Mongolia | Zaisan Tolgoi | Moon Cycles

The Waxing Sickle Moon has been presenting an absolutely gorgeous spectacle as it slides by Jupiter each evening before sinking behind Öndör Gegeenii Uul just south of my hovel in Zaisan Tolgoi. The Full Cold Moon, or Unduvap Poya Moon, as it is known to Buddhists, is coming up on December 2, and I predict it will be a dilly. We are in the midst of an extremely auspicious lunar cycle. At such times Portals to Shambhala have been known to appear in the strangest places . . .

Graphic courtesy of Sky & Telescope

Mongolia | Life and Death of Ja 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. 

Turkey | Istanbul | Jahongir Ashurov | More Miniatures

Couldn’t resist adding a couple more miniatures from the Jahongir Ashurov Show now taking place in Istanbul. The first is apparently one of the favorites of Peony, who has a wonderful post up about, among other things, Orhan Pamuk’s novel My Name Is Red, which of course deals with the whole subject of miniatures.
Miniature by Jahongir Ashurov:

Musician

Detail of Musician

The second one I cannot resist because it portrays camels, for which I have a Soft Spot in my heart.

Camels

I ask you, who cannot help but Love Camels?

Turkey | Istanbul | Beyoglu

Not having found any trace of a Portal to Shambhala in the Sultanahmed Area, the old historical core of Istanbul, I decided to check out of my hotel and move over to the Beyoglu District on the other side of the Golden Horn. As I mentioned earlier, the old tekke of the Mevlevi Whirling Dervishes is in this area. Gunj, my host in Istanbul, was kind enough to take time off from her incessant labors on the behalf of Central Asian Artists and accompany me. Any journey with Gunj when she has free time entails a lot of stops along the way to smell the roses, or in this case, taste a fish sandwich at the famous water-side outdoor restaurants near the Galata Bridge where the fish are actually cooked on boats tied up alongside the dock.

View from near Galata Bridge

Fish restaurants near the Galata Bridge. Fish are cooked on the boats and served shore side.

Gunj at the Galata Bridge

The Golden Horn with the Süleymaniye Mosque at the upper left

The fish sandwich was just an appetizer. Having crossed the Galata Bridge to Beyoglu we stopped at another one of Gunj’s favorite restaurants, the historic Tarihi Karaköy Balik Loksantasi, for the next course—Fish Soup.

Then we climbed up the steep cobblestone streets of Beyoglu to the Galata Tower . . .

. . . where we had tea and dessert at this charming outdoor cafe.

Finally we arrived the Hotel Londres, Gunj’s favorite hostelry in all of Istanbul. This place is dripping with history. It was founded in 1892, one of the first European-style hotels to service travelers arriving on the Orient Express, the first non-stop version of which reached Istanbul from Paris in June of 1889. Although the hotel has been remodeled several times it still retains a lot of its nineteenth-century features. The doors to the rooms and the locks may well be the originals. Over the years many famous people have frequented the hotel, including Ernest Hemingday and more recently Gunj, who celebrated one of her birthdays here. I half-expect to see Peter Lorre simpering in a dark corner of the lobby.

Peter Lorre. If he didn’t stay at the Hotel Londres he should have.

Just down the street from the Hotel Londres is the equally famous Pera Palace Hotel, also founded in 1892. According to legend, Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express in Room 411 of the hotel. The room is still available, if you desperately need an Agatha Christie fix.

Lobby of the Hotel Londres

Gunj lighting up the Hotel Londres Lobby with her luminious presence.

Gunj deciding the fate of some hitherto unknown Central Asian artist.

Hemingway no doubt bellied up to this very bar. The bartender may still be contemplating his order.

Staircase in the Hotel leading to the Rooftop Cafe

Gunj relaxing from her otherwise relentless labors at her favorite table in the Rooftop Cafe of the Hotel Londres.

Sunset over the Golden Horn from the rooftop cafe of the Hotel Londres. Along with the Pyramids of Egypt and Zaisan Tolgoi in Ulaan Baatar surely one of the world’s most stunning vistas.

Turkey | Istanbul | Jahongir Ashurov | Miniatures

Finally managed to track down the peripatetic Gunj, who has been busier than a bee in a clover patch organizing an Istanbul show for Bukhara-based Uzbek miniaturist Jahongir Ashurov.

Gunj (right) and Friend

We eventually retired to the Gulluoglu Baklava Shop near the shores of the Bosphorus Strait, which according to Gunj has the best Baklava in Istanbul if not the world. The exhibition, I am informed, will open on November 16, with a reception at 5:00 PM and run through Nov. 26, which means that if you book airplane tickets now you will just be able to make the opening scene, which should be a real lalapalooza. Expect rivers of raki to flow. The show will be at the Yildiz Sarayi, which is an old Ottoman palace at Barbaros Bulvari, Besiktas, in Istanbul. I suggest you stay at the Grand Hotel Londres in Beyoglu, that is if you can get reservations, since the place is usually booked up tighter than a tick in a hound dog’s ear.

Here is a sampling of the miniatures which will be on display, and for sale:

Miniature of famous philosopher and doctor Ibn-i Sina, alias Avicenna (980–1037).

Tears running down Ibn-i Sina’s face. They are both tears of joy because he has just discovered a new medicinal plant and tears of sadness, since he discovered the plant too late to cure the illness from which his son died.

For a good introduction to Ibn-i Sina’s thought see:

For a good biography see:

I have both of these items in my Scriptorium and can recommend them highly if you want to get up to speed on Ibn-i Sina.

Fellow Bibliophile reading a bookDetail of Fellow Bibliophile
Lovely Bibliophile. I don’t doubt that she has a fantastic Scriptorium.
Amir Timur, a.k.a. Tamerlane leading his horse by the Tomb of the saint Turk-i Candi (a.k.a Turki Jandi) in Bukhara. He dismounted to show respect to the saint. By the way, the Saint’s Tomb still exists and can be seen in Bukhara. Don’t miss it the next time you’re in Uzbekistan.

Out of respect for Turk-i Candi Tamerlane also wrapped up the hooves of his horse so they would not make so much noise while he was passing by the tomb.

Lady with Hanky
Detail of Lady with Hanky
Bathing Girl
Detail of Bathing Girl
Peeping Tom watching Bathing Girl
A Naughty Demon trying on the Bathing Beauty’s boots
Faces in Rocks

This is just a brief sampling of the many miniatures which will be on display. Pop over to Istanbul to see more . . .

Turkey | Istanbul | Caravanserais | Shambhala

Update: If you are unfortunate enough to be in New York City you can swing by the American Museum of Natural History for their new Silk Road Exhibition, which features several of the places listed below, including Xian and Turpan.

From the Sultanahmed Koftesi I walked up Divan Yolu and turned right at Constantine’s Column onto Vezirhani Street. This neighborhood, which includes the Grand Bazaar, is the repository of many old hans, or caravanerserais, which offered lodging and warehousing to foreign merchants and traders, some of whom plied the Silk Road. Istanbul was of course the western terminus of at least two of the overland branches of the Silk Road. Burak Sansal summarizes these:

The caravan routes transporting silk, china, paper, spices and precious stones from one continent to the other followed several itineraries in Asia before arriving in Anatolia, which served as a bridge linking it to Europe via the Thrace region. These caravan routes later acquired the name of silk roads and Anatolia constituted the crossroad of these routes. The major cities lying on the Silk Road Anatolia were, in the north: Trabzon, Gümüshane, Erzurum, Sivas, Tokat, Amasya, Kastamonu, Adapazari, Izmit, Istanbul and Edirne; and in the south: Mardin, Diyarbakir, Adiyaman, Malatya, Kahramanmaras, Kayseri, Nevsehir, Konya, Isparta, Antalya and Denizli. Another frequently used itinerary is known to be the one between Erzurum, Malatya, Kayseri, Kirsehir, Ankara, Bilecik, Bursa, Iznik, Izmit and Istanbul.

The Vezir Han, one of the more venerable of the caravanserais in the Grand Bazaar area, is located not far from the corner of Vezirhani Street and Divan Yolu. The entrance does not seem to be marked, but this might well be the portal leading to the inner courtyard. The han itself was built sometime in the fourteenth century, and thus may have caught the tail end of the trading boom that accompanying the Pax Mongolica established by Chingis Khan and his successors, most of whom favored free trade. In his Guidebook to the Silk Road, written just before the Black Plague of 1348–50, Balducci Pegolotti wrote that you could travel from Khanbalik (Beijing) to the Black Sea in 300 days. “The road you travel . . . to Cathay (China) is perfectly safe, whether by day or by night, according to what the merchants say who have used it,” he wrote.

Just down the street, a gateway on the left leads to the Nuruosmaniye Mosque and the Grand Bazaar. The mosque is now undergoing renovation and was not open on the day I was there.

Nuruosmaniye Mosque, started in 1748 by Mahmut I and completed in 1755 by Osman III: the first large mosque to incorporate the Baroque style then popular in Europe.

The passageway past the Nuruosmaniye Mosque leads to the famous and indeed notorious Grand Bazaar, one of the world’s oldest and largest markets, founded in 1461, with more than 58 covered streets and over 1,200 shops. I will be returning here before I leave Istanbul, but for the moment I am hot on the trail of caravanserais.

One of the main entrances to the Grand Bazaar

Alongside the Grand Bazaar are ancient shopping arcades which may well date back to Silk Road times.

Old stone building near the Grand Bazaar

Just down the street is the Mahmud Pasha Mosque, one of the oldest private mosques in Istanbul. It was built in 1463 by Mahmud Pasha, the Grand Vizier of Sultan Mehmed II, who had conquered Constantinople in 1453, turning it into Istanbul. He eventually fell out with Mehmed and was executed in 1474. His tomb, directly behind the mosque, is said to be decorated with some of the oldest existing Iznik Tiles in Istanbul, which must offer him some consolation. Unfortunately, on the day I was there the tomb was locked.

Mahmut Pasha Mosque

From the Mosque Mahmut Pasha Yokusu (Hill) the street drops down to the Spice Market and the shore of the Golden Horn.

Street dropping down from Mahmut Pasha Yokusu

This street is lined with various hans, including the Kurkchu Han, said to be the oldest caravanserai in Istanbul. This han specialized in people involved in the fur trade. It is now fronted by nondescript sheds, but the gateway, although covered with thick paint and topped by a new sign, is said to be the original. Behind the gateway can be seen the ancient stone walls of the old caravanserai.

Kurkchu Han

Another khan on Mahmut Pasha Yokshu

Wandering about down this street lined with hans I could not help but wonder about the people who washed up here over the centuries and what they may have brought with them besides the material goods in which they were trading. In additional to being a trade route the Silk Road was of course also a conduit for ideas, philosophies, and religious beliefs. We have already seen how Nestorian Christianity moved eastward into China, establishing a Beachhead in Xian, the eastern terminus of the Silk Road (notwithstanding the contention of our Beloved Peony that in fact the eastern terminus was in Japan), in the eighth century if not earlier, and how a Mosque in Xian had been built in 742, a mere 120 years after the Hegira (we are of course speaking here of the 622 AD Hegira and not the twentieth-century Hippy Hegira).

The Eastward Advance of Buddhism from India into China is well-known; the dispersion of Buddhism westward less so. Did the traders and travelers who arrived here at these hans from the East bring with them the teachings of Buddha, either in written form, formal oral transmissions, or traveler’s tales? More specifically, did the Shambhala Mythologem, as first expounded in the Kalachakra Tantra and later elaborated on by many commentators, ever reach these ancient cobblestone streets?

As you know, according to legend the Kalachakra Tantra was first taught by the Buddha to Sucandra, the First King of Shambhala. Also according to legend, pilgrims to Shambhala brought an abbreviated version of the Kalachakra Tantra back to India in the tenth century or so, and from there it was disseminated into Tibet and later into Mongolia. More literal minded, beady-eyed scholars have bypassed the legendary origins of the Kalachakra Tantra altogether and contend that it was written in the tenth or eleventh century. Exactly where remains a matter of great dispute. Some scholars in the past have suggested that it was written in the Turpan Basin, on the north side of the Tarim Depression, still other in Khotan, on the south side of the Tarim Depression. Both of these cities were of course famous stops on the Silk Road. Could the Kalachakra Tantra and attendant Shambhala Mythologem have been carried the whole way westward to the terminus of the Silk Road in Istanbul?

The Tarim Basin as Shambhala. Branches of the Silk Road ran along both the north and south sides of the basin. See Enlargement of Map

Also, we know that the Kalachakra Tantra reached the court of Khubilai Khan, ruler of the Mongol Empire, in what is now Beijing in the late thirteen century. Khubilai Khan may have himself taken the Kalachakra Initiation (this is a matter of contention). We know for sure a copy of the Kalachakra Tantra was made to commemorate his death in 1294. This copy still exists and I myself had digitized copies of it distributed in Mongolia. Thus the Kalachakra Tantra and attendant Shambhala Mythologem could also have move westward on the Silk Road from Beijing.

Just how far did Buddhism itself extend its influence westward? In the 1250s Khülegü Khan (1217–1265), grandson of Chingis Khan and brother of Khubilai Khan, invaded what is now Iran and in 1256 destroyed the stronghold of the Ismaili Sect at Alamut. In 1258 He Sacked Baghdad, overthrowing the 500 year-old Islamic Abbasid Dynasty, and in the process reopening the Silk Road. Khülegü was a Buddhist, at least in his later life, but his wife Doquz Khatun and his mother, the legendary Sorghaghtani Beki, were Christians.

One of Khülegü’s successors, the Il-Khan Arghun, eventually made the city of Tabriz, in the northwest corner of what is now Iran, just west of the Caspian Sea, his capital, and here Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam were all said to flourish, at least at first. From here Buddhism might well have moved further westward. As is turned out, Tabriz may mark the the limits of Buddhist expansion to the west, at least until the late twentieth century and the Tibetan Diaspora. The Mongol Il-Khans soon converted to Islam, and what is now Iran eventually became a predominately Islamic country. Buddhism virtually disappeared from Persia, thus cutting off the lands further to the west from the wellsprings of Buddhism in the East.

But while Buddhism as an organized religion may not have traveled the whole way west on the Silk Road traders and travelers may well have brought texts and tales with them, including accounts of the legendary realm of Shambhala. There is, as we shall soon see, a persistent connection between Sufis, practitioners of a mystical brand of Islam, and Shambhala. Indeed, just before I came to Istanbul, a pandita in Ulaan Baatar informed me that a considerable percentage of the current population of Shambhala are in fact Sufis. Could Sufis have learned about Shambhala from Silk Road travelers, or had Sufis themselves plied the old trade routes and brought back to Istanbul knowledge of the legendary Kingdom? Could they then have used their knowledge to locate a Portal here in Istanbul? Of course Istanbul was in the past a hotbed of Sufism. My next stop is the old Mevlevi Tekke in Galatea, on the other side of the Golden Horn, once home to the Whirling Dervishes, one of the most famous Sufi sects.

Turkey | Istanbul | Sultanahmed District

While still in the Sultanahmed district of Istanbul I wandered into the tomb of Sultan Ahmed, whom the area is named after (I am referring here of course to the ruler of the Ottoman Empire from 1603 to 1617 and not Guantanamo Detainee 842). I had already visited the Blue Mosque, which he had built, but that day I had bypassed his tomb, just to the side of the mosque, because it was engorged with people who had just disembarked from three big tourist buses. The reign of Sultan Ahmed is often referred to as the high watermark of the Ottomans; the inevitable decline and fall of the empire is said to begin with him.

Tomb of Sultan Ahmed

Casket of Sultan Ahmed

Relatives of Sultan Ahmed awaiting Resurrection Day

Just across the street from Sultan Ahmed’s Tomb is the so-called Column of the Serpents. Originally built by the Greek City-States to commemorate their victory over the Persians at the 479 BC Battle of Plataea, the column was moved to Constantinople by Byzantine Emperor Constantine in the 4th Century AD. The original column showed three snakes entwined together. The heads of the snakes disappeared some three hundred years ago and now only the main column survives.

The Column of the Serpents without its heads

The Column of the Serpents figures prominently in the plot of the novel The Snake Stone, by Jason Goodwin.

Goodwin is the author of three novels starring Yashim Togalu, a eunuch detective/private eye based in early 19th-century Istanbul. In The Snake Stone, one of the heads of the Serpent Column ends up in the hands of his sidekick and drinking buddy Stanislaw Palewski, who is the Polish ambassador to the Ottomans, even though Poland not longer exists as a country at the time (it’s a long story). Besides offering very atmospheric portrayals of Istanbul life both high and low the books also shed some light on the not-uninteresting sex-life of eunuchs. Yashim Togalu may lack balls, but he still has a tongue, which comes in quite handy when hot-blooded Russian hussies are involved.

Indeed, there is a whole genre of detective fiction based in Istanbul. See for example the books of Barbara Nadel and Jenny B. White.

Before resuming my search for the Portal to Shambhala, which I expected to be exhausting, I thought I better have lunch, so I wandered down the street to Sultanahmed Koftesi (cool web site), a local landmark immensely popular with both locals and visitors alike (check out their Menu). Right next door to this restaurant is the famous Pudding Shop, which as I mentioned in an earlier post was the western terminus of the Hippie Hegira back in the 1960s and 70s. See Photos from That Halcyon Era.