Mongolia | Khovd Aimag | Dambijantsan | Khoit Tsenkher Cave

While camped on the Dund Tsenger Gol the Ja Lama a.k.a. Dambijantsan may also have spent some time at Khoid Tsenkher Agui (agui = cave), located in the valley of the Khoid Tsengker Gol, about fifteen miles west of the Dund Tsenger Gol camp.

Entrance to Khoit Tsenkher Cave, Center

This is one of the largest caves in Mongolia, with a main chamber at least eighty-five feet high. A rock fall in 1995 blocked off one long extension in the cave, but several smaller galleries leading off from the main chamber still remain.

Entrance to Khoit Tsenkher CaveLooking out the main entrance

It was reportedly inhabited by Stone Age people during the Upper Paleolithic, 10,000 to 40,000 years old. The cave is famous for its rock paintings, which have been dated to 17,000–22,000 years ago. Done with light pink and red-brown ochre pigments, the paintings depict Paleolithic fauna such as mammoths and ostriches which are no longer found in the area, as well as camels, ibex, deer, and other more familiar animals. Unfortunately many of the drawings have now been defaced or covered with dust and are no longer visible.

The main cavern in the cave

Professor Baasankhüü standing on the floor of the main cavern in the cave

I have visited this cave several times. On my last visit in 2007 my jeep driver related that two years before he had served as a driver for a prominent Tibetan lama from Sichuan Province in China. Unfortunately he could not remember the lama’s name. The lama was interested in various historical sites, including Tögrögiin Khüree in the current town of Mankhan. They also visited Khoid Tsenkher Agui. While at the cave the lama mentioned that the famous magician Dambijantsan had once meditated in the cave and had acquired some kind of special powers there. The jeep driver said that he himself had not mentioned Dambijantsan and it did not occur to him at the time to ask the lama how he know about him, nor did he think to ask about the nature of the powers Dambijantsan had supposedly acquired there. Only later did it strike him as odd that a Tibetan lama from China would know about Dambijantsan.

Drawing in the cave

Detail of above drawing in the cave

Drawing in the caveDrawing in the cave

In this connection it is worth mentioning that Professor Baasankhüü, who was with me on my 2007 trip to the cave, had visited the cave in 2006 with controversial Russian researcher of paranormal phenomena Ernest Muldashev. After conducting various investigation in the cave Muldashev announced that it was infested with spirit entities—“light bodies”, or gerlen bie in Mongolian—identical to those he had previously discovered in caves in Tibet. These Lovecraftian Entities, Muldashev claims, existed before the appearance of humans on this earth and will be instrumental in deciding what form Consciousness will take after we humans have at long last worn out our welcome and finally disappear for good from our now-beloved orb. Muldashev’s theories, outlined in Numerous Books (he too has weighed in on the Shambhala Mythologem)—some of them already translated into Mongolian—are Understandably Controversial and have come under attack from various quarters. Indeed, some consider him a Charlatan of the First Water. The professor says he is keeping an open mind in the matter. Whether Dambijantsan somehow communicated with the spirit entities in the cave—assuming they existed—and perhaps acquired some supernatural powers from them must remain a matter of speculation.