tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-96213752008-05-02T16:36:43.617+08:00DonBlogger134125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9621375.post-46177275823659457092006-12-25T05:59:00.000+08:002007-02-07T09:14:29.130+08:00

I will be blogging intermittently at my new address: doncroner.net/blog.html. Also See: Don Croner's World Wide Wanders Buddhism in Mongolia: The Life of Zanabazar The Legend of Shambhala

Dontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9621375.post-79178867360011208702006-11-20T17:20:00.000+08:002006-11-22T08:40:38.616+08:00

From the grape-vine trellised main drag of Turpan I walked about a mile through some back streets to the Emin Minaret. Completed in 1778 by Suleman Aqimu Boke in memory of his father Emin Khodja, the mosque and minaret complex has recently been renovated and is now a big-time pilgrimage and tourist attraction. Oddly enough, the outdoor market in front of the mosque has one of Xinjiang’s best

Dontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9621375.post-62723237959901214602006-11-20T07:24:00.000+08:002007-01-10T16:14:33.638+08:00

From southern Bayankhongor Aimag it is just a hop, skip and a jump to Turpan, in China’s westernmost province, Xinjiang. Turpan is located in a deep depression, 100 feet below sea level, between the Tian Shan Mountains to the north and the Taklamakan Desert to the south. Despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that it is the hottest city in China, Turpan is immensely popular with domestic

Dontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9621375.post-20113586084217600562006-11-17T19:21:00.000+08:002006-11-18T11:46:47.528+08:00

Approaching Ekhiin Gol Oasis, the termination point of our 173-Mile Camel Trip in the Gobi Desert of southern Bayankhongor Aimag. Near Ekhiin Gol OasisZevgee and his wife Tümen-Ölzii on their magnificent Bayankhongor camels Zolzaya savoring a cup of hot tea on a chilly morning The Brothers Khaidav and Davakhoo The Ja Lama’s Ovoo at Ekhiin Gol During the early 1920s Ekhiin Gol was one of the

Dontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9621375.post-81960057894926288752006-11-17T11:11:00.000+08:002006-11-18T16:52:53.582+08:00

Popped down to Bayankhongor Aimag for a camel trip through the Gobi. Traveled 173 miles by camel in twelve days. Southern Bayankhongor Aimag is truly the Big Empty. During twelve days of travel we did not see another human being. Amarbuyant Khiid, where we started the camel trip Heading south from Amarbuyant Khiid According to legend many frightening apparitions appear out of the dust storms and

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Before leaving for China I threw into my portmanteau the new Library of America edition of H. P. Lovecraft: Tales and have been dipping into it ever since. Here is the inimitable Lovecraft on New York City: “a tangle of material and spiritual putrescence from which the blasphemies of an hundred dialects assail the sky . . . I saw the yellow, squint-eyed people of that city, robed horribly in

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Winged 557 miles southwest from Beijing to Xian, which as you no doubt know was the eastern terminus of the Silk Road and during the Tang Dynasty probably the largest and most developed city in the world. It is still now probably the last large walled city in the world. The wall surrounding the inner city is a total of 7.3 miles long, forty-nine feet high, and fifty-nine feet wide at the top. The

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See even More Shambhala Photos.

Dontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9621375.post-1158378308767607402006-09-16T06:57:00.002+09:002006-11-13T09:19:16.500+08:00

Shoko Asahara, once the leader of the leader of the 40,000 member-strong Aum Shinrikyo Cult in Japan, has a Date with a Noose: TOKYO — Japan's top court rejected an appeal by doomsday cult founder Shoko Asahara, a court official said Friday, reportedly finalizing his death sentence for the 1995 nerve-gas attack on Tokyo's subways. Mr. Asahara was convicted in 2004 of masterminding the attack, in

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More photos from the Shambhala Lallapaloosa in the Gobi: On the Path to Shambhala Getting closer to Shambhala Approaching Shambhala One of the four Gatesways to Shambhala Worshippers clustered around the Brain Ovoo behind Shambhala Konchog I had the priviledge of tagging along on this Shambhalic Sojourn with the inimitable Konchog Norbu and auteur Hamid Sardar. Hamid

Dontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9621375.post-1158192946731025902006-09-14T09:08:00.000+09:002006-11-13T09:19:16.068+08:00

The road leading away from Eej Khairkhan Uul We drive north from Eej Khairkhan Uul and begin to climb through desert steppe which ramps up to the east-west trending Tayangiin Mountains. To the northwest rises what Chültem calls the Big Tayangiin, crowned by 10,575' Gyalgaryn Oroi Uul. To the northeast is the Little Tayangiin, topped by several eight and nine thousand foot peaks, which eventually

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On the road to Eej Khairkhan Uul. The twin peaks of the mountain are just visible in the distance. Shelter at Eej Khairkhan Uul Near the shelter at the base of Eej Khairkhan Uul is a small fire ring and someone has left behind a small pile of twisted and gnarled saxual wood. At least we will have the luxury of a campfire. A pot of tea is set to boil and we sprawl out on a conveniently flat

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As Nicholas Roerich would say, “Kaligiya, Kaligiya, Come to Shambhala!” In what the boulevardier wits of Ulaan Baatar have already dubbed “Mongolia’s Woodstock,” an estimated 6000 people appeared at Khamariin Khiid in Dornogov Aimag for the official opening of Shambhala Land. Originally created by Danzan Rajvaa in the nineteenth century and then destroyed by the communists during the 1930s

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On March 6, 1925, the Roerich Expedition led by mystic painter, occultist, alleged spy, Shambhalist, and all-around intriguer Nicholas Roerich left Darjeeling, India on what would be a three-year journey through Central Asia and Tibet, with stops in Kashmir in India, Xinjiang Province in China, the Russian Altai Mountains in Siberia, Ulaan Baatar and Amarbuyant Khiid in Mongolia, the Tibetan

Dontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9621375.post-1156468082799124302006-08-25T10:05:00.000+09:002006-11-13T09:19:15.438+08:00

Part of crowd of 5000 or so awaiting the appearance of the Dalai Lama in the National Stadium In this corner, from the Land of Snows, in the burgundy and yellow robes, undefeated in fourteen appearances, the Dalai Lama . . . USA Today has an interesting article on the Current Smack-Down among religions in Mongolia. For more on the Dalai Lama at the National Stadium see V. D. Konchok Norbu.

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The Dalai Lama arrived in Ulaan Baatar on August 21. On August 22 he appeared in public at Gandan Monastery. Crowd awaiting the appearance of the Dalai Lama Crowd still awaiting the appearance of the Dalai Lama VIP Konchog Norbu had a backstage pass and has Photos of the Dalai Lama. See More Photos. The crowd is still waiting . . . The stage for the Dalai LamaPeople offering prayer flags as the

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Tashchoimphel Temple at Gandan While at Gandan you might also want to visit Tashchoimphel Temple to see another Kalachakra-connected thangka. Although Taranatha, Zanabazar’s previous Incarnation (See Incarnations of Javzandamba), wrote extensively about the Kalachakra and translated one of the most famous guidebooks to Shambhala from Sanskrit into Tibetan, Zanabazar Himself, the First Bogd Gegen,

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People going to Gandan Monastery in connection with the Dalai Lama’s Upcoming Visit next week might want to stop in the Kalachakra Temple to take a look at the seven extremely rare Kalachakra thangkas depicting all 722 Kalachakra deities and much else. The 722 deities are also depicted on wall paintings in the Dalai Lama's Namgyal Temple in Dharmasala, but these are the only such thangkas

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The Tarim Basin as Shambhala. See Enlargement of Map Edwin Bernbaum, in his book The Way to Shambhala, states: Of all the regions of Central Asia, the Tarim Basin southwest of Turpan . . . comes closest in size and shape to Tibetan descriptions of Shambhala. A huge oval-shaped area enclosed by the Kunlun, Pamir, and Tien Shan ranges, it could be viewed as an enormous lotus blossom surrounded by

Dontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9621375.post-1153745799384736692006-07-24T21:00:00.000+09:002006-11-13T09:19:11.831+08:00

On his way back from India to China the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang passed through Kashmir and then entered the Pamir Mountains. He would have went right by 24,388-foot Muztagh-Ata, the second highest peak in the Pamirs. In 1999 I traced his path from Muztagh-Ata to Kashgar. 24,388-foot Muztagh-Ata Xuanzang claimed that there was a stupa on the top of Muztagh-Ata built in memory of an arhat who had

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After my visit to the silk factory I decided to have lunch. Right near my hotel was a small restaurant which seemed to be doing a lot of business. I went in, took a seat, and when the waitress came I ordered laghman, perhaps of the most famous dish in the Uighur culinary repertoire. Laghman consists of long spaghetti-like hand-pulled noodles, usually made on the premises, covered with a thick

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See Enlargement of Map From Urumqi I winged southward across the Taklamakan Desert to Khotan, on the southern rim of the huge Tarim Basin. The Chinese Buddhist pilgrim and inveterate gadabout Xuanzang visited Khotan in 644 A.D. during his 15-or-so-year sojourn from China to India and back and left the following account of what was then the kingdom of Khotan: This country is about 4000 li in

Dontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9621375.post-1153438178559634322006-07-21T08:16:00.000+09:002006-11-13T09:19:11.509+08:00

As our plane approached Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Province, I keep gaping out the window in hopes of seeing glacier-sheathed 17,946-foot Bogdo Ula Peak, part of the Tian Shan Mountains, which provides a dramatic backdrop to the desert-like environs of the city itself. Today I was disappointed; clouds obscured the entire southern skyline. It was 91ºF in Urumqi, with a scorching wind blowing off

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From Beijing I winged westward to Xinjiang Province to continue my search for traces of the legendary kingdom of Shambhala. I planned to visit both Khotan, on the southern rim of the Tarim Basin, and Turpan, on the northern rim of the Basin. First, however, I stopped over in Lanzhou, in Gansu Province, to pay my respects to the peripatetic 7th century Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang (603-664) who had

Dontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9621375.post-1153184714173373022006-07-18T10:01:00.000+09:002006-11-13T09:19:11.240+08:00

As I mention in my Guidebook, Zanabazar, the First Bogd Gegeen, died, perhaps of illness and perhaps assassinated—at the Yellow Temple in Beijing in 1723. I have never seen the Yellow Temple (Shar Süm) mentioned in any guidebook to Beijing and was under the impression that it no longer existed. Through a stroke of luck, however, I was able to find it. The temple complex is located, logically

Don