The Cult of Boudhanath Stupa/Jarung Khashar Suvraga in Mongolia: Texts, Images, and Architectural Replicas

ABSTRACT

The cult of the Nepalese stupa of Boudhanath (Tib. Jarung khashor/Bya rung kha shor, Mo. Jarung khashar) was very popular in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Mongolia, especially in Buryatia. Testaments to its popularity include the translation into Mongolian of a famous Tibetan guidebook to Boudhanath, a corpus of Mongolian oral narratives, the many thangkas and amulets depicting Boudhanath stupa along with a Tibetan prayer, and the existence of architectural replicas in Mongolia, probably to create surrogate pilgrimages to Boudhanath. How was Nepalese architecture transmitted to Mongolia? This article focuses on these architectural replicas in an attempt to understand whether the differences between the "original" structure and the Mongol replicas are due to local techniques and materials, the impossibility of studying the original, or distortions induced by the mode of transmission. Has the original building been reinterpreted to the point of transforming its meaning, and were the architectural replicas accompanied by the cult practices associated with it?

A contemporary Mongol story relates that in ancient India, a blue elephant had exhausted itself in the construction of a giant stupa named "Jarung khashar."¹ When the stupa was completed, the great lama who consecrated it thanked everyone but forgot to thank the elephant. The angry elephant then made a vow to destroy Buddhism in its future reincarnations. Its first reincarnation was King Langdarma (Tib. gLang dar ma, r. 838–841), who (is said to have) persecuted Buddhists in Tibet; later reincarnations included, for Buryat Mongols of Russia, "Master" Stalin (Stalin bagsh) (Humphrey 2001, 32–33, from a story collected by U. Hurelbaatar in 1999), and, for Khorchin Mongols of Inner Mongolia, Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, and Ulaankhüü (1907–1988, a famous Inner Mongolian communist politician)—Mao was the head, Liu was the chest, and Ulaankhüü was the buttock of the blue elephant (U. Hurelbaatar, personal communication, 2016). It is said that even Buddha and the deities could not prevent the disastrous results of such a vow.

Jarung khashar (sometimes spelled "Jarang" or "Jirung khashar"; Cyr. Mo. Jarun, Jaran, or Jiran khashor) is the Mongolian name of Boudhanath (or Bodnāth) stupa, one of the most famous monuments of the Kathmandu Valley (figures 1, 2a, and 2b). The Mongolian name comes from the Tibetan Bya rung kha shor (pronounced "Jarung khashor"), which is explained by a story recorded in the main Tibetan guidebook devoted to the Nepalese stupa, the mChod rten chen po bya rung kha shor gyi lo rgyus thos pas grol ba (History of the stupa Jarung khashor, liberation upon hearing), written in the sixteenth century² (for Mongolian translations of this guidebook, see below). According to this guidebook, a poor widowed poultry keeper named Déchokma (Tib. bDe mchog ma, Mo. Demchogmaa, Skt. Saṃvara), who lived with her four sons, wanted to erect a stupa to enshrine relics of the past Buddha Kaśyapa. She had obtained the king's approval, but jealous nobles and ministers, shocked that a mendicant could build such a huge stupa, wanted the king to forbid its construction.³ The name of the stupa comes from the king's answer: "Jarung khashor/bya rung kha shor," meaning "I have already given her my permission [kha shor] to proceed with the work [bya rung]."⁴ Through oaths of reincarnation on the part of the poultry keeper's sons, the foundation of the stupa was connected to those mainly responsible for introducing Buddhism into Tibet: King Trison Détsen (Khri srong lde btsan, r. 740 or 755–797), Abbot Śāntarakṣita (725–788), and the eighth-century tantric master Padmasambhava.⁵ Thanks to the blessings generated

Figure 1.

Boudhanath stupa, Kathmandu, Nepal, 1993. Photo by Katia Buffetrille.

Figure 2A.

Plan and drawing depicting Boudhanath stupa and its surroundings from above. Source: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/121/multiple=1andunique_number=1448.

Figure 2B.

Plan and drawing depicting Boudhanath stupa and its surroundings from above. Source: Slusser (1982, fig. 25).

by the construction of the stupa and to the oaths of reincarnation, the first Buddhist monastery was founded, and Buddhism was firmly established in Tibet. Two animals that had participated in the construction, a donkey and the abovementioned elephant, had bad thoughts and were reincarnated as evil beings, but the reincarnations of other actors of the story countered their bad deeds.

Anthropologist U. Hurelbaatar and other Mongol friends with whom I discussed this story did not relate this "Jarung khashar" stupa with Boudhanath stupa in Kathmandu and thought it was a myth. Yet in the late Qing period (1644–1911), Mongols, like Tibetans, not only went on pilgrimage to Boudhanath but also had replicas of the Nepalese stupa erected in the steppe. In my survey of the Buddhist architectural and artistic heritage of the Mongols, I came across six "Jarung khashar" stupas explicitly referring to Boudhanath in (Khalkha) Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Buryatia, as well as twenty-four thangkas depicting "Jarung Khashar" stupas (table 1 and Appendix 1⁶). These architectural replicas are called "Jarung khashar"⁷ or, more recently, Ama aldasan (Cyr. Mo. Am aldsan, taking of an oath, making a promise) (Pürevbat 2005, 107). To my knowledge, no architectural replicas of Boudhanath stupa were built in Tibet before the twenty-first century,⁸ but three were erected in Bhutan.⁹ How did the cult of the Nepalese Boudhanath stupa reach the Mongols, and how did they know about it? Why did they especially replicate Boudhanath stupa instead of other famous Indian structures?

In understanding how architectural knowledge of Boudhanath stupa was transmitted to Mongolia, I was most inspired by the works of Alexander Griswold, Anne Chayet, Patricia Berger, and Christopher Wood on the replication of sacred sites.¹⁰ In a 1965 article, Griswold compares architectural replicas of the Mahabodhi Temple of Bodh Gaya in Southeast Asia, Nepal, and China and argues that the architecture of the Indian temple was transmitted through small-scale models. In a study of the temples of Chengde (or Jehol) northwest of Beijing, Chayet (1985) argues that Manchu emperors Kangxi (r. 1661–1722) and Qianlong (r. 1736–1796) copied Tibetan structures for political reasons, to make the Manchu emperors' summer palace the new center of Tibetan Buddhism.¹¹ She evidenced that paintings were certainly the main medium of transfer, which partly explains the distortions of perspective, approximations, and trompe-l'oeil effect of the temples of Chengde.¹² In The Empire of Emptiness, Berger studies copies of Buddhist works of art at the court of Qianlong and calls this process of replication a "translation," because artworks, like Buddhist scriptures, are translated into new cultural forms to make them more familiar, to allow their indigenization (2003, 9–13). Wood's Forgery, Replica, Fiction (2008) on replicas of the Holy Sepulcher in Renaissance Germany also offers a theoretical apparatus that is useful for my analysis.¹³

When comparing replicas with the "original object,"¹⁴ and evaluating how closely they adhere to or deviate from it, art historians have often observed that differences are more obvious than similarities.¹⁵ What has been transmitted can be called the "concept," the "essence," or the "soul" of the original image or structure. Griswold compares the architectural copy to the act of planting a germ or a seed of the Bodhi tree: the descendant is a Ficus religiosa and preserves the essence of the original tree.¹⁶ Hence, in some cases it would be more accurate to refer to the replica as a "quotation" (following Berger),¹⁷ a "reference" (following Wood), a "transplantation" (following Griswold), or a "representation" of the original object.

Wood notes that a replica may retain some compulsory characteristics from the original—such as scale and proportions, or ground plane—but not nonessential, contingent features like ornamentation, size, or construction materials and techniques (2008, 43). What then are the essential, identifying features, which we could call the "iconography" of a sacred structure? To understand the differences between the model and the replica, we need to know how the model was transmitted. Are differences due to a poor knowledge of the original, the deformation of reduced three-dimensional models and two-dimensional depictions, the transmission by a literary source (such as an iconographical description), or local techniques and materials? Or, can differences be attributed to personal, deliberate choices of builders and their own vision of what the original looks like? To answer this question, it is necessary to study the transmission of the legend, the history, and the iconography through texts, oral narratives, and portable images, as well as, when available, the biographies of the people responsible for these transmissions.

Even when the model is not recognizable in the replica, these copies nonetheless make explicit references to an original, often through an inscription, a label,¹⁸ a lama's vision,¹⁹ oral narratives, or a guidebook that denies the difference between the model and the replica (Charleux 2015a, 89). With this process of legitimization, in the eyes of devotees the copy has the same, or almost the same, "power" or ritual efficacy as the original. In many cases, a pilgrimage to a replicated sacred place is said to be equivalent to journeying to the distant original: the replica therefore functions as an acceptable "substitute."²⁰ Or, a greater number of circumambulations of the replica is prescribed by clerics and pilgrimage guides to obtain the same amount of benefits.²¹ The reason for the construction of replicas is often to build a surrogate pilgrimage site, because a sacred site is located too far away or has been destroyed.²² With the creation of replicas, a sacred site moves closer to the pilgrims' home: it is not the pilgrim who travels abroad but the pilgrimage center that travels to the pilgrims, transferring (and extending) the numinous power of the original. Surrogate pilgrimages are made throughout the Buddhist world: it is like worshipping the same deity in different temples. In this "process of substitution," the architectural replicas aim to take the place of the original and deny difference, creating an "effect of identity" (Wood 2008, 40). Like the Buddha's relics, which were divided and transferred, such promotion of a local pilgrimage was a strategy to enhance the prestige of a religious site and attract crowds of pilgrims.

To illuminate the Mongol cult of Boudhanath, I will examine its architectural replicas, discuss their differences from the Nepalese stupa, and question whether these differences may be explained by the stupa's depiction in two-dimensional images. But first I will provide some information on the historical context of the cult of Boudhanath in Mongolia, Mongols' pilgrimages to Nepal, and the role of the sixteenth-century guidebook and other literary sources. Finally, I will ask whether there were some uniquely Mongol characteristics in the cult of Boudhanath, and whether the "Jarung khashar" stupas became a new type of Mongol stupa.

THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE CULT OF BOUDHANATH IN MONGOLIA

Why do replicas appear at a particular place and time? Before introducing the architectural replicas of Boudhanath, I will present some of the historical context surrounding the construction of replicas of Buddhist sacred sites in Mongolia. In the eighteenth century, a replica of the Mahabodhi Temple of Bodh Gaya, the place where Buddha attained Enlightenment in India, was built in Hohhot (Cl. Mo. Khökhekhota, Inner Mongolia, China). It was actually a copy of a copy, because it replicated the fifteenth-century Beijing pagoda built on the model of the Mahabodhi (Charleux 2006a). The construction of this building known as the Tabun suburga (Ch. Wuta, "Five Stupas") between 1727 and 1732 must be placed in the particular context of the cosmopolitan Manchu court in the first half of the Qing period: although the structure was built with private funding, its founder Biligündalai (d. 1745), a high-ranking Mongol lama, was close to the Manchu court and to Third Changkya Khutugtu Rölpé Dorjé (lCang skya khutugtu Rol pa'i rdo rje, 1717–1786) (Charleux 2006a).²³

The replicas of Boudhanath in Mongolia, as well as the thangkas depicting the Nepalese stupa and the translation of the guidebook, all appeared in a different context in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The late nineteenth century was a time of economic stagnation and Sino-Manchu domination yet one of relative peace, rise in faith, pilgrimages (Charleux 2015b), and rich artistic production. One of the replicas was built in Ikh Khüree (Cl. Mo. Yekhe Khüriye) or Örgöö (transcribed in Russian as Urga), the great monastery and residence of the Jebtsündamba Khutugtu that had settled in the Tuul Valley in 1855, on the site of present-day Ulaanbaatar. The building of a "Jarung khashar" stupa may have been part of a larger program of artistic and architectural projects in and around the monastic city linked to the construction of Ikh Khüree as the main pilgrimage center of Khalkha Mongolia (Charleux 2015b, 44–48; Uranchimeg 2016).

After the fall of the Qing, Inner Mongols struggled for autonomy while their land became the focus of conflicts between various foreign powers. Between 1927 and 1935, the Ninth Panchen Lama, Lozang Thubten Chökyi Nyima (bLo bzang thub bstan chos kyi nyi ma, 1883–1937) traveled through Inner Mongolia, where he performed Kālacakra initiations (the Wheel of Time, an advanced tantric teaching).²⁴ He ordered the construction of a replica of Boudhanath stupa in order to "bring peace and happiness to the whole banner" (Delege 1998, 633) in this period of troubles and rebellions. During the same period, Buddhism was developing as a world religion from Sri Lanka to China and Buryatia and was the object of reformation attempts in several countries. India was revalorized as the homeland of "ecumenical Buddhism" and Bodh Gaya was resacralized as the main place of pilgrimage to the "origins of Buddhism," while improved means of transportation made the pilgrimage to India and Nepal much easier (Huber 2008).

If this period seems to have created a climate that was conducive to pilgrimages and the construction of replicated architectures of the Holy Land, this climate does not explain why Boudhanath was specifically chosen instead of, for example, Bodh Gaya. Was the cult of Boudhanath linked to particular relations between Mongolia and Nepal? Since the medieval period, Newars (Nepalese of the Kathmandu Valley) have been renowned throughout the Inner Asian world for their bronze craftsmanship. In the Yuan period (1276–1368), the celebrated Nepalese artist Arniko (Ch. Anige 阿尼哥, ca. 1244–1306) worked at the court of Khubilai Khan (r. 1260–1294), and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Newar craftsmen worked for Mongol princes and Buddhist dignitaries (Charleux 2015a, 99, 140; Béguin 1993). However, the modern Mongol interest in Boudhanath was not related to this earlier interest in Nepalese craftsmanship. Instead, like the Tibetans, who appropriated the site in the fourteenth century,²⁵ modern Mongol Buddhists saw Boudhanath as one of the holiest places of the ancient history of Buddhism in India. Tibetans and Mongols undertook pilgrimages to Boudhanath stupa because they believed that it had the "power of granting all prayers for worldly wealth, children, and everything asked for" (Waddell [1895] 1985, 315; Tenzin 1998, 75, 95). Boudhanath was associated with the granting of all kinds of wishes, and worshipping Boudhanath was also an occasion to give back to one's parents the compassion they had for their children.²⁶ On a print from Buryatia depicting Boudhanath stupa, a Mongolian inscription at the bottom says that this great stupa is like a cintāmaṇi (jewel) that fulfills all wishes (Appendix 1, no. 13).²⁷ The recently built Jarung khashar in Amarbayasgalant khiid (Cyr. Mo. Amurbayaskhulangtu kheid), Selenge Province, Mongolia (figure 23 and described below), is called "Great stupa of the jewel that grants all wishes."²⁸ Similarly, at Chorten Kora in Bhutan, devotees "believe that making prostrations and praying with a pure mind at the festivals will enable them to realize their aspirations in life" (Lam Kezang Chhophel 2002, 4). Boudhanath/Jarung khashar was therefore comparable to the cintāmaṇi that fulfills all wishes.

MONGOL PILGRIMAGES TO BOUDHANATH

Danish explorer Henning Haslund-Christensen (1896–1948), who resided in Mongolia in the 1920s and 1930s, mentioned Boudhanath as a major pilgrimage site for Mongols:

From all the corners of Central Asia [these pilgrims in prostrations] work their ways to the holy places of pilgrimage and the goal may be as remote as Wu-t'ai Shan [Wutaishan] of the many legends, or Dzarung Khashor, the domed pagoda in still more remote Nepal.

(Haslund-Christensen 1935, 28)

Except for Bodh Gaya and other holy places in India linked to Śākyamuni's life, Boudhanath is the farthest pilgrimage destination for Mongols (even more so for Buryat Mongols). Yet despite the dangers of the road, the difficulty of obtaining travel permits, the physical hardship, and the financial cost, an increasing number of Mongol pilgrims (including Buryats and Kalmyks) visited Tibet in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.²⁹ The pilgrimage to Lhasa was well organized: Khalkhas and Buryats usually joined the two large annual caravans that brought monastic trade missions from Ikh Khüree to Lhasa (Charleux 2015b, 30–39). Their main destination was Lhasa, and only a minority continued their journey to southern Tibet and Kathmandu, and then an even smaller number traveled on to India.³⁰ A famous pilgrim to Lhasa to Boudhanath was Buryat diplomat monk Agvan Dorjiev (1853–1938), who traveled in 1901 (Martin and Norbu 1991, 24 [translation of Dorjiev's autobiography, written in 1923]).

Boudhanath appears to have been the main destination of Mongol pilgrims to Nepal; Swayambunath stupa, known in Tibetan as Pakpa shingkün chöten ('Phags pa shing kun mchod rten), and Namo Buddha (Tib. Takmo lüjin/sTag mo lus sbyin]), which were equally important destinations for Tibetans,³¹ were much less popular among Mongols. I did not find Mongolian translations of guidebooks to Swayambunath, and Mongols apparently did not build architectural replicas of Swayambunath. Although Swayambunath appears on some thangkas, together with Boudhanath and another stupa on three thangkas (Appendix 1, nos. 22–24), I did not find thangkas depicting Swayambunath alone.

We have no details on whether Mongol pilgrims visited Boudhanath in greater numbers during the Year of the Bird, which is the most auspicious year to visit the site for Tibetans. Some famous Buddhists restored Boudhanath stupa, but none of them was Mongol.³² Yet even if historical sources are silent about Mongols in Boudhanath, we know that it was such a holy place for Mongols that some of them settled there. In the 1950s, a Gélukpa reincarnation from Ordos (Inner Mongolia), Gurudeva Rinpoché (1908–2009), also known as Sogpo Rinpoché (Sog po rin po che)—Sogpo meaning "Mongol" in Tibetan—founded a monastery named Ganden Chöphel Ling (dGa' ldan chos 'phel gling) on the circumambulation path (barkor/bar skor) northeast of Boudhanath. Devotees offered him land to build the monastery, which was staffed by two or three Mongol monks. In the 1960s, when Tibetans took possession of the monastery, Sogpo moved to India (Corneille Jest, personal communication, 2008).³³ He came back to live in his monastery in Boudhanath³⁴ from 1986 to 1992, after which he left for Mongolia.³⁵ After his death, a replica of Boudhanath stupa was built in his Mongol monastery (figure 23).

Enthusiastic Mongol pilgrims to Nepal may have decided to make replicas of this particular stupa once back home; yet it seems to me that the flourishing cult of Boudhanath in Mongolia was not proportional to the small number of pilgrims who actually reached that distant place. Pilgrimages to Boudhanath stupa may have developed only after its worship was well established in Mongolia through texts, tales, images, and architectural replicas. In other words, the replicas may have served as surrogate pilgrimage places sites before the original place became easier to reach.

LITERARY SOURCES ON BOUDHANATH ACCESSIBLE TO MONGOLS

Knowledge of the great Buddhist pilgrimage places was transmitted in Tibet and Mongolia through Tibetan culture in general and, more particularly, through Tibetan historiography, biographies of great masters, and guidebooks, as well as oral accounts of pilgrims. Mongol lamas educated in Tibetan learned the story of the construction and legend of Jarung khashor/Boudhanath through various Tibetan sources such as chöjungs, termas, and pilgrimage guides (see Blondeau 1982–1983, 1994).³⁶ At least two historiographical works written by Mongols—Sagang sechen's Erdeni-yin tobci (Bejewelled summary, Saγang secen [1662] 1955) and Galdan's Erdeniyin erike (Bejewelled rosary, [1859] 1999)—mention the legend of Jarung khashor, without identifying it with Boudhanath (see Appendix 2).

The main source of the legend of Jarung khashor is the abovementioned Tibetan guidebook, History of the stupa Jarung khashor, liberation upon hearing. In the 1880s, pilgrims could purchase a contemporaneous printed version of the guidebook at Boudhanath (Ehrhard 1990, 1).³⁷ The guidebook was translated into Mongolian and is known under the title "Legend of the [stupa] known as Jarung khashor." At least four manuscripts in the format of ancient Indian pothi (palm-leaf books) are preserved.³⁸ According to its colophon, it was translated into Mongolian by a gelung (Tib. gélong/dge slong, ordained monk) named Shirab or Shisrab, and published in the Year of the Water Dragon (1772, 1832, or 1892).³⁹ A xylograph printed version preserved in Aga (Aginskii) datsan (monastery) in Buryatia also still exists. The latter has been adapted into modern Mongolian and transcribed into Cyrillic and is included in a booklet about Boudhanath stupa and one of its Mongolian replicas (Ninjbadgar 2000).⁴⁰

The guidebook tells the story of the construction of the stupa (chapter 1) and the foundation of Samyé Monastery by the reincarnations of the poultry keeper's sons as King Trison Détsen, Śāntarakṣita, and Padmasambhava (Ninjbadgar 2000, 19–20). Chapter 3 (on the blessings produced by worshipping the stupa, according to the types of worship and offerings), chapter 4 (on the portents of the ruin of the stupa, which was destroyed during the troubled times of the Kali yuga), and chapter 5 (on the restorers and their attainments) deal with the later history of Tibet. The only mention of the Mongols in this text is in chapter 4, which relates the history of the Mongols' conquest of Tibet (Dowman [1973] 1993, 55).⁴¹ The guidebook does not contain any description or architectural detail of Jarung khashor.

This guidebook belongs to the category of tödröl (thos drol, "liberation upon hearing"), which means that the fact of reciting, hearing, memorizing, and understanding it leads to Enlightenment.⁴² It is a Tibetan means of instructing people along the spiritual path toward the attainment of complete realization (the stupa being itself a symbol of Buddhahood) (Dowman [1973] 1993, 3–5).

The translation into Mongolian and existence of different manuscripts and printed versions highlight the popularity of Boudhanath among laypeople; the book not only informed future pilgrims about the sacred place but also served as an object of worship per se, a surrogate of the pilgrimage, and a means of "liberation upon hearing." According to Ninjbadgar, other Tibetan and Mongolian prayer books on Boudhanath stupa were printed in Mongolia (2000, 1).

ARCHITECTURAL REPLICAS FROM THE EIGHTEENTH TO THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURIES

Most of the ancient architectural replicas of Boudhanath in Mongolia were destroyed during the twentieth century; they are known to us thanks to photographs, a few mentions in the literature, and the souvenirs of elderly monks. Unfortunately, although the building of temples and colleges is generally recorded and dated in monastic sources and archives, this is rarely the case for the construction of stupas. In this section, I present information, mostly based on historical and iconographical sources, about five "Jarung khashar" stupas in Mongolia and one in China, from the eighteenth to the first half of the twentieth centuries.

(1) The oldest replica I came across was located in Mongolia but at a great Chinese pilgrimage site that attracted Mongols, Tibetans, and Chinese: the Wutaishan Mountains in Shanxi Province. The stupa is located in Baohuasi 寶華寺, an old Chinese Buddhist monastery that was turned into a Tibetan Gelugpa (dGe lugs pa) monastery in 1719 (Charleux 2015b, online appendix B, Baohuasi). The 9-meter-high Tibetan-style stupa known as "Dīpankara's Mother" or "Stupa That Came Flying" (Ch. Feilaita 飛來塔)⁴³ is believed to enshrine a lock of the hair of Tsongkhapa (Tsong kha pa, 1357–1419). In his guidebook to Mount Wutai, Rölpé Dorjé wrote that lama pilgrims renovated the stupa on the model of Boudhanath stupa in Kathmandu (Charleux, 2015b, online appendix B). In 1873, the monastery was restored and the monks rebuilt the white stupa. A stone inscription in Tibetan and Mongolian, written by a disciple of the Sixth Panchen Lama, Lozang Penden Yéshé (bLo bzang dpal ldan ye shes, 1891–1958) who meditated on Mount Wutai, also links the stupa with Boudhanath stupa in Kathmandu (see Charleux 2015b, online appendices A2 and B). The stupa of Baohuasi has been preserved and restored (figure 3).

(2) The first architectural replica in Mongolia probably was the "Jarun khashor-un suburga" (stupa of Jarun khashor) of Khan öndriin khüree (Cl. Mo. Khan öndör-ün khuriye) about 96 kilometers from Tsetserleg, north of the Tamir River in Ikh Tamir District, in Arkhangai Province. Khan öndriin khüree had about thirty temples and a dozen stupas, surrounded by housing for about one thousand monks and novices. It was founded by several generations of the Noyan tsetsen ching wangs (title of the jasags—Chinggisid princes ruling their eponym banners) of the Sayin noyan khan aimag. Tsetsen ching wang Denjin banzur (Den toin) founded the first temples in 1679, then, in 1809, new temples were built by Tsetsen ching wang Lawangdorji (1749–1816, jasag in 1771). The monastery is therefore a "princely monastery," tightly tied to the secular power of the jasags. It received titles from the Qing emperor and the Jebtsündamba Khutugtus. As one of the largest monasteries of Mongolia, it trained monks from all of Khalkha aimags (provinces) in its academic colleges. The monastery was closed in 1932 and razed to the ground in 1937 or 1938 (Ninjbadgar 2000, 55–64; Maidar [1970] 1972, 32–33; Shchepetil'nikov 1960, 162).⁴⁴

Ninjbadgar documented the history of the construction of nineteen temples (including academic colleges) but did not find any detail on the construction of the "Jarun khashor suvraga" (Cl. Mo. suburga, "stupa") (figures 3–6).⁴⁵ In 1857, khoshoi ching wang Daram founded the Suburganu takhil-un khural (Assembly to make sacrifices/offerings to the stupa),⁴⁶ which may refer to the rituals organized in the "Jarung khashar" stupa (Ninjbadgar 2000, 59–63). Therefore, the date of construction of the stupa may be 1857.

According to a ninety-six-year-old lama named Damtsaabadgar, who was a pupil at Khan öndriin khüree before its destruction, the founders intended to build the Eight Great Stupas of the Buddha (referring to the eight major events of Śākyamuni's life and teachings) and another large stupa. For a long time, they collected many images (jirug) of stupas in order to choose one, and eventually selected Boudhanath stupa in Nepal (Ninjbadgar 2000, 61).

Figure 3.

"Dīpankara's Mother" stupa of Baohuasi, Wutaishan, Shanxi Province, China, 2010. Photo by the author.

Figure 4.

"Jarung khashar" stupa, Khan öndriin khüree, Ikh Tamir District, Arkhangai Province (destroyed). Photo taken before 1937. Source: Tsultem (1988, fig. 157).

Figure 5.

"Jarung khashar" stupa, Khan öndriin khüree. Photo taken before 1937. Source: Shchepetil'nikov (1960, 162, fig. 97).

Figure 6.

General view of Khan öndriin khüree. Photo taken before 1937. Source: Tsultem (1988, fig. 136).

Figure 7.

"Jarung khashar" stupa near Gandantegchilen Monastery of Ikh Khüree (Ulaanbaatar, destroyed). Photo taken in 1934. Sources: Tsultem (1988, fig. 159) and Shchepetil'nikov (1960, 167, fig. 102).

(3) A replica of Boudhanath stupa was erected near the great academic monastery of Gandan (short for Gandantegchinlin) west of Ikh Khüree/Ulaanbaatar (figure 7).⁴⁷ The "Jarung khashar" stupa, built at some distance northwest of the monastery, was surrounded by a fence and dedicated to the glory of the incarnation of the Buddha. Other stupas built by devotees (including the Eight Great Stupas of the Buddha) were nearby. The place was certainly a main object of devotion for the many pilgrims who circumambulated Gandan,⁴⁸ though whether it formed a separate temple or was part of Gandan itself is unclear (Teleki 2011, 190). Krisztina Teleki, a specialist on Mongolian monasteries, writes, "According to Gonchig lama, 3–4 lamas held ceremonies regularly in the treasure-vase hall (Mo. bumba, Tib. bumpa) of this stupa, and this was called the Tsagaan suwragiin khural" (Tsagan suburga-yin khural, Monastery/Assembly of the White Stupa) (2011, 190). Gandan Monastery was founded in 1809 but became a main monastic center in 1838 (Teleki 2011, 162), and the "Jarung khashar" stupa appears on Balgan's and Jügder's maps, respectively dated to the 1880s–1890s and 1912 (figure 8). The stupa can therefore roughly be dated to the late nineteenth century. According to another source, construction ended in 1905 and the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Tupten Gyatso (Thub bstan rgya mtsho, 1876–1933), consecrated it while sojourning in the capital.⁴⁹ It was destroyed in the late 1930s, and a television tower was built on its site in 1967.

Figure 8.

"Jirangqašar-yin suburγa" near Gandantegchilen Monastery. Detail of Balgan's map of Ikh Khüree, 1880s, Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts, Ulaanbaatar. Photo by the author.

(4) Another Jarung khashar may have been built northeast of Dambadarjaa khiid (Cl. Mo. Damba dorji kheid or Shasin-i badaragulugchi süme), northeast of Ikh Khüree (now in a suburb of Ulaanbaatar) (Daajav 2006, 2:121–131; Teleki 2011, 241–252). Dambadarjaa khiid was built in 1761–1765 on Emperor Qianlong's order in memory of the Second Jebtsündamba Khutugtu (1724–1758). It had colleges with a high level of learning and more than one thousand monks in the 1910s. Funerary stupas enshrined the relics of the Second, Third, and Sixth Jebtsündamba Khutugtus. According to historian of architecture D. Maidar, the Jarung khashar of Dambadarjaa khiid was surrounded by the Eight Great Stupas of the Buddha ([1970] 1972, 32–33). Daajav wrote that it was located northeast of the monastery, outside the compound, but does not specify his source (2006, 2:126, 129; quoted in Teleki 2011, 242). It was probably destroyed at the same time as the rest of the monastery in 1937 and 1938, and it was rebuilt from 2003 to 2004 (figures 9 and 10). Although several old photos of the monastery are known, none of them shows the Jarung khashar,⁵⁰ and it is not visible on ancient maps such as Jügder's.⁵¹ The rebuilt stupa seems to have been modeled on an old photo of Gandan's Jarung khashar, but its spire is square-based whereas Gandan's is round-based (figure 10).

(5) A "Jarung khashar" stupa was built in Üüshin juu or Ganjuur nom-un süme (Kanjur Monastery, Ch. Wushenzhao 烏審召) in the Üüshin Banner of Ordos. Üüshin juu was founded by a Tibetan lama from Amdo named Nangsu in the 1570s and was rebuilt around 1713. In 1734, Üüshin juu became the "banner monastery" of the fifth jasag, beise Rashisereng, who enlarged it. In 1764, Lubsang dorji laramba (d. ca. 1801), a Khalkha lama trained in Lhasa, became the abbot. The main icons of the monastery were two sandalwood statues of Śākyamuni he had brought back from Kumbum (sKu 'bum) in Amdo. Four colleges were founded in the eighteenth century, and Üüshin juu became a large academic monastery of 1,200 monks and four reincarnate lamas, with twenty-five temples and more than ten treasuries. It was famous for its three large stupas and 108 (or 206) smaller ones, many of which were funerary stupas enclosed by a wall (Narasun and Temürbaγatur 2000, 233–239, 269–300; Delege 1998, 372–373, 629–333; Charleux 2006b, CD-ROM [track no. 60]). The monastery was partially destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and was rebuilt from 1999 to 2000.

The three large stupas included the Gegeen suburga built in 1773 and the "octagonal stupa" built on the model of Boudhanath stupa, of which we have a photo taken before 1959 (figure 11). The twelfth (and last) jasag of Üüshin Banner, Tegüs amugulang, had it erected at the request of the Ninth Panchen Lama, to bring peace and happiness to the whole banner. Lamas from Üüshin juu undertook a three-year journey to Nepal to study the architecture of Boudhanath and came back with drawings and sketches (Delege 1998, 633).⁵² The stupa was built between 1934 and 1942, northwest of Üüshin juu (figure 12). The perimeter of its round base measured 25 zhang 丈

Figure 9.

"Jarung khashar" stupa, rebuilt from 2003 to 2004, northeast of Dambadarjaa khiid (suburb of Ulaanbaatar), 2013. Photo by the author.

Figure 10.

"Jarung khashar" stupa, northeast of Dambadarjaa khiid, rebuilt in 2003. Photo by Sue Byrne, 2013.

Figure 11.

"Octagonal lama stupa," Üüshin juu (Ganjuur nom-un süme), Üüshin Banner, Ordos League, Inner Mongolia. Photo taken before 1959. Source: Zhang (1959, 51).

Figure 12.

"Dīpankara's Mother" stupa of Baohuasi, Wutaishan, Shanxi Province, China, 2010. Photo by the author.

Figure 13.

Restored stupa of Üüshin juu. Photo by Agata Bareja-Starzyńska, August 2013.

Figure 14.

Interior of the restored stupa of Üüshin juu, similar to the inner chamber of the Tabun suburga/Mahabodhi of Hohhot. Photo by Agata Bareja-Starzyńska, August 2013.

(80 meters), it stood 7 zhang high (22.4 meters), and its construction cost more than 300,000 silver yuan. It was partially destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Between 1999 and 2001, it was restored or rebuilt according to its former outer appearance. The restored stupa has a large vaulted room inside (figures 13 and 14).⁵³

(6) A large "Jarung khashar" stupa was built between 1915 and 1919 near Khejenge datsan (Cl. Mo. Khotun Khijingge-yin Dashi lhundubling; Russ. Kizhinga), now in Kizhinginsky District, Buryatia. Khejenge datsan was founded in 1766; the stupa was completely destroyed in 1937 along with the monastery, and it is not even possible to determine its exact location. It was the most worshipped stupa of Buryatia (Bĕlka 2001, 167–172). The decision was made to rebuild it in its original shape near the alleged original site, with a height of 33 meters, a surface area of 44 x 44 meters, and a 16-meterhigh inner chamber with an area of 22 x 22 meters. In 1990, Drukpa Rinpoché ('Brug pa rin po che) from Nepal visited and consecrated the future site, and construction started in 1991, but the work was interrupted due to financial difficulties. The stupa was eventually built between 1999 and 2001 on a more modest scale, at a height of only 12 meters, with a surface area of 12 x 12 meters and an inner chamber with an area of 10 x 10 meters (figure 15). On the south side of the main entrance are a small temple to bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (on the right) and a temple to the Twenty-One Tārās (on the left).⁵⁴

Figure 15.

Rebuilt "Jarung khashar" stupa of Khejenge Monastery, Kizhinga, Buryatia. Photo by Ekaterina Sundueva.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE "JARUNG KHASHAR" STUPAS

All of the abovementioned Mongol replicas of Boudhanath were built in or near large academic monasteries and were considered as separate units, often located northeast of a monastic complex. But what are the architectural characteristics that make them "replicas" of Boudhanath stupa? We are

TABLE 1.

 The "Jarung khashar" stupas listed in chronological order

speaking here about the aspects of Boudhanath in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which are known to us mostly thanks to photographs.⁵⁵

An initial observation is that some of the Mongol replicas had an inner shrine, whereas the Nepalese Boudhanath stupa is a solid structure with no room inside. The "Jarung khashar" stupas of Gandan and Khan öndriin khüree were called khural. Khural, meaning "assembly, ritual, religious service," also designates a monastery or a temple, especially in Ikh Khüree; here it seems to designate a stupa with an inner chamber to hold assemblies. These two stupas may thus have served as a temple for specific rituals. The Jarung khashar of Üüshin juu had a gate (perhaps to an inner shrine) protected by a Chinese-style portico topped by a reduced stupa (figure 11), and the restored/reconstructed stupa has a large vaulted room inside (figure 14). The rebuilt stupas of Dambadarjaa khiid (figure 9) and Khejenge datsan also have an inner shrine (figure 15), but nowadays there is a trend in Tibet and Southeast Asia to build hollow stupas with a shrine inside to exhibit statues and relics.⁵⁶

Zsuzsa Majer, a specialist on Mongolian monasteries, hypothesizes that there must have been more Jarun khashor stupas in Mongolia, though evidence in the form of pictures or remnants is not lacking, because

Tsagaan suwragiin khural was a name for several other countryside monasteries (presumably all with a big white stupa), for example one in Dundgow' we surveyed, but no one can confirm now if they had Jarun khashor type of stupas, or other type of stupas painted in white (all we know of the above Dundgow' stupa is that it was an arched type—could even be Jarun khashor).

(Zsuzsa Majer, email message to author, April 22, 2015)

Let us now compare the architecture of Boudhanath with that of the Mongol and Chinese replicas from bottom to top:

• • Boudhanath stupa, about 40 meters in height and diameter,⁵⁷ is one of the largest stupas in the world (about twice the size of the Great stupa of Sanchi in India). An old photograph of Khan öndriin khüree shows the Jarung khashar overlooking the surrounding temples (figure 4). According to local elders, its "foot" (floor surface) was the size of a six-walled (Cyr. Mo. khana) yurt; it was 15 to 20 meters high; its pedestal or lion's throne (sentii) probably measured 400 square meters (Ninjbadgar 2000, 62). The Jarung khashar of Üüshin juu may have been 22.4 meters high; that of Gandan was probably shorter, yet it was much larger than the surrounding stupas.

• • Boudhanath stupa has its main entrance on the northern side, whereas the "Jarung khashar" stupas of Mongolia and Inner Mongolia were oriented toward the south, as is typical of Mongol temples.

• • The three successive twelve-cornered terraced platforms or plinths of diminishing size on which Boudhanath stupa rests,⁵⁸ which are used as circumambulatory passages, and the flights of stairs giving access to each successive tier were not copied in the Mongol replicas. All the Mongol stupas have a square base, except that of Üüshin juu, which superposes three octagonal bases of recessing size.

• • Four smaller stupas stand at the four corners of the "Jarung khashar" stupas of Khan öndriin khüree,⁵⁹ (modern) Dambadarjaa khiid, and Baohuasi, and eight stupas form a square around the "Jarung khashar" of Gandan.⁶⁰ At Boudhanath, four small stupas stand at the four intermediate directions of the lower platform, and two additional small stupas stand at the northern side's main entrance, but these four stupas are so small and different from the central stupa that they are almost unnoticeable.

• • In front of the "Jarung khashar" of Khan öndriin khüree, two small niches with tiled eaves probably protected an icon. Two pavilions with round, arched openings and tiled roofs stand in front of the Gandan stupa. As we will see below, these probably replicated two shrines that existed at Boudhanath in the nineteenth century (Czaja 2015, 92).⁶¹

• • The shape of the aṇḍa (vase shape, Tib. bum pa, Mo. khomkha or bumba, "main body of the stupa") of all the "Jarung khashar" stupas of Mongolia differs from the hemispherical shape of the aṇḍa of Boudhanath stupa, but it is also systematically different from the aṇḍa of "bottle-shaped" Tibetan-style stupas. The shape of the aṇḍa of the "Jarung khashar" of Gandan is cylindrical; the aṇḍa of the stupa of Khan öndriin khüree has a slender, elongated shape that resembles that of the bell-shaped nirvana stupa (one of the Eight Great Stupas of the Buddha) (Maidar [1970] 1972, 32). The aṇḍa of the stupa of Üüshin juu is a reduced hemispherical dome that looks like a cupola on the third octagonal level. The octagonal shape may be a reference to the base of the stupa of reconciliation (another of the Eight Great Stupas of the Buddha). The stairs leading to the harmikā (square part at the spire's base, Cl. Mo. suulga) of Boudhanath stupa were not replicated in the Mongol stupas.

• • The "Jarung khashar" stupa of Khan öndriin khüree has a very large niche (Cl. Mo. ger-ün üüde, "door") projecting from the main face with a pointed-arch opening that resembles the iwan's arched gateway⁶² of Islamic architecture; inside the niche one can distinguish a wooden door that may have opened to an inner shrine. The interruption in the rows of small niches on the tiered round and square platforms below the niche may indicate the presence of a staircase giving access to the inner shrine. On the Gandan stupa, a central projecting niche has the same shape as the tiled pavilions at the foot of the stupa, with a rounded-arch opening and tiled eaves;⁶³ it may also have been the entrance to an inner shrine. The reconstructed stupa of Dambadarjaa khiid has an inner shrine that opens with a double-panel door (figure 9). It has a rounded-arch decoration with the symbol of the Kālacakra, and sculpted vajras⁶⁴ around its aṇḍa. The presence of this large niche, which is missing in the aṇḍa of Boudhanath stupa, may be explained, as we will see, by two-dimensional images of Boudhanath.

• • Two rows of small niches (for icons, perhaps) pierce the aṇḍa below the large niche of the Jarung khashar of Khan öndriin khüree, and two other rows pierce the square platforms (figures 4 and 5). The reduced aṇḍa of the stupa of Üüshin juu is pierced by twenty-four niches. This row of niches is a distinctive feature of Boudhanath stupa: just above the base of the dome, encircling its entire periphery is a series of 108 recessed niches, each enshrining a sculpture of a Buddhist deity.⁶⁵

• • Pairs of eyes are painted and/or carved on the four faces of the harmikā⁶⁶ of the Mongol stupas and of Baohuasi. This is the main characteristic that links the Mongol "Jarung khashar" stupas to Boudhanath stupa.⁶⁷ In the Tibetan world, many stupas that have no connection with Boudhanath stupa have painted eyes,⁶⁸ but in Mongolia, the only stupas with eyes were "Jarung khashar" stupas. As in Boudhanath, the Jarung khashar of Gandan also had the nose symbol resembling a question mark. Whose eyes are they? The eyes and curved nose-mark on the harmikā of Boudhanath stupa are said to be the eyes of the ādibuddha (primordial buddha of Vajrayāna Buddhism) symbolizing Enlightenment; it is believed that they are self-emanating (Snodgrass 1985, 361). People at Dambadarjaa khiid say the stupa has the eyes of Avalokiteśvara. The eyes on the Jarung khashar of Khejenge are said to symbolize the all-seeing eyes of Buddha, who is ready to help at any time ("Stupa Djarun-Khashor"). It is said that by praying and looking at the eyes of the recently built Jarung khashar of Amarbayasgalant khiid, one gets rid of his or her sins.⁶⁹

• • Except for the Gandan stupa, which had a round-based spire, the stupas have the square-based spire (Skt. chattra, Cl. Mo. choingkhor) that is characteristic of Boudhanath stupa.

• • Whereas "traditional" Tibetan stupas are topped by the moon, the sun, and a flame, all the Mongol "Jarung khashar" stupas, similar to Boudhanath, are crowned with a ganjir (treasure vase),⁷⁰ which looks like a miniature stupa.

The eighteenth-century stupa of Baohuasi differs from the rest of our corpus, yet although it may not be immediately detectable to an untrained eye, its architecture shares the basic characteristics that allow us to identify a replica of Boudhanath stupa: the four smaller stupas in the corners, the row of Buddha images at the base of its aṇḍa, the eyes on the harmikā, the square-based spire, and the ganjir on its summit.

To summarize, the Mongol "Jarung khashar" stupas were separate objects of worship within Mongol monasteries, and some of them may have had an inner chamber. Their common characteristics were their large size, the eyes decorating the harmikā, an aṇḍa with a slender or cylindrical shape (but always different from the bottle shape) with small niches for images at its base and a large central niche that could serve as the entrance to an inner shrine, and a ganjir pinnacle. Four or eight smaller stupas surrounded them. The Jarung khashar closest to Boudhanath is that of Khan öndriin khüree. Many of the characteristics of Boudhanath were not "translated" to Mongolia, such as the platforms with recessing shapes and the surrounding walls with prayer wheels.⁷¹ Even if the Mongol "Jarung khashar" stupas do not exactly "respect the program" of Boudhanath, they are clearly differentiated, by their architectural characteristics and size, from the other types of Mongol stupas. This is what Wood, writing about medieval European architectural replicas, calls the "principle of negative differentiation": "It did not matter how … closely it [the program] was respected, so long as the resulting building was sufficiently differentiated from another building that belonged to a different token family, or to no token family" (2008, 45).⁷² Wood stresses that though the resemblance to the original is not always perceivable to modern eyes and minds, which have at their disposal photographs of the building of reference, in an earlier time minimum criteria of resemblance sufficed to transmit the essence of the prime building. These selected criteria "reveal to modern observers which aspects of building a historical culture considered most important" (2008, 44).

THE MEDIA: PAINTINGS AND PRINTS

How did Mongols know about the architecture of Boudhanath? Because the guidebook to Boudhanath does not contain any physical descriptions of the stupa, it was of no use in making replicas. Knowledge of the stupa's architecture may have been transmitted instead by paintings, xylograph prints, and scale models. As mentioned earlier, the Jarung khashar of Khan öndriin khüree was modeled on an "image," and lamas from Üüshin juu traveled to South Asia to study and make sketches of the "original."⁷³ Similarly, during the eighteenth century, the founder of Chorten Kora in Bhutan set out on a journey to Boudhanath and returned home with a model of the stupa that had been quickly made out of radish. "By the time they arrived home the radish model had shrunk distorting the shape. As a result, the stupa or chorten, particularly the one at Teashi [sic] Yangtse, underwent some changes in design especially in the level of galleries" (Lam Kezang Chhophel 2002, 2–3). The story of the deterioration of the media—here, a radish—may, of course, have been invented to justify the replica's differences from its model.

Scale models of Boudhanath stupa were kept in monasteries of Eastern Tibet and Mongolia (Czaja 2015, 91 and figs. 7 and 8) (figure 16),⁷⁴ but paintings and xylograph prints were much more common (see Appendix 1). Do the inaccuracies of these paintings and prints explain, as in the case of the Chengde temples, some of the characteristics of the architectural replicas? Conversely, some of the two-dimensional images may have been made after a Mongol architectural replica. Because none of these paintings and prints are dated,⁷⁵ we have no answer to this question, but this may have been the case with thangka no. 13 (Appendix 1). This print that shows Jarung khashar with many small stupas on its terraces may have served as a model for the recent reconstruction of the Jarung khashar of Khejenge, of which apparently no ancient image is known (figure 15).

Figure 16.

"Am-aldasan [Ama aldasan] stupa made by silver casting and hammering," MIBA collection, Ulaanbaatar. Source: Pürevbat (2005, 376, fig. 245).

Below are a few examples of Mongol paintings and prints divided into four categories: (1) paintings depicting Boudhanath with some of its characteristic features (figure 17); (2) xylograph prints from Buryatia depicting Boudhanath (figure 18); (3) prints depicting a bottle-shaped Tibetan stupa with Avalokiteśvara, with a text that refers to Jarung khashar (figure 19); and (4) prints depicting Boudhanath along with other stupas (figures 20 and 21).⁷⁶ Several prints come from the same matrix (Appendix 1).

These thangkas have a few common characteristics. First of all, several of the prints include in their lower registers a Tibetan text briefly describing the legend of the foundation of Boudhanath and its religious significance and have mantras written in Tibetan, Mongolian, and/or Lantsa⁷⁷ on the terraces and/or below the stupa (Appendix 1, nos. 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 24). Typically, in East Asia, the making of xylograph printed images with a prayer at the bottom, distributed or sold to devotees, reflects the great worship of a holy site. These cheap, mass-produced prints were distributed or sold on pilgrimage sites; devotees used to worship them on their home altar, or fold them (figure 21) and use them as amulets in portable reliquaries that were carried to bring good luck and fulfill wishes. These prints were kept in laypeople's homes for private worship and were usually circulated more than thangkas.⁷⁸

Figure 17.

Thangka, 72 x 109 cms, Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts, no. 8125-2968. Source: Fleming and Shastri (2011, 1, cat. 435).

The prayer below the large prints nos. 9 and 10 in Appendix 1 (figure 18) summarizes the story of Boudhanath stupa (see Appendix 3), lists the

Figure 18.

Large colored print depicting "Jarung khashar" stupa, Buryatia. Private collection of Michel Tournet, France. Photo by the author.

immediate and long-term benefits generated in making this print, and advises those who want to learn more details about the history of this stupa to consult the karchak (dkar chag, i.e., the guidebook), which "liberates upon hearing" it. Interestingly, the stupa is located in "the region of Makuti" (perhaps Magadha in India) "in Nepal," thus conflating the two different locations of pre- and post-fourteenth-century Tibetan sources. The last sentence says that it has been printed at "Ago'i chos sde chen mo bde chen lhun grubs gling" (i.e., Aga datsan in Buryatia)—the same monastery where the guidebook was printed. The prayer of print no. 24 (Appendix 1) aimed at increasing benefits and merit is a request (or petition) addressed to Boudhanath, and specifies that it was also printed at Aga datsan.⁷⁹ Most of these prints appear to have been made in Mongol monasteries, at least ten of them in Buryatia. There also exist Nepalese and Tibetan thangkas depicting Boudhanath stupa,⁸⁰ and some of the Mongol prints and paintings may have taken a Nepalese, Tibetan, or Mongol thangka as a model: we can imagine a multiplicity of intermediate media copying each other.

Most of the thangkas depict Boudhanath stupa surrounded by four smaller stupas on its first and third platforms, eyes and sometimes a nose on the harmikā, decorations on the aṇḍa, and a miniature stupa on top. They usually have three terraces of diminishing sizes plus two levels with curved angles, the upper one being decorated with niches containing buddhas (Appendix 1, nos. 1–3, 5, 7, 8, 14–17); or a Sumeru base supporting three terraces of diminishing sizes (nos. 4, 9–12). Thangka no. 6 of Appendix 1 has five levels or terraces with curved angles standing on a Sumeru base. Offerings to the five senses, as well as a deer and an elephant (perhaps referring to the elephant of the story), are often depicted in the lower register.

In most images, two symmetrical shrines stand on the first terrace. The shape of the roof in thangkas nos. 4 and 9 to 12 (Appendix 1) is different—conical on the left, curved on the right—which seems to correspond to the two pavilions in front of Boudhanath stupa that existed more than a hundred and fifty years ago (Czaja 2015, fig. 1). But in thangkas nos. 1 and 2, 5–8, and 14–17 (Appendix 1), these are two symmetrical Chinese-style tiled pavilions, like at the "Jarung khashar" stupas of Khan öndriin khüree and Gandan. Inside these shrines are depicted, or designated by their names and mantras, four-armed Avalokiteśvara (on one side) and Vajrapāṇi or Padmasambhava (on the other side); we do not know the identity of the deities in the pavilions of the architectural replicas. In several thangkas, a central flight of steps or a ramp giving access to the great niche is decorated with bricks or geometrical motifs. Some stupas are raised on a Sumeru pedestal decorated at its center with a tapestry with golden motifs or a Chinese-style dragon that evokes a carpet or a marble ramp of Beijing's Forbidden City (Appendix 1, nos. 4, 6, 9–12).

The aṇḍa of the stupas in thangkas nos 4, 9–13, and 21–24 of Appendix 1 reproduces Boudhanath's hemispherical shape.⁸¹ Others have a round or bell-like shape. On the embroidered thangka in the Rubin Museum of Art (Appendix 1, no. 3), the aṇḍa has a more elongated shape recalling that of the Gandan stupa. In some prints, the aṇḍa looks like that of bottle-shaped Tibetan stupas (figure 19 and Appendix 1, nos. 14–17): only the Tibetan inscription that gives a brief history of Boudhanath allows us to identify them with the Nepalese stupa.

Another particularity of the two-dimensional images is that most of them depict Eleven-Faced (ekadaśamukha) Mahākarunika Avalokiteśvara in the large niche of their aṇḍa (in only in one case, no. 8 of Appendix 1, Avalokiteśvara is replaced by Uṣṇīṣavijayā, who is traditionally depicted inside a stupa). The deity was probably thought to reside inside the aṇḍa, but in two-dimensional media he or she is represented in front of the aṇḍa, and his or her halo or mandorla looks like a large niche (figure 17). It is possible that the halo of the architectural replicas modeled on paintings and prints was understood as being a niche carved in the aṇḍa or even an inner shrine containing an image of Avalokiteśvara (there is no such large niche in the aṇḍa of Boudhanath). We can make the hypothesis that the large niche or inner shrine of the Mongol architectural replicas enshrined an image of this bodhisattva.⁸²

Why is Eleven-Faced Avalokiteśvara depicted in these thangkas? At the beginning of the "Legend of the [stupa] known as Jarung khashor" guidebook, Avalokiteśvara sheds two tears when he realizes that it is not possible to save all living beings, and the two teardrops are transmuted into two daughters of King Indra. One of the daughters is reincarnated as the poultry woman at the origin of the construction of the stupa. The text of thangkas nos. 10 and 11 (Appendix 1, figure 9, and Appendix 3) simplifies the story, since it presents the poultry keeper Jadzima as the reincarnation of Avalokiteśvara. However, in Nepal and Tibet, Boudhanath stupa is not

Figure 19.

Print on cotton depicting "Jarung khashar" stupa. Private collection of Michel Tournet, France. Photo by the author.

associated with Avalokiteśvara; the presence of Eleven-Faced Avalokiteśvara seems to be a Mongol specificity. The bodhisattva of compassion was worshipped especially in several monasteries that had a "Jarung khashar" stupa: Dambadarjaa khiid was famous for a sandalwood statue of Avalokiteśvara Lokeśvara (Cl. Mo. Logshir); and in Gandan the Migjid janraiseg Temple, built in 1911–1913, housed a 25-meter statue of Eye-Healing Avalokiteśvara (Migjid janraiseg).

It is likely that the images coming from Khalkha Mongolia (Appendix 1, nos. 14–20 and figure 19) as well as thangka no. 2 (Appendix 1) showing Boudhanath as a bottle-shaped stupa with four smaller stupas at the corners, three platforms and a staircase, two identical pavilions with a Chinese tiled roof, and a large image of Eleven-Faced Avalokiteśvara in the central niche served as models for the architectural replica of Gandan Monastery (figure 7).

Images 21 to 24 show Boudhanath stupa with one or two other stupas: Swayambunath and the stupa of Dhānyakaṭaka⁸³ in India, or Namo Buddha), the Stupa of the Offering of the Body to the Tigress, on the site in Nepal where in a previous life, Śākyamuni is said to have have offered his body to the tigress according to a well-known Jataka (figures 20 and 21). On prints nos. 22 and 23 (Appendix 1 and figure 20), the central stupa is identified as Swayambhūnāth and Boudhanath is depicted on the right side; it has no eyes and its harmikā is decorated with the same crown as that of Swayambunath. Because of the presence of the five animals raised by the Mongols (the "five muzzles"), these images may have functioned as protective amulets.

To summarize, the transmission of the architectural knowledge of Boudhanath stupa through block prints and paintings explains the presence of not only the well-known characteristics of the original, such as the eyes on the harmikā, but also some interpretations and additions, such as the slender or cylindrical shape of the aṇḍa, the four smaller stupas, the large central niche, and the transformation of the platforms of the Mongol Jarung khashar. They allow us to make hypotheses about the iconography in the central niche or inner shrine (perhaps Avalokiteśvara) and in the two lateral pavilions of the architectural replicas.

Interestingly, two different modern drawings of Boudhanath published in the monumental study of stupas by the great Mongolian monk-artist Pürevbat⁸⁵ repeat some of the characteristics seen in thangkas: one has a large central niche piercing the aṇḍa; the second has the crown of Swayambhunath. Both of them have five platforms instead of three, and four smaller stupas stand on the two lower platforms (figure 22).

Figure 20.

Print depicting Swayambunath (center), the stupa of Dhānyakaṭaka, and Boudhanath, above the five Mongol "muzzles." Private collection of Michel Tournet, France. Photo by the author.

Figure 21.

Print depicting Boudhanath (center), Pakpa shingkün chorten ('Phags pa shing kun mchod rten—i.e., Swayambunath) (left) and Takmo lüjin (right). Printed at Aga datsan. Source: Private collection, Russia.⁸⁴

Figure 22.

Two drawings of "Am-aldsan [Ama aldasan] stupa at Boudhanath, Kathmandu, Nepal." Source: Pürevbat (2005, 169 and 526, fig. 352).

TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY REPLICAS OF JARUNG KHASHAR

More than ten years after Buddhism was revived in the postcommunist societies of Mongolia, China, and Buryatia, the stupas of Dambadarjaa khiid, Üüshin juu, and Khejenge Monastery were rebuilt or restored. In addition, two new "Jarung khashar" stupas were constructed: a huge stupa named Ama aldasan in Mongolia, popularly known as the "stupa with eyes," was erected thanks to donations from many devotees and consecrated in July 2010; it is located on a hill above Amarbayasgalant khiid, not far from the Russian border (figure 23). Nearby on the hill, the mantras of the three main bodhisattvas—Avalokiteśvara, Mañjuśrī, and Vajrapāṇi—are spelled out in white stones. This new construction was built in honor of Gurudeva (Sogpo) Rinpoché: after he left his monastery near Boudhanath in 1992, he became the abbot of Amarbayasgalant khiid, which he restored aided by fundraising. The Jarung khashar was built just after Sogpo Rinpoché—a major figure of the revival of Buddhism in Mongolia—passed away. Nowadays a few wealthy pilgrims from Ulaanbaatar make special pilgrimages to Boudhanath and visit the monastery of Gurudeva Rinpoché.⁸⁶

In 2012, Pürevbat built a similar stupa, called the Kālacakra stupa, on a hill in the Gobi Desert of Dornogovi Province, Mongolia. It is 46 meters high and 90 meters in diameter (the width of the lower platform)—even larger than Boudhanath stupa, but its name does not make any reference to Jarung khashar (Sue Byrne, personal communication, 2017).⁸⁷ It is not clear why it is called Kālacakra, as that symbol is also seen on the modern stupas of Dambadarjaa khiid and Wutaishan's Baohuasi, and it often decorates Mongol temples and stupas.

The architecture of the rebuilt stupas of Dambadarjaa khiid and Üüshin juu make an attempt at faithfulness not only to old photographs but also to peoples' memories—a new element in the chain of replications. The new stupas of Amarbayasgalant khiid and Dornogovi Province are much closer to the Boudhanath stupa, in their monumentality and general shape. This is also the case of another replica of the Nepalese stupa built in the 1990s in Lungngön (Lung sngon) Monastery, Golok (mGo log) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Amdo (northeastern Tibet, now in Qinghai Province, China), which is slightly larger than the original. Nearby are replicas of Samyé Monastery, of the Mahabodhi Temple of Bodh Gaya and other Buddhist sites in India and Tibet. As shown by Buffetrille (2015), the construction of such replicas is a new phenomenon in Tibet.⁸⁸ The founder of Lungngön Monastery, Kusum Lingpa (sKu gsum gling pa, 1934–2009), is affiliated with the rimé (ris med) nonsectarian movement.⁸⁹ This replica of Boudhanath has an inner shrine that contains a library and statues (Buffetrille 2015, 144). Other replicas of Boudhanath stupa are being built in Tibetan regions, notably near Derge (sDe dge) in Kham, present-day Sichuan Province, China (Kunsang Namgyal Lama, personal communication, 2018).

Figure 23.

"Jarung khashar" stupa, Amarbayasgalant khiid, Selenge Province, Mongolia. Photo by Marissa Smith.

CONCLUSION

Replicas of Boudhanath stupa apparently functioned as surrogate pilgrimage sites linking Mongolia to South Asia. This direct connection between Mongolia and South Asia is also found in the recognition of high Mongol lamas as being reincarnations of Tibetan saints and, ultimately, Indian kings in Mongolian Buddhist chronicles.

We have little information on the motivations of the builders, but we can guess that religious motivations (to acquire merit and generate incommensurable blessings) were mixed with political ones. Boudhanath may have become more popular and "efficacious" than Bodh Gaya in the Mongols' imagination because it was said to fulfill all kinds of wishes, and because of the popularity of its guidebook and legend.

The replicas of Boudhanath appear in two main periods of history: the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries—a time that coincides with the translation into Mongolian of the Tibetan guidebook, the making of numerous thangkas, and actual pilgrimages to Boudhanath—and the twenty-first century, when Buddhism was revived in Mongolia, Buryatia, and China after years of persecution, in a context of both globalization and the rise of nationalism. Several "Jarung khashar" stupas were built or rebuilt, and the guidebook was retranslated and reprinted. In Amarbayasgalant khiid and Khejenge, the construction of a Jarung khashar is linked to religious and diplomatic contacts with Nepal. Because of their respective locations near the northern border with Russia and the southern border with China, the stupa of Amarbayasgalant khiid and the Kālacakra stupa of Dornogovi symbolically protect the frontiers of the Republic of Mongolia.⁹⁰ The use of photography as a new medium has led to a certain faithfulness in outward appearance either to the former "Jarung khashar" stupas or to Boudhanath stupa, though today most modern replicas have an inner shrine.

Mongol "Jarung khashar" stupas were often associated with other stupas, notably with those corresponding to the eight major events of Buddha's life—Khan öndriin khüree had a dozen stupas; Gandan Monastery, twenty-eight; and Üüshin juu, three large and 108 smaller ones. The stupas erected outside Gandan were located in a place that was accessible to laypeople (who were not allowed to enter the monastery itself): the Mongol "Jarung khashar" stupas appear to have been major places of devotion for laypeople. Devotees circumambulated the "Jarung khashar" stupas, but they could not practice the ascending circumambulations of the three platforms toward the dome symbolizing the three levels of initiation into the mandala stupa and progression toward liberation, as in Boudhanath.

Several "Jarung khashar" stupas had an inner shrine, perhaps with an icon of Eleven-Faced Avalokiteśvara (we have no information on the rituals performed in the inner shrine or whether it was accessible to laypeople). Stupas are not supposed to have an accessible inner chamber: being originally funerary barrows, their main function in the Buddhist world is to enshrine precious relics and symbolize Enlightenment; after construction, the monument is sealed off. But some of the Mongol "Jarung khashar" stupas were both a form and an interior space: thus, the stupa was transformed into a different type of ritual site. This was also the case of the wuta of Beijing and Hohhot: the Mahabodhi Temple of Bodh Gaya was understood as being a stupa,⁹¹ yet one can enter their inner shrine as one would enter a temple to worship images. Like the replica of the Mahabodhi Temple in Hohhot, the "Jarung khashar" stupas were thus considered as being something between the stupa and the temple.

Mongol replicas of Boudhanath stupa have become a new type of stupa clearly differentiated from other stupas. Some of their characteristics can be explained by distortions of two-dimensional media that certainly played a role in the process of transmitting the image, together with its cult, to Mongolia. But other differences from Boudhanath stupa may simply not have mattered at all to the builders and worshippers, provided that these replicas reproduced what were considered the essential features: the lowest common denominators, such as the size and the eyes.

The octagonal stupa of Üüshin juu, though locally known as Jarung khashar, is erroneously presented as a replica of the Mahabodhi Temple of Bodh Gaya both by Delege, an Inner Mongol specialist of Mongol Buddhism, and on the information boards within the monastery.⁹² Mongols remember the legend of "Jarung khashar"—the story of the construction and its karmic consequences—but link it to Boudhanath stupa in Nepal, and think it is a mythical place. The "translation" was so successful that in some cases it led to a complete indigenization, to the point that the original was forgotten: Jarung khashar has become a type of Mongol stupa that fulfills all kinds of wishes and is associated with Avalokiteśvara; the foundation legend has even been recycled to integrate events of the communist history.

Nowadays Mongols from the Republic of Mongolia are often discouraged from undertaking pilgrimages abroad; their lamas generally advise them to go to Khamryn khiid, the "Gate of Shambhala" in Dornogovi Province, or to Amarbayasgalant khiid, and tell them that these two pilgrimages are equivalent to a pilgrimage abroad.⁹³ Like the Mahabodhi, and images and relics said to have come from ancient India, Boudhanath stupa has been relocated in Mongolia, and these replicas have functioned as key objects in rooting Buddhist faith in Mongolia. Eventually, over the course of time, some replicas in their turn came to be viewed as independent artifacts and the prime object was forgotten (see Charleux 2015a about the Jowo [Jo bo] images). Local replicas allowed pilgrims to appropriate the power of the original and, at the same time, could be used to legitimize political power; they are part of the fashioning of a distinct Mongol Buddhist identity.