Two objects reportedly crashed to the ground near Ulaan Baatar, the capital of Mongolia on Feb. 19, 2010. The first object, according to the report on the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) Witness Database, weighed 10 kg, while the second larger object weighed approximately 2 tons. Other than that, there's not a lot of information available about the objects. But of course, UFOers are having a field day, calling the image, above, that accompanied the report a "leaked UFO crash" picture. But the object looks suspiciously like a rocket or jet engine, or perhaps a rocket nose cone. Objects that crash to Earth likely have a very terrestrial origin.
Alien spaceship
or Mongolian “Balloon Boy” stunt gone awry?
One thing for sure: if this object, whatever its origins, had pancaked a ger or plowed into the side of an apartment building the results would not have been pretty. Keep in mind, too, that Unidentified Flying Objects are just that: objects moving through space which cannot readily be identified. That does not necessarily mean that they are extraterrestrial.
Wandered up to Lam Rim Monastery, on Zanabazar Street just below Gandan Monastery in Ulaan Baatar. I have gone here many times over the years but I never really knew the story behind the founding of this monastery. The other day I dropped to see Bayantsagaan, the director of the monastery, and by chance his daughter Erdenetsetseg was there. She lived in Malaysia for several years and speaks near perfect English, so with her help I was able to get some background information.
Erdenetsetseg
Lam Rim Monastery
Bayantsagaan
Lam Rim Monastery was founded in 1990 by Erdenetsetseg’s father S. Bayantsagaan. Originally from Khovd Aimag in western Mongolia, Bayantsagaan studied the Lam Rim Teaching and Buddhist philosophy at the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and the Zanabazar Institute in Ulaan Baatar. He has a Geshé degree from the Zanabazar Institute and is fluent in Tibetan. In the early 1990s he played an active role the democratic movement in Mongolia and for much of the 1990s he worked as the director of the Mongolian Believers Association. During this period about seventy monasteries and temples were activated under his leadership. He has also initiated and strengthened communications between Mongolia and Tibet and in recent years has organized visits of the Dalai Lama to Mongolia.
Lam Rim Monastery was founded to promote the Lam Rim Teaching of Tsongkhapa (Mongolian=Bogd Zonkhov), who in the fifteen-century founded the Gelug Sect in Tibet.
Bogd Zhonkov
Bogd Zhonkov is author of one of the primary Lam Rim texts, The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path of Enlightenment. Bayantsagaan would like to emphasize that the Lam Rim, or Graduated Path, is not just for monks, but for all practitioners who wish to proceed on the path to Enlightenment. The three main Protectors of the monastery are Gombo, Namsrai, and Choijoo, three deities who have promised to protect Bogd Zonkhov’s teaching wherever it may be.
Interior of Lam Rim Temple
Interior of Lam Rim Temple
Ninety-six year old monk, the oldest at Lam Rim Monastery
Lama Gombo, a mere stripling at ninety-five years old
New Generation of monks at Lam Rim
Monks giving blessings
Lam Rim Monastery also specializes in the Kalachakra(Mongolian = Duinkhor) Teaching believed to have come from the Kingdom of Shambhala. Kalachakra ceremonies are performed here on the 10th and 25th day of the Lunar Month. One of the goals of the monastery is to prepare people for the eventually arrival of the 25th Kalkin King of Shambhala under whose reign Buddhism will flourish throughout the entire world.
Kingdom of Shambhala depicted on Thangka at Lam Rim Temple
Wandered by one of Ulaan Baatar’s Notoriously Louche Coffee Houses for theBig Book Launch of Carl Robinson’s monumental Mongolia: Nomad Empire of the Eternal Blue Sky, which should very quickly become the Alpha and Omega of guidebooks to Mongolia. Normally I would never darken the door of a den of coffee swillers, being strictly a Tea Man myself, but I was anxious to meet Mr. Robinson, with whom I have communicated extensively via the internet but never before had the pleasure of meeting in person.
Zevgee at the summit of Burkhan Khaldun. This is not the photo in the book. If you want to see that photo Buy The Book.
Zevgee’s Better Half Tümen Ölzii (right) and the marrow-meltingly gorgeous to say nothing of ever-charming and extremely intelligent Oyuna(since this photo was taken she has become a lawyer, but that does not necessarily make her a bad person) at the lake near the base of Burkhan Khaldun.
The New Moon will occur in Ulaan Baatar on Sunday, the 18th, at 1:33 PM. Set your internal clocks according. Also see Moon Rising and Setting. Just to remind you, the Hunter’s Moon is coming up on November 3rd. Don’t miss this one!
The Hunter’s Moon, also known as the Blood Moon, often appears to be the largest moon of the year
Wandered by Gandan Monastery and took a peek at the Dhanyakataka Stupa Thangka in the Tashchoimphel Temple. Although Taranatha, Zanabazar’s previous Incarnation (See Incarnations of Javzandamba), wrote extensively about the Kalachakra and translated one of the most famous guidebooks to Shambhala from Sanskrit into Tibetan, Zanabazar Himself, the First Bogd Gegen, apparently showed little if any interest in the teachings. It was the Fourth Bogd Gegeen who first introduced the Duinkhor, or Kalachakra Teachings, into Mongolia in 1801. In 1803 he made a trip to Lhasa and brought back with him a large collection statues and books, including material connected with the Kalachakra. According to ethnologist A. M. Pozdneev, “In 1806 he set up a special datsang for the school of Duinkor [Kalachakra]” and services were performed here in 1807. "In the same year 1807, the Gegen ordered a yum written in gold from Tibet . . . Moreover, being devoted to the task of developing Duinkor, the Gegen decorated the temple of Dachin-kalbain-Sume, gilding its roof, and in its courtyard he established his personal residence.”
He also reportedly commissioned a thangka showing the Dhanyakataka Stupa in southern India where by tradition Shakyamuni Buddha first taught the Kalachakra Tantra to the first King of Shambhala. This is the thangka which can now be seen in the Tashchoimphel Temple.
Thangka of the Dhanyakataka Stupa
Close-up of the thangka showing Buddha emanating as the Kalachakra Deity inside the stupa. It was in this form that he taught the Kalachakra Tantra to Suchandra, the First King of Shambhala.
By tradition the Dhanyakataka Stupa is located at Amaravati, in south India, where the Dalai Lama gave a Kalachakra Initiation in January of 2006.
Ninety-two year-old Lama Gombo (left) was kind enough to point out the Dhanyakataka Thangka to me.
I had the honor of presenting to the Telo Rinpoche, the sixth Diluv Khutagt, a copy, fresh from the presses, of The Diluv Khutagt of Mongolia, the memoirs and autobiography of his previous incarnation, the Fifth Diluv Khutagt.
Diluv Khutagt’s Political Memoirs and Autobiography
I had first read the Diluv Khutagt’s book in the august environs of the Reading Room of the Library of Congress circa 1985. I had xeroxed a copy and carried it with me through all my Travels in Mongolia. I have always thought this book should be better known, and now, over two decades later, I finally had the pleasure of introducing a new edition. The Wheel of Time grinds slowly, but fine. It is now available at various outlets, including the Ikh Nomiin Delgüür, (Big Book Store) just north of the Ulaan Baatar Hotel, and the commercial scriptorium in the State Department Store.
Although the Telo Rinpoche is the sixth Diluv Khutagt his lineage goes back much further. The Fifth Diluv Khutagt comments on this in his Autobiography:
Until the fall of the Manchu dynasty, there were fourteen higher Incarnations in Outer Mongolia who, in their successive embodiments, after being recognized and installed by the Church, had to be confirmed in their incumbency by the Manchu Emperor. Of these I am one. My successive incarnations are as follows: One of the companions and disciples of Gotama Buddha was Mangala. One of his later Incarnations was Dilowa, who was so named because in his worldly occupation he was a pounder of sesamum seed to make oil. Tila is the Sanskrit of sesamum. One of his later Incarnations, in Tibet, was Milarapa. The first Incarnation of Milarapa to appear in Mongolia was Dambadorji. In the Ordos region of Inner Mongolia there are two groups of mountains, the Great and Little Arjai. In the caves in the Little Arjai, Dambadorji built his first monastery, in the period of the reign of the Ming dynasty in China (1368-1643). This monastery was destroyed by Legden Khan of the Chahar Mongols, in the time of trouble when the Ming dynasty of the Chinese was falling and the Ch’ing dynasty of the Manchus being set up. The next Incarnation of Dambadorji was Erhe Bogda Lama, who built the monastery of Banchin Jo, also in the Ordos. In the K’ang Hsi period of the Manchu dynasty (1662-1722) my incarnation was recognized, under the designation of Diluv Khutagt, by the Manchu Emperors. My present Incarnation is the fifth under this designation, and the third to appear in Outer Mongolia. While I was in the Ordos, under the designation of Erhe Bogda Lama, Narobanchin was my disciple. Later he was reincarnated in Outer Mongolia,and built the Narobanchin monastery. When in a later reincarnation I myself appeared in the same region of Outer Mongolia, the Narobanchin Khutagt invited me to share his monastery with him, and thus it has been ever since, and that is why I am the Diluv Khutagt of Narobanchin Monastery.
I was also able to present to the Rinpoche Four Books by the Roerichs which we have recently published. Saraa, Co-Publisher of The Diluv Khutagt of Mongolia and the Roerich books, shown here with the Rinpoche.
Saraa and Anzha, the Rinpoche’s factotum, who also acted as my guide when I was in Kalmykia, framing the Shambhala Thangka now on display in the museum.
All-in-all quite a lively and informative gathering. The only thing missing, as far as I was concerned, was a cameo appearance by Lady GaGa.
Wandered by Gandan Monastery and visited the Kalachakra Temple, where monks are creating a Kalachakra Mandala in preparation for the Kalachakra Ceremony beginning on May 7 and continuing through May 29. The mandala itself, made from sand of various colors, takes six days or so to create. It is based on the three dimensional Kalachakra Mandala found in Kalapa, the capital of the Kingdom of Shambhala, which is itself based on the Dhanyakataka Stupa, where according to tradition the Buddha taught the Kalachakra Tantra to Suchandra, the first of the 32 Kings of Shambhala. There is much else of interest in the temple, increasing representations of the 722 Kalachakara Deities.
Monks fashioning the Kalachakra Mandala
Monk working on the Kalachakra Mandala
Monk working on the Kalachakra Mandala
Colored sand used to fashion the Mandala
Monk working on the Kalachakra Mandala
Monk working on the Kalachakra Mandala
Detail of the Kalachakra Mandala
A painted version of a finished Kalachakra Mandala
Bardarchin and GazarchinGlenn 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.
In an earlier post I commented on the Louche Behaviour of Coffee Drinkers in general. I have just encountered additional evidence about the deleterious effects of Coffea arabica (I won’t even comment on Coffea robusta, which is consumed only by real low-lifes) in a rare treatise entitled The Nature of the Drink Kauhi, or Coffe, and the Berry of Which It Is Made, Described by an Arabian Philistian, written anonymously and published in Cairo in 1659. The author no doubt wanted to remain unknown to avoid repercussions from Violent Coffee Drinkers.
This work, originally published in Arabic, was first translated into English by seminal English Orientalist Edward Pococke (1604–91), who as you probably know occupied the Laudian Chair of Arabic, established in 1636 at Oxford University.
Coffee-drinking originated in Yemen some time around the thirteenth century and spread throughout the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century. Pococke is said to have been the first man in England to drink coffee. Those who were suspicious of the new drink claimed that it brought on his palsy. (The Arab author of The Nature of the Drink Kauhi, or Coffe, and the Berry of Which It Is Made, Described by an Arabian Philistian, for his part, warned that drinking coffee with milk might bring on leprosy.) For a long time coffee-drinking was to be regarded with great suspicion in some circles, as it was tainted with Mahometanism.
Those with a high caffeine intake are three times more likely to have heard a non-existent person's voice than those who drink one cup a day, said the research by psychologists at Durham University. But the study noted that the tendency to hear voices or have other hallucinations may not be caused by caffeine, but simply reflect the kind of people who drink lots of coffee.
So it is not clear if coffee makes people crazy or only crazy people drink coffee. It’s obvious, however, that the “kind of people who drink lots of coffee” tend not to have both oars in the water. For examples, visit one of Ulaan Baatar’s Most Notorious Dives Specializing in Coffee and take a look around.
Mongolia | Ulaan Baatar | Pearl Gallery | Art Show
Popped over to the Pearl Gallery, located next to the Vegetarian Center Restaurant (which by the way has been receiving Rave Reviews) just south of the Bayangol Hotel. On display were new works by Soyolma, one of whose works has just been named “Painting of the Year” in Mongolia.
Soyolma’s “The Horse,” named “Painting of the Year” in Mongolia
The Wildly Acclaimed and Drop-Dead Gorgeous Artist Mönkhtsetseg on the left. In the last ten years her works have been featured in twenty-three exhibitions. On the right is Lionized to Say Nothing of Charming and Gracious Ceramics Artist Otgonbayar.
Original ceramic work by Otgonbayar on display. Contrary to a rumor circulating at the gallery, Mönkhtsetseg did not, repeat DID NOT, pose as the model for this work. The irresponsible rumormongers spreading this tale should be hauled off to Sükhbaatar Square and given a sound horse-whipping for the edification of the general populace.
I don't know why I waste my time on you dolts, but I am going to point out Yet Again that Venus and Jupiter are now presenting a gorgeous sight on the southern horizon just after sunset.
The Venus-Jupiter pairing in the southwestern twilight is becoming a head-turning spectacle, as shown at right, and it will become more impressive all week . . . Jupiter and Venus may look close together, but Jupiter this week is nearly six times farther away from us than Venus is. That's part of why Jupiter is less bright even though it's a much bigger planet. The other reason is that, being farther from the Sun, Jupiter is lit much less brilliantly by the Sun's light . . . With Venus and Jupiter just 2.4° apart this evening, the thin crescent Moon steps onstage about 20° to their lower right as shown here. The two planets will be closest, 2° apart, on Sunday and Monday evenings — when, coincidentally, the Moon shines near them as well.
For those fortunate enough to be in Ulaan Baatar the Venus-Jupiter alignment is stunningly obvious to the south-southwest just over the ridge of Bogd Khan Uul. Even the most directionally challenged among you should be able to spot them very easily. So before stumbling into the dens of dissipation where you usually waste your evenings take a few minutes to lift your earthbound glance to the skies and take in this spectacular sight.
Nipped up to Lam Rim Monastery, on Zanabazar Street just below Gandan Monastery in Ulaan Baatar. I have gone here many times over the years but I never really knew the story behind the founding of this monastery. The other day I dropped to see Bayantsagaan, the director of the monastery, and by chance his daughter Erdenetsetseg was there. She lived in Malaysia for several years and speaks near perfect English, so with her help I was able to get some background information.
Erdenetsetseg
Lam Rim Monastery
Bayantsagaan
Lam Rim Monastery was founded in 1990 by Erdenetsetseg’s father S. Bayantsagaan. Originally from Khovd Aimag in western Mongolia, Bayantsagaan studied the Lam Rim Teaching and Buddhist philosophy at the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and the Zanabazar Institute in Ulaan Baatar. He has a Geshé degree from the Zanabazar Institute and is fluent in Tibetan. In the early 1990s he played an active role the democratic movement in Mongolia and for much of the 1990s he worked as the director of the Mongolian Believers Association. During this period about seventy monasteries and temples were activated under his leadership. He has also initiated and strengthened communications between Mongolia and Tibet and in recent years has organized visits of the Dalai Lama to Mongolia.
Lam Rim Monastery was founded to promote the Lam Rim Teaching of Tsongkhapa (Mongolian=Bogd Zonkhov), who in the fifteen-century founded the Gelug Sect in Tibet.
Bogd Zhonkov
Bogd Zhonkov is author of one of the primary Lam Rim texts, The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path of Enlightenment. Bayantsagaan would like to emphasize that the Lam Rim, or Graduated Path, is not just for monks, but for all practitioners who wish to proceed on the path to Enlightenment. The three main Protectors of the monastery are Gombo, Namsrai, and Choijoo, three deities who have promised to protect Bogd Zonkhov’s teaching wherever it may be.
Interior of Lam Rim Temple
Interior of Lam Rim Temple
Monk at Lam Rim
Ninety-six year old monk, the oldest at Lam Rim Monastery
Lama Gombo, a mere stripling at ninety-five years old
New Generation of monks at Lam Rim
Monks giving blessings
Lam Rim Monastery also specializes in the Kalachakra(Mongolian = Duinkhor) Teaching believed to have come from the Kingdom of Shambhala. Kalachakra ceremonies are performed here on the 10th and 25th day of the Lunar Month. One of the goals of the monastery is to prepare people for the eventually arrival of the 25th Kalkin King of Shambhala under whose reign Buddhism will flourish throughout the entire world.
Kingdom of Shambhala depicted on Thangka at Lam Rim Temple
