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1997
Route in China (MONGOLIA)
Bec2004-09-19 16:48:01
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Ulaan Baatar
After the last Khan (Altan Khan) declared himself to be the "Living Buddha" and made Tantric Lamaism the state religion in the 16th century, mongol discipline broke down and internecine strife between the western Djungar and the eastern Halh Mongols invited invasion by the Manchu Qing Emperor Kang Xi who annexed "Inner Mongolia" and made "Outer Mongolia" a protectorate of China headed by a puppet theocracy under a subservient "Jebtsundamba Hutuktu" (Living Buddha).
It is of historical interest to note that the Qing Dynasty supported Tantric Lamaism as state religions both in Tibet and in Mongolia but that they did not attempt to import it into China. Could it be because they knew that the more sophisticated and basically sceptical Chinese people would never accept a state religion nor would they believe in the absolute holiness of a "Living Buddha" or of a "Dalai Lama"?
Qing rule was tempered by Confucian traditions in China but the absolute rule of the theocracies it fostered in Tibet and Mongolia was cruel and ruthless. When the Qing Dynasty crumbled in 1911, the mongolian feudal, landowning aristocracy lost no time to declare independence from China and did so according to their religious traditions with a theocratic government under the leadership of the 8th "Living Buddha" called "Bogd Khaan" (holy king).
This is the outside gate to Bogd Khaan's summer palace.
China was too engrossed in its own turmoil to oppose this move and finally signed the treaty of Kyakhta with Russia and Mongolia recognizing the latter's autonomy in 1915. The ink was barely dry that the russian revolution of October 1917 made it possible for the Chinese to occupy Mongolia in 1919 until retreating White Russian troops expelled them in February 1921. The Bolsheviks' advance into Siberia and their assistance to mongolian nationalists soon made it possible to expel the White Russians in turn. In July of the same
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See photographs from:
Mongolia Gallery
