Jampel Namdröl Chökyi Gyeltshen

Tibetan name
Tibetan script : འཇམ་ དཔལ་ ནམ་ དྲལ་ ཆོས་ ཀྱི་ རྒྱལ་ མཚན
Wylie transliteration : 'jam dpal rnam grol chos kyi rgyal mtshan
Chinese name
Simplified : 蒋 巴南卓 · 确 吉 坚赞

Jampel Namdröl Chökyi Gyeltshen ( Mongolian Жамбал Намдол Чойжи Жанцанг * 1932 in Lhasa , Tibet ; † 1. March 2012 in Ulaanbaatar , Mongolia ) of the 9th was jebtsundamba khutuktu , the highest religious authority of the Gelug -School of Chalcha -Mongolen and thus the third highest Lama in Tibetan Buddhism . His predecessor Bogd Khan was the last ruling head of Buddhism in Mongolia . He himself spent most of his life in exile in India . His identity was kept a secret until 1990 for fear of the communist rulers in Mongolia, after which there were repeated attempts to travel to Mongolia. Only in the last year of his life could he settle there permanently.

Life

At the end of the Russian Civil War in 1921, the Communists took power in Outer Mongolia , where the warlord Roman von Ungern-Sternberg had previously ruled. The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party tolerated the Bogd Khan, but after his death in 1924 prevented the search for a new reincarnation . The Mongolian Buddhists therefore remained without a religious leader. In the course of the atheist campaigns of the communists, the religion was severely persecuted, monasteries were dissolved and destroyed, monks and lamas were imprisoned or shot.

In Tibet, which was still independent at the time and with which the Mongolian Buddhists had close contacts, the search for a successor was made. He was found in Jampel Namdröl Chökyi Gyeltshen, who was born in 1932 in Lhasa near the Jokhang Temple. When he was half a year old, his parents separated and his mother placed him in the care of his uncle, who was one of the Dalai Lama's bodyguards. This thirteenth Dalai Lama Thubten Gyatsho died in 1933 and until a successor was found, Jampel Yeshe Gyeltshen , the fifth Reting Rinpoche, took power. Since it was impossible for the Mongolian lamas to proclaim a new Jebtsundamba Khutukhtu, the Reting Rinpoche in Tibet took the initiative. In 1936 the then four-year-old Jampel Namdröl Chökyi Gyeltshen was declared the reincarnation of the deceased Bogd Khan and thus the new Jebtsundamba Khutukhtu after successfully passing three series of tests. Since Mongolia was under the control of the Soviet Union and there was also a civil war in China and the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937 , its existence was kept secret.

At the age of seven he was transferred from the care of his uncle to Drepung Monastery, where he received monastic training from now on. Since his identity was to be kept strictly secret, he could not live in the apartment block of the Chalcha monks in exile in Lhasa, but led the life of a simple Tibetan monk completely anonymously. However, this also resulted in his not learning the Mongolian language. In 1950, Tibet was annexed by the now communist China and placed under military administration. At the age of 25, he decided to leave the monastery and instead lead a civil life. He married and had two children. In 1959, however, the Tibet uprising broke out and was fought by Chinese troops. The Dalai Lama fled Lhasa into exile in India. Jampel Namdröl initially stayed, but decided to leave the country in 1961 in order not to be arrested or killed himself or to be abused as a political puppet by the communists. In India he worked in various professions, including as an editor for Tibetan-language broadcasts at the state-run All India Radio and at the Tibet House in New Delhi . Later his first wife died and he remarried. In 1975 he moved to the southern Indian state of Karnataka with his second wife and now seven children . In 1984 he was able to visit Lhasa for the first time as a normal tourist after fleeing.

After the communist governments in Eastern Europe were overthrown in 1989 and their power also began to falter in the Soviet Union and Mongolia, the 14th Dalai Lama saw the right time to publicly announce that there was a reincarnation of Bogd Khan and is recognized as such by him. In the same year there was a democratization process in Mongolia, but contrary to the Eastern European countries and the Soviet Union, the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party won the first free elections in July 1990 and thus remained in power. A "return" to Mongolia was therefore out of the question. Nevertheless, he was publicly confirmed by the Dalai Lama in a ceremony in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh in 1991 and symbolically enthroned in Dharamsala in 1992 . In July 1999, he managed to travel to Mongolia for the first time in his life on a tourist visa. He was received by the Mongolian lamas and monks as their head and enthroned in a ceremony in the Gandan monastery in Ulaanbaatar. Until then it was relatively unknown to the population of Mongolia, but now villagers flocked to the capital to see the 9th Jebtsundamba Khutukhtu. However, this led to diplomatic resentment with the People's Republic of China , as a state visit by Jiang Zemin was imminent and the Chinese government demanded that Mongolia should expel him before that. However, he was allowed to stay in the country until his 30-day visa expired. In order to avoid an encounter with the Chinese state visit, however, he went north to the city of Erdenet , where he was again received and confirmed as their spiritual head by Buddhist dignitaries. After this trip he returned to India and the Mongolian government prevented one of their embassies from re-issuing him a visa. He then tried to visit the Buddhists in Russia , which was rejected by the then new government under Vladimir Putin in July 2000 . Only in 2003 was he allowed to travel to Moscow and in August 2005 he was able to visit Buryatia . In the meantime, Buddhist monks tried to intervene with the Mongolian government to allow him entry. It wasn't until 2009 that the authorities changed their policy. At the invitation of the Gandan Monastery, he was able to travel to Mongolia again after ten years and stay for two months. At the end of the trip, he was even granted citizenship and given a Mongolian passport . However, he returned to Dharamshala, India, but prepared to move the next year. In 2011 he returned to Mongolia, now intending to stay. In a ceremony he was now enthroned again on Mongolian soil and confirmed as their head by the Buddhist clergy. At that time, however, his health was already impaired and after a few months in Mongolia he died on March 1, 2012 in Ulaanbaatar.

After his death, the Dalai Lama published a prayer for a speedy rebirth of Jebtsundamba Khutukhtu.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Worldwide Religious News: MONGOLIA: Authorities thwart the return of Buddhist King , Geraldine Fagan ("Forum 18", November 27, 2003)
2. ↑ zabinfo.ro - Transbaikal News Agency: Зарубежные соседи: БОГДО ГЭГЭН ДАСТ НАСТАВЛЕНИЯ , August 8, 2005
3. ↑ buddism.ru: Книга о визите Богдо-гэгэна IX в Монголию  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , January 19, 2010  
4. ↑ News.mn: Ninth Bogd receives Mongolian citizenship ( Memento of the original from August 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , September 13, 2010 
5. ↑ Sugatagarbha Translations: The Prayer for the Swift Rebirth of the 9th Khalkha Jetsün Dampa Rinpoche, by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso ( Memento of the original from December 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and still Not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , April 23, 2012