His Holiness the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu (Bogd Khan)
The 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu Agvaanluvsanchoyjindanzanvaanchigbalsambuu
His Holiness the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu also known as the Bogd Khan (Mongolian: Богд хаан, 1869–1924) became de facto leader of Outer Mongolia in 1911, when Outer Mongolia declared independence from Qing dynasty of China after Xinhai Revolution. He was born in Tibet. As the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu, he was the third most important person in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy, below only the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama, and therefore also known as the “Bogd Lama”. He was the spiritual leader of Outer Mongolia’s Tibetan Buddhism. His wife Tsendiin Dondogdulam, the Ekh Dagina (“Dakini Mother”), was believed to be a manifestation of White Tara. The brother of the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu, Choijin Lama Luvsankhaidav, was the state oracle and occupied one of the six temples on the Choijin Lama temple complex.
The Mongolian Oracle Choijin Lama Luvsankhaidav and younger brother of the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu (Bogd Khan). He took trance of Dorje Shugden, Nechung and Kache Marpo.
As the Mongolian State Oracle Choijin Lama Luvsankhaidav took trance of Dorje Shugden, Nechung and Kache Marpo.
Statue of the State Oracle of Mongolia, Choijin Lama Luvsankhaidav, who took trance of Nechung, Tsiu Marpo and Dorje Shugden. Click to enlarge.
Life
The 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu was born in 1869 in Lithang, Kham, in a family of a Tibetan official. His father, Gonchigtseren, was an accountant at the 12th Dalai Lama‘s court. The boy was officially recognized as the new incarnation of the Jebtsundamba Khutughtu in Potala in the presence of the 13th Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. The new Jebtsundamba Khutughtu arrived in Urga, the capital of Outer Mongolia, in 1874. After this he lived only in Mongolia.
A 19th Century image of Dorje Shugden commissioned by the Mongolian State Oracle, Luvsankhaidav (1871-1918) for use in his temple. It can currently be found in the Choijin Lama Temple Museum in Ulanbaatar, Mongolia. With three round eyes, a gaping mouth and fanged teeth, Dorje Shugden is depicted in monastic robes wearing a lacquer hat and riding a snowlion. As the central figure on this thangka, Dorje Shugden is portrayed in larger proportions than usual, a reflection of his importance to Luvsankhaidav. Click image for high resolution download. Click here for more free downloadable deity pictures.
According to one eyewitness,
…he did not become a puppet in the hands of the lamas but, on the contrary, took them in hand. Since his young years he wanted to restore the great Mongolian kingdom of Genghis Khan or, at least, to liberate Mongolia from the Chinese and make it self-dependent. Local princes feared him, but the masses liked him… An independent and clever first hierarch and ruler was unacceptable neither for Tibet, nor for the Chinese.
As a result, from his young years the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu was the subject of intrigues of Qing officials in Urga. Later he became the subject of propaganda campaigns organised by Mongolian Communists, which attacked him by alleging that he was a prolific poisoner, a paedophile, and a libertine, which was later repeated in belles-lettres and other non-scientific literature (e.g. James Palmer). However, analysis of documents stored in Mongolian and Russian archives does not confirm these statements.
As a monk, the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu had limited access to physical means of imposing power, though some enemies were executed for blasphemy. The Polish traveller Ferdinand Ossendowski recorded that he knew “every thought, every movement of the Princes and Khans, the slightest conspiracy against him, and the offender is usually kindly invited to Urga, from where he does not return alive.[9] Ossendovsky’s claims for his acquaintance with the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu were not confirmed by comparative analysis of his book and manuscripts.
The 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu lost his power when Chinese troops occupied the country in 1919. The Tusiyetu Khan Aimak’s Prince Darchin Ch’in Wang was a supporter of Chinese rule while his younger brother Tsewang was a supporter of Ungern-Sternberg. When Baron Ungern’s forces failed to seize Urga in late 1920, the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu was placed under house arrest; then he was freed and reinstated by Ungern shortly before he took Urga in 1921. After the revolution in 1921 led by Damdin Sükhbaatar, the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu was allowed to stay on the throne in a limited monarchy until his death in 1924, a year after that of his wife.
Death
Queen Tsendiin Dondogdulam was the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu’s first consort and believed to have been an emanation of White Tara. The 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu’s second consort was Queen Genepil
The government took control of the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu’s seal after his death according to the 26 November 1924 Constitution of the Mongolian People’s Republic.
It was proposed that Zhang Zuolin’s domain (the Chinese “Three Eastern Provinces”) take Outer Mongolia under its administration by the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu and Bodo in 1922 after pro-Soviet Mongolian Communists seized control of Outer Mongolia.
After his death, the Mongolian Revolutionary government, led by followers of the Soviet Communists, declared that no more reincarnations were to be found and established the Mongolian People’s Republic. However, rumors about a reincarnation of the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu appeared in northern Mongolia in that same year. No traditional determination of the supposed incarnation was conducted. Another rumor appeared in 1925. In November 1926 the 3rd Great Khural of Mongolian People’s Republic approved a special resolution that searches for reincarnations of the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu should not be allowed. A final prohibition was approved by the 7th Congress of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party and the 5th People’s Great Khural in 1928.
Nevertheless, the next reincarnation of Jebtsundamba Khutuktu was found in Tibet as a boy born in 1932 in Lhasa. This was not announced until the collapse of the USSR and democratic revolution in Mongolia. The 9th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu was formally enthroned in Dharamsala by Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama in 1991, and in Ulaanbaatar in 1999.
The Winter Palace of the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu has been preserved and is a tourist attraction in Ulaanbaatar.
His Holiness the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu (Bogd Khan) of Outer Mongolia. Click on image to enlarge or click here for more beautiful thangkas.
The 9th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu
(From left to right): Telo Rinpoche, The 9th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu and Tsem Rinpoche. Click on image to enlarge.
The 9th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu (January 6, 1933 – March 1, 2012) was the 9th reincarnation of the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, the third highest lama in the Tibetan Buddhism hierarchy and the spiritual leader of the Gelug lineage among the Khalkha Mongols. Although recognized as the reincarnation of the Jebtsundamba Khutughtu in 1936, his identity was kept a secret by the Dalai Lama until 1990 due the persecution of the Buddhist religion by the Mongolian People’s Republic, and did not reside in Mongolia until the final year of his life.
He was born as Jampal Namdol Chökyi Gyaltsen on the tenth day of the eleventh month of Water Monkey year (6 January 1933) near the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, Tibet. Six months after his birth, his parents separated and his mother left him in the care of his uncle who was a bodyguard of the 13th Dalai Lama. The 13th Dalai Lama died in December 1933, and Reting Rinpoche became Regent of Tibet until a new Dalai Lama was discovered and crowned. Because of the inability of the Mongolian lamas to proclaim the discovery of the 9th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu, Reting Rinpoche in 1936, recognised Jampal Namdol Chökyi Gyaltsen, then age four, as the reincarnation of the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu, after the boy passed three sets of tests. Due to the complex political situation, his existence was kept a secret. At the age of seven, he entered the Drepung Monastery, but because his identity was kept secret, he could not enter the Khalkha Mitsen, but had to follow the life of a common monk. At age 25, he renounced his monastic vows and became a householder, took a wife and had two children. When the Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet in 1959, Jampal Namdol did also, fearing that his identity would be revealed and he would be killed or used by the Communists for propaganda.
In exile in India, he worked at various jobs, including in the Tibetan language section of All India Radio, and at Tibet House in New Delhi. His first wife died, and he remarried. In 1975, his family (now including seven children), moved to Karnataka. In 1984, Jampal Namdol visited Lhasa, and in 1990 the Dalai Lama issued a statement revealing the identity of the 9th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu. In 1991 the Dalai Lama performed an installation ceremony in Madhya Pradesh and in 1992 an enthronement ceremony in Dharmshala for the 9th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu. In July 1999, while visiting Mongolia on a tourist visa, Jampal Namdol took part in an enthronement ceremony at the Gandantegchinlen Khiid Monastery in Ulaanbaatar. He continued to live in exile in India. Now he was considered the leader of Mongolian Buddhists. In 2010 he came to Mongolia at the invitation of the Gandantegchinlin monastery and received Mongolian citizenship, but returned to Dharamshala afterwards. Then he returned to Mongolia. In November 2011 he was enthroned as the head of Buddhists of Mongolia.
The 14th Dalai Lama has appointed the present Jebtsundamba Khutughtu to develop the Jonang tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.
Rinpoche died on March 1, 2012, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, after a prolonged illness.
On November 23, 2016, during a visit to Mongolia, the Dalai Lama announced his belief that the 10th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu had been reborn in Mongolia and that a process for identifying him had begun.
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/9thJebtsundambaChod.mp4
The 9th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu performing the ritual of Chod, a powerful ritual also known as “Cutting Through the Ego”. The practice is based on the Prajnaparamita or Perfection of Wisdom Sutras and expounds the Buddhist philosophy of Emptiness, thereby enacting incredible spiritual transformation in the minds of practitioners. The 9th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu received the practice of Chod from His Holiness Kyabje Zong Rinpoche.
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An interesting short biography of the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu who was the last Lama-Ruler of Mongolia. He was the spiritual leader of Outer Mongolia’s Tibetan Buddhism and the third most important person in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy after the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama. Interesting read of a great Lama who has played an important part in the Mongolian Buddhism history.
Thank you for this sharing.
Thank you rinpoche for this interesting story!
The 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu was born in 1869 in Lithang, Kham, in a family of a Tibetan official. His father, Gonchigtseren, was an accountant at the 12th Dalai Lama‘s court. The boy was officially recognized as the new incarnation of the Jebtsundamba Khutughtu in Potala in the presence of the 13th Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. As the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu, he was the third most important person in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy, below only the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama, and therefore also known as the “Bogd Lama”.
The 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu lost his power when Chinese troops occupied the country in 1919.
After his death, the Mongolian Revolutionary government, led by followers of the Soviet Communists, declared that no more reincarnations were to be found and established the Mongolian People’s Republic. However, rumors about a reincarnation of the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu appeared in northern Mongolia in that same year.
Nevertheless, the next reincarnation of Jebtsundamba Khutuktu was found in Tibet as a boy born in 1932 in Lhasa. This was not announced until the collapse of the USSR and democratic revolution in Mongolia. The 9th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu was formally enthroned in Dharamsala by Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama in 1991, and in Ulaanbaatar in 1999. On November 23, 2016, during a visit to Mongolia, the Dalai Lama announced his belief that the 10th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu had been reborn in Mongolia and that a process for identifying him had begun. Thank you Rinpoche and blog team for this interesting write up ??
1st part
Historically, the Mongolians has a state oracle namely Choijin Lama Luvsankhaidav (CLL) who is the younger brother of the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu (Bogd Khan). Bogd Khan is the third most important person in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy and the de facto leader of Outer Mongolia
CLL took trance of Dorje Shugden,Nechung and Karche Marpo, to the certain extent CLL has even commissioned Dorje Shugden image for use in his temple which show how important Dorje Shugden to his practice.
Today, Dorje Shugden image can still be found in the Choijin Lama Temple Museum in Ulanbaatar, Mongolia.
2nd part
Jebtsundamba Khutughtu has gone through all the difficulties and he never stop spreading the Dharma. He is a Bodhisattva.
H.H Jebtsundamba Khutughtu (Bogd Khan) is considered to be the leader of Mongolia Tibetan leadership and yet. Seem like every of H.H reincarnation is suffering on political issues. Most important part, no matter how H.H suffered and even married, the dharma never fade away. I think this is the power of an enlighten being whose mind are stabile even have to face so many negative circumstances.
The last Queen of Mongolia’s end was very tragic for someone who was not interested in being Queen at all. Find out more about this lady- https://bit.ly/2GcfhfF