Cover: Guide to Locales Connected with the Life of Zanabazar, by Don Croner + enlarge Zanabazar's Green Tara "From the old temple site a horse trail continues to the summit of the mountain. On a flat shelf about a third of the way up the steep hillside above the valley of the Bogdiin Gol Zanabazar built a smaller temple where pilgrims ascending the mountain could stop to rest and make offerings. "

As many now know, 2006 marks the 800th anniversary of the founding of the Mongol Empire. While many of the events scheduled to commemorate this event will center around Chingis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire, and his illustrious offspring, many visitors might also want to check out Mongolia's rich Buddhist heritage. That is one reason I published this guidebook. Zanabazar is probably the most famous figure in the history of Buddhism in Mongolia, and the locales connected with his life offer a good introduction to Mongolian Buddhism in general.

+ enlarge Amarbayasgalant Monastery, built to house Zanabazar's remains. The temple which contained his body is in center.     + enlarge On the trail to Saridgiin Monastery, founded by Zanabazar in 1654.

Zanabazar (1635–1723) was the son of the Tüsheet Khan, one of the rulers of seventeenth-century Mongolia, and a distant descendant of Chingis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire. His spiritual propensities were apparent almost from birth and in 1639, while still a small boy, he was recognized as the head of the Sakya sect of Buddhism in Mongolia. He later traveled to Tibet where he was recognized as the 16th incarnation of Javsandamba and converted to the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism by the 5th Dalai Lama. As the head of the Gelug sect in Mongolia he introduced many new innovations, including the Maitreya Ceremony, and initiated the construction of numerous new temples and monasteries. A renowned polymath, Zanabazar composed new prayers, scriptures, and music, and invented the Soyombo alphabet, but he is probably best known for his incomparable sculptures, which rank among the greatest works of Buddhist art ever created. These include: White Tara, the Twenty-One Taras, the five Transcendental Buddhas, Sitasamara, Vajradhara, and many more. The Guide to Locales Connected with the Life of Zanabazar contains detailed information on fourteen places in Mongolia associated with Zanabazar and on seven museums and temples where his artworks can now be viewed. GPS coordinates are provided for countryside locations. The Guide will be of interest to pilgrims, tourists, and armchair travelers alike.

Read a sample chapter of this remarkably handy guide to persons, places and things you'll want to know as a collector, researcher or traveler. Burkhan Khaldun — Chingis Khan Pilgrimage Site Frequented by Zanabazar Location: 48º44.119 — 109º02.643 (Location of the campground at the base of the mountain.) Khentii Aimag. The base of the mountain can be reached by four-wheel drive vehicle from the sum center of Möngönmort if there have been no recent rains and the road is dry. Otherwise access is by horse from the Möngönmort area. From the campground at the base of the mountain to the summit is a climb of 2144 vertical feet. The ascent can be made in one day on foot, although horses are certainly preferable. The mountain is in the Khan Khentii Strictly Protected Area and a permit is required to visit. Another locale in the Khentii Mountains frequented by Zanabazar was 7724-foot Khentii Khan Uul, also known as the Burkhan Khaldun of the Khamug Mongols. The top of this mountain is where, according to legend, Chingis Khan went to pray for guidance before going into battle. (It should not be confused with the Burkhan Khaldun of the Uriankhai, where Chingis, in a famous episode in his early life, hid from the Merkit tribesmen who had kidnapped his wife Börte and tried to kill him, now identified by some historians as 7534-foot Erdene Uul, about twenty miles southwest of here.) According to the Rosary of White Lotuses, an exhaustive history of Buddhism in Mongolia, Chingis, although not a Buddhist himself, was considered an emanation of Vajrapani, one of the protector deities of Mongolia. By the mid-seventeenth-century Chingis had become an accepted figure in the Buddhist pantheon and Burkhan Khaldun (Khentii Khan Uul) had developed into a pilgrimage site for Buddhists who wanted to honor his spirit. To accommodate Buddhist pilgrims to Burkhan Khaldun Zanabazar established a temple at the base of the mountain in the valley of the Bogdiin Gol, a tributary of the upper Kherlen. According to local informants this temple was completely destroyed by Galdan Bolshigt at the same time he razed Saridgiin Khiid. Today not a trace of any buildings remains. There is a prayer scarf-draped post to indicate where the temple once stood, and the flat area which once made up the temple grounds now serves as an attractive campground. In 2001 a large delegation of Mongolian dignitaries headed by then Mongolian President Bagabandi stopped here while making a pilgrimage to the summit of the mountain and plans were subsequently announced to built a new temple here, although to date nothing seems to have been done. From the old temple site a horse trail continues to the summit of the mountain. On a flat shelf about a third of the way up the steep hillside above the valley of the Bogdiin Gol Zanabazar built a smaller temple where pilgrims ascending the mountain could stop to rest and make offerings. This temple was also destroyed, reportedly during the communist era, but bricks and roofing tiles can still be found scattered around the area. Lacking a temple, recent visitors have created a huge ovoo draped with thousands of blue khadags (prayer scarves) and piled high with offerings of brick tea, alcohol, dairy products, bills, and coins. Although the worship of Chingis Khan was proscribed during the communist era, starting in the early 1990s large groups of Mongolians have visited the mountain and lamas now hold ceremonies both here at the site of Zanabazar's smaller temple and on the so-called Black Crown of the summit itself. By tradition, women were not allowed to ascend to the top of Burkhan Khaldun. Instead they went to Elegtseg Lake, not far from the present-day campground, and took refreshments while the men went to the summit. Many Mongolian women still hesitate to climb the mountain. The Mongolian woman who accompanied me to the summit, the wife of a local herdsman, got a special dispensation from a local lama to make the trip. This prohibition apparently does not apply to Mongolian women working as guides and translators and to non-Mongolian women, although some local herdsmen are still not pleased by the presence of any women on the summit where Chingis Khan once went to pray. Guide to Locales Connected with the Life of Zanabazar: First Bogd Gegeen of Mongolia.