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Project 14: Publishing of Lama of the Gobi by Michael Kohn, a biographical portrait of the 19th century Mongolian mystic and poet Danzan Rabjaa
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 In the descriptions of projects 12 and 13 the reader encountered the great century Mongolian mystic, poet and meditation master Danzan Rabjaa (1803-1856), the fifth incarnation of a Mongolian Gelukpa monk from the southeast Gobi known as the Noyon Tulku. As said there, his first Gelukpa incarnation was a contemporary of both the Fifth Dalai Lama and the First Jetsun Dampa in the mid 1600s, both of whom had been Gelukpa by monastic ordination and basic training, but who in their adult lives also combined several Nyingma lineages in their daily. Many of the Noyon Lamas had followed their example in this regard. Danzan Rabjaa, the fifth incarnation, is renowned for it.
The year 2006 was celebrated by Mongolians around the world as the 800th anniversary of their statehood and national identity as forged by the great Chinggis Khaan (often spelled Genghis Khan in the west, from Old Persian) in 1206. 2006 was also celebrated by UNESCO as the 150th anniversary of the passing of Danzan Rabjaa. For this purpose they gave a number of small grants in Mongolia for publishing works related to hi, including a volume of his collected poems in Mongolian, that same volume in English translation, and a study of his life in Mongolian, written by the esteemed scholar Khuulbaatar.
We felt that it would be appropriate to produce an easily read volume in English on Danzen Rabjaa’s life for the many young Mongolians who are now fluent in English, as well as for the many foreign visitors to the country. A year earlier we had encountered a first-draft manuscript written by Michael Kohn, a writer for The Lonely Planet travel guidebooks, and who had a decade earlier worked in Ulaanbaatar for a daily newspaper  called The Mongol Messenger. We contacted him and asked about the state of his ms.
Michael emailed back, “I haven’t had much time to work much more on it, but I think it’s almost ready for an editor.”
Indeed it was, so we fished around for a small grant for the publication. Our editing team (mostly Glenn and Ven Konchok Norbu) whipped it into final book form, our friend Miga ran it through Pagemaker and did the designing, and we sent it off to the press. It was released on August 14th, one day prior to the August 15th celebration UNESCO commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Danzan Rabjaa’s passing.
Of the print run, we donated 25 % of the books to Altangerel and the Danzan Rabjaa Museum in Sainshand, and another 10 % to other museums in the country. 10 % were gifted to Michael Kohn, 5 % to Ven Konchok for his editing work, and 5 % to the staff at UNESCO in charge of the Danzan Rabjaa project. We then sent 10 % to Snow Lion to distribute in America, and placed the remaining 35 % on Ulanbaatar’s hot book market.
And thus the legends and playful wisdom of Danzan Rabjaa has been disseminated for the first time in the west in book form
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