China: A Collection...: Report on a Journey in Mongolia 1902, C. W. Campbell, British Foreign Office, p.26-30:
On the 29th August we broke camp from the Tsetsen Khan's head-quarters, left the Kerulon [Kherlen Gol, Kerülen River]—which continues south-westward for another [?]00 miles before turning sharply to the north—and steered a direct course for Urga. The Taragilch Gol, the first perennial affluent of the Kerulon met with, was passed between two notable hills called "The Lord" and "The Lady" (Noyon Ul and Khaton Ul); and thenceforward, with a few short intervals of plain, we were constantly making fairly sharp ascents or descents, until the Kerulon valley was struck again.
The higher hills were granite, and thev appeared to burst through strata of shale and slate; the castings from the many marmot burrows were invariably a sharp gravel of shale or slate. The noteworthy cols were the Hannûngin Daban (3,700 feet) and the Joldûngin Daban (4,000 feet), both of which taxed the temper and strength of the cart-camel. From the Joldûngin Daban we descended into the narrow valley of the Chinkir Gol, another affluent of the Kerulon, and west of it, on Sibir Ul, we saw for the tirst time in these parts a slender fringe of pine forest.
At the Tsetstn Khan's seat the Kerulon was over 100 yards wide, but fordable everywhere; the bed was sand and gravel, and the water still clouded with sediment. When we passed it on the 2nd September it was split into two swift, clear streams, a mile apart, both oí which were formidable obstacles to carts. On the 4th September we crossed the water-parting into the valley of the Tola [Tuul Gol, Tuul River], and next day reached Urga and the bounteous hospitality of my friend, M. von Grot, and other members of the Russian colony.
The first observation of the traveller who approaches from the south is that Urga enjoys a surprising supply of perennial water. The valley runs east and west, and from the north-east hills the Tola issues, pellucid and pure, splits its channel here and there, bends down towards the Bogdo Ul [Bogd Khan Uul], waters the whole 20 miles of the valley's length, and curves out of sight in the south-west, near the willows of Sangin.
East of Mai-mai-chên (Chinese Urga) one crosses four separate water-courses within hailing distance of each other—the two largest by substantial wooden bridges constructed at the cost of the Russian Consulate-General; and between Mai-mai-chen and Gandan, the west end of Mongol Urga, there are a few brooks trickling into the Tola, which in summer are useful and convenient auxiliaries.
A mile or so South of the Tola the long, low mass of the Bogdo Ul closes the view completely. Northward from it, to the Tola and beyond, there is an irregular space of fairly level but stony ground, which is 6 or 7 miles broad at its widest; along the north fringe of this, and on the terraces and spurs footing the inconsiderable hills which hem the valley on the north, are scattered the curious collection of settlements and temples comprehended in the name Urga.
Urga, the Russian pronunciation of the Mongol word örgo (residence), is scarcely known to Mongols. The full native name is Bogdo Lamain Khure (The God-lama's Encampment); shorter names are Da Khure or Ikhe Khure (Great Encampment), Bogdo Khure, or simply Khure. The Chinese call the place K'u-lun or K'u-lien, or Ta (Great) K'u lien, K'u-lun or K'u-lien being an attempt to pronounce the Mongol word Khure.
Urga is the administrative centre of the East Khalha Khanates, and the Rome of all Mongols. Its history appears to begin in the middle of the seventeenth century with the institution of the "Bogdo" as the Pontiff of the Lamaistic Church in North Mongolia.
This Mongol Pope seems to rank as the third in importance of the great avatars, or "living gods," of Lamaism, coming after the Dalai Lama of Lhassa [Lhasa] and the Pantshen Lama [Panchen Lama] of Tashilunpo [Tashilhunpo_Monastery], and occupies a political position in the Mongol world analogous to that of the Popes of mediæval Christendom. The ecclesiastical title is Cheplsun Damba Khutukhtu [Jebtsundamba Khutuktu], which was originally conferred by the Dalai Lama of Thibet in A.D. 1650 or 1651 on a son of the Tushetu Khan.
This Prince was the St. Paul of Mongol Lamaism, and is known in Mongol history as Undur Gegen [Öndör Gegeen Zanabazar]. Under his advice the Khalha tribes gravitated to China, rather than to Russia, in 1688, when the attacks of the Kalmucks under Galdan threatened their existence. He is the "Grand Lama Houtouktou" who figures so largely in [Jean-François] Gerbillon's description of the assembly of the Khalha Princes held by Kanghsi [the Kangxi Emperor] at Dolon-nor [Dolon Nor, Inner Mongolia] in 1691. Although the first "incarnation" living in Mongolia, and really the first Bogdo, he is ecclesiastically considered to have had fifteen predecessors, who lived in India and Thibet, from the time of Sakyamuni [Gautama Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama], and the present Bogdo [Bogd Khan, 1869-1924] is the eighth in succession from him. His Pontificate lasted for seventy years, and placed the influence of the Lamaistic Papacy completely above that of any territorial Prince.
He was succeeded by a newly-born Mongol Princeling in 1724, but the selection of the second Bogdo was attended by much intrigue, and gave rise to intertribal dissensions in which the Chinese Government foresaw political trouble. The Bogdo's power, too, required clipping. On the death of the second Bogdo, in 1757, it was arranged that the new "incarnation" should come from Thibet, and since then the Urga Popes have all been Thibetans of no special family influence.
At the time of Undur Gegen, it would appear that the Bogdo had only a temporary residence at Urga, and Monguí annals tell us of many places in South-east and North Mongolia where he lived for short or long periods. In 1756 the Tsanit college for the instruction of the Lamaistic priesthood in the Buddhism of Tibet was founded in Gandan; thenceforward the residence of the Bogdo appears to have been fixed, and Urga became the religious centre of North Mongolia.
From the very beginning the Chinese Government recognized the influence wielded by the Bogdo over the Khalhas, and so long as they were satisfied, as they were during the period of Undur Gegen, that the influence wpuld be used entirely in their favour, no attempt was made to circumscribe it; but political clouds gathered in the second Bogdo's reign, and a steady dispersal of his influence became the note of the Chinese policy. Under the pretext of the sanctity of his person, measures were taken to restrict his individual power to religious matters only, and in 1754 secular concerns were handed over to a chosen body of shabinars (papal serfs).
After the death of the second Bogdo, a Mongol governor was appointed by Imperial Decree to superintend the work of these shabinars, and in 1761 a Manchu amban from Peking was appointed as coadjutor. In 1786 the increasing importance of Urga made it necessary to advance the status of the ambans, and the administrative control over the Tushetu and Tsetsen aimaks. which had hitherto rested with the Governor-General (Chiang-chün) of Uliasutai, was transferred to them. Urga now became the political capital of North-east Mongolia, and soon attracted a settled population.
In 1902 Urga was in three distinct portions. By far the largest is the Mongol town; this comprises Urga proper—-Lamaseries of the Bogdo with an attendant and now miscellaneous population, and Gandan [Gandantegchinlen Monastery], where the Tsanit temples and schools are established. A mile and a-half to the east, on a low incline, stands the Russian Consulate, and near it are clustered a half-dozen Russian compounds, the nucleus of a Russian settlement. Beyond to the east, and a couple of miles further on, is the Chinese Maimai-chên (trade borough). All three portions, as I have mentioned, lie to the north of the Tola, and the total population cannot fall much short of 25,000, of whom one-half are Lamas.
The heart of the Mongol town is the Bogdo's palace and the temples for general worship, of which the principal is the Tsokchin. There are in addition twenty-eight other temples, each the special shrine of an ecclesiastical sub-division of the Khalha peoples, but these are largely composed of felt tents, and are far inferior to the Tsokchin, Maidari and other chief places of worship. Where these are, open spaces abound, but elsewhere Mongol Urga is a collection ot blocks of palisaded inclosures containing low squalid huts, and separated by narrow streets and lanes, in which wheeled traffic is rare. Prayer wheels of large size, sheltered by wooden sheds, are numerous in all the wider spaces, and by a touch of the hand as you pass along it is possible to say more prayers in five minutes than the glibbest tongue could repeat in a month.
Away from the temples Urga is a dull, sombre place, and people acquainted with the inner life have nothing attractive to report about it. I was chiefly interested in the market-place, where I spent a few mornings chaffering [haggling] with the bright matrons who kept most of the stalls for silver head-dresses, pipes, snufT-bottles, hats, leather boots, sashes, Buddhistic pictures, and miscellaneous curios of no great value. Near the stalls half-a-dozen camels were awaiting purchasers; flocks of sheep were tightly folded close by a bevy of eager women selling hats; a score of ponies for sale were bunched up behind a tangle of carts, on which Mongol butchers were rapidly dissecting carcases of mutton; here a Chinese itinerant blacksmith, there a carpenter or tinker; and everywhere the good-humoured motley throng of Mongols from all parts, sprinkled with Russian Buriats [Buryats] and a few Tibetans. The vicinity of the market-place is occupied by several shops of Russian traders, and a small settlement of Chinese merchants.
There was a time when women and traders were forbidden to live in this town (in 1763 a decree of Ch'ien-lung [the Qianlong Emperor, 1711-1799] forbade the presence of women in Khure "where the Hutukhtu lives"), and all commerce was carried on in Mai-mai-chên, the Chinese town which is ten li [about 5km] to the east. This was at first a stockaded inclosure with six gates, which are still closed at sunset. It was established in the early part of the eighteenth century as a residence for the Chinese trading population. Nowadays there is a cluster of Mongol suburbs outside the palisade, and the settled community numbers 4,000 or 5,000, of whom only 1,200 or 1,500 are Chinese.
There is no cleanliness anywhere in the steppe. Ch'ou Ta-tzŭ (foul Tartars) is a Chinese term of contempt hundreds ot years old, and the justice of the reproach in the mouth of a race whose notions of sanitation are still rudimentary, is not at first apparent. At Urga a comparison is possible, and it is in favour of the Chinese. In the Mongol town hygiene, public or private, does not exist; there are some signs of it in Mai-mai-chên. It should not surprise us that Lamaistic monachism [monasticism] is so unpleasant. The core of monachism is a sense of the virtue of abstinence from worldly pleasures, and there was a time in the early Christian Church when purity of soul was held to he incompatible with washing of the body.
|
| | |
See also: Russia News - Kazakhstan - China
Mongolia has 2 time zones at GMT+7 & GMT+8 (GMT+8 includes Ulaanbaatar) with no DST
Mongolia News
The peoples of Mongolia have a long history under a number of nomadic empires dating back to the period of the Xiongnu in the 4th century B.C. The name Mongol goes back to at least the 11th century A.D. The most famous Mongol, TEMÜÜJIN (aka Genghis Khan) emerged as the ruler of all Mongols in the early 1200s. By the time of his death in 1227, he had created through conquest a Mongol Empire that extended across much of Eurasia. His descendants, including ÖGÖDEI and KHUBILAI (aka Kublai Khan), continued military campaigns of conquest, taking control of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and the rest of China where KHUBILAI established the Yuan Dynasty in the 1270s. The Mongols attempted to invade Japan and Java before their empire broke apart in the 14th century.
In the 17th century, Mongolia fell under the rule of the Manchus of the Chinese Qing Dynasty. Following the collapse of the Manchus in 1911, Mongolia declared its independence, achieving it with help from the Soviet Union in 1921. Mongolia became a socialist state (the Mongolian People’s Republic) in 1924. Following independence and until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, the country was a Soviet satellite state, and heavily reliant on economic, military, and political assistance from Moscow. The period also was marked by purges, political repression, economic stagnation, and tensions with China.
Mongolia peacefully transitioned to an independent democracy in 1990. In 1992, it adopted a new constitution and established a free market economy. Since the country's transition, it has conducted eight presidential and nine legislative elections as of 2021. Throughout the period, the ex-communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) - which took the name Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) in 2010 - has competed for political power with the Democratic Party (DP) and several other smaller parties.
In the 2016 parliamentary elections, the MPP won overwhelming control of the Parliament over the DP, which had overseen a sharp decline in Mongolia’s economy during its control of the Parliament in the preceding years. Mongolians elected a DP member, Khaltmaa BATTULGA, as president in 2017. The June 2020 parliamentary elections left the MPP with continued dominant control of the parliament. Mongolians elected former prime minister and MPP member Ukhnaa KHURELSUKH as president in 2021.
Mongolia maintains close cultural, political, and military ties with Russia while China is its largest economic partner. Mongolia’s foreign relations are focused on preserving its autonomy by balancing relations with China and Russia, as well as its other major partners, Japan, South Korea, and the US.
CIA World Factbook: Mongolia
Area of Mongolia:
1,564,116 sq km slightly smaller than Alaska
Population of Mongolia:
3,255,468 (2023) | 3,041,142 (2009)
Languages of Mongolia:
Khalkha Mongol 90%, Turkic, Russian
Mongolia Capital:
Ulaanbaatar aka Ulan Bator, formerly Urga
ULAANBAATAR WEATHER
Free Books on Mongolia (.pdfs)
Across Mongolian Plains Andrews 1921
Unknown Mongolia v1 Carruthers 1914
Unknown Mongolia v2 Carruthers 1914
With the Russians in Mongolia Perry-Ayscough 1914
Overland to China Colquhoun 1900
...Through Mongolia and Thibet... Rockhill 1894
Mongolia... Przhevalʹskiĭ 1876
...Tartar Steppes and Their Inhabitants Atkinson 1863
Oriental and Western Siberia Atkinson 1858
Online Book Search Engines
Mongolia Reference Articles and Links
Wikipedia: Mongolia - History of Mongolia
BBC Country Profile: Mongolia
US State Department: Mongolia Profile
Maps of Mongolia
Embassy of Mongolia, Washington D.C.
WikiTravel: Mongolia
Mongolia News Websites
Montsame Agency
Daily News in Mongolian
ABYZ: Mongolia News Links
|