Mikhail Okun
HEAD OF A MYSTERIOUS MONGOL
(Ja Lama)
What thoughts and dreams disturbed the gray head of Ja Lama, who was carried for a long time on a spear through the bazaars of Mongolia?..
Nicholas Roerich
Great Black
In St. Petersburg, in the famous Kunstkamera, founded by Peter the Great, in an aquarium filled with formaldehyde, exhibit No. 3394 is stored, which has never been exhibited and is unlikely to ever be exhibited. In the register he is modestly listed as “Head of the Mongol”.
This is the head of a man whose origins and circumstances of life are dark, and the mysterious influence he exerted on his compatriots is enormous. For almost half a century he disturbed the Mongolian Steppe, instilling faith and horror in the nomads. Even his name is unknown exactly. They called him Ja-Lama or Dambizhantsan.
He declared himself a descendant of the legendary Oirat prince of the 18th century. Amursany, who became famous in the fight against Manchu-Chinese dominance. But the main thing is that Ja Lama convinced everyone in word and deed that he was the earthly incarnation of the terrible Mahakala, the “Great Black,” one of the Buddhist deities. Lama icon painters always depicted this formidable defender of the “yellow faith” with a knife or sword against the background of a cleansing fire, ready to bite into the heart of the enemy of the faith and drink his still-still blood. Mahakala not only defeats evil, but experiences bliss at the sight of the mortal pangs of the bearer of evil.
A terrible fate awaited those who dared to doubt the holiness of Ja Lama...
Fanatic or warrior?
During sacrifices, he ripped open the chests of his enemies, tearing out their hearts and consecrating them with fresh blood. battle flags. He gouged out his eyes with his own hands, cut off his ears...
His head, killed at the very end of 1922 or at the beginning of 1923 as a result of a carefully prepared operation of the state internal security (something like the Cheka) of Mongolia, was carried for a long time mounted on a pike through the cities, so that the news of his death would spread far among the nomads and ordinary Mongols would be convinced : Ja-Lama is also mortal, he is no more!
Seeing this procession, the shepherds hastily turned aside, because they believed that meeting with the “tsagan-tolga” (“white head”) boded trouble. The white head was nicknamed because it was mummified according to an ancient steppe custom - salted and smoked, causing the salt to appear in crystals on the skin. But even after the death of Ja-Lama, the nomads did not believe in his death, and rumors spread that they had seen him in one place of the Steppe, then in another...
Assault on Kobdo
Ja Lama gained his greatest fame as a fearless warrior in 1912 after the famous assault on the fortified city of Kobdo with the Chinese entrenched in it. He was one of the leaders of this battle, and on his orders, old camels collected from the Steppe were driven to the impregnable walls with brushwood tied behind them and set on fire.
This is what brought panic to the ranks of the garrison defending Kobdo and allowed the Mongols to break into the city. The matter ended with a massacre, the destruction of Chinese temples and shops, human sacrifices, and the ritual of lighting banners with blood (it should be noted that the shops of the Russian merchants were not damaged, since the Cossacks who entered the city almost simultaneously with the besiegers set up posts near them). According to legend, after the battle, Ja Lama, bending in the saddle, poured out a handful of deformed bullets from his bosom. They supposedly didn't take him...
From heroes to prisoners
According to some reports, Ja Lama was a Kalmyk Astrakhan province. In any case, Russia considered him its subject, which was the reason for his arrest in February 1914 and his transfer to prison and exile.
This arrest in the Munchzhik tract, where Ja Lama's headquarters was located at that time, was carried out by secret order by the captain of the 41st Siberian rifle regiment Bulatov with the 3rd hundred of the 1st Verkhneudinsk regiment of the Transbaikal Cossack army and fifty of the 3rd Siberian Cossack regiment. Despite the fact that Ja Lama had 850 tsiriks (Mongol soldiers) at his disposal, there was almost no shooting, and no casualties on the part of the Cossacks. The legality of such an action on the territory of another state can be questioned, but the Mongolian government in Urga did not object to curbing the lama, who was too obstinate and popular among the people.
In his report, Bulatov names tulum as one of the proofs of Ja Lama’s atrocities - human skin carefully removed in a “bag” and stored in the lama’s yurt for ritual purposes.
Ja-Lama spent a year in prison in Tomsk, waiting for his fate to be decided. Then he was transferred as an exile to Yakutsk, and later under supervision to Astrakhan and Tsarev.
But the year 1917 came, which brought Russian Empire events were so turbulent that there was no one to “supervise” Ja Lama, and he again made his way to Western Mongolia, to the Steppe.
It is not known exactly in what Buddhist monasteries Did Ja Lama study, and did he study at all (and could he rightfully be called a lama), did he, as some sources claim, make a pilgrimage to the mysterious capital of Tibet, Lhasa, forbidden to foreigners, where he became a friend of the Dalai Lama. All information about this person, I repeat, is confusing and contradictory.
Hypnotic power
But there were legends about the hypnotic power of Ja Lama. One of them is cited in his book, published in London in 1936, by former Hungarian prisoner of war Josef Geleta, a technician who worked in Mongolia from 1920 to 1929. This is how Ja-Lama, who fled from Russia, “coped” with a detachment of Cossacks who were pursuing him. The fugitive looked around: behind was the chase, ahead was the lake. The inhabitants of a small nomad who observed this scene expected that he was about to be captured. But Ja Lama calmly stood facing the pursuit, looking intently at the Cossacks. And an amazing thing happened: the Cossacks began to turn around at full gallop and shouted: “He’s there!” - they rushed around the lake, and then began to bump into each other and stab each other with pikes, thinking that they were hitting the fugitive...
Another foreigner who described the hypnotic power of the Ja Lama was the Pole Ferdinand Ossendowski (1878-1945), who was a very remarkable person in his own right. After publishing it famous book“And Beasts, and Men, and Gods,” published in several languages, in the 20s they wrote about him as a man of exceptional courage, whose adventures were “purer than Jack London.”
Ossendovsky grew up in Russia, studied at St. Petersburg University, taught physics and chemistry in Siberia, then was an adviser to Admiral Kolchak and, shortly before the fall of his government, carried out the admiral’s instructions to explore Uriankhai and Western Mongolia. In the struggle between the whites and the reds, which moved from Siberia to Mongolia, Ossendowski sided with the whites, under the banner of Baron Ungern.
In his book, the author told how in 1921 he was present at the operation when Ja Lama opened the chest of a shepherd with a knife, and he saw “the slowly breathing lung and the beating of the shepherd’s heart. The lama touched the wound with his finger, the bleeding stopped, and the shepherd’s face was completely calm... When the lama prepared to open the shepherd’s belly, Ossendovsky further narrates, I closed my eyes in horror and disgust. Opening them after a while, I was amazed to see that the shepherd was sleeping with his sheepskin coat unbuttoned on his chest.”
It was to the Pole that Ja Lama, who, in general, did not accept either the side of the Reds or the side of the Whites, once said:
- I'm not a monk, I'm a warrior and an avenger!
“Anyone who dared to contradict him was mercilessly eliminated,” wrote J. Geleta. - People were a blind tool in the hands of the mysterious Kalmyk. They believed that he belonged to that mysterious sect that lived in the monastery of eternal life in the Himalayas, open to those chosen ones who, having returned to people, acquired a superhuman magical power, became the owners of great secrets. These chosen ones recognized each other in the world by special way cutting animal tendons for food. And mere mortals did not see that sign... It was almost impossible to resist Ja Lama, since his all-consuming hypnotic power was capable of hitting even weapons in the hands of his victims. It was impossible to kill him himself.”
Death of a Lama
And yet he was killed. Last years Ja Lama spent his stormy life in a fortified city built in the middle of the Gobi Desert - in his city, which he apparently intended to make in the future the capital of an independent theocratic state in Western Mongolia. His plans also included the construction of new Buddhist temples. In the meantime, he made a living by robbing trade caravans crossing the desert. All this, of course, could not be arranged by the Red government in Urga.
Since it was impossible to lure Ja-Lama out of his city (despite false invitations, he did not go, and that’s all; and perhaps rumors reached him about a sentence in absentia to death penalty), and the new government did not dare to take the fortress by storm, he was sent a forged letter stating that the government in Urga needed his assistance and invited him to take the post of “authorized side” (minister, dignitary) in Western Mongolia. Ja Lama agreed to accept “representatives” at his headquarters with an approved seal provided to him.
He met the “representatives” warily, in the presence of bodyguards. And on the first day, as one of the participants in the operation, X. Kanukov, reported, it was not possible to kill Ja Lama.
Ja-lma's mood changed somewhat when another "representative", Duger-beise, feignedly told how bad it was now for the people opposed to the current government, that he himself, the "former white", did not hope to escape from the red Urga and only Buddha helped him to see the great lama, the hope of all the unfortunate...
And to this Ja Lama allegedly replied that he had long dreamed of a coup and angering the government, which, together with the crooks who came in large numbers from Russia, had seized power and was deceiving the people, and having taken the place of the side, it would be easier to do this.
In the end, Duger-beise managed to invite Ja-lama to the yurt assigned to the guests to teach him how to navigate on the map, and he followed him without guards.
Seeing Ja-Lama enter, Cyrus Dashi feignedly fell on his knees in front of him, reverently folding his hands and asking the saint to bless him. Duger sat down next to the guest, and another participant in the operation, Nanzad-Bator, who, by the way, fought under the banners of the Ja Lama near Kobdo in 1912, when he was revered by the entire Steppe, began to add wood to the fire.
Having finished the prayer, Ja Lama raised his hand above Dasha’s head to touch her, blessing her. And then the worshiper grabbed him by this hand, by the other - grabbed Duger-beise, and Nanzad, with a point-blank shot, killed Ja-Lama on the spot.
As follows from Kanukov’s report, none of those close to him rushed to the rescue. The “representatives” quickly seized the arsenal, and then staged a meeting at which Ja Lama’s subjects “not only expressed submission, but were very glad to be freed from the despot-monster.” Five of the murdered man’s most trusted accomplices, “the most notorious villains,” were publicly shot.
This is how it ended earthly life mysterious lama. It is symbolic that he did not die in battle, but was killed with maximum deceit - during prayer and blessing.
Curse of the Head
As is known from his memoirs, Ja Lama had a vengeful memory - the person who aroused his anger could consider himself dead. Some kind of curse seemed to haunt some people who were in one way or another connected with the fate of Ja Lama or dealt directly with the Head.
On the day when the Head, like a priceless trophy, arrived on a peak at the government building in Urga, the “commander-in-chief of the Mongolian revolution,” Comrade Sukhbaatar, died (moreover, rumor claims: as soon as the horseman brought the head, Sukhbaatar died).
Wehrmacht lieutenant Baron von Ungern-Sternberg visited the already mentioned F. Ossendowski, who lived at the end of the war in Zhulwin, a suburb of Warsaw. The next morning, the writer, the author of almost a hundred books, was taken to the hospital, where he died from stomach pain.
There were reports in the Polish and Mongolian (in 1989) press that the baron’s son or nephew came to Ossendowski for a reason, for the legends associated with Baron Ungern’s treasure are somehow related to the name of the writer. According to one version, he allegedly saw himself how Ungern in one of the Buddhist temples donated all his gold (and the baron’s loot was loaded on 250 camels!) for the needs of the “yellow faith”, provided that no one came after him for 50 years will come on his behalf.
According to another version, Ungern sent twenty-four boxes weighing four pounds of gold each with the Mongols loyal to him across the border, but they, having run into the Reds, hastily buried the treasure. They say that in one of his books the Pole published a map that was not related to the text, on which the location of the treasure was supposedly marked...
It is known that in 1921 in Urga the lama predicted Baron Ungern's death at the hands of the Reds, and Ossendowski - when the baron reminded him that his time had come. Didn't the second part of the prediction come true in Zhulvin in 1945?..
In 1937, Mongol expert V.A. was shot in Leningrad as an “agent of Japanese intelligence.” Kazakevich, who found the Head in Urga and brought her semi-legally to Russia. Another scientist, V.D. Yakimov miraculously escaped execution, but died in the first days of the war. For a number of years he collected material about Ja-lama for a story about him called “The Holy Bandit.” The writer B. Lapin, who published a story about Ja Lama “The Buddhist Monk” in the magazine “Znamya” in 1938, also died.
In 1943, a man who knew Ja Lama well and corresponded with him when he was in exile, the Russian merchant and practical scientist A.V., died in the camps. Burdukov, who arrived in Mongolia at a rather early age and gave her many years of his life. Burdukov also owned several photographs of Ja Lama, one of which was published in the magazine Ogonyok in 1912.
"Uprising in the Steppe"
Special mention should be made of the man who dreamed all his life of making a film about Ja-Lama, the grandiose epic “Uprising in the Steppe.” This is Peter Sadetzky, a journalist, writer and film director who emigrated from Czechoslovakia after the events of 1968 and settled in Göttingen (West Germany).
For many years he conducted unsuccessful negotiations with the authorities of the Mongolian People's Republic about filming (in the rewritten history of Mongolia, Ja Lama was nothing more than an adventurer and rogue who encroached on Soviet power and was destroyed by it), and also sought permission to photograph the Head in Leningrad, because detailed photography was necessary for the makeup of the leading actor. He obtained permission after perestroika, but Sadetzky was not satisfied with the photographs.
By the way, Sadetzky strongly supported the version that it was not Ja-Lama who was killed in the fortress, but a double he specially left before hiding, and collected evidence of this. One of them belonged, in particular, to Baron Ungern’s dentist Bianka Tristas, who allegedly saw Ja-Lama after 1922, modestly living in the Steppe under the guise of a shaman. Sadetzki also claimed that at one of the auctions in the United States he purchased a silver saddle that belonged to Ja Lama.
Sadetzki's plans, which began to be implemented in connection with the changes in Mongolia, were prevented by death - in 1991 he died of leukemia at the age of 48.
Repressions, wars and simply years have wiped out everyone who knew Ja Lama and ever met him. During Leningrad blockade Houses collapsed and many museums were damaged. People died from cold, hunger and bombings. But as if possessing a certain instinct of self-preservation, the Head peacefully survived all these turbulent events in its aquarium, as if looking with an unkind smile at the works of human hands. And who knows in what guise the angry avenger god Mahakala will appear on earth again?..
In the photo: the head of Ja Lama in the Kunstkamera (St. Petersburg).
- Come on, Michik, get up! - he ordered. The shepherd obeyed. The Lama quickly unbuttoned his shirt and exposed his chest. I didn’t understand what he was going to do, but then Tushegun struck the shepherd’s chest with his dagger with all his might. The Mongol fell, bleeding, and the spray stained the lama's clothes.
- What have you done? - I exclaimed.
“Shh... Quiet,” he whispered, turning his white face to me.
With several blows of the knife he cut chest Mongolian, and I saw with my own eyes how the unfortunate man’s lungs were softly swaying and his heart was pulsating strongly. The Lama touched these organs with his hands, the blood stopped flowing, and the expression on the shepherd’s face became surprisingly calm. He was lying with eyes closed and seemed to sleep serenely and deep sleep. The lama began to open the abdominal cavity, but then I, shuddering with horror and disgust, closed my eyes. And when he opened them again, he was surprised to see that the shepherd was sleeping peacefully, and although his shirt was still unbuttoned, there was not the slightest trace of a wound on his chest. Tushegun Lama was sitting not far from the brazier, smoking a pipe and looking at the fire in deep thought.
Ferdinand Ossendowski "And animals, and people, and gods"
At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the world experienced many severe shocks that turned to dust much of what was previously considered unshakable. World War, which led to the fall of four powerful European monarchies, is close and familiar to us. Meanwhile, during the same period, another empire perished, no less significant and ancient - the Qin dynasty, which had ruled China since the seventeenth century, fell in the fire of revolution in 1912, plunging the Celestial Empire into chaos, which would be finally overcome only in the late forties. Taking advantage of the weakness of the overlord, the lands he conquered - Mongolia and Tibet - hastened to declare their own independence.
At this time, a leader appeared in the Mongolian steppes who aroused admiration, fear and bewilderment at the same time among pragmatic Caucasians.
IN folk legends Mongols, he remained under the name Ja-Lama, although during his life he bore many names and nicknames. “A robber and a wandering monk, an expert in Buddhist metaphysics and an adventurer with the habits of a tyrant-reformer, all his life he balanced on the edge of reality, and with an unclear sign in relation to the line between darkness and light,” Leonid Yuzefovich writes about him. A fierce warrior, a tantric sorcerer, a Buddhist lama, a living embodiment of a deceased Mongol prince and even the Great Black himself - the terrible god of destruction and war, Mahakala.
This man in 1912 became one of the leaders of the liberation war against China, personally leading the assault on Kobdo, the then Chinese capital of Mongolia. Kobdo, surrounded by high walls, was guarded by a strong garrison with modern rifles, machine guns and even cannons. An unorganized nomadic horde, armed with best case scenario flintlock guns. The Chinese easily repelled repeated assaults by the Mongols, each time inflicting serious damage on the enemy. But this was before the appearance of Ja Lama. The sorcerer inspired the army, showing them wonderful visions a happy future for the victors and the heavenly steppes where the dead will end up, after which he personally led the attack. Kobdo fell, and Ja-Lama, standing in front of the army, took out a handful of flattened bullets from his bosom. Twenty-eight holes were counted in his robe, but the sorcerer himself remained unharmed. The city was given over for a three-day plunder, slaughtering all the Chinese who were there, and Ja Lama became one of the supreme military leaders. He personally consecrated his own white banner, sewn from expensive trophy brocade, with sacrificial blood. Having slaughtered five Chinese, he removed the heart from each one, and with them, still trembling, he drew magical symbols on white brocade.
But the bloody star of the sorcerer prince did not rise then. Its history is complicated and began much earlier than the events described. To finally understand it, it is worth going one hundred and fifty years into the past - to the year 1755, when the Dzungarian prince Amursana raised the first large-scale uprising against Chinese power. The uprising was eventually brutally suppressed, and Amursana himself fled to Russia, which refused to hand him over to the Chinese authorities. Beijing had to be content with his closest ally Shidr-van, who was captured and strangled. After which the Chinese emperor had a son with a red stripe on his neck - the reincarnation of a rebel. By order of the emperor, the baby was subjected to the most severe punishment- his flesh was plucked out in small pieces through the hole in the coin-chokha. But a year later, the empress gave birth to a child whose skin was covered with many small spots - Shidr-van was reborn again. This time, experienced sorcerer lamas were invited to kill him, and the revival did not happen again. Amursana fell ill with smallpox and died near Tobolsk. No corresponding ritual execution was carried out on him, which is why he could be reborn without hindrance. Thus, in Mongolia, the legend was born and strengthened that a new incarnation of Amursana would come from the north, come with a mighty army and liberate the country.
It must be said that the idea of reincarnation is perceived by Mongolian Buddhists not as some kind of myth, but as an everyday, completely natural event. The long line of Bogdo Gegens, living Buddhas, as well as the Tibetan Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas constitute the most striking example of this, and in general, reincarnates, called Khubilkhans, were found in almost every monastery. Higher-ranking lamas, called tulkus, could even choose the place of their next rebirth.
And then, at the end of the 19th century, a man appeared as if out of nowhere, calling himself both the grandson and reincarnation of Amursana. He was dressed in Lamaist clothes, but at the same time he carried weapons and rode a horse, which was strictly prohibited by the yellow faith. No one knew exactly who he was and where he came from, but they said that he himself was a Kalmyk, possibly from Astrakhan. As a child, he was sent to study in a Mongolian monastery, from where, among the most gifted students, he was sent to Tibet, and not just anywhere, but to Lhasa - the capital and residence of the Dalai Lama, from where, however, he was soon forced to flee, fearing punishment for murder of a fellow monk. The newcomer had very extensive knowledge of Buddhist metaphysics and tantric practices and quickly gained the authority of the local lama. Then the first mention of him appeared in Russian documents - Professor Pozdneev mentioned him in his book “Mongolia and the Mongols”. Concerned about his growing influence and anti-imperial propaganda, Beijing arrested him several times, but released him each time as a Russian subject. After that, he disappeared for almost ten years, only to reappear in 1900 under the name of Shezrab Lama, the conductor of the Tibetan expedition of Peter Kozlov, and even went last as the ambassador of the Russian Empire to the Dalai Lama. There is also information that Ja-Lama joined the expedition, fleeing the wrath of the prince of the Gorguns from Chinese Turkestan. Afterwards, his fate plunged into darkness for a decade, only to emerge from it under the walls of the besieged Kobdo.
The capture of Kobdo, and then of Ulyasutai, made Ja-Lama a powerful prince, who received lands and tributaries under his hand. In his domain, he began to build a new state, combining mystical theocracy with the reformist trends of the West. The guarantee of his power was the superstitious fear that he instilled in his subjects. Ja Lama's revenge was considered inevitable - anyone who provoked his anger could be sure of his imminent death. “No one knew the day and hour when a mysterious and powerful avenging lama would appear in his yurt or on the plain, next to a galloping horse. And then - the blow of a dagger, a bullet or steel fingers, squeezing the neck like a vice, ended the matter,” Ossendovsky wrote about him. But the star of the prince-monk did not shine for long.
Intoxicated with power, he quarreled with Bogdokhan, the Buddha-ruler of Mongolia, a weak ruler, but a most dangerous master of intrigue, and after that he began to threaten Russian traders, demanding tribute from them (which had never happened before). It must be said that the entire liberation war did not take place without the tacit consent and support of the Russian Empire, which was interested in creating a buffer state between it and China. Therefore, such arbitrariness did not suit either Urga or St. Petersburg. A hunt was started for Ja Lama, avoiding which he again showed his magical abilities. Hungarian József Geleta, who was working in Mongolia at that time, told how Ja-Lama, pursued by the Cossacks, ended up on the shore of Lake Sur-nor: “There was a surface of water in front of him, behind him were his pursuers. The Mongols from a small nomadic camp nearby held their breath and waited for Ja Lama to be captured the next moment. Suddenly they noticed with amazement that the Cossacks turned to the side and, instead of galloping straight towards Ja-Lama, who stood calmly a few yards away, galloped towards the other end of the lake. "He is there! - the Cossacks shouted. - He is there!". But “there” meant different places for each of them, and the Cossacks, splitting up, galloped off in different directions. Then they came together again and attacked each other with their long lances, killing each other. At the same time, it seemed to each of them that he was killing Ja Lama.”
And yet the rebellious monk was arrested, taken out of Mongolia and placed under arrest, first in Nerchinsk, then in Tobolsk, and after several years - in a settlement in the Astrakhan region. The revolution of 1917 made him free again, and he returned to Mongolia - just in time to begin new war against the Chinese, who, taking advantage of the revolutionary fire in Russia, occupied the power of Bogdo Khan.
The sorcerer again proved his talents by defeating the Chinese in the southwest. At that time, he acquired a powerful magical artifact: the skin of Magnus, a Mongolian demon. It happened like this:
After the battle, a young, handsome Kyrgyz, who fought on the side of the Chinese, remained wounded, but alive. With iron calm he sat, leaning against a stone, looking dispassionately at his enemies. One of the Mongols rode up to him and hit him with a spear. Kyrgyzstan did not make a sound. Ja Lama noticed this and ordered to hit him with a saber. But even then the Kyrgyz did not groan. Therefore, Ja Lama cut out his heart with his own hands and brought it to his eyes. And this time the Kazakh only calmly looked at the organ with a fading gaze. Ja Lama ordered his skin to be removed, declaring that the spirit of the Kirghiz was so strong because the mangus had possessed him. This leather, tanned and salted, remained with the sorcerer and was used by him in rituals until his death. It is worth explaining that such skin has been used since ancient times in Lamaist ceremonies, but in modern times, like many of the ancient sacred paraphernalia, it has been replaced by an imitation - white cloth in the form of human skin. Likewise, sacrifices of human livers, lungs, noses and ears were replaced in late times their casts made of dough or clay. But Ja Lama was not satisfied with the simulation.
At that time, he intervened in the fight white general von Ungern-Sternberg, nicknamed the Black Baron, is a no less dark and sinister person. Ungern with the remnants of his Cossacks fled from Dauria, equally hated for sadistic cruelty and tyranny by both the Reds and the Whites. It is ironic that in 1912 Ungern, being tsarist officer, came to Kobdo without permission, wanting to serve under the banner of Ja Lama, but received a ban from the Russian consulate, which considered such a step unacceptable for a Russian officer. Now the Black Baron himself considered Ja-Lama a “harmful person” - since he was self-willed and did not recognize the power of a foreigner over himself.
However, they both had no time for that. Sternberg fought with the Chinese, and then with the advancing Reds, and Ja Lama retired to the Black Gobi, where he founded his own state, erecting the ominous Tenpai-Baishin fortress in the mountains, the ruins of which were visited during the Tibetan expedition by Nicholas Roerich. This place still inspires fear local residents, according to oral traditions, heard about the horrors that happened in it.
The ruler saw the newly created power as the basis future empire, and for the time being ensured its existence by robbing caravans and capturing slaves. The slaves built towers and walls for him, and he severely punished his subjects for the slightest offenses - for example, drunkenness and even defecation on the ground. His subjects, as always, were terrified of him because of his involvement in secret knowledge and could not decide who he was - a Buddhist saint or an incarnate mangus. The garrison of the fortress consisted of almost five hundred people, well armed and trained. These forces were enough to defend and attack, even if it was against caravans of traders and pilgrims heading to Tibet.
Roerich writes: “In this way, Ja-Lama gathered around himself a mixed group of people. Tibetan officials and traders, Mongolian pilgrims, lamas and laymen, political enemies of Ja Lama, Chinese merchants from Anxi and Kokohoto, Kyrgyz leaders from the Mongolian Altai - all had to work, erect buildings, build towers and walls in the scorching heat of the Mongolian desert . Some of the prisoners spent entire years in captivity of Ja Lama and, in order to avoid barbaric treatment, united into small detachments. Others managed to escape, but most died from difficult ordeals, since not everyone could withstand the attitude of Ja Lama’s people.”
However, his power did not last long. In 1922, the communists in Ugra uncovered a large political conspiracy, the threads of which led to Tenpai-Baishin. Former ministers of Bogdokhan were arrested, negotiated with Ja Lama, and he himself was sentenced to death. Attempts to lure him to Urga were unsuccessful - the suspicious lama did not believe the sweet promises of the communists. Then a strong detachment was sent to the fortress, led by the head of security of the MPR himself, famous commander Balden Dorje. He, fearing resistance, decided to take Tenpai-Baishin by cunning.
This is how Nicholas Roerich describes these events: “Having stopped, his detachment set up camp approximately two days’ journey from the Ja-Lama fortress. Baldan Dorje and one of the soldiers went to the fortress. They pretended to be pilgrims and asked permission to give a ceremonial scarf to Ja Lama. For some reason they were allowed to do this and were led into a Mongol tent pitched in courtyard castle Baldan Dorje approached the lama with a ceremonial scarf and shot him with a pistol hidden under the hut. Ja Lama was killed on the spot. His followers could not even resist, since Ja Lama, like other Asian leaders, kept all weapons and ammunition in his tent and issued them only when necessary. Since the armory tent had been captured by Baldan Dorje and his companion, the panic-stricken followers had no choice but to submit or disperse.”
The sorcerer's head was cut off and embalmed, after which, put on a pike, it was exhibited in Ulyasutai for several days, attracting many people. Afterwards she was delivered to Urga to the new ruler of communist Mongolia, the winner of the Black Baron, Sukhbaatar. But the vengeful lama, even after his death, did not stop punishing the offenders - Sukhbaatar suddenly died on the very day when the motorcade with the head of Ja Lama entered the capital. After this, for a long time the embalmed head was exhibited in the bazaars of Mongolia as proof of the death of Ja Lama, but it aroused not pride, but reverent fear. The Mongols called it “tsagan tolga”, “white head” (probably because of the hedgehog gray hair) and was considered a powerful magical item. Soon the head returned to Ugra, where it was lost for a while, until in 1925 it was stolen and delivered to Leningrad by diplomatic mail by a certain Mongolian student V.A. Kazakevich, who was doing an internship in Urga.
The story is completely covered in secrets no less than the life of its owner. It is not known for certain why the Russians needed it and for what reason it was taken out of Mongolia secretly. Only one thing is known - the head settled firmly in the storerooms of the Kunstkamera and was never exhibited publicly. It was even entered into the register simply as “Head of a Mongol.” Nicholas Roerich wrote that in Buddhism such an execution is considered the most terrible, because the preserved head deprives the owner’s soul of the opportunity to leave the Bardo, the space between life and death, and be reborn. Due to strange death Sukhbaatar and other people involved in the murder of Ja Lama, the legend about the curse of the head of the rebellious monk was soon born and strengthened. Among his victims was Kazakevich, who stole his head - he was accused of spying for Japan and shot.
Since then, the controversial image of Ja Lama, imbued with cruel Mongol mysticism, continues to disturb the minds of researchers. Many miracles and atrocities attributed to him are confirmed by some scientists and refuted by others, and his life path is so overgrown with legends that the truth in it is inseparably mixed with fiction. But one way or another, Ja Lama was one of the dark and contradictory images of the mystical Far East, whose strength and power were built on fear, vengefulness and bloody magic.
He said about himself: “Only one person out of all the living knows his sacred name, only one of all has visited Agharti. This person is me. Therefore, the Dalai Lama reveres me, and the Living Buddha from Urga is afraid. However, in vain - I never sit neither on the sacred throne in Lhasa, nor on the one that Genghis Khan bequeathed to the Head of our Yellow Faith. I am not a monk, but a warrior and an avenger..."
The legendary Mongolian "Lama with a Mauser" who fought against the Chinese occupation was worthy son of his wild homeland. Dambi-Dzhamtsan-Lama, more often called simply Ja-Lama, was born in Astrakhan, in the family of a Kalmyk Sanaev in 1860. The boy was named Cupid. The name is good, old. No one could have imagined that it would play a role in the fate of the future lama. key role. A few years later, the Sanaev family moved to Mongolia, which at that time was completely business as usual. The boy was sent to the Dolon-Nor datsan to learn to read and write. Having proven himself to be an extremely capable student, he was sent to Tibet, where he studied for many years at the capital's Drepung Monastery. To complete his higher theological education, Amur, who received spiritual name Dambi-Dzhamtsang, visited India, the birthplace of Buddha Gautama, and returned to Lhassa. There, allegedly in the heat of an argument, Sanaev killed a fellow member of the monastic cell. Take a life - terrible crime for a Buddhist. Amur Sanaev fled to Beijing and served for several years under Yaman, who compiled calendars. In 1890, Ja Lama showed up in Mongolia, posing as the incarnation of Amursana, a Dzungar prince who rebelled against the Chinese a century and a half ago.
The Buddhist doctrine of the transmigration of souls was not a speculative theory for the Mongols. Khubilgan incarnations were found in every monastery. Supreme ruler The Dalai Lama moved from body to body after death. Complex rituals were developed to high accuracy recognize a baby who has received the soul of the lord of the Buddhist kingdom. A very tragic story was connected with Amursana, which affected the descendants of the Qing dynasty. In 1755, the prince of one of the strong Mongol tribes rebelled against Chinese rule. Imperial troops quickly carried out an anti-terrorist operation. Amursana fled to Russia and died in Tobolsk from smallpox. Petersburg rejected Beijing's demand to hand over the body. Amursana's closest ally, the "field commander" Shidr-van, was executed by strangulation with a silk braid. Soon the Chinese emperor had a son with a red stripe around his neck. The clergy recognized that Shidr-van had been reborn. The baby was killed in a cruel magical way, all the flesh was plucked out in small pieces through a hole in a Chinese chokhe coin. A year later, the empress gave birth to a second son, whose skin was mottled, covered with scars remaining from the previous execution. The soul of Shidr-van stubbornly inhabited the royal offspring and demanded revenge. Only through the efforts of the court lamas-sorcerers, who used an inhuman method of taming the spirit of the rebel, the baby was killed, and Shidr-van was never reborn.
However, the necessary rituals were not performed at the grave in the Tobolsk cemetery. Therefore, the inevitable happened, and a son was born into the Sanaev family, who was named Amur. The incarnated Amursana, a century and a half later, returned to Mongolia to complete what he started. The power and influence of Dabmi-Dzhamtsan were based on natural extrasensory abilities and knowledge of the techniques of Tibetan magic, which a capable student learned in the capital's monastery. In 1890, the incarnation of Amursana was arrested by the Chinese, but managed to escape from custody. Wandering around Mongolia, Ja Lama was active political life and even went to Lhasa on behalf of the Russian traveler Kozlov, whose status in the wild steppes of Mongolia was very high. In 1912, Ja Lama took part in the siege of the Kobd fortress occupied by the Chinese. After the city was taken, Ja Lama acquired enormous influence over the local princes, as an incarnation of a khubilgan with magical properties. Gradually, a truly princely entourage formed around Ja Lama - two thousand families from noble families who chose his holy patronage. Ja Lama established his headquarters near the Munjik-khure monastery. Above dozens of yurts towered a white tent-ail, unprecedented in size, that amazed the imagination of the nomad, disassembled and transported on twenty-five camels. An artificial lake was dug next to the tent; perfect cleanliness, which was perceived by many as a shocking innovation. Ja Lama did not drink, did not smoke, and strictly punished his subjects for their addiction to alcohol. However, the main prohibition of Buddhism, murder, was constantly violated by the leader himself. The “Lama with a Mauser” personally tortured the prisoners and even ordered that a new banner made after the capture of Kobdo be blessed with the blood of a Chinese soldier. The soldier was hacked to death at the foot of the banner staff and his blood was sprinkled on the brocade.
Ja Lama's army fed itself by stealing cattle from the Altai Kazakhs. The leader himself also took part in the attacks on the nomads. The Russian researcher Burdukov was told about one of these operations: “After the battle, the Kazakhs fled, leaving several people wounded. One, obviously seriously wounded, stately and handsome young Kazakh sat proudly, leaning his back on a stone, and calmly looked at the Mongols galloping towards him, with his eyes open chest from clothes. The first of the horsemen who arrived pierced him with a spear. The Kirghiz leaned forward, but did not groan. Ja-Lama ordered the other to get off his horse and pierce him with a saber. And this did not cause a groan. Ja-Lama ordered to spread out the Kazakh’s chest, tear out his heart and bring it to his eyes. The Kazakh did not lose his fading will, he averted his eyes to the side and, without looking at his heart, quietly fell." Then Ja Lama ordered the skin of the dead body to be completely removed and salted for preservation. The unparalleled strength of spirit of its owner made the skin a valuable ingredient for Lamaist services.
In 1921, Mongolia was occupied by the Reds. Ja Lama went to the South Gobi, to the mountains of Shajunshan. There he created a tiny theocratic state. Having settled on the trade route, the ferocious prince-priest began to rob caravans and turn captives into slaves. With their hands on the top of a rocky hill he erected impregnable fortress Tenpei-beishin, where he hoped to fight off the troops of his great northern neighbor. However, the commissioners did not even think of storming the castle. In 1923, a Mongolian officer disguised as a wandering monk revolutionary army entered Tenpei-beishin and shot the tyrant. Having lost their charismatic leader, the subjects surrendered the fortress without resistance to the Red Tseriks. Ja Lama's severed head was brought to Ulyasutai, put on a pike and displayed in the market square so that all citizens of Soviet Mongolia would be convinced that the robber was dead. Then she was placed in a can of vodka and sent to the capital - Urga (now Ulaanbaatar). In 1925, Mongol expert Kazakevich stole the half-decomposed head of Ja Lama, immersed it in a glass vessel with formalin and sent it by diplomatic mail to Leningrad. St. Petersburg colleagues removed from their heads soft fabrics and put the exhibit “Mongol Skull” on the shelf. So it is now kept in the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography as exhibit No. 3394, bringing illness and trouble to the storeroom employees.
And somewhere, probably, a baby has already been born, looking at the world with the dull eyes of an old man wise in life...
Gavryuchenkov Yuri Fedorovich
And here is what Ossendovsky writes about him:
Tushegun Lama. He is Russian Kalmyk by origin; Even under the tsar, he actively campaigned for the independence of the Kalmyk people and for this reason visited many prisons. The Bolsheviks did not favor him because of the same thing, and under them he again ended up in prison. He managed to escape to Mongolia, where he was very popular among the population. It is not surprising, because he was a close friend of the Dalai Lama in Potala (Lhasa), was known as the most enlightened of the lamas, and, in addition, was a skilled doctor. He achieved almost complete independence under the Living Buddha and became the leader of all the ancient nomadic tribes of Western Mongolia and Dzungaria, extending his political power to the Mongol tribes of Turkestan. It was difficult to resist his influence; he himself explained this by his involvement in secret knowledge, but they told me something else. He caused panic horror among the Mongols, because everyone who dared to resist his order died. No one knew the day and hour when a mysterious and powerful friend of the Dalai Lama would appear in his yurt or on the plain, next to a galloping horse. And then - the blow of a dagger, a bullet or steel fingers, squeezing the neck like a vice, ended the matter
http://willsbor.narod.ru/ossendovski.html (from page 158 chapter “The Mysterious Avenger Lama”)
And here’s more about the custom of “blessing banners” :)))
In August 1912, after a battle in the Chinese fortress of Kobdo, the Mongols captured 35 Chinese traders (not soldiers, mind you, merchants). It was decided to perform the ancient Tantric ritual of “blessing the banners” over them.
"Calling the people into the humming shells, the lamas brought out damaras covered with human skin - drums, musical instruments made from hollow human bones, pots of blood for demons. Lamas of high and low ranks had equal difficulty making their way through the crowd... They quickly stripped the victims naked. Their arms and legs were twisted behind their backs, their heads were thrown back, tying a braid to their bound arms and legs so that the victim’s chest stuck out forward. The lama's prayers and spells muttered louder, and the eerie singing became faster.
Ja Lama came forward, like all lamas, bareheaded and wearing a red robe. Having muttered the words of prayer, he knelt before the first of the bound Chinese, took left hand short sickle-shaped sacrificial knife. Instantly plunging the knife into the chest with his left hand, Ja Lama tore out the ever-quivering heart with his right hand. With blood gushing, the Hailar Mongols wrote on the cloth “spell formulas” that would guarantee the Mongols the help of the Dokshits, who appreciated their victory.
Then Ja Lama put the bloody heart into the prepared gabala - a bowl that was actually set in silver top part human skull. And again scream new victim until, finally, all five banners were painted with the blood of hearts. With a short blow of a knife to the skull, the lamas opened it, immediately lowering the warm brains into the gabala to the dead hearts... Recoiling in horror at the beginning, the spectators screamed something as a sign of approval, as if lighting their own small fire in the soul...
It was the turn of the next five victims, including the captured Sart. Ja Lama was the first to approach him. A piercing “Allah-il-Allah” echoed throughout the valley when he opened the sart artery with an awl-shaped human bone and began to release the gushing blood into the gabala. Sart died like a true Muslim: he muttered his dying prayer, turning his gaze towards his native places, until he fell on the grass. His four comrades were no better: they slowly bled to death. Ja Lama sprinkled it with the blood of dying enemies who stood nearby and trembled with fear on the cyriks (soldiers). The lifeless victims were thrown into the fire. When the prince’s official arrived at the place of sacrifice and tried to stop him, claiming that according to the “yellow faith” such rituals were not allowed, they objected to him: “The Ja-bogdo Lama is performing a tantra offering according to an ancient custom, as they say unspoken, secret legends. His order is the main one for us! This is what Mahakala orders to do with the enemies of the religion." And in fact, what does the word of a prince mean before the authority of a saint! “After all, Ja Lama was a dokshin-khutukhta - a fierce saint revered in Lamaism.”
As befits a saint and lamaist monk, the Ja Lama did not drink or smoke. And he is even more than a saint: "Mahakala was originally one of the images of Shiva as the destroyer of the world."
Lama icon painters were always obliged to depict Mahakala with a sword or knife, against the background of a cleansing fire, with his mouth wide open, ready to bite into the heart of the enemy of the yellow faith, to drink his uncooled blood. This dokshit (in Tibetan and dharmapal in Sanskrit) is not just defeats Evil, but experiences bliss at the sight of the torment of the bearer of this Evil.” This is by no means an image of demonic forces, not the image of evil. No, this is the image of the patron of the “yellow faith”, the image of those forces that protect Tibetan Buddhism.
The sacrifice performed by Ja Lama "is accessible only to those few, according to Tantrism, who have mastered the vows of the diamond vehicle of the Vajra...
A. Burdukov says that many lamas did not like Ja Lama. But none of them condemned his rituals: “and so, with such personal hostility, the Bait Lama still explained to me that in the Lamai cult, during some services, a white cloth is spread, carved like the spread skin of Mangys. Mangys in the Mongolian epic is a spiritualized evil principle ... The Lama said that in the main temples of Lhassa in Tibet, the Dalai Lama and Banchen Bogdo, for performing great khurals in honor of the formidable gods, have real Mangys skins, but they are not available anywhere else. In other places, imitation is used. - That's it Ja Lama removed the skin, probably for rituals, and not for cruelty,” the lama concluded.
Indeed, the rituals of Ja Lama were not so “esoteric” that no one else practiced them. When one of the associates of Ja Lama Maksarzhav carried out a coup in 1921, he did not just destroy the white garrison (the detachment of Ataman Kazantsev was part of the Ungernov division). The heart of Yesaul Vandanov (Buryat Buddhist) was eaten. “When Chejin Lama appeared in Vandanov’s camp, he immediately fell into a trance; the deity incarnated in him demanded Vandanov’s trembling heart as a sacrifice. Vandanov was shot, and the removed heart was presented to the raging Chejin, who ate it in ecstasy. Later he said that in During the trance, it is the deity who acts, not he, who ate Vandanov’s heart.” The performers of this act told Burdukov that “his lard and meat were taken apart for medicine. In Tibetan medicine, meat, lard, a human skull and much more are used as medicine. Human meat and lard are mainly taken from executed people.”
Vandanov was sacrificed during the same ritual of consecrating the banner. But this time it was already a red Bolshevik banner. And the commander of the Red Mongols Maksarzhav was soon awarded Soviet order Red Banner...
Soon, sergeant major Filimonov from Biysk was captured by the “Red Mongols” (A. Burdukov’s term). And this time the prisoner’s heart was sacrificed to the red banner and eaten. The ceremony was performed by the same chejin (choijin) lama who was under Maksarzhav. "It is interesting that in modern cases of human sacrifice the initiators are representatives of the highest lama - Ja Lama and Jejin."
For half a century, the name of this man evoked Central Asia horror and sacred awe. However, many nomadic peoples revered him as a saint, bearing in cruel world goodness and justice. It was widely believed among the Mongols that he belonged to a mysterious sect of lamas living in legendary monastery Eternal Life in the Himalayas. According to legend, those chosen ones who touched the Great Secret of Lamas received incredible strength, the ability to work miracles and heal people. They seemed to possess the secrets of time and could look into the future. The one who, in the eyes of the people, was one of these chosen ones was called Ja-Lama.
Living embodiment of a Buddhist deity
According to official sources, Ja-Lama, or Dambidzhaltsan, was born in 1860 into a family of Kalmyks Sanaevs from the Astrakhan province. Over time, the Sanayevs moved to Mongolia, where Dambidzhaltsan studied very successfully, receiving an excellent Buddhist education.
Feeling own strength, Ja Lama began to pose as the incarnation of Amursana, a Dzungar prince who in the 18th century rebelled against the power of the Chinese and was born again to rid the Mongols of the Chinese yoke. At the same time, the incredible fame of Ja Lama began to grow - people believed that he personified one of the “black” Buddhist deities - the terrible Mahak. known for his special mercilessness towards his enemies.
After few years. Having gathered a large army under his Dovo-Acho banner, Ja Lama began an irreconcilable struggle with the Chinese, who were still the masters in those parts. Ja Lama's cruelty amazed his contemporaries. They say that while torturing the prisoners, Ja Lama personally cut off the unfortunates’ noses and ears, gouged out their eyes, and poured molten resin into the victims’ bloody eye sockets.
Ritual sacrifices were not uncommon. As victims, the bloodthirsty warrior chose warriors who showed cowardice on the battlefield or did not follow orders, their relatives, as well as numerous prisoners who faced inevitable death. Evidence has been preserved of how Ja Lama ripped open the victim’s chest with a ritual knife, tore out the still beating heart and sprinkled fresh blood on the battle flags in order to always achieve success in battle.
The greatest fame came to Ja Lama in 1912, after his troops stormed the fortified city of Kobdo with the Chinese settled in it. Showing resourcefulness, Ja Lama ordered dozens of old camels collected from across the steppe with bundles of set fire brush tied to their tails to be driven to the impregnable walls of the fortress. The sight of animals, distraught with fear, engulfed in flames, rushing towards the city, sowed panic in the ranks of the garrison defending Kobdo. This is what allowed the Mongol army to break into the fortress. According to legend, when the battle was over, Ja-Lama bent over the saddle and scooped out from his bosom a handful of flattened bullets that did not hit the fearless hero...
In 1914, Ja Lama, considered a subject of the Russian Empire, was arrested and sent into exile in Transbaikalia. The official reason for this was the accusation of ritual murders. During a search of his home, mummified fragments were discovered human bodies, as well as tulum - skin removed from a living person in a single bag, which was used in ritual sacrifices. This circumstance further strengthened the faith local population that Ja Lama is none other than the living Mahakala.
Student of Tibetan lamas
The deity is not a deity, but this man had extraordinary abilities, many of which are quite difficult to explain from the point of view of materialistic science.
Thus, advisor to Admiral Kolchak and researcher of Tuva and Western Mongolia F. Ossendovsky was present when Ja Lama performed a surgical operation. According to the descriptions of F. Ossendovsky, Ja Lama first placed his palm on the forehead of the sick shepherd, after which he fell asleep in a calm and deep sleep. Then Ja-la^a opened the patient's chest with a knife and... touching the wound with his finger, he stopped the heavy bleeding. After that, he began to remove “a certain diseased organ.” According to F. Ossendovsky, unable to contemplate such a terrible picture, he closed his eyes for a while, and when he opened them, at the site of the extensive incision he saw skin already sewn together with coarse threads. The operated shepherd was still sleeping peacefully.
In 1917, during his flight from Russia, Ja Lama miraculously
Ja Lama in military uniform
Zom dealt with a detachment of Cossacks chasing him. According to the recollections of the inhabitants of a small nomad who saw this scene, the fugitive, pressed to the shore of the lake, suddenly turned to face the galloping people and began to look intently at them. Horsemen armed with pikes and checkers loud screams they suddenly began to turn around, and then began to chop and stab each other, not paying attention to Ja-Lama who galloped away.
Another very interesting incident occurred in 1919, when Ja Lama, along with a small detachment, was ambushed by the Chinese. As the battle broke out, the Mongols suddenly realized that their leader had mysteriously disappeared. On the same day and around the time when the battle was still going on, but almost a hundred miles from the place of the battle, the inhabitants of the Mongol village in which Ja-Lama lived at that time saw him galloping towards his yurt in full battle dress.
Insidious murder
In the early twenties of the last century, Ja Lama built an impregnable fortress in the center of the Gobi Desert, which, as he thought, would eventually become the capital of his own independent state. Around the same time, as a result of the revolutionary uprising led by Sukhbaatar, Mongolia established Soviet authority. The Red government, naturally, could not arrange for such a “neighbor” - a dangerous hermit warrior who enjoyed great authority among the local population, who, among other things, robbed caravans going through the desert from Mongolia to Soviet Russia. However, repeated attempts to remove Ja Lama were unsuccessful. As if sensing danger looming over him, he never left his refuge and left numerous invitations to the capital of the new Mongolia - Urga - unanswered.
In 1922, Ja Lama received an official letter with an offer to take the post of minister of the Mongolian government and a request to receive ambassadors from Urga who would like to discuss with him the details of such an appointment...
The cautious Ja Lama met the ambassadors surrounded by his faithful bodyguards. But on the second day of negotiations, the ambassadors managed to lure Ja-Lama into their yurt under the pretext of teaching him how to use the map. As soon as Ja Lama entered the yurt, one of the members of the delegation fell to his knees, asking the owner for a blessing. The owner did not refuse the request and began to pray over the guest’s head, and when he finally finished praying and raised his hands to bless the man kneeling, he grabbed Ja-Lama. At that moment, another participant in the assassination attempt, who had previously been adding firewood to the stove, pulled out a revolver and killed Ja-Lama on the spot with one shot to the head. In the same yurt, the conspirators cut off Ja Lama's head and sent the trophy to Urga as confirmation of the successful operation.
On the day when the horseman brought the head of Ja Lama on a peak to the government building in Urga, the “commander-in-chief of the Mongolian revolution,” Comrade Sukhbaatar, suddenly died. For many Mongols, this was another confirmation of the powerful divine essence of the warrior, who, even after death, was able to deal with his enemies...
For a long time, the mummified head of Ja Lama was carried around villages and cities (it was then nicknamed the “White Head” because of the salt that appeared on it after mummification), making it clear to the Mongols that their hero was not a deity at all. During this time, everyone who was involved in the murder of Ja Lama tragically ended their life. And in the mid-twenties, the head came to Leningrad, to the famous Kunstkamera, where the soft tissue was removed from it and placed in the storage room under number 3394 (“Skull of the Mongol”), where it is kept to this day.
A terrible exhibit has been kept in the St. Petersburg Kunstkamera for more than 90 years. It has never been exhibited publicly and is unlikely to ever be exhibited. In the inventory it is listed as “the head of a Mongol.” But the museum staff know much more and, if desired, will tell you that this is the head of Ja Lama, who was considered a living god in Mongolia at the beginning of the 20th century.
Chinese revolution
In 1911, the great Manchu Qing dynasty, which had ruled China since 1644, began to falter. In the south, the provinces, one after another, announced their withdrawal from the Qing Empire and went over to the camp of supporters of the republican form of government. The future PRC was born in the blood of the civil war.
But the north was not a monolith. On December 1, 1911, the Mongols announced the creation of their independent state. The head of the Buddhists of Mongolia, Bogdo Gegen, became the Great Khan. Crowds of nomads surrounded the provincial capital of Khovd and demanded that the Chinese governor recognize the power of Bogd Gegen. The governor refused. The siege began. The city stood unshakable, all attempts to storm were repulsed with heavy losses for the attackers.
This continued until August 1912, until Dambijaltsan, aka Ja-Lama, whom the Mongols worshiped as a living god, appeared under the walls.
Descendant of Amursan
Dambidzhaltsan, a native of the Astrakhan province, first appeared in Mongolia in 1890. A 30-year-old Kalmyk pretended to be the grandson of Amursana, the legendary Dzungar prince and leader liberation movement in Mongolia mid-18th century century.
“The grandson of Amursan” walked around Mongolia, scolded the Chinese and called for a fight against the conquerors. The Chinese captured the troublemaker and wanted to execute him, but to their displeasure he turned out to be Russian citizens. The authorities handed the arrested man over to the Russian consul and asked him to take him back to them, preferably forever. The consul sent the failed leader popular uprising on foot to Russia.
Ja Lama, hero of Khovd, ruler of Western Mongolia
In 1910, Dambijaltsan reappeared in Mongolia, but no longer as a descendant of Amursan, but as Ja Lama. Within a few months, he recruited several thousand admirers, began a guerrilla war against the Chinese and became not only one of the most authoritative field commanders, and the object of faith and worship of thousands and thousands of people. There were legends about his invulnerability, songs were written about his learning and holiness.
He appeared under the walls of Khovd with a detachment of several thousand horsemen. Having learned from a defector that the city’s defenders lacked ammunition, he ordered several thousand camels to be driven, a burning wick tied to the tail of each, and he drove them under the walls at night.
The spectacle was not for the faint of heart. The Chinese opened fire. When the roar of gunfire began to subside (the defenders began to run out of ammunition), Ja-Lama led his warriors to storm.
The city was taken and given over to plunder. The descendants of Genghis Khan massacred the entire Chinese population of Khovd. Ja Lama held a solemn public ceremony to consecrate his battle flag. Five captured Chinese were slaughtered, Ja Lama personally tore out their hearts and drew bloody symbols with them on the banner. The grateful Bogd Gegen awarded the conqueror of Khovd the title of Holy Prince and appointed him ruler of Western Mongolia.
In his inheritance, Ja Lama began to introduce the orders and customs of the Middle Ages. Over the course of a year, more than 100 noble Mongols were killed, and countless ordinary ones. The holy prince personally tortured the prisoners, cut off the skin from their backs, cut off the unfortunates' noses and ears, gouged out their eyes, and poured molten resin into the bloody eye sockets of the victims.
Bogdo Gegen was not at all affected by all these atrocities, but Ja Lama increasingly showed his disobedience to the Great Khan, gradually turning Western Mongolia into a separate state. Bogdo Gegen turned to the help of his northern neighbor - Russia.
Twists of fate
Russia cared absolutely nothing about what was happening on the other side of its border. Not only is it going on in China Civil War, so right before our eyes a bandit state is being formed and strengthened. Just look, not today or tomorrow, the raids of the heirs of the Golden Horde for tribute will begin.
Therefore, in February 1914, a hundred Transbaikal Cossacks went on an expedition to Western Mongolia and, without losing a single person, brought the invincible Ja-Lama to Tomsk, “killing hordes of enemies with one glance.” The Mongolian god was sent into exile under police supervision in his native Astrakhan. This could have been the end of this adventurer, but the revolution broke out.
In January 1918, when no one in Astrakhan cared about the exiled Kalmyk (there were street battles in the city), Dambidzhaltsan packed his things and went east to distant Mongolia. At that time, complete chaos reigned in Mongolia: dozens of gangs were walking across the steppe, living by robbery and robbery. With the arrival of Ja Lama there was one more of them.
State of Ja Lama
Taking into account the experience of 1914, Ja Lama in Dzungaria built the Tenpai-Baishin fortress with the hands of slaves. The garrison consisted of 300 well-armed soldiers. And in each camp, at the call of the holy lama, hundreds of men were ready to stand under his banner. The main source of income for the “state” was robberies of caravans.
At that time Mongolian steppes detachments of the Chinese, Baron Ungern, and the red Sukhbaatar walked and galloped back and forth. Ja Lama fought with everyone and did not join anyone, trying to maintain his status as a feudal ruler.
In 1921, the People's Government of Mongolia took power in the country with the support of Moscow. Gradually it took control of distant parts of the country. In 1922, the turn came to the territory controlled by Ja Lama. On October 7, the State Internal Security Service (Mongolian Cheka) received a document that began with the words “top secret.” This was an order to liquidate Ja Lama.
Joint operation of fraternal special services
At first they wanted to lure him to Urga. A letter was sent to Tenpai-Baishin with an offer to Ja Lama to accept the post of Minister of Western Mongolia with the provision of unlimited powers throughout the territory under his control. For the solemn ceremony of transfer of power, the formidable saint was invited to the capital. The cautious Ja Lama refused to go to Urga, but asked to send authorized representatives to him along with all the documents.
A government delegation went to Western Mongolia. At its head were really high-ranking officials: the chief intelligence service Mongolia Baldandorj and prominent military leader Nanzan. Also traveling as part of the delegation was a man in the uniform of an official of the first rank - it was Kalmyk Harti Kanukov, adviser Soviet Russia at the intelligence department. It was these three who led the operation.
Death of a Mongolian god
Ja Lama agreed to allow only a few people into his fortress, and to directly meet with only two. Nanzan-baatar and the tsirik (soldier) Dugar-beise went. The red ambassadors posed as loyal admirers of Ja Lama, and on the second day the ruler of Western Mongolia trusted so much that he released his guards.
Then Dugar knelt down and asked for the holy blessing. When the lama raised his hand, the cyric grabbed his wrists. Nanzan, standing behind Ja Lama, pulled out a revolver and shot the Lama in the back of the head. Having jumped out into the street, Urga's envoys fired shots into the air and signaled to their comrades that it was time to begin the second part of the operation - capturing the fortress and eliminating the gangster nest.
Tenpai Baishin was captured in a few minutes and without shots being fired. The death of the living god shocked the soldiers of the garrison so much that they did not offer the slightest resistance. All the inhabitants of the fortress were gathered in the square, several of Ja Lama’s close associates were immediately shot. Then they lit a fire on which they burned the remains of the one who, as it was believed, in his youth ate the leaves of the tree of life, which bestows immortality.
The admirers of the formidable saint were ordered to go home, declaring that their god was a mere mortal man, and a bandit at that. The next day the detachment left the fortress. At the head rode a cyric with the head of Ja Lama on a pike.
The head was carried throughout Mongolia for a long time: “Here is the formidable Ja-Lama, whom the people’s government defeated!”, Until in 1925, the Mongol expert Kazakevich, who was in the country, begged this “rarity” from the authorities and transported it to Leningrad with diplomatic mail. .
In Mongolia, songs and tales about the exploits of Ja Lama are still alive. We cannot understand how this is simultaneously combined with stories about his own atrocities. East is a delicate matter.