Mongolia | Ulaan Baatar | Soyolma | Mönkhtsetseg

Had to venture out to the eastern suburbs of UB for an acupuncture treatment so while I was in the neighborhood I thought I would drop into the Studio of Acclaimed Artist Soyolma and see what she was working on.

Soyolma

Turns out she had just finished this painting of a Dakini.

Dakini

She had been working on this same painting the last time I was in her studio. Then, however, this dakini had been completely nude. Her vulva was quite clearly portrayed, with the mons veneris and labia majora delineated in considerable detail. Also, she was portrayed without pubic hair. This, I might add, seems to be a growing trend among Mongolian women in general, or so I have been told. Anyhow, now she was portrayed with a shawl wrapped around her waist. This struck me as a bit odd. Does artists always paint bodies in the nude and then paint clothes over them? It would seem to me—not being an artist of course—that it would be easier just to paint the clothes and not bother with the body underneath. Isn’t it a lot of extra work to paint in a finely detailed vulva and then paint a shawl over it? I was curious, but I did not feel comfortable discussing this issue with Soyolma, and anyhow I don’t think her English would be up to the task. I know my Mongolian isn’t. I don’t even know the Mongolian for vulva. I really must get cracking on my Mongolian studies.

Anyhow, Soyolma had several other works on display.

Work by Soyolma

Detail of Work by Soyolma

Work by Soyolma

From Soyolma’s studio we popped across the street to the underground studio of the ever-stunning and ravishingly gorgeous Mönkhtsetseg. She herself is the daughter of an artist very famous for his paintings of traditional Mongolian scenes—khans galloping around the steppe, herdsmen drinking airag, etc. Mönkhtsetseg’s work is quite different, as can be seen below:

Work by Mönkhtsetseg

Work by Mönkhtsetseg

Work by Mönkhtsetseg

A more traditional work by Mönkhtsetseg

Mongolia | Zaisan Tolgoi | New Moon

The New Moon occurs today at 3:54 pm local time. The next New Moon will be Tsagaan Sar. Tonight will be a great night for viewing the Heavens, as there is no moonlight to dilute the view. Venus, of course, continues to present a fantastic spectacle in the southwest sky—clearly visible before any other heavenly bodies appear—and to the southwest Orion is putting on quite a show. Indeed the rest of the week is looking good, with the Waxing Crescent Moon swinging by Venus as the days progress. Don't miss this wonderful opportunity to view the Heavens!

Map courtesy of Sky & Telescope

China | Tea Bubble Bursts

I have written many times about Puerh Tea and the Maliandao Tea Market in Beijing.

Puerh Tea in the Maliandao Tea Market.

Now the Puerh Tea Business has gone the way of Wall Street. See A County in China Sees Its Fortunes in Tea Leaves Until a Bubble Bursts.

Saudi Arabia has its oil. South Africa has its diamonds. And here in China’s temperate southwest, prosperity has come from the scrubby green tea trees that blanket the mountains of fabled Menghai County. Over the past decade, as the nation went wild for the region’s brand of tea, known as Pu’er, farmers bought minivans, manufacturers became millionaires and Chinese citizens plowed their savings into black bricks of compacted Pu’er.

But that was before the collapse of the tea market turned thousands of farmers and dealers into paupers and provided the nation with a very pungent lesson about gullibility, greed and the perils of the speculative bubble. “Most of us are ruined,” said Fu Wei, 43, one of the few tea traders to survive the implosion of the Pu’er market. “A lot of people behaved like idiots.”

But hey, it sounds like a buyer’s market to me. I may have to pop down to Beijing and buy a couple of tons of Puerh.

Mongolia | Ulaan Baatar | Roerich Redux

Mosied out to the eastern suburbs of Ulaan Baatar for Another Visit to the proposed site of the Roerich-Mongolia Museum.

Building where the Roerichs stayed during their 1926–27 sojourn in Ulaan Baatar. There are plans afoot to turn the building into a museum devoted to the Roerichs.

Group of dignitaries convened to discuss the restoration project

Restoration Project Panjandrums: from left to right, Professor Ishdorj (in black coat); Ulaan Baatar-based badarchin, gazarchin, translator (The Practice of the Six Yogas of Naropa), author (Fourteen Dalai Lamas: A Sacred Legacy of Reincarnation), man-about-town, and international gadabout Glenn Mullin; Professor Bira, who studied with George Roerich in Moscow back in the 1950s; an attaché from the Canadian Embassy who was being hit up for funding; and Soyolma, who is serving as Artistic Adviser on the project.

The ever-lovely Soyolma whose works were recently featured at the Pearl Gallery. See More of Soyolma’s Works.

Soyolma listening with rapt attention as Batdorj, former Director of the Zanabazar Museum and now freelance artist-impresario, presents a proposal for a stone monument to the Roerichs.

Details of the proposed Roerich Monument, which would be placed in the courtyard of the museum.

Soyolma in front of the old Russian-style stove inside the museum building

Group entranced by Glenn Mullin and his spellbinding presentation

Canadian Embassy Attaché still spellbound

Work on restoring the outside of the building should begin in two or three weeks. The plan is to have the interiors of at least a couple of the rooms completed by this summer and open to the public. How You Can Help.

Mongolia | Ulaan Baatar | Coffee Revisited

In an earlier post I commented on the Louche Behaviour of Coffee Drinkers in general. I have just encountered additional evidence about the deleterious effects of Coffea arabica (I won’t even comment on Coffea robusta, which is consumed only by real low-lifes) in a rare treatise entitled The Nature of the Drink Kauhi, or Coffe, and the Berry of Which It Is Made, Described by an Arabian Philistian, written anonymously and published in Cairo in 1659. The author no doubt wanted to remain unknown to avoid repercussions from Violent Coffee Drinkers.

This work, originally published in Arabic, was first translated into English by seminal English Orientalist Edward Pococke (1604–91), who as you probably know occupied the Laudian Chair of Arabic, established in 1636 at Oxford University.

Robert Irwin, in his laudable For Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists and their Enemies, has more to say on coffee drinking and Pococke:

Coffee-drinking originated in Yemen some time around the thirteenth century and spread throughout the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century. Pococke is said to have been the first man in England to drink coffee. Those who were suspicious of the new drink claimed that it brought on his palsy. (The Arab author of The Nature of the Drink Kauhi, or Coffe, and the Berry of Which It Is Made, Described by an Arabian Philistian, for his part, warned that drinking coffee with milk might bring on leprosy.) For a long time coffee-drinking was to be regarded with great suspicion in some circles, as it was tainted with Mahometanism.

Now comes still more news about the insidious effects of the baneful bean: Big Coffee Drinkers Hallucinate More:

Those with a high caffeine intake are three times more likely to have heard a non-existent person's voice than those who drink one cup a day, said the research by psychologists at Durham University. But the study noted that the tendency to hear voices or have other hallucinations may not be caused by caffeine, but simply reflect the kind of people who drink lots of coffee.

So it is not clear if coffee makes people crazy or only crazy people drink coffee. It’s obvious, however, that the “kind of people who drink lots of coffee” tend not to have both oars in the water. For examples, visit one of Ulaanbaatar’s Most Notorious Dives Specializing in Coffee and take a look around.

Mongolia | Bayankhongor Aimag | Roerichs and the 13th Dalai Lama

A PDF version of Following the Route of the Roerich Expedition and the 13th Dalai Lama Through Bayankhongor Aimag, Mongolia is now available. For more information on the Roerichs see the Roerich Museum in Mongolia.

Mongolia | Gobi Desert | Russian Crown Jewels

Mongolia may be the ultimate dumping grounds for buried treasure. Of course there is Chingis’s Tomb, which is supposed to contain all kinds of loot and for which people have been Searching for Decades, if not centuries, to no avail. Then there’s the treasure of Baron Ungern-Sternberg—according to legend some three tons of gold looted from temples in Mongolia—which is supposed to be buried up on the Minj River in Töv or Khentii Aimag. And of course the tons of statues, thangkas, and other artwork and valuables from monasteries which was supposedly hidden away in caves, buried in holes, and otherwise concealed from the communists during the anti-Buddhist campaigns back in the 1930s. Rumors about large caches of this stuff being found continue to surface down to the present day. And don’t forget Danzan Ravjaa’s Treasure, which was buried in the Gobi and continues to reappear amidst great fanfare.

Now comes word that yet another treasure is buried in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. See On the Trail of the Russian Crown Jewels.

Socialite Patte Barham, scion of a pioneering L.A. family, is intent on uncovering the crown jewels of the czar of Russia. She says they're buried in the Gobi Desert . . .

She's navigated the world of Los Angeles' elite for eight decades—weekending at Hearst Castle at San Simeon with William Randolph Hearst, riding horses with friends at her family ranch above the boulevard that bears her father's name, partying at posh gatherings from Newport Beach to Beverly Hills. She is also a former war correspondent who filed reports from foxholes at Korea's infamous Pork Chop Hill and is co-author of investigative books about the controversial deaths of Marilyn Monroe and legendary Russian "mad monk" Grigori Rasputin. Now Patte Barham says she's ready for the biggest challenge of her life: uncovering the lost crown jewels of the czar of Russia.

It's a quest some believe is as fanciful as the legend surrounding the artifacts -- but Barham is having none of that. The diamonds, Faberge eggs, imperial Russian crowns and tiaras, jewel-encrusted gold picture frames and opera-length strands of pearls, rubies, sapphires and diamonds are hidden in seven coffins in a hole 7 feet square and 10 feet deep in the middle of Mongolia's Gobi Desert, she contends.

The treasure is in the middle of the Gobi Desert . . . that really narrows it down. But wait! She has a map. Or had a map:

Shortly before his death in 1960, Barham says, her stepfather handed her a sealed envelope containing a map that showed exactly where the treasure was hidden. Embittered to the end by the Russian royal family's execution, he asked that she not do anything until the Russian government admitted to the slayings of the Romanovs and recognized them with a state funeral. That occurred in 1998. But soon after, the hand-drawn map mysteriously disappeared. Although Barham has searched her nine-bedroom, 10,000-square-foot mansion for it without success, she insists she has memorized the jewels' hiding spot. Now, the energetic dowager is determined to see the trove recovered. "They should be returned to the Russian people," Barham says of the czar's treasure. There are those who doubt that these priceless jewels still exist and whether Barham has any shot of finding them if they do. Some experts on Russian history, while praising Barham's passion for the project, question whether she has all her facts right. A few years ago, she tried to get the Discovery Channel interested in partnering with her to search. But the deal fell through when she could not produce the map. Pointing to a copy of a circa-1916 map of Mongolia, she is certain she can find the treasure. "It's there," she says.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Start your Hummers! The Search is on!

Patte Barham. She’s gearing up for the Gobi.

Mongolia | Ulaan Baatar | Pearl Gallery | Art Show

Wandered by the Pearl Gallery, located next to the Vegetarian Center Restaurant (which by the way has been receiving Rave Reviews) just south of the Bayangol Hotel. On display were new works by Soyolma, one of whose works has just been named “Painting of the Year” in Mongolia.

The lovely Soyolma and her Buddha

Soyolma’s Buddha

Soyolma’s painting of Milarepa

Soyolma’s “The Horse,” named “Painting of the Year” in Mongolia

The Wildly Acclaimed and Drop-Dead Gorgeous Artist Mönkhtsetseg on the left. In the last ten years her works have been featured in twenty-three exhibitions. On the right is Lionized to Say Nothing of Charming and Gracious Ceramics Artist Otgonbayar.

Original ceramic work by Otgonbayar on display. Contrary to a rumor circulating at the gallery, Mönkhtsetseg did not, repeat DID NOT, pose as the model for this work. The irresponsible rumormongers spreading this tale should be hauled off to Sükhbaatar Square and given a sound horse-whipping for the edification of the general populace.

Mongolia | Life & Death of the False Lama #17

Who was Dambijantsan?

A Buddhist monk; a freedom fighter for Mongolian independence; the descendant of Amursanaa (1723–1757), the Western Mongol who led the last great uprising against the Qing Dynasty of China; the incarnation of Mahakala, the Buddhist god of war; bandit, torturer, murderer, or evil incarnate? During his lifetime no one was sure who he really was, and even today the controversy about his life continues.

Born in what is now the Republic of Kalmykia, part of the Russian Federation, Dambijantsen traveled throughout Tibet, India, and China before arriving in Mongolia in 1890 where he tossed gold coins to bystanders and announced to one and all that he had come to free Mongolia from the yoke of the Qing Dynasty of China. After disappearing almost twenty years he returned to lead the attack on Khovd City, the last Chinese outpost in Mongolia. Honored by the Eighth Bogd Gegeen, the theocratic leader of Mongolia, for his efforts in achieving Mongolian independence, he went on to establish his own mini-state in western Mongolia, which he hoped to use as a base for establishing a Mongol-led Buddhist khanate in Inner Asia. His dictatorial nature and unbridled sadism soon came to the fore and he was finally arrested and imprisoned in Russia. After the Russian Revolution he returned to Mongolia, gathered new followers around him, and established a stronghold at the nexus of old caravan routes in Gansu Province, China. He robbed caravans, grew opium, and once again dreamed of creating a new Mongolian khanate in Inner Asia. Finally the new Bolshevik government in Mongolia, fearful of his rising power, issued orders for his assassination. Dambijantsan died in 1922, but in Mongolia legends persist to this day that his spirit still rides on the wind of the Gobi and continues to haunt his former lairs.

For more on Dambijantsan see False Lama of Mongolia: The Life and Death of Dambijantsan. 

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Mongolia | False Lama | Chapter 2

Who was Dambijantsan?

A Buddhist monk; a freedom fighter for Mongolian independence; the descendant of Amursanaa (1723–1757), the Western Mongol who led the last great uprising against the Qing Dynasty of China; the incarnation of Mahakala, the Buddhist god of war; bandit, torturer, murderer, or evil incarnate? During his lifetime no one was sure who he really was, and even today the controversy about his life continues.

Born in what is now the Republic of Kalmykia, part of the Russian Federation, Dambijantsen traveled throughout Tibet, India, and China before arriving in Mongolia in 1890 where he tossed gold coins to bystanders and announced to one and all that he had come to free Mongolia from the yoke of the Qing Dynasty of China. After disappearing almost twenty years he returned to lead the attack on Khovd City, the last Chinese outpost in Mongolia. Honored by the Eighth Bogd Gegeen, the theocratic leader of Mongolia, for his efforts in achieving Mongolian independence, he went on to establish his own mini-state in western Mongolia, which he hoped to use as a base for establishing a Mongol-led Buddhist khanate in Inner Asia. His dictatorial nature and unbridled sadism soon came to the fore and he was finally arrested and imprisoned in Russia. After the Russian Revolution he returned to Mongolia, gathered new followers around him, and established a stronghold at the nexus of old caravan routes in Gansu Province, China. He robbed caravans, grew opium, and once again dreamed of creating a new Mongolian khanate in Inner Asia. Finally the new Bolshevik government in Mongolia, fearful of his rising power, issued orders for his assassination. Dambijantsan died in 1922, but in Mongolia legends persist to this day that his spirit still rides on the wind of the Gobi and continues to haunt his former lairs.

For more on Dambijantsan see False Lama of Mongolia: The Life and Death of Dambijantsan. 

Mongolia | False Lama | Chapter 1

Who was Dambijantsan?

A Buddhist monk; a freedom fighter for Mongolian independence; the descendant of Amursanaa (1723–1757), the Western Mongol who led the last great uprising against the Qing Dynasty of China; the incarnation of Mahakala, the Buddhist god of war; bandit, torturer, murderer, or evil incarnate? During his lifetime no one was sure who he really was, and even today the controversy about his life continues.

Born in what is now the Republic of Kalmykia, part of the Russian Federation, Dambijantsen traveled throughout Tibet, India, and China before arriving in Mongolia in 1890 where he tossed gold coins to bystanders and announced to one and all that he had come to free Mongolia from the yoke of the Qing Dynasty of China. After disappearing almost twenty years he returned to lead the attack on Khovd City, the last Chinese outpost in Mongolia. Honored by the Eighth Bogd Gegeen, the theocratic leader of Mongolia, for his efforts in achieving Mongolian independence, he went on to establish his own mini-state in western Mongolia, which he hoped to use as a base for establishing a Mongol-led Buddhist khanate in Inner Asia. His dictatorial nature and unbridled sadism soon came to the fore and he was finally arrested and imprisoned in Russia. After the Russian Revolution he returned to Mongolia, gathered new followers around him, and established a stronghold at the nexus of old caravan routes in Gansu Province, China. He robbed caravans, grew opium, and once again dreamed of creating a new Mongolian khanate in Inner Asia. Finally the new Bolshevik government in Mongolia, fearful of his rising power, issued orders for his assassination. Dambijantsan died in 1922, but in Mongolia legends persist to this day that his spirit still rides on the wind of the Gobi and continues to haunt his former lairs.

For more on Dambijantsan see False Lama of Mongolia: The Life and Death of Dambijantsan. 

Mongolia | Life & Death of the False Lama #16

Who was Dambijantsan?

A Buddhist monk; a freedom fighter for Mongolian independence; the descendant of Amursanaa (1723–1757), the Western Mongol who led the last great uprising against the Qing Dynasty of China; the incarnation of Mahakala, the Buddhist god of war; bandit, torturer, murderer, or evil incarnate? During his lifetime no one was sure who he really was, and even today the controversy about his life continues.

Born in what is now the Republic of Kalmykia, part of the Russian Federation, Dambijantsen traveled throughout Tibet, India, and China before arriving in Mongolia in 1890 where he tossed gold coins to bystanders and announced to one and all that he had come to free Mongolia from the yoke of the Qing Dynasty of China. After disappearing almost twenty years he returned to lead the attack on Khovd City, the last Chinese outpost in Mongolia. Honored by the Eighth Bogd Gegeen, the theocratic leader of Mongolia, for his efforts in achieving Mongolian independence, he went on to establish his own mini-state in western Mongolia, which he hoped to use as a base for establishing a Mongol-led Buddhist khanate in Inner Asia. His dictatorial nature and unbridled sadism soon came to the fore and he was finally arrested and imprisoned in Russia. After the Russian Revolution he returned to Mongolia, gathered new followers around him, and established a stronghold at the nexus of old caravan routes in Gansu Province, China. He robbed caravans, grew opium, and once again dreamed of creating a new Mongolian khanate in Inner Asia. Finally the new Bolshevik government in Mongolia, fearful of his rising power, issued orders for his assassination. Dambijantsan died in 1922, but in Mongolia legends persist to this day that his spirit still rides on the wind of the Gobi and continues to haunt his former lairs.

For more on Dambijantsan see False Lama of Mongolia: The Life and Death of Dambijantsan.