„The Erdene Zuu Monastery (Mongolian: Эрдэнэ Зуу хийд, Chinese:光顯寺, Tibetan:ལྷུན་གྲུབ་བདེ་ཆེན་གླིང་) is probably the earliest surviving Buddhist monastery in Mongolia.“ [1] I guess that's a good reason to visit this monastery while in Mongolia, especially if you visit Kharkhorin. Said and done. And then the guide talked about the 100 stupas on the surrounding walls. I asked her, why not 108 stupas as this is the holy number in Buddhism and I thought if you have the money for 100, you probably have enough money for the remaining 8 stupas. Stupid as I was, I didn't count the stupas, which would have been a task by itself as each wall is 400 m long, but let myself mullify when we went outside again to see the remains of ancient Karakorum, which made it possible to see two stupas at each corner. 100 + (4x2) = 108. QED!
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Also seen in Pucha's book from a different angle
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After I returned to Germany, I looked at a Google Map image of Erdene Zuu Monastery and counted the stupas on the walls. Well there are only 92 stupas on the four walls. My guide-book says 102 stupas [2]. Now, 92 + (4x2) = 100. So we're back to the number, the guide originally quoted [3]. I leafed through a book by Pavel Poucha [4]. Poucha gives 108 plus 8 – he obviously didn't count, though I must ask: could he count at all, because he visited the monastery in 1955 and tells us: „In 1940 almost everything was destroyed here.“ And: „The whole complex of Erdenitso is now managed by only three people, the guard and his family, who have a beautiful and clean yurt in the monastery courtyard.” So, Pavel Poucha's honour is restored; he has been a czech orientalist, mongolist as well as indologist, who taught at the renowned Charles University in Prague [5].
The authors of the Wikipedia entry quote a German source [6] and think that planners wanted 108 stupas, but only realised 100.
Abtai Sain Khan ordered the construction of the monastery in 1585 after meeting the 3rd Dalai Lama. In 1688 the monastery had been damaged and abandoned, but had been rebuild in the 18th century. There lived about a 1000 monks in 1872. During 1939 (not 1940) the monastery was destroyed and monks were killed by the communists. And it's quite strange to read that Stalin pressured the Mongolian communists to maintain the monastery as a showpiece for international visitors [1]. And it must have been much in this state as Pavel Poucha has seen Erdene Zuu Monastery.
Today much has been restored. Lamas with affiliation to the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism have returned. Erdene Zuu Monastery is an active place of worship and also a museum.
When you return to the outer world again, you find yourself in a kind of county fair, directed at local and foreign tourists. You can watch and feel sorry for the eagles [7]. You can watch people taking their photographs in historical costumes, which I have seen also in Tibet and elsewhere.
Links and Annotations:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erdene_Zuu_Monastery
[2] Michael Walther und Peter Woeste: Mongolei. DuMont Reise-Handbuch. Dumont Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2019. ISBN-10: 3770181417. P. 301.
[3] Never doubt your guide! Nonsense, always doubt, but try to get proof later.
[4] Pavel Poucha: 13000 Kilometer durch die Mongolei. VEB F.A. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1960. P. 201.
[5] https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Poucha Pavel Poucha (1905-1986). He started with studyin Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, Hebrew, Turkish and Persian. Interestingsly he had been removed from his position because of political reasons in 1957, but kept on publishing non the less. There's also an entry in Mongolian on Pavel poucha: https://mn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BB_%D0%9F%D0%BE%D1%83%D1%85%D0%B0
[6] „Niels Gutschow, Andreas Brandt, Die Baugeschichte der Klosteranlage von Erdeni Joo (Erdenezuu), in Claudius Müller (ed.), Dschingis Khan und seine Erben, Bonn 2005, p.353“ - quoted from [1].
[7] Nobody will understand you if you sing „Hotel California“.
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