404 klaus sagaster
was so great that he also became a Buddhist and supported Neyii
Toyin in his battle. They nally succeeded in forcing the nobility and
the common people, as well as the shamans, to hand in their ongon
gures. These were subsequently burnt. The statement in the sources
that this was the end of the veneration of ongon gures should not be
taken literally, because, even up to the present day, there are shamans
in Eastern Mongolia.^119
Neyii Toyin did not restrict himself to the battle against the “Black
Faith”. He preached, took care of the recitation of holy scriptures, built
and consecrated monasteries, in short, he did everything to spread the
Yellow Doctrine among the Eastern Mongols.^120
Contrary to Neyici Toyin, Caya Bandida Namqayiúamso (Tib.
Nam-mkha’i-rgya-mtsho), the second great monk from the Qo od
tribe, stayed in his Western Mongolian homeland after his period of
study in Tibet. There also, the shamans and their followers were the
major opponents of the dGe-lugs-pa. Caya Bandida did not consider
the battle against the “Black Faith” to be his most important duty
but rather the translation of texts from Tibetan. He and his disciples
translated more than two hundred Tibetan works, some of which were
very elaborate.^121 Among these were not only canonical works, but also
the Sa-skya-pa hierarch bSod-nams rgyal-mtshan’s (1312–1375) famous
Tibetan historical work “The Mirror Illuminating the Royal Genealo-
gies” (rGyal-rabs gsal-ba’i me-long),^122 a biography of the second Dalai
Lama dGe-’dun-rgya-mtsho (1475–1542)^123 and a new translation of
’Phags pa Blo gros rgyal mtshan’s Shes-bya rab-gsal.^124 In 1648, after Caya
Bandida had created a script for the Oirat language—a language that
deviates from Eastern Mongolian especially in sound and lexicon, his
translations as well as the translations done by his disciples were also
transmitted in the “clear script” (todo biig).^125 This is a further indication
that the Buddhist monks were preoccupied with making religious texts
accessible in the vernacular language. Up to the most recent times, new
copies of many of these works were distributed.
(^119) Heissig 1953, pp. 524–526; Klafkowski 1987, pp. 354–355; Bawden 1989, pp.
32–33.
(^120) Huth 1896, pp. 257ff.; Heissig 1953, p. 20; Úiral 1996, p. 166.
(^121) List of the translated works in Damdinsürüng 1959, pp. 327–334.
(^122) Damdinsürüng 1959, p. 328, no. 38.
(^123) Damdinsürüng 1959, p. 329, no. 45.
(^124) Dmdinsürüng 1959, p. 328, no. 40. Bareja-Starzyska 2002, p. 14.
(^125) Šagdarsürën 2001, p. 115.