Agvan Dorzhiev
Agvan Lobsan Dorzhiev[a][b] (1853 – 29 January 1938) was a Russian-born monk of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, sometimes referred by his scholarly title as Tsenyi Khempo. He was popularly known as the Sokpo Tsеnshab Ngawang Lobsang (literally Mongolian Tsenshab Ngavang Lobsang) to the Tibetans.[1]
He was a Khory Buryat born in the village of Khara-Shibir, not far from Ulan-Ude, east of Lake Baikal.[2]
He was a study partner and close associate of the
Buddhist studies in Tibet
He left home in 1873 at nineteen to study at the Gomang College of the
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He became one of the 13th Dalai Lama's teachers, a 'debating partner', and a spiritual adviser, and retained this role until at least the late 1910s. He was probably also instrumental in saving the young Dalai Lama's life from the intrigues at the court in Lhasa, and over the years they developed a very close and lasting relationship.[6][7]
- "One man in particular was to play an important role in building communications between Lhasa and the Russian Czar. This was Tsanzhab Ngawang Lobzang, a Mongolian monk who had graduated with high honors from the Gomang Departments of Drepung Monastery, and who was one of the seven dialectical instructors or Tsanzhabs to the Dalai Lama. Popularly known to the Tibetans as Tsennyi Khenpo, or "Master of Dialectics," he became famed to both the British and the Russians by the simpler name of Dorjieff (from the Tibetan Dorjey). Born in the Buriyat region of the Mongolian territories that had in recent times been acquired by the Czar, Dorjieff was therefore a Russian citizen."[8]
Envoy for the Dalai Lama
In 1896, the Tsar,
In early 1898 Dorzhiev went to Saint Petersburg "to collect subscriptions for his monastic college"[10] and became friendly with Prince Esper Ukhtomsky, Gentleman of the Bedchamber to the Tsar and orientalist. Dorzhiev was presented to the Tsar. Dorzhiev then went on to Paris and possibly London before returning to Lhasa.[9][11]
By the 1890s Dorzhiev had begun to spread the story that Russia was the mythical land of
In 1901,
British suspicions
By 1903, both
"Obviously," the [Fourteenth] Dalai Lama said, "the Thirteenth Dalai Lama had a keen desire to establish relations with Russia, and I also think he was a little skeptical toward England at first. Then there was Dorjiev. To the English he was a spy, but in reality he was a good scholar and a sincere Buddhist monk who had great devotion to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama."[16]
In early 1904 Dorzhiev convinced the Dalai Lama to flee to
During the expedition there were rumours that Dorzhiev was in charge of the arsenal at Lhasa and directing military operations from the
During the summer of 1912, he met the 13th Dalai Lama at Phari Dzong and then accompanied him to the Samding Monastery, before returning to Lhasa after his exile in India.
The 'White Tsars' as incarnations of White Tara
Since the days of
The Japanese monk Ekai Kawaguchi travelled in Tibet from July 4, 1900, to June 15, 1902. He reported in his Three Years in Tibet that Dorzhiev "circulated a pamphlet in which he argued that the Russian Tsar was about to fulfil the old Buddhist messianic myth of Shambhala by founding a great Buddhist empire."[24][citation needed] No second source for this story is known.
Vagindra script
Dorzhiev created a script for writing the Buryat language, which he called the Vagindra script after the Sanskrit version of his name.[25]
Saint Petersburg Tibetan Temple
In 1909 Dorzhiev got permission from the Tsar to build a large and substantial Buddhist datsan or temple in Saint Petersburg.
The Tibet-Mongolia Treaty of 1913
In early 1913, Agvan Dorzhiev and two other Tibetan representatives signed a
Some British authors have, based on remarks of a Tibetan diplomat some years later, even disputed the mere existence of the treaty,
Also in 1913, Dorzhiev founded a manba datsan, a medical college, at the monastery of Atsagat. It quickly became an important centre of Tibetan medicine in
After the Russian revolution
After the
As a means of making peace with the dramatically changed politics, Dorzhiev was quick to propose the conversion of monasteries into collective farms. In 1926 the Buddhist monasteries in
Dorzhiev tried advocating for Oirat Mongol areas like Tarbagatai, Ili, and Altai to get added to the Outer Mongolian state by the Soviets.[30] Out of concern that China would be provoked, this proposed addition of the Oirat Dzungaria to the new Outer Mongolian state was rejected by the Soviets.[31]
In August 1927, he led and managed a conference of Tibetan doctors in Atsagat. Proposals were made for a central institute to supervise production and standardisation of Tibetan herbal remedies.[32]
Dorzhiev managed to co-exist with the Communists during the 1920s but was again arrested by the NKVD during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge on November 13, 1937, and charged with treason, preparation for an armed uprising, and spying for the Mongolians and Japanese. He died in police custody, though apparently of cardiac arrest, after being transferred from his cell to the prison hospital on January 29, 1938, aged 85.[33][34][citation needed]
He was buried in "a secret traditional burial place in the forest near Chelutai". The location of the cemetery has only been made known in recent years and some estimates say at least 40,000 people were buried there.[35] Dorzhiev was not officially fully rehabilitated, though, until May 14, 1990, when the case was dismissed, 'on grounds of lack of evidence and absence of criminal activity.'[36]
Proposed Gurdjieff connection
See also
Notes
- Standard Tibetan: ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་
- ^ Also Agvan Dorjiev or Dorjieff and Agvaandorj.
References
- ^ Samten (1910), p. 357.
- ^ Red Star Travel Guide Archived December 6, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Chö-Yang: The Voice of Tibetan Religion and Culture. Year of Tibet Edition, p. 80. 1991. Gangchen Kyishong, Dharamsala, H.P., India.
- ^ Ostrovskaya-Junior, Elena A. "Buddhism in Saint Petersburg." Archived July 17, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 0-85692-173-4.
- ^ a b Hundley, Helen. (1993). "Tibet's part in the 'great game.' (Agvan Dorjiev)." History Today, Vol. 43 (Oct. 1993), pp. 45–50. Downloaded from: http://ccbbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-EPT/helen.htm[permanent dead link].
- ^ French (1994), p. 186.
- ISBN 1-57416-092-3.
- ^ a b c Saxer (2004), p. 35.
- ISBN 0-87773-376-7.
- ^ French (1994), p. 187.
- ^ Chapman, Spencer. (1940). Lhasa: The Holy City, p. 131. Readers Union Ltd., London.
- ISBN 1-85230-332-8.
- ^ French (1994), p. 188
- ^ Saxer (2004), p. 37
- ISBN 978-0-8021-1827-1.
- ^ French (1994), p. 258.
- ^ French (1994), p. 233.
- ^ Royal Fusiliers Regimental History, Tower of London
- ^ Charles Allen, "The myth of Chumik Shenko", History Today, April 2004 p. 10.
- ^ French (1994), p. 241.
- ISBN 0-87773-311-2.
- ISBN 1-74059-523-8.
- ^ a b Andreev (1991), p. 216.
- ISBN 9780765605351, pp. 79–98.
- ^ Quoted by Sir Charles Bell, "Tibet and Her Neighbours", Pacific Affairs(Dec 1937), pp. 435–6, a high Tibetan official pointed out years later that there was "no need for a treaty; we would always help each other if we could."
- ^ Udo B. Barkmann, Geschichte der Mongolei, Bonn 1999, pp. 380–81.
- ISBN 1-85230-332-8
- ^ Saxer (2004), p. 50
- ^ Andreyev 2014, p. 274.
- ^ Andreyev 2014, p. 275.
- ^ Saxer (2004), p. 50.
- ^ French (1994), pp. 259–260.
- ^ Andreev (1991), p. 221.
- ^ Andreev (1991), p. 221
- ^ Snelling (1993), p. 252.
- ^ Taylor, P. B., Inventors of Gurdjieff
Further reading
- Andreyev, Alexandre (1996). "Soviet Russia and Tibet: A Debacle of Secret Diplomacy." The Tibet Journal. Vol. XXI, No. 3. Autumn 1996, pp. 4–34.
- Andreyev, Alexandre (2014). The Myth of the Masters Revived: The Occult Lives of Nikolai and Elena Roerich. BRILL. ISBN 978-9004270435. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
- Bernstein, Anya (2006). "Pilgrims, Fieldworkers, and Secret Agents: Buryat Buddhologists and Eurasian Imaginary." [1][permanent dead link].
- Bray, John (1996). Book Review of: Snelling, John. (1993). Buddhism in Russia: The Story of Agvan Dorzhiev : Lhasa's Emissary to the Tsar. Element Books. ISBN 978-1-85230-332-7. The Tibet Journal. Vol. XXI, No. 3. Autumn 1996, pp. 71–73.
- French, Patrick. Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer (1994). Reprint: Flamingo, London. ISBN 978-0-00-637601-9.
- Kuleshov, Nikolai S. Russia's Tibet File, the unknown pages in the history of Tibet's independence, (first edition 1996), edited by ISBN 81-86470-05-0.
- Samten, Jampa. (2010). "Notes on the Tsar of Russia." In: The Tibet Journal, Special issue. Autumn 2009 vol XXXIV n. 3-Summer 2010 vol XXXV n. 2. "The Earth Ox Papers", edited by Roberto Vitali, pp. 357–370.
- Saxer, Martin (2004). Journeys with Tibetan Medicine: How Tibetan Medicine came to the West: The Story of the Badmayev Family. Masters Thesis, University of Zurich.
- Snelling, John. (1993). Buddhism in Russia: The Story of Agvan Dorzhiev : Lhasa's Emissary to the Tsar. Element Books. ISBN 978-1-85230-332-7.
- Znamenski, Andrei. (2011). Red Shambhala: Magic, Prophecy, and Geopolitics in the Heart of Asia. Quest Books. ISBN 978-0-8356-0891-6.