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This article examines previously unstudied historical sources from seventeenth–twentieth century Khalkha, Mongolia concerning the controversial Dorjé Shukden tradition (Tib. Rdo rje shugs ldan; Kh. Mong. Dorjshüg). In the last quarter-century, the current Dalai Lama has imposed a controversial global ban on the practice that has cleaved Tibetan and Mongolian communities from one another, led to much bloodshed, and the splitting of the institutional base of the transnational Géluk (Tib. Dge lugs) tradition. Anti-Shukden polemicists and the small body of contemporary secondary scholarship on the schism attribute the rise of Shukden traditions to a hyper-conservative faction of monks based in Lhasa during the early twentieth century. They are credited with elevating Shukden, a violent regional spirit, to the high position of an enlightened protector of the Dharma. This article troubles that historical position, showing how developed Shukden traditions existed in Khalkha a century before the Lhasa movement. It then advances a new working hypothesis on the origins and enduring appeal of the Shukden tradition, which is that it is a long-running expression of the trans-Asian (and now, transnational) expansion of Géluk scholasticism far beyond the political dominions of the Dalai Lamas over the course of the Qing and Tsarist empires, the rise of nationalist and socialist government in Inner Asia, the exercise of profound socialist state violence, and the experience of global diaspora.
This article examines previously unstudied historical sources from seventeenth–twentieth century Khalkha, Mongolia concerning the controversial Dorjé Shukden tradition (Tib. Rdo rje shugs ldan; Kh. Mong. Dorjshüg). In the last quarter-century, the current Dalai Lama has imposed a controversial global ban on the practice that has cleaved Tibetan and Mongolian communities from one another, led to much bloodshed, and the splitting of the institutional base of the transnational Géluk (Tib. Dge lugs) tradition. Anti-Shukden polemicists and the small body of contemporary secondary scholarship on the schism attribute the rise of Shukden traditions to a hyper-conservative faction of monks based in Lhasa during the early twentieth century. They are credited with elevating Shukden, a violent regional spirit, to the high position of an enlightened protector of the Dharma. This article troubles that historical position, showing how developed Shukden traditions existed in Khalkha a century before the Lhasa movement. It then advances a new working hypothesis on the origins and enduring appeal of the Shukden tradition, which is that it is a long-running expression of the trans-Asian (and now, transnational) expansion of Géluk scholasticism far beyond the political dominions of the Dalai Lamas over the course of the Qing and Tsarist empires, the rise of nationalist and socialist government in Inner Asia, the exercise of profound socialist state violence, and the experience of global diaspora.
The Tibetan collection of the State Hermitage contains some of the gifts of the 13th Dalai Lama to the Russian Emperor Nicholas II. The State Archives of the Russian Federation has a document titled “A copy of the list of Tibetan gifts sent to the Winter Palace”. It consists of two lists, the first list describes 14 items, the second - 9. Almost all of these gifts were in the private rooms of Nicholas II in the Winter Palace. Of course, not all things have survived to this day. Number 1 in the first list is the chakra (wheel of teaching), the sign of the king offered to the Tibetan rulers upon accession to the throne, as a sign of goodwill (Inventory No. KO-884, Tibet, late 19th century); number 4 is a silver teapot, partially gilded (Inventory No. KO-896, Tibet, end of the 19th century); number 5 - men’s turquoise hoop earring; at number 9 - a gold reliquary gau (Tib. Ga'u), decorated with turquoise, such were worn and are worn by Tibetan women on the chest; at number 10 - women’s gold earrings decorated with turquoise. Earrings and a reliquary after the organization of the Oriental Department and the redistribution of exhibits were included in the collection of art objects of Central Asia. From the second list, presumably, there is a sculpture of Buddha Shakyamuni in the Hermitage collection. It is quite possible that enamel objects and some others have also been preserved in different collections of the Oriental Department. In addition, the collection contains two pencil portraits of the 13th Dalai Lama, painted by the Russian artist N. Ya. Kozhevnikov in 1905 in Urga (present-day Ulan Bator). The Dalai Lama was hiding in Mongolia during the British expansion into Tibet in 1903-1904. Thus, some of the gifts of the 13th Dalai Lama are presented in the Tibetan collection of the Hermitage. Some of them are masterpieces, such as the silver chakra, others are very typical ethnographic objects.
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