China | Qinghai Province | Roerich Shambhala Stupa

After spending the winter of 1926–27 in Ulaan Baatar, Holed Up in a Building which is now being turned into the Roerich-Mongolia Museum, on April 13, 1927 the Roerich Expedition left the Mongolian capital and headed west by motor car to Amarbuyant Monastery, in what is now Bayankhongor Aimag. From Amarbuyant they traveled south by camel to Shar Khuls Oasis, following the Route Used by the 13th Dalai Lama in 1904. From Shar Khuls they proceeded further south across to Black Gobi to the Mazong Mountains, where they passed by the Desert Fortress of the notorious Ja Lama.

From here they took the traditional route to Tibet, passing near the town of Anxi, and by the last week of June reached the Nan Shan, the mountains on the northern rim of the Tibetan Plateau. At a place called Sharagolji (probably a corruption the Mongolian Shar Gol = “Yellow River”) they camped for six weeks while awaiting the beginning of the Fall caravan season onward to Tibet. According to the account of George Roerich, in his book Trails in Inmost Asia:

To commemorate the spot of our camp, Professor Roerich [his father, Nicholas] decided to build a stupa and our Mongolian friends busied themselves preparing stones and bricks for the construction. Soon the stately white structure of the stupa rose among our tents.

According to Ruth A. Drayer, in her book Nicholas and Helena Roerich, Revised Edition: The Spiritual Journey of Two Great Artists and Peacemakers:

It was a peaceful time. Roerich painted the Bogdo-Ulas [apparently the Bogd Khan Uul south of Ulaan Baatar, but perhaps Ikh Bogd Uul, which they would have passed on their way to Amarbuyant Monastery] several times, then sketched and painted Guardian of the Entrance, The Great Horseman, and others. The Humboldt peaks glowed white with snow, and the air was invigorating. The stillness reminded them of the Himalayan heights. At night, the group held wonderful discussions on the new Prayer to Shambhala, the prophecies of the Panchen Lama, or the need for a pan-Asiatic language to reconcile, at least elementally, the three hundred dialects of Asia. Roerich yearned to convey to the West through his paintings and books—and through the establishment of the New Country—the importance that Maitreya, Shambhala, and Gessar Khan have in Asia.

They were camped in the area where the Mahatma had rested on way to Mongolia forty years before, so they decided to commemorate the spot with a suburgan [stupa] of Shambhala. Everyone gaily joined in the construction, building the understructure of stones, reinforced with clay and grass. The top was made of wood, covered with tin from a gasoline tank, and the entire surface was given a sturdy coat of Humboldt lime and reverently painted with red, yellow, and green designs by a Buriat lama using Roerich's paints. The suburgan was completed July 2.

Nicholas Roerich wrote in his book Altai-Himalaya:

In front of the tent of Shambhala, the lamas prayed for the coming of the Blessed Rigden Jyepo and placed a polished mirror before the image. Water was poured onto the mirror and the glass seemed to come alive with strange figures appearing on the surface. When it blurred, it resembled one of the magic mirrors in ancient stories. A procession walked around the shrine with burning incense while the lama held onto a thread suspended from the roof. The altar was filled with gifts of turquoise, coral, and beads, an image of the Buddha, a silver ring with a most significant inscription, prophecies for the future, and other precious objects that had been placed there by an old lama who had helped with the construction. We also lay the Ak-dorje and the Maitreya Sangha within. After a long service, the white thread that connected the lama and the suburgan was severed, and the monument stood there alone in the purple of the desert, forever to shine brightly, defended only by invisible powers.

Here are some photos of the stupa, courtesy of the Roerich Museum in New York City, a veritable cornucopia of All Things Roerichian.

The Roerich Stupa. Note American flag to right. What passports the Roerichs were using at the time and what nationality they were claiming is a bit of a mystery, but the expedition was supported by American Wall Street financiers.

Mongols at the stupa. It is not clear if these were locals or men accompanying the Roerich Expedition.

Putting the finishing touches on the Shambhala Stupa

Circumambulating the Shambhala Stupa

What appears to be local Mongols posing at the Stupa

It is not known if the stupa still exists. Interestingly, just two weeks later, while camped at the same spot, the Roerichs made one of the twentieth century’s first recorded sightings of a UFO. Apparently it has been dispatched from Shambhala. But that is another story . . .

Mongolia | Roerich | Realm of Light

Get a free sample chapter of Realm of Light by Nicholas Roerich!

Nicholas Roerich

Mongolia | Shambhala Book | Roerich

Get a free excerpt from Nicholas Roerich’s book Shambhala! Also see Shambhala Wish-Prayer.

Shambhala (see Enlargement)

Mongolia | Roerichs | Orion

Bardarchin and Gazarchin Glenn Mullin has just penned an article about the Nicholas Roerich Museum and Buddhist Art Institute here in Ulaan Baatar. While we are on the subject of the Roerichs, you might want to gaze up at the early evening sky to the southeast where Orion is currently putting on quite a show. Helena Roerich, Nicholas Roerich’s better half, wrote:

The wide-spread popularity of cults [in Inner Asia] surrounding Orion and other constellations is amazing . . . The constellation of Orion contains the signs of the Three Magi, and in the ancient teachings it was as important as Atlas, who supported the weight of the world. Thus we see that Orion has unceasingly attracted the eye of man. Now the astronomy journals are telling of inexplicable pink rays suddenly flashing from Orion. Verily, it is the Star of the East. And only here in the East does one feel the vital sense and the scientific importance of astrology and astro-chemistry. The observatories in Jaipur and and in Delhi overwhelmed me with their knowledge, and much remarkable information could undoubtedly be found in the old observatories.

While the Roerichs were making their great three-year-long circumnavigation, or khora, of Inner Asia, including a stretch from Amarbuyant Khiid to Shar Khuils Oasis here in Mongolia, Helena Roerich reportedly carried in a locket a piece of the Chintamani Stone which according to occult legend had originally come to Earth by some unknown means from the constellation of Orion. The current location of the Chintamani Stone is unknown.

“The Treasure of the World — Chintamani” by Nicholas Roerich

Mongolia | Ulaan Baatar | Roerich Redux

Mosied out to the eastern suburbs of Ulaan Baatar for Another Visit to the proposed site of the Roerich-Mongolia Museum.

Building where the Roerichs stayed during their 1926–27 sojourn in Ulaan Baatar. There are plans afoot to turn the building into a museum devoted to the Roerichs.

Group of dignitaries convened to discuss the restoration project

Restoration Project Panjandrums: from left to right, Professor Ishdorj (in black coat); Ulaan Baatar-based badarchin, gazarchin, translator (The Practice of the Six Yogas of Naropa), author (Fourteen Dalai Lamas: A Sacred Legacy of Reincarnation), man-about-town, and international gadabout Glenn Mullin; Professor Bira, who studied with George Roerich in Moscow back in the 1950s; an attaché from the Canadian Embassy who was being hit up for funding; and Soyolma, who is serving as Artistic Adviser on the project.

The ever-lovely Soyolma whose works were recently featured at the Pearl Gallery. See More of Soyolma’s Works.

Soyolma listening with rapt attention as Batdorj, former Director of the Zanabazar Museum and now freelance artist-impresario, presents a proposal for a stone monument to the Roerichs.

Details of the proposed Roerich Monument, which would be placed in the courtyard of the museum.

Soyolma in front of the old Russian-style stove inside the museum building

Group entranced by Glenn Mullin and his spellbinding presentation

Canadian Embassy Attaché still spellbound

Work on restoring the outside of the building should begin in two or three weeks. The plan is to have the interiors of at least a couple of the rooms completed by this summer and open to the public. How You Can Help.

Mongolia | Bayankhongor Aimag | Roerichs and the 13th Dalai Lama

A PDF version of Following the Route of the Roerich Expedition and the 13th Dalai Lama Through Bayankhongor Aimag, Mongolia is now available. For more information on the Roerichs see the Roerich Museum in Mongolia.

Mongolia | Roerichs | 1927 Expedition | Shambhala

Scarpered out to the eastern suburbs of Ulaan Baatar to see the house where Nicholas Roerich and his family stayed while in Ulaan Baatar in late 1926 and early 1927. Currently there are plans to turn this building into a museum dedicated to the Roerichs. Spearheading this endeavor are the renowned Professor Bira, who was a student of George Roerich in Moscow back in the 1950s, and Ulaan Bataar-based Savant and Badarchin-Gazarchin Glenn Mullin. For more information see Roerich–Mongolia Museum. How You Can Help.

The Roerich House, future site of the Roerich-Mongolia Museum

Glenn Mullin

The Roerichs at the house in the winter of 1927

After the Roerichs left Ulaan Baatar they continued on across the Gobi Desert. A few years ago I retraced part of their journey . . .

On March 6, 1925 the Roerich Expedition, led by painter, theater set designer, mystic, occultist, alleged spy, and dedicated Aghartian-Shambhalist Nicholas Roerich, left Darjeeling, India on what would be a three-year cirumnavigation of Inner Asia. Accompanying the expedition were Roerich’s wife Elena, a Theosophist and follower of Master Morya who would translate The Secret Doctrine of Madame Blavatsky into Russian, and his Harvard-educated son George, a world-class translator of Tibetan texts (see The Blue Annals). Roerich claimed he was looking for inspiration for his paintings, and his son George was supposedly engaged in various ethnological and linguistical researches, but from the three books churned out by Nicholas Roerich about the expedition it is pretty clear that they were actually looking for Shambhala. In The Secret Doctrine Madame Blavatsky had posited the idea that Shambhala might be found somewhere in the Gobi Desert. The Roerichs were also aware of the Tibetan version of the Shambhala mythologem, which placed Shambhala somewhere north of the Himalayas, possibly in the deserts of Inner Asia. Their journey would eventually lead them through the deserts of Mongolia where some believed the fabled kingdom could be found . . . Continued . . .