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The Great Buddha of the Khalkha River

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2009

Thomas Nivison Haining
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Extract

The Khalkha River (Khalkhin Gol), which forms part of the north-east frontier between the Mongolian People–s Republic (MPR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC), is famous in Mongolian history for the 1939 Battle of Khalkhin Gol (Nomonhan), in which joint Mongolian-Soviet forces finally repulsed the attempted invasion of the MPR by the Japanese Army of Manchukuo. Less well known, however, is the existence on the left bank of that river of one of Mongolia's most interesting religious antiquities, the remains of a gigantic Buddhist statue, known as the Great Buddha (Ikh Burkhan).

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , July 1992 , pp. 231 - 239
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1992

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References

1 Okladnikov, A.P., “Ikhe-Burkhan na Khalkhin-Gole” (Iz polevykh zametok arkheologa). Filologiya i Istoriya Mongohkikh Narodov: Pamyati Akademika Borisa Yakovlevicha Vladimirtsova (Moscow, 1958), pp. 214–16.Google Scholar

2 Maidar, D., Mongolyn Khot Tosgony Gurvan Zurag (Ulan Bator, 1970).Google Scholar This does list a “To-Van” Monastery, Mön Sumyn Khalkhyn To Vangyn Khid. This monastery is, however, dated from 1794 and located at Tamsagbulag, which is not on the Khalkha River.

3 Larson, F.A., Larson, Duke of Mongolia (Boston, 1930), pp. 272–7.Google Scholar Larson himself makes no mention of the Great Buddha.

4 An interesting comment which calls to mind the more recent Japanese assistance and training provided in connection with the UNESCO-sponsored restoration of Amurbayasgalant Monastery.

5 Sources use differing monetary terminology—ounces, tael, liang. Campbell uses ounces of silver, equating seven or eight of these to £I. Natsagdorj uses linag or tael. Tael is defined by Webster's Dictionary (New Edition 1983) as: a linag or Chinese ounce of pure silver; about I I/3 oz, avoirdupois (38 g); a money of account, not usually coins. Some idea of the value of a linang/tael in the mid-to-late nineteenth century is provided by the missionary to Mongolia, James Gilmour, who reported to the London Missionary Society in 1874, ‘a funding deficit 110.63 taels for 1873—the equivalent of £25–30’ [Lovett, R.A., james Gilmour of Mongolia (London, 1892), p. 91].Google Scholar

6 Natsagdorj, Sh., To Van Tüüniy Surgaal (Ulan Bator. 1968), p. 57Google Scholar (based on “Report of the Research Fellow, V. A. Kazakevich on a trip to the Kerulen and Khalkha Rivers in summer 1926”, MPR Academy of Sciences, Institute of History, Manuscript Collection, Section 35).

7 Campbell, C.W. , C.M.G., “Journeys in Mongolia”, The Geographical Journal, XXII, No. 5 (11 1903), pp 485–521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Maps, p. 600.

8 Report of the MPR Academy of Sciences, 1963/1, pp. 64–5.

9 Perlee, Kh., “Likhoi To-Van”, Notes (1942).Google Scholar MPR Academy of Sciences, Institute of History, Academic Archives No. 151, pp. 4–5, 8, 46.

10 Natsagdorj, Sh., To-Van Tüüiy Surgaal, MPR Academy of Sciences (Ulan Bator, 1968), pp. 54–9. I am indebted to Emeritus Professor C. R. Bawden, F.B.A., for his assistance in translating this material.Google Scholar

11 Natsagdorj, Sh., op. cit., p. 56Google Scholar. Natsagdorj lists among the materials used in the construction of the Great Buddha, copper and brass for the diadem and bracelets, paint, paper, glue and holy substances.

12 Bawden, C.R., The Modern History of Mongolia (London, 1968), pp. 94, 151, 179–83, 367.Google Scholar

13 It seems appropriate in this context to underline the agreement regarding the (putative) original site of Ikh Burkhan: (a) Campbell, op. cit. “close by the river there is a very large and sacred ‘obo’ and the remains of an ancient shrine which had suffered from inundation”; (b) Okladnikov, op. cit. “nine ‘obo’ on an island surrounded by artificially dug ditches through which, according to jargalsaikhan, the waters of the Khalkha river used to flow when in spate”; (c) Natsagdorj, op. cit. “channels were dug on both sides of the site to carry off storm water”.

14 To-Van was the grandson of Setsen Khan Sanjaidorj who, in 1800, was deposed as Head of the Setsen Khan Aimag on a count of oppression of his subjects, thus forfeiting the title of Khan for himself and his descendants (Bawden, , op. cit., pp. 177, 179).Google Scholar

15 Natsagdorj, , op. cit., p. 57Google Scholar.

16 Maidar, D., Pamyatniki Istorii i Kul'tury Mongolii (Moscow, 1981), p. 54.Google Scholar (General Editor: Academician A. P. Okladnikov.) Maidar, who has edited several books on Mongolian architecture and ancient monuments (see note 2 above), was in 1981 First Deputy Prime Minister of the MPR.

17 I am indebted to Dr Igor de Rachewiltz for confirmation of my belief that Soviet academics had, by 1988 if not earlier, firmly rejected Okladnikov's suggestion that Ikh Burkhan might be of Khitan origin—“but no one in the Institute of Ethnography of the Soviet Academy of Sciences dared to contradict Okladnikov openly because of his position and prestige”.

18 Waley, A. (tr.), Ch'ang Ch'un: Travels of an Alchemist (London 1931), p. 64.Google Scholar Prince Tamuga was, of course, Temüge-Otchigin, the younger brother of Činggis Khan.