418 klaus sagaster
Lamas. In theory, this was a purely religious matter. In practice, however,
the system served religious aims and family politics, as, for example,
was the case for the discovery of the fourth Dalai Lama in the family
of Altan Khan. In 1792, Qianlong stipulated that from that moment
on, higher Lamas, and especially the Dalai Lamas, the Pa-chen Rin-
po-ches, the lCang-skya Qututus and the rJe-btsun-dam-pa Qututus
were to be decided upon through a lottery, for which golden urns were
to be used.^166 On the other hand, the prevention of manipulations by
clergy and nobility meant that from then on also the emperor could
in uence the choice of candidates.
In the same manner as the higher clergymen, the great monasteries
were also controlled by the emperor. They steadily grew in number.
When the rst lCang-skya Qututu died in 1714, the following mon-
asteries obtained of cial allowances to organise the ceremonies for the
deceased: the twenty-four monasteries of Beijing, the monasteries of
Jehol, the six monasteries of Kökeqota, the monasteries on the holy
Wutai Mountain in the northeast of Shanxi province, the mon-
astery of Jaya Paita Qututu Blo-bzang-’phrin-las (born 1642) in
the Qalqa territory, and the monastery of the rst rJe-btsun-dam-pa
Qututu.^167
The monastery of rJe-btsun-dam-pa was no longer called Örgöge
(“Palace”), in 1714, but Yeke Küriye (“Great Monastery”). As seat of
the highest Lama of Qalqa, it soon started to challenge the position
of the Erdeni Úoo monastery as leading monastery. The nomadic tent
city Yeke Küriye moved around in the Orkhon Valley and, later on,
in the entire middle part of Northern Mongolia, until it reached the
place of the present-day capital Ulaanbaatar in 1778. Already from a
very early date, the residence of the rJe-btsun-dam-pa functioned as
the capital of Qalqa Mongolia. It underwent name changes two more
times: in 1778 to Da Küriye (likewise meaning “Great Monastery”), and
in 1911 to Neyislel Küriye (“Capital Monastery”) or Boda-yin Küriye
(“Monastery of the Holy One [rJe-btsun-dam-pa]”). In 1924, it received
its present name Ulaan Baatur Qota/Ulaanbaatar Khot (“Town of
the Red Hero”). The name Urga, under which the town was known in
the West, is derived from örgöge (pronounced örgöö), “palace”.^168
(^166) Lessing 1942, pp. 58–60; Úiral 1996, p. 220.
(^167) Sagaster 1967, p. 136.
(^168) The development from Örgöge (Örgöö) to Ulaanbaatar is told in Idšinnorov
- See also Majdar 1972, p. 64 and Cendina 1999, p. 48.