Читать книгу Mongolia – Faces of a Nation - Frank Riedinger - Страница 8

The Gandan monastery or Gandantegchinlen Khiid was established in 1838. Between 1911 and 1913, a palace was built in honour of the then eighth and last Bogd Javzandamba, with the Megjid Janaraiseg statue. The reason for the construction was the fact that Javzandamba had lost his sight. Megjid Janaraiseg means “God who watches over all living things and who looks in all directions”. At 30 metres high, it was the tallest construction in the settlement at the time. Javzandamba lived in this temple until his death. It contained a gilded statue of Buddha, 26 metres high.

Gandantegchinlen Khiid

Gandan is the most important and the largest Buddhist monastery in Mongolia and is located in the capital Ulaanbaatar. It represents the Buddhist focus for the country. During the anti-Lamaism campaign in 1937, all the larger temples in the monastery were razed to the ground and the gilded statue was also removed to be made into munitions. Nobody knew exactly where the statue was taken to. It was probably taken to the then Soviet Union. Practically all the monks in the monastery were murdered at this time. In 1944, parts of the monastery were reopened. It was only used as a place of worship rather than as a monastery in the true sense of the word. During the Communist era, the years from 1944 to 1990, there was no other place of Buddhist worship in Mongolia other than Gandan. In this time, the state administration had a certain influence on the monks and vice-versa. The highest priority was given to the control of those who professed the Buddhist faith.

In 1996, the newly rebuilt Megjid Janaraiseg statue, made out of 19 tons of gilded bronze and taking 6 years to build, was returned to its original location in the Megjid Janaraiseg Temple, in a solemn ceremony. Today, within the enclaves of the monastery there are six temples with the names Dashchoinpel, Gungaachoilin, Idgaachoinjinlin, Jud, Megjid Janaraiseg and Dechengalba, a university, a library, a school for the creation of statues of Buddha and a general elementary school. The students in the so-called vocational school learn about the making of statues of Buddha and the painting of the Buddhist tapestries, tankas. Pupils at the elementary school are taught the same subjects as in all other elementary schools. Anyone can choose to go there. The library contains over 48,000 books, including 101 volumes of the Golden Ganjuur, the Buddhist catechisms. The courses offered by the university, which was established in 1970, include Buddhist Philosophy, Astrology and TMM (Traditional Mongolian Medicine). Currently, a staff of 14 lecturers are available to teach the 210 students.

One artefact remaining from the original Gandan is worth a mention. It is an old wooden beam that survived the wave of destruction that swept through the country in 1937. Mongolian Buddhists still revere this time-witness from the past, today. It is located not far away from the current Megjid Janaraiseg Temple, somewhat removed from the centre of activity.

Das größte Kloster in Ulaanbaatar – Gandantegchinlen Khiid mit der goldenen Janaraiseg-Statue.