the history of buddhism among the mongols 423
Republic of Mongolia was declared. In 1926, state and church were
separated, and in 1929 a party decree prohibited the installation of a
new rJe-btsun-dam-pa Qututu and all the other Qubilans.^184
The Buddhist faith was so deeply rooted in the minds of the people
and the in uence of the clergy was so great that the religious policy of
the party was at rst a very careful one. Soon, however, an open battle
started. Between 1936 and 1939 almost all monasteries were destroyed
and a great number of Lamas were killed.^185 Those who survived were
forced to return to lay life. Only the Gandan monastery in Ulaanbaatar,
which had been closed in 1938, was allowed to take up “work” again
in 1944, to serve as a show case for the liberal communist religious
policy. It became the centre of the communist organisation “Buddhists
for Peace”. In the 1970s, a religious academy was even founded. It not
only served for the education of monks from Mongolia, but also for
monks from Buryatia and Kalmykia. Buddhism became free again only
after the democratic revolution of 1990.
The establishment of a Mongolian national state in the north trig-
gered a pan-Mongolian pursuit in the Mongolian territories of China
after 1911, which, however, was not supported by all high Lamas. It
was above all the sixth lCang-skya Qututu Chos-dbyings-ye-shes-rdo-rje
(1891–1958)^186 who obviously feared the competition of his Northern
Mongolian fellow functionary, the rJe-btsun-dam-pa Qututu, and who
sided with the Chinese. To avoid a separation of the Mongolian ter-
ritories, the Republic of China continued the religious policy of the
emperors and granted the honorary title “great state teacher” (da guoshi)
to the lCang-skya Qututu.^187 In doing so, he followed the example set
by the Great Khan Qubilai, who immediately after his enthronement
had granted the title guoshi to his advisor ’Phags-pa.^188 The promotion
of the religion was even more important in the 1930s, when Japan
occupied Manchuria and Inner Mongolia. In order to sever Mongolia’s
political and religious connection to China, Japan tried to “Japanise”
Mongolian Buddhism, and sent many young monks to the holy Kyasan
Mountain in Japan, the centre of the Shingon school. With the aim of
preventing this politically motivated dominance over the inherited belief
(^184) Sanders 1968, p. 66; Bawden 1989, pp. 260, 263.
(^185) Rupen 1964, pp. 277–278; Bawden 1989, pp. 372–373; Baabar 1999, p. 363.
(^186) On the sixth lCang-skya Qututu, see Yang & Bulag 2003.
(^187) Yang & Bulag 2003, p. 88.
(^188) Jagchid 1980, p. 235.