morning the doctor said, ‘From the viewpoint of medical science and physiology, our situation is catastrophic, and we all shall die.
Only a miracle can save us.’” 32
Besides suf ering from cold and oxygen dei ciency in the high altitude, the travelers were forbidden to purchase food from the locals. Yet Nicholas and Helena never lost their spirit. Obstacles only empowered them, and the painter cheered up his comrades: “Occult work must be done in fresh air and in the cold.” 33 While Helena continued to conjure Master Morya in her tent, Nicholas inspired the party with stories about the beauties of the Shambhala kingdom they would eventually reach. For his companions, shivering from piercing winter winds, he drew pictures of a beautiful mountain valley blossoming with subtropical vegetation. It would be as magnii cent as the Grand Canyon in Arizona, he told them.
On February 17, 1928, at er prolonged deliberations, Lhasa oi cials i nally worked out a solution. h e Roeriches would proceed quickly 202
