The story of Danzan Rabjaa (1803-1856), the fifth incarnation of a Mongolian Gelukpa monk from the southeast Gobi known as the Noyon Tulku, is a fascinating one.
His first Gelukpa incarnation was a contemporary of both the Fifth Dalai Lama and the First Jetsun Dampa in the mid 1600s. In fact, that incarnation traveled to and studied in Tibet at the same time that these two were training under the First Panchen Lama, Lobzang Chokyi Gyaltsen. Presumably he received teachings and initiations from all three.
Nobody today knows much about the other early incarnations, but the fifth incarnation, Danzan Rabjaa, is a national hero. Like the Fifth Dalai Lama and First Jetsun Dampa, he blended Nyingma practices in with his daily Gelukpa meditations. He became perhaps the greatest writer, poet, mystic and creative genius of 19th century Mongolia. In addition to building a dozen monasteries and meditation hermitages, he served as a kind of “Dalai Lama of the Gobi” (i.e., lama king). He also wrote and produced some 20 mystical operas, and composed hundreds of poems. He also allegedly drank huge amounts of vodka on a daily basis, and made love to several thousand women.
Hamrin Hrid (spelled Khamriin Khiid by modern Mongols), Danzan Rabjaa’s monastery in the southeast Gobi, housed many of his artistic creations and writings, as well as his personal library.
Like so many other Buddhist institutions, in the 1930s it came under attack from the Communists, and was razed to the ground, with its monk inhabitants either murdered or sent to labor camps.
However, prior to this terrible massacre and destruction, one of the monks in Hamrin Hrid came up with a plan to save as many of the monasteries cultural treasures as possible. Lama Tutob by name, he secretly had 150 crates made, and each night filled one with treasures from the monastery, had it carried out to the desert, and and then buried it in the sands. Sixty-five crates of religious paintings, books, ritual objects and other items associated with the life and creative activities of Danzan Rabjaa were salvaged in this way before the Communists attacked, killing and destroying everything they encountered.
Lama Tutob went into hiding. Later his grandson Altangerel, then only eight years old, joined him. Over half a century passed, and each year Lama Tutob and his grandson would unearth the crates, check the cultural treasures for damage, and then re-seal and re-bury them. Eventually Lama Tutob passed away, and the young Altangerel was left in charge of this tremendous responsibility.
Then in 1991 Communism fell, and everything changed. It was now safe to bring out the Danzan Rabjaa treasures for the New Mongolia.
Altangerel now dedicated himself to promoting the creation of a museum to house these treasures, and also to rebuilding a miniature replica of the original Hamred Hrid. He succeeded in both, as well as in re-building Danzan Rabjaa’s greatest archectural achievement, the multi-stupa complex called Shambhala.
For lovers of literature, the greatest of the treasures preserved by Lama Tutob and Altangerel were the writings and also the personal library of Danzan Rabjaa.
In the spring of 2004, out of the blue Dr. Hamid Sardar – scholar extraordinaire, film-maker, and adventurer -- sent me an email from France. Hamid was planning to apply to Cambridge University for funding for a long-termed project to scan Danzan Rabjaa’s writings and personal library. He had photographed several of the texts, in order to include these as visuals in the grant application, but his camera had been stolen in Paris. He requested me to make a trip to Sainshand and re-shoot these.
A week later I left by overnight train with a team of a dozen Mongolian friends, including the irrepressible Batbold Baast, as well as the director, curator and deputy curator of the Zanabazar Mongolia National Museum, various Mongolian lama scholars, and several photographer friends. We photographed several texts and sent the digital files to Hamid.
“Sorry,” he replied, “The resolution is insufficiently strong.” He asked that I make the trip again, with better equipment.
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| Lama Tutob and his grandson Altangerel, who saved the Danzan Rabjaa cultural treasures |
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| Earliest known portrait of Danzan Rabjaa, presently in the Danzan Rabjaa Museum, Sainshand |
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| Hamid Sardar at work and play |
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| Part of the crew on our first photo shoot of texts at the Danzan Rabjaa Museum in Sainshand |
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