the present bogdo khan of outer mongolia is a tibetan. he sprangfrom a poor family living in the neighborhood of sakkia kure inwestern tibet. from earliest youth he had a stormy, quiteunaesthetic nature. he was fired with the idea of the independenceand glorification of mongolia and the successors of jenghiz khan.
this gave him at once a great influence among the lamas, princesand khans of mongolia and also with the russian government whichalways tried to attract him to their side. he did not fear toarraign himself against the manchu dynasty in china and always hadthe help of russia, tibet, the buriats and kirghiz, furnishing himwith money, weapons, warriors and diplomatic aid. the chineseemperors avoided open war with the living god, because it mightarouse the protests of the chinese buddhists. at one time theysent to the bogdo khan a skilful doctor-poisoner. the livingbuddha, however, at once understood the meaning of this medicalattention and, knowing the power of asiatic poisons, decided tomake a journey through the mongol monasteries and through tibet.
as his substitute he left a hubilgan who made friends with thechinese doctor and inquired from him the purposes and details ofhis arrival. very soon the chinese died from some unknown causeand the living buddha returned to his comfortable capital.
on another occasion danger threatened the living god. it was whenlhasa decided that the bogdo khan was carrying out a policy tooindependent of tibet. the dalai lama began negotiations withseveral khans and princes with the sain noion khan and jassaktukhan leading the movement and persuaded them to accelerate theimmigration of the spirit of buddha into another human form. theycame to urga where the bogdo khan met them with honors andrejoicings. a great feast was made for them and the conspiratorsalready felt themselves the accomplishers of the orders of thedalai lama. however, at the end of the feast, they had differentfeelings and died with them during the night. the living buddhaordered their bodies sent with full honors to their families.
the bogdo khan knows every thought, every movement of the princesand khans, the slightest conspiracy against himself, and theoffender is usually kindly invited to urga, from where he does notreturn alive.
the chinese government decided to terminate the line of the livingbuddhas. ceasing to fight with the pontiff of urga, the governmentcontrived the following scheme for accomplishing its ends.
peking invited the pandita gheghen from dolo nor and the head ofthe chinese lamaites, the hutuktu of utai, both of whom do notrecognize the supremacy of the living buddha, to come to thecapital. they decided, after consulting the old buddhistic books,that the present bogdo khan was to be the last living buddha,because that part of the spirit of buddha which dwells in the bogdokhans can abide only thirty-one times in the human body. bogdokhan is the thirty-first incarnated buddha from the time of undurgheghen and with him, therefore, the dynasty of the urga pontiffsmust cease. however, on hearing this the bogdo khan himself didsome research work and found in the old tibetan manuscripts thatone of the tibetan pontiffs was married and his son was a naturalincarnated buddha. so the bogdo khan married and now has a son, avery capable and energetic young man, and thus the religious throneof jenghiz khan will not be left empty. the dynasty of the chineseemperors disappeared from the stage of political events but theliving buddha continues to be a center for the pan-asiatic idea.
the new chinese government in 1920 held the living buddha underarrest in his palace but at the beginning of 1921 baron ungerncrossed the sacred bogdo-ol and approached the palace from therear. tibetan riders shot the chinese sentries with bow and arrowand afterwards the mongols penetrated into the palace and stoletheir "god," who immediately stirred up all mongolia and awakenedthe hopes of the asiatic peoples and tribes.
in the great palace of the bogdo a lama showed me a special casketcovered with a precious carpet, wherein they keep the bulls of thedalai and tashi lamas, the decrees of the russian and chineseemperors and the treaties between mongolia, russia, china andtibet. in this same casket is the copper plate bearing themysterious sign of the "king of the world" and the chronicle of thelast vision of the living buddha.
