the history of buddhism among the mongols 419
Already in 1651, Öndör Gegen had founded a monastery on the
grounds of present-day Ulaanbaatar: the “Eastern Monastery”, Úegün
Küriye.^169 Soon, more monasteries were erected in the capital, espe-
cially the Gandang Teginling (Gandan Tëginlin, Tib. dGa’-ldan
Theg-chen-gling) monastery, in the year 1809. This monastery is the
main monastery of the dGe-lugs-pa in Mongolia to the present day.^170
In the whole country more and more monasteries were founded, and
also the number of monks increased accordingly. In 1921, there were
about seven hundred large and 1,000 small monasteries, and about
113,000 monks in Outer Mongolia. Every family tried to provide
one of their sons to a monastery in order to gain religious merit, but
also because of economic motives.^171 Also in Mongolia, life was more
comfortable in a monastery than it was in an ordinary family. Many
of these monks returned to their families and took care of the reli-
gious life of the country. The great number of monasteries and their
economic privileges, along with the great number of monks who, at
least theoretically, lived in celibacy, increasingly became a problem for
economy and politics.
Fundamentally, the monasteries played a positive role. They were
economic enterprises and commercial centres with big markets that
took place during the big religious festivals. Above all, the monasteries
were centres of art, science and education, where many young noble-
men learnt reading and writing. The doctors who were educated in the
monasteries contributed considerably to the medical treatment of the
people. There were no religious borders between the different Mongo-
lian territories, just as there were no such borders between Mongolia,
Tibet and China. An increasing number of pilgrims travelled to Central
Tibet, but also to the great monasteries of Eastern Tibet, above all to
sKu-’bum Byams-pa-gling (Kumbum, Chin. Ta’ersi , founded
in 1573, in the vicinity of the birthplace of Tsong-kha-pa),^172 and to
Bla-brang bKra-shis-’khyil (Labrang, founded in 1708).^173 Also the holy
Wutai Mountain was a popular place of pilgrimage. High Lamas and
also simple monks were trained in Central or Eastern Tibet, and did
(^169) Majdar 1972, p. 65.
(^170) Pozdneyev 1971, pp. 75–77; Majdar 1972, p. 66; Majdar & Pjurveev 1980, pp.
103–104. 171
Bawden 1989, p. 160.
(^172) About this monastery, see particularly Filchner & Unkrig 1933 and Wylie 1962,
pp. 108–109, 193–194 (note 745).
(^173) On Bla-brang bKra-shis-’khyil, see Wylie 1962, pp. 105–106, 191 (note 106).