Without a doubt, the greatest person in Oirat history should be recognized Zai pandita Namkhai Gyatso (Ogtorguin Dalaya). His activities united the Oirat khanates of Dzungaria, Kukunor and Volga. We will write a separate article about this great man, in a series of articles dedicated to the outstanding Oirat monks, and now, for the attention of our readers, I offer the amazing history of one Oirat shrine.
For sixty-three years of his life, filled with the comprehension of Buddhist knowledge, educational, peacemaking and religious activities, Zai Pandita translated one hundred and seventy-seven fundamental religious works from Tibetan into Oirat. These include: scientific and religious treatises, sutras and philosophical writings, medical and grammatical treatises. The great educator, missionary, philosopher, politician, scientist and translator died of paralysis in 1662 on his way to Tibet. This is where our story begins.
About the death of Zai Pandita in his biography, called "Moonlight" (Sarin Gerel), compiled by his disciple and assistant Ratnabhadra, the following is said:
Millions of Buddhist believers from the Himalayan mountains to the shores of Lake Baikal, from the Great Wall of China to the steppe expanses of the gray-haired Caspian Sea mourned this great loss. The body of the reincarnated person was burnt, after which the disciples found in the ashes a sharira (Tib. Ringsel; a large, pearl-like substance, which indicates a high degree of spiritual realization) the size of a fist, taking it in his hands, the Dalai Lama said: “Indeed, a stone heart of holy people!"
In his ashes, by order of the Dalai Lama, they added to the ink, with which the students wrote down prayers (Tib. Zung., Oir. Togtal) and, together with the sharira, prepared them for laying in a statue of an outstanding Oirat teacher.
The statuette was cast of pure silver, the size of an elbow of the V Dalai Lama and cost three hundred lan. The work was carried out by sixteen Nepalese masters led by Munidharma, Amashin and Chaidana. Everything needed to make the statue: coal for melting the silver, the silver itself, payment for the work, and the rest were taken from the personal treasury of the Dalai Lama V.
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The Dalai Lama also wrote a poetic dedication to Zaya Pandita. It should be noted that Zaya Pandita was the first (!) And, perhaps, the last of the religious and political figures of non-Tibetan origin, who was given such an honor! (A translation from Tibetan and a commentary on this poetic dedication of the Fifth Dalai Lama Zaya Pandita will soon be published by us).
The statuette of Zai-Pandita, the Oirats carefully kept and protected, passing it on from generation to generation. Those who especially venerated Zaya Pandita made copies of her, which are now kept in various collections. The original survived the terrible years of the Manchu invasion of Dzungaria, when more than a million Oirats were brutally massacred, young and old. Carefully kept by true believers, the sacred relic survived the people's revolution in Mongolia, the genocide of the Mongol people, organized by Marshal Choibalsan, the flight of the Mongolian cosmonaut into space … Until the sixties of the XX century, it was kept by the nomad-arat J. Vanchig from Mankhan somon Kobakdos in Mongolia. Our outstanding Kalmyk scientist Andrei Vasilievich Badmaev also saw her in Vanchig's yurt during his trip to Mongolia.
In 1967, the Mongolian scientist J. Tsoloo took a photograph of the statuette, after which it mysteriously disappeared without a trace. Her traces disappeared into the great steppe. Since the disappearance of the artifact, many attempts have been made to find it, but all to no avail. Scientists even put forward a version that the statuette was stolen and illegally taken to China, since one of the three statuettes of Zai Pandita has indeed been in China for a long time, in the State Museum-Palace of Manchu Emperors in Beijing.
Members of our organization have also made attempts to find the statuette that Vanchig once kept. However, the search was unsuccessful. Even the children of Vanchig could not answer the question of where the famous relic is located, although they said that they clearly remember how many scientists who were interested in Oirat antiquity came to their father. To whom, when and under what circumstances this shrine was transferred, they could not indicate.
And finally, on February 12, 2014, an amazing Oirat relic was found !!! Doctor of Philology, Professor J. Tsoloo, who, according to Vanchig's behest, secretly kept it at home, decided to transfer it to the Museum of Bogdo Khan of Mongolia for storage. Thus, this relic of great cultural, religious and historical value, after a long hiatus, again became the property of the general public, and we again got great happiness to feel our outstanding history not from the stories of scientists, but live, feeling the historical continuity we need so much.
With several more artifacts, J. Tsoloo delighted all the Oirats of the world. The professor handed over to the Bogd Khan Museum the biography of Zai Pandita, called "Moonlight" (Sarin Gerel), compiled by Ratnabhadra, as well as the "Golden Light" sutra (Altan Gerel), the text of the White Ozontichnaya Tara (Tsagan Shukertya) and the pointed pandit hat. As the keeper of the relics Wanchig said, this is the original hat of Zai Pandita himself, which the great lama wore during the cold Mongol winters.
Paraphrasing the writer Mikhail Bulgakov, we can say - “shrines do not disappear”, if they are appreciated, believed in and very much awaited.
S. Mandzhiev, G. Korneev