Wheel of Ecstasy

For those of you who didn’t check out the comments to the previous post, savvy readers ID’d the strange creature I photographed in the South Gobi as a species of a fascinating and ancient crustacean known as a Triops. Like, really ancient. Basically unchanged in 220 million years. And really fascinating. Check it out.

I’m a little deflated, actually. I thought maybe I had stumbled upon an as-yet-undiscovered species and was preparing to exercise a discoverer’s right to name the critter after himself. You know, Whatever Konchogii. But this li’l Triops already has a Latin tag, Lepidurus Mongolicus. Alas, the Buddhas conspire once again to deny me the opportunity to bloat up with ego attachment. Happening a lot these days.

This recent journey to Omnogov (South Gobi) was instigated by my friend and loyal DODR reader Sukhbaatar, aka Sukhee. He works for Mongolia’s largest retail gas company, Petrovis, which has the exclusive contract to provide fuel to the mammoth Oyu Tolgoi mine site in Omnogov. This site, which encompasses the world’s largest copper deposit found to date, as well as significant amounts of gold, is poised to about double Mongolia’s GDP once serious extraction commences. It also happens to be right near where Danzan Ravjaa built a cluster of three monasteries in the early 19th c. I’d been eager to visit these sites for the past three years or so, but they’re quite remote. So when Sukhee invited me to accompany him on a business trip to Oyu Tolgoi, combined with a pilgrimage to the monasteries (he’s also a Danzan Ravjaa nut) and a subsequent trek across portions of the southeast Gobi I’d never seen, he didn't have to ask twice.

I was hoping to take in a different desert environment than the classic I’ve shown from the East Gobi...

...and here’s how our first vista in South Gobi looked:

What? The sky’s a little more turquoise-y and the pebbles a little...pebblier, don’t you think? I mean, right?

Anyway, this horizontitude didn't last too long, just 100km or so. And people somehow eke out an existence here, man. See those tiny gers in the middle?

The coolest moment besides finding the pond fulla Triops was at a stop when I remarked to Sukhee that I’d never seen a scorpion in Mongolia. He started muttering the Vajra Guru mantra and overturning rocks. Under the third or fourth, voilá:

Sukhee regarded this as an auspicious sign and who was I to argue?

We arrived late at the Oyu Tolgoi camp after 14 hours on the road and collapsed in our cozy ger. No photos from there. Security was way tighter than the Mongolian prison I visited last year.

Up early, though. While Sukhee, his colleague Bold, and Bold’s wife Soyolmaa (in charge of Mongolia’s Protected Areas at the Ministry of Environment) tended to their various bidnesses, our kind driver Boska took me out to Demchig Monastery for a day alone. I was quite grateful for this. It was the 10th day of the lunar month, sacred to Padmasambhava, and I had plans.

Demchig is the Mongolization of the Tibetan Khorlo Demchog, itself a translation of the Sanskrit Chakrasamvara, one of the highest yoga tantras particularly central to the Kagyu tradition. In talking about this over coffee with Hamid Sardar this morning, and showing him pictures, he said that wherever one finds a naturally occurring lingam, or sacred phallus, this should be considered a power spot of Chakrasamvara. He was referring to this photo, but I don’t know. It kind of looks like a bunny rabbit to me.

Just now, Lama Purevbat is overseeing the reconstruction of nine stupas arrayed as they originally were in an eight-petal lotus pattern. What you see under construction in the center is a one-room shrine, on top of which they will build a 13-meter stupa dedicated to Buddha Amitabha. That will be encircled by the traditional set of eight slightly different stupas that represent eight significant events in the life of Shakyamuni Buddha.

My teacher was in retreat near her own teacher, Penor Rinpoche, and had asked us to join her wherever we were in her main practice, the Padmasambhava Guru Yoga from Tertön Migyur Dorje’s Nam Chö revelations. This is how I intended to spend my day, but where to go to be undisturbed? As I thought this, a raven called, with seeming urgency. I noticed it and it flew a short distance away, looked at me and waited. I followed, it kept short-hopping, calling, waiting. Then we were at the back of the mountain at a place that’s something of a natural seat and the raven stayed put, allowing me to get very close.

I’m not much of a “sign-reader,” but for some reason I thanked the raven, it flew away to join its friends, and I settled in for a marvelous day of deeply pondering the “Four Thoughts That Turn the Mind to Dharma,” singing the longing melodies of “Calling the Lama from Afar,” and meditating on the sublime form of Guru Rinpoche while I accumulated his mantra. I only wished I could sink into this desert rhythm for years, but such are not the times.

In mid-afternoon, I shifted to the stupa-building site. I have an abiding love for Buddha Amitabha and recalled my teacher once saying that since stupas are forms of the Buddha’s mind, building one is no different than giving birth to an actual Buddha into this world. I wanted to chant the first practice I ever received, a short Amitabha sadhana, also from Migyur Dorje. The sung praises to Amitabha, along with the aspiration to be reborn in his pure land of Dewachen, are some of my favorites.

Before I began, the foreman of the construction sauntered over and struck up a conversation. After a time, he beckoned me over to the rock behind the stupa site and showed me the spot where Danzan Ravjaa had meditated and left the imprint of his back and head in the solid rock. Here it is:

He told me I could chant up there, but it felt wrong, so I stayed below that sacred spot and did my thing. Some short time after, Sukhee and crew arrived. We gathered to honor another spot where Danzan Ravjaa had composed some of his poetry. Joined by this cool old guy...

...Sukhee offered ablutions to the four directions...

...and then led everyone in a rousing version of Ravjaa’s song Ulemjiin Chanar (“Perfect Qualities”):

Sensing the waning light, we walked past a pile of these swanky tiles that will adorn the shrine roof...

...and jumped into the Land Cruiser and hied over to Ulaan Saikhosnii Khiid, the Red Protector Monastery. The 'Red Protector' in question is called Jamsran in Mongolia, Begtse in Tibet, and has a very interesting history.

One source sums it up like this:

“Begtse, along with Pehar and several other deities in the Gelugpa pantheon, have their origins as pre-Buddhist Central Asian war gods. They still bear the attributes of warriors, such as coats of mail, helmets, weapons, and armies, that allude to the Central Asian ideal of the warrior-king possessed of divine powers, from whom these deities originated. Once included in the Buddhist pantheon Begtse and similar figures were given a new mission to fight the enemies of the doctrine, the dharma.

The precise moment of Begtse's incorporation into the Tibetan pantheon is difficult to gauge. According to one well-known legend, Begtse originated as a Mongolian pre-Buddhist protector deity who was converted when the Third Dalai Lama traveled to Mongolia to convert Altan Khan in 1577 [another source suggests that he did so by impressing Begtse with the splendor of a manifestation as Avalokiteshvara, the four-armed Buddha of Compassion]. However, it has recently been suggested by Amy Heller that Begtse was actually known in Tibet as early as the fifteenth century, when his teachings were taught by the First Dalai Lama. Subsequently, Begtse was specially favored by the Second Dalai Lama and, along with Palden Lhamo, was made protector of his personal monastery, established in 1509. Later, the Fifth Dalai Lama made Begtse a protector of the Tibetan government and he continues to be considered a personal protector of the Dalai Lamas. Begtse is also the chief protector deity of Mongolia.”

Adding to scorpion lore is this: “With his right hand he wields a scorpion-handled sword for cutting those who have broken their vows.” Guess who’s going to try even harder to be a good li’l monk?

I’m not going to show you any of this monastery’s ruins because, frankly, it’s too depressing. Throughout Mongolia, it’s just one unsalvageable temple and monastery ruin after another, and I get to the point of feeling physically ill when I see them, sometimes. But there is one very quirky aspect to this place. It’s here that Danzan Ravjaa found a self-emanating image of Padmasambhava emanating from a nearby rock. Over time some zealous partisan painted it over as the Gelugpa founder Je Tsongkhapa:

It’s housed in this very modest shrine, the labor of love of one old man who passed away in 1997. It’s woefully neglected and trashed now; seems no one cares at all.

There’s another tantalizing detail about this monastery. It seems that a pilgrim returning from Tibet in winter came across the frozen corpses of three Almas, Mongolia’s version of the Yeti. He skinned them and presented their pelts to Danzan Ravjaa. He in turn directed that one of the pelts be hung from the ceiling of Ulaan Saikhosnii Khiid's main temple! Reminder about karma, I think. OK, here’s a pic of that ruin:

A thousand times I curse whoever filched that pelt and didn't save it for me to see.

A short drive down the semi-dry riverbed brought us to Tsagaan Tolgoi (“White Head”) Monastery, also called White Stupa due to an unusual white hill nearby. It seems this was the western terminus for performances by Danzan Ravjaa’s traveling theater, and perhaps also a training ground for his dramatic artists. It was hard to get much reliable information. Now, a tourist camp stands in jarring juxtaposition to what’s left of its walls:

Comments

[Luke]

Don't forget who is paying for the Demchig restoration!

[Konchog]

"19. Though you become famous and many bow to you,

And you gain riches to equal Vaishravana's,

See that worldly fortune is without essence,

And do not be conceited -- This is the practice of Bodhisattvas."

"25. When those who want enlightenment must give even their body,

There is no need to mention external things.

Therefore without hope of return or any fruition

Give generously -- This is the practice of Bodhisattvas."

-- Gyelse Togmay Zangpo, The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas

[Dara]

What a perfect way to practice on the 10th day. My experience was slightly different, with all the transitions and wobbling going on, but still powerful. Welcome back and here's hoping you still discover a namesake (lol).