United Arab Emirates | Dubai | Apocalypse | Perfume

According to one alleged hadith (a saying of the Prophet Mohammad not included in the Koran), one of the signs of the approaching Apocalypse is that "you will see barefoot, naked, destitute bedouin shepherds competing among themselves in constructing tall buildings." According to some commentators, the bedouins who will build the buildings will come not from the Hijaz region of the Arabian Peninsula, that is the western part which contains Mecca, Medina, etc, but from the eastern part, which includes Dubai and the other Emirates. In the days of the Prophet the people of what is now Dubai may have been barefoot, naked, and destitute. They are no longer. The city is awash in money from petroleum-related trade and tourism. And as if in fulfillment of the Prophet’s prophecy Dubai is now constructing the world’s tallest building, specifically designed to outclass every other skyscaper in the world. This is the building known as the Burj Dubai, tentatively scheduled for completion in 2009. It will reportedly be 160 stories—2213 feet— high.

For background on the hadith of the prophecy concerning the construction of tall buildings see Mohammad Hisham Kabbani’s The Approach of Armageddon: An Islamic Perspective:

For another view of Islamic eschatological thought see:

Wanting to see for myself if I could detect any signs of the imminent Apocalypse in Dubai I booked a non-stop ticket on Southern China Airlines. It’s an eight and a half hour flight from Bejijng to Dubai. The big Airbus was completely sold out, but fortunately I had an emergency row seat and was able to stretch out. As far as I could see I was the foreigner on the plane. We flew west over Gansu and Xinjiang provinces of China and then down across Pakistan and Iran. Over Pakistan we got magnificent views the incredibly rugged Hindu Kush Mountains. Somewhere down there in those narrow valleys lined with snow-covered knife-edged mountains was Osama bin Laden and his acolytes. Then across Iran and down to Dubai.

The airport is immense. I must have walked a mile to Passport Control. Citizens of the US and most European countries do not need visas, which is not so unusual any more, but here you do not even have to fill out a form. A partly-veiled woman just stamps your passport. What hotel are you staying in? she asked. I said I did not know. You have no reservations? she asked. Again I said no, and she gave me a very skeptical look. I soon discovered what the problem was.

At eight in the evening it was a balmy 70 degrees outside the airport. I hailed one the brand new and spotlessly clean taxis out front and told the uniformed driver, an Indian from Bombay, that I needed a hotel. Very busy now, he said, lots of Arabs in town, but I will help you. Thus began a long trudge through the Deira district of town adjacent to the airport. We stopped at ten or more hotels only to be told they were full up. Having exhausted the budget places the driver suggested a new up-scale hotel which had just opened a couple of weeks ago. They had one room left, for about four times the price I would pay for a hotel room in Beijing. But I took it, since it was by now after eleven o’clock and the taxi driver was quickly running out of patience and threatening to leave me standing alone the side of the road. The room turned out to be an enormous two room suite, much larger than my apartment in Ulaan Baatar. But there was no in-room internet! What a rip-off! Even the rooms in the humble Yong An Hotel in Beijing have free high speed internet in the rooms. It had been over twelve hours since I had been connected with the internet and I was experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms. Even though it was near midnight I hit the streets looking for a quick fix. A half block from my hotel I found a very swank coffee bar with wireless internet for 5 dirhams ($1.36) an hour. I ordered a triple expresso, logged in, and settled back in the huge over-stuffed leather chair to read my latest emails from Beijing and Ulaan Baatar. My withdrawal anxieties quickly subsided. Even though it was after midnight the air-conditioning was going full blast and I was actually quite chilly. Back in my hotel room an hour later I turned on the TV and had the dubious treat of watching the Simpsons dubbed in Arabic. I fell asleep before the show was over.

Before beginning my researches into the Apocalypse I decided to check out the famous Perfume Souk in Dubai, reportedly one of the world’s greatest scent emporiums. I wanted some Arabian perfume for gifts and also some essential oils and incense for myself. If the end of the world comes I want to go out smelling good. The next morning I got a city map from the concierge and headed for the Perfume Souk down near the coast. It turned out to be about a walk of a mile. I sampled perfumes till my nose was satiated, but decided to put off any purchases till another day when hopefully I was a little better oriented. I seemed to be suffering from a tinge of jet lag. Next door was the world famous Gold Souk, whose hundreds of stores and stalls has what is reportedly one the largest—the largest, if you believe Dubai’s relentless boosters—selections of gold jewelry and accessories in the world.

Dubai is divided into two parts by the Creek, which egresses on Gulf of Arabia. On the east side, where I was, the area is known as Deira. The other side is known as Burj Dubai. Near the Gold Souk the Creek is six or seven hundred feet across. A steady stream of water taxis carries people back and forth. Hoping to get an overview of the city, I hired a taxi for a quick spin up the Creek and back.

Bank of Dubai Building from the Creek

Another view from the CreekWater Taxis on the Creek

Cruise Boat and Restaurant: in the evening you can eat dinner in these while cruising along the Creek. Some also go for a spin on the Arabian GulfAnother Dining Cruise Boat

Mongolia | Zanabazar Guide | eBook Version

The Guide to Locales Connected with the Life of Zanabazar is now for sale as an eBook. Buy It Here.

Mongolia | Zanabazar Guide in Paperback

The paperback edition of Guide to Locales Connected with Life of Zanabazar is now available.

Download two sample chapters here:
Yesön Züil: Birthplace of Zanabazar
Tövkhön: Zanabazar's Retreat and Workshop

China | Beijing | 1001 Nights

From the time the plane left the ground in Ulaan Baatar to the moment the door closed behind me in the Yongan Hotel 2 hours and forty minutes had elapsed, shaving eight minutes off my earlier record on the Ulaan Baatar – Beijing commute. In Beijing it was a balmy 62º, a far cry from the ten below zero temperatures in Ulaan Baatar the week before. My first priority was buying more tea. Instead of making the long trip to Maliandao Tea Street for a full-scale tea shopping trip I decided to get just a few day’s supply of tea at the little tea shop just down the street from the Kunlun Hotel and not far from my hotel.

Tea seller

The regular women was on duty and the moment I walked in she started brewing a complimentary fresh pot of Puerh Tea for me. This tea shop also serves as a currency trading shop, although there are no signs indicating this. It is instructive to sit here sipping tea and watch the Arabs and Africans from the nearby embassy district come in here and exchange four-inch thick wads of US one hundred bills for Chinese yuan. For the first time to my knowledge the black market exchange rate has dropped to less than eight yuan to the dollar: it is now 7.98. Over tiny cups of Puerh the woman in charge says that the black market traders expect the rate to soon fall to 7.80 yuan to the dollar. Things are going to get more expensive for visitors to China . . . so I decided to stock up on tea: Yunnan Black, some Qi Min Black, and some Dragon Well Green.

That evening Ms. R. and I went to Ms. R’s favorite restaurant, the 1001 Arabian Nights. This is right on the edge of the Embassy District and a lot of people from the embassies hang out here, especially people from the Mid-East. They also have belly dancers from Xinjiang in Western China, Ms. R’s home province, which is one reason she likes the place. Another is that they don't serve pork. Ms. R. won't eat in any restaurant that serves pork, which pretty much eliminates most Chinese places.

Relevant Portions of Uighur Belly Dancer

We no sooner sat down than four very young girls came in and took a table right beside us. They seemed young to be hanging out by themselves in a nightclub. Ms. R talked to them and discovered that two of the girls, a fourteen year old and a twelve year old, were from Tehran, Iran; another twelve year old was from Turkey, and an eight year old from Pakistan. They said that they are the children of embassy employees and that they came here together quite often after finishing their homework for yoghurt, cokes, and mango juice.

Eight year old girl from Pakistan whooping it up at 1001 Nights.

Mongolia | Töv Aimag | Tonyukuk Monuments

These stelae, located north of Nailakh at N47º42.308 / E107º28.448, date from 726 A.D, during the reign of the Kök Türk. They are covering with inscriptions written by Tonyukuk, who from 682 to 721 was an adviser to the Turkish khans. These inscriptions are among the oldest known examples of written Turkish language.

China | Ningxia Province | Yinchuan and Xi Xia

Several traditional Tibeto-Mongolian accounts credit Chingis Khan (1162–1227), founder of the Mongol Empire, with the introduction of Buddhism into what is now the country of Mongolia. The 17th century Jewel Translucent Sutra, a biography of Altan Khan, the Mongolian chieftain converted to Buddhism by the Tibetan Sonam Gyatso, the 3rd Dalai Lama, states:

Temüjin became famous as the Genius Chinggis Khan . . .
And invited Kunnga Nyingpo the Supreme Sakya Lama.
He [Chingis] was the first to propagate the Buddha’s religion.

The son of Könchok Gyelpo, who in 1173 founded Sakya Monastery in Tibet, Kunga Nyinpgo (1092–1158) was a noted scholar and meditator who gave the name of “Sakya” to the new sect which developed around the monastery founded by his father.

The Rosary of White Lotuses, a nineteenth-century history of the introduction of Buddhism into Mongolia, maintains, however, that Chingis sent this invitation, along with gifts, not to Kunga Nyinpgo but to a another lama at Sakya Monastery, Kunga Gyalten (1182–1251), who would become better known as the Sakya Pandita. The letter of invitation supposedly stated,

“I have not finished the wars of my reign yet, but as soon as these are over, please come to Hor [Mongolia] with your disciples and spread the Teachings of the Lord Buddha. . . In these boundless crude wastes of the north the Buddha’s teachings should make their long-delayed appearance.”

Dharmatala, the author of the Rosary of White Lotuses, adds, “Although he [Chingis] never met the lama himself, the Holy One acted as a Preceptor even from a distance, in the Preceptor-Protector bond. In this way, [Chingis] became the first Protector of the Teachings in Hor [Mongolia].” This was obviously an attempt to portray Chingis and one of the Sakya lamas as the progenitors of the Preceptor-Protector (or Priest-Patron) concept which later became a standard feature of first Mongol-Tibetan and eventually Qing Dynasty-Tibetan relations. The author of the Rosary of White Lotuses also asserts that Chingis was a emanation of the bodhisattva Vajrapani (himself a form of the Indian god Vishnu, the Destroyer), and also the “Great Turner of the Wheel of Power.” This latter phrase seems to suggest that the author viewed Chingis as a Chakravartin King, a ruler who combined propagating Buddhism (turning the wheel of dharma) with political power. As we shall, see, later lamas of the Sakya sect would develop this religio-political theory of a Chakravartin kingship and apply it to various of Chingis’s successors.

Despite these claims in traditional Tibeto-Mongolian accounts, however, there is little real evidence of any attempts by Chingis to propagate Buddhism and none that he became a Buddhist himself. Most modern-day historians dismiss these early contacts between Chingis and Buddhism as “historical fabrications”; one Tibetologist, Helmut Hoffman, dismisses Chingis’s letter to Sakya Pandita as “probably a pious invention.”

Chingis was remarkably broad-minded where religion was concerned, and might well have been the first ruler of an empire to espouse freedom of religion as a state policy. His youngest and possibly favorite son Tolui famously married a Nestorian Christian, and he himself showed considerable interest in Daoism, as witnessed by his well-known contacts with the Daoist priest Qiu Chuji, who traveled the whole way from China to the Hindu Kush Mountains in what is now probably Afghanistan to met the Mongolian ruler when he was there on a military campaign. His main interest in Daoism, however, was the belief that its priests possessed an elixir of eternal life; when this turned out to be not the case his personal interest faded, although he did grant Qiu Chuji control over all religious affairs in the conquered parts of northern China (the Temple of the White Clouds, patronized by Qiu Chuji, functions to this day in Bejing).

Chingis was certainly aware of Buddhism. He would have encountered Tibetan Buddhism first-hand no later than 1205 when he invaded the state of Xi Xia, in what is now the Chinese provinces of Gansu, Ningsia, and Inner Mongolia. The Xi Xia people, also known as Tanguts, were ethnically and culturally related to Tibetans, and spoke a language similar to Tibetan. In 1038 the Tangut ruler Yuanhao founded the Xi Xia Dynasty which was to exist coterminously with Liao and Jin dynasties in China proper. Xi Xia straddled the Silk Road and was thus exposed to various beliefs from both East and West, including Confucianism, Daoism, Manichaeanism, Nestorian Christianity, and Islam.

Buddhism was practiced in its Uighur, Chinese, and Tibetan forms, but ultimately Tibetan Buddhism became most prevalent in Xi Xia. The arrival of the Bengal sage Atisha in Tibet itself in 1042 signaled a renewed fluorescence of Buddhism and the end to the almost 200 year long spiritual dark-age which had followed the suppression of Buddhism in Tibet the King Langdharma, a supporter of the Bön religion, in the ninth century. As F. W. Mote points out “The eleventh century was a time of deep ferment and religious revival in Tibet; many learned monks fired with zeal for reform of their church spread out into neighboring parts of Inner Asia to teach the purified doctrines.” Some of these monks ended up in Xi Xia, where Tibetan Buddhism soon attracted many followers. As a semi-nomadic people themselves the Xi Xia had the greatest affinity for this form of Buddhism which had developed among the semi-nomadic people of Tibet. Tibetan Buddhism, with its Indian roots, may also have appealed to the Xi Xia leadership as a counterweight to the overwise overpowering influence of the Sinitic culture to the east. Thus it was Tibetan Buddhism which eventually became the dominant teaching in the Xi Xia realm.

I popped down to Beijing and winged westward 600 miles to Yinchuan, the capital of ancient Xi Xia and now the capital of Ningxia Province. My first stop was at the Ningxia Provincial Museum. Here on display was a replica of the Gangtong Stupa, dating from 1094, which gives a very detailed account of Buddhism in Xi Xia.


An example of Xi Xia writing, which may appear at first glance to be Chinese but is actually quite different.
A statue from the Xi Xia tombs outside Xinchuan; although Indian, Uighur, and Chinese forms of Buddhism were all found in Xi Xia, Tibetan Buddhism, as indicated by this statue, became the most prevalent.

Mongolia | Tov Aimag | Aryaval Temple

The new Aryaval Temple near Terelj is nearing completion. The main temple is already done, and the Kalachakra and Tara temples should be done by this summer.

Entrance with sign reading, “Gateway to the Perfection of Wisdom.”

Looking up the 108 stone steps to the temple

Looking down the valley from the entrance to the Temple

See photos of Aryaval Temple under construction

Austria | Graz | Terminator Terminated #2

Hometown Snubs Schwarzenegger Over Death Penalty. They finally went and did it: the Town Fathers of Graz, Austria, have taken Arnold Schwarzenegger's name off the stadium there (see post below). Now Graz will be best known as the birthplace of psychopath Roman "The Bloody Baron" Ungern von Sternberg. One of the Bloody Baron's boots, by the way, can be seen on the National Museum of Mongolian History in Ulaan Baatar

Mongolia | Lama Gombo | Kalachakra Tantra

A little while back Lama Gombo called and said he had something he wanted to talk about. When I went to see him at Lamrim Khiid in Ulaan Baatar he presented me with a CD-full of photographs of a Tibetan-language Buddhist scripture that had recently surfaced in Bulgan Aimag.

Lama Gombo

As best I can make out, given the sometimes non-linear mode of Lama Gombo's mind (he is ninety-two years old), prior to 1937 the book had been the Kalachakra Temple, which at that time was located in Zuun Khuree, an appendage, as it were, of Ikh Khüree, which at the time was located in the general area of Sükhebaatar Square in what is now Ulaan Baatar. Around 1937 the Kalachakra Temple was destroyed by the communists, but a monk at the temple rescued the book and gave it to a man in Nailakh, the coal-mining town just east of Ulaan Baatar, for safe keeping. Apparently the man in Nailakh died and the book passed to a relative. In 1998 the relative gave the book to a lama at Gandan Monastery. A lama at Erdene Khamba Monastery in Bulgan Aimag then asked for the book because his monastery did not have a copy. Apparently this was viewed by some parties as a loan, but the first lama at Gandan died, and now the lama at Erdene Khamba says that the book was actually given to him, and by extension to his monastery, and he refused to return it to Gandan. So the physical book remains in Bulgan.

First page of the Condensed Kalachakra Tantra

At any rate, Lama Gombo wanted to know if it was possible to make a facsimile edition of the book from the photos. Given the low resolution and poor quality of the digital photos I had to tell him I did not think this was possible. Still, the book seemed quite interesting. At first Lama Gombo gave the impression that it had been written by the 4th Bogd Gegen, a successor to Zanabazar (see Incarnations of Javzandamba). This proved to be incorrect, however, the book had been commissioned, not written, by the 4th Bogd Gegen. Upon further questioning of Lama Gombo, it then became apparent that the book was actually a copy of the Condensed Kalachakra Tantra, written according to tradition by Manjushri Yashas, one of the Kings of Shambhala.

I sent some pages to translator and Tibetogolist Glenn Mullin, and he also said that it almost certainly a copy of the Condensed Kalachakra Tantra, and added that one of the last pages of the book stated that the print had been created from a critical comparison of the two different Tibetan texts, one published by Sakya Monastery in Tibet and the other presumably a critical edition created by either Desi Sangye Gyatso or else Ngawang Chokden, the Seventh Dalai Lama's Inner Mongolia guru.

Glenn Mullin then sent an email with photos of the relevant pages to Gene Smith at the Rubin Museum of Tibetan Art in New York City. Smith headed the Library of Congress program for publishing Tibetan texts back in the '70s and '80s and is now the Director of the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center, located at the Rubin Museum in New York. This organization has already scanned several million page of Tibetan texts and makes them available in digital form.

Gene Smith promptly replied to me, saying that he would very much like to see the photos of the book. He already has a scanned version of a Condensed Kalachakra Tantra produced in Beijing during the Yuan Dynasty, probably between 1291 and 1309, as a memorial to Khubilai Khan, Chingis Khan’s grandson, who founded the Yuan Dynasty, and he opined that it would be very interesting to compare the two editions.

The book now in Bulgan contains many illustrations. According to Lama Gombo the illustrations first consisted of black and white line drawings and were later colored in by the 4th Bogd Gegeen himself. If this is true it would certainly add to the bibliographical interest of the book.

Buddha on the first page, alleged colored by the 4th Bogd Gegeen

Kalachakra Diety, allegedly colored by the 4th Bogd Gegeen

It was the Fourth Bogd Gegeen who first introduced the Duinkhor, or Kalachakra Doctrine, into Mongolia in 1801. In 1803 he made a trip to Lhasa and brought back with him a large collection statues and books. According to ethnologist A. M. Pozdneev, “he esteemed as the upmost of his acquisitions a Kanjur written in gold on black parchment . . . in the following year [1805] the Gegen brought to completion some enterprises that were new for Urga and were adopted by him from Tibet . . in 1806 he set up a special datsang for the school of Duinkor [Kalachakra]” and services were performed here in 1807. "In the same year 1807, the Gegen ordered a yum written in gold from Tibet . . . Moreover, being devoted to the task of developing Duinkhor, the Gegen decorated the temple of Dachin-kalbain-Sume, gilding its roof, and in its courtyard he established his personal residence.”

My point here is that the 4th was deeply involved in the Kalachakra and had ample opportunities to get copies of the Condensed Kalachakra Tantra from Tibet with which to make a new edition here in Mongolia. This may be how he acquired the two editions which were mentioned in the publishing information given in the text and noted by Glenn Mullin.

The 4th Bogd's “Dachin-kalbain-Sume” was the Kalachakra Temple in Ikh Khüree where the book was kept before its destruction around 1937. A new version of this temple, the Dechengalpa Datsan, also known as the Kalachakra Temple, was constructed in Gandan in 1992. Kalachakra rituals are now held here on a regular basis. The temple also contains thangkas of the 722 Kalachakra Dieties and the Kingdom of Shambhala.

The Kalachakra Temple (right) at Gandan

China | Beijing | Maliandao Tea Street

I mentioned below that several new tea stores have recently opened in Ulaan Baatar. This Is certainly an improvement in the tea situation here, but the stores are still lacking in certain kinds of tea, namely Pu-Erh and the more unusual varieties of green tea. So I winged down to Beijing to stock up on what was not available here. From the second the plane left the ground in Ulaan Baatar to the second the door slammed behind me in my room in the Yong An Hotel in the Sanlitun Embassy District exactly two hours and forty-eight minutes had elapsed, a new record for me on the Beijing commute. This was aided by no line whatsoever at immigration and a bus leaving for Sanlitun the moment I stepped out of the arrival terminal.

I immediately called my friends Ms. R. and Rezwan and we all headed for our favorite Uighur restaurant not far from the Forbidden City.

Ms. R. modeling her new camel wool hat-scarf combo

Rezwan

The next day with Ms. R. in tow I headed for the Maliandao Tea Street in the Western Xuanwu District of Beijing. This is the Mecca of tea drinkers, the Axis Mundi of the Tea Universe. In addition to the main four-story market which has dozens if not hundreds of stores selling nothing but tea and tea drinking accessories—cups, glasses, pots and whatnot of every imaginable variety–the street itself is lined with hundreds more tea shops.

The Main Tea Market on Maliandao Tea Street - four floors of tea shops

The moment you walk in the main market you are accosted by people practically begging you to come in and sample their teas.

One corridor of many on the first floor, all lined with tea shops

Each shop has a fully equipped tea sampling table and you are encouraged, nay, expected to sample any tea before you buy it. Could there possibly be a more enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon?

A sight to make any tea lover swoon

Ms. R. is a hard-core bargainer and she was able to get most of the tea I wanted for one-fourth of the asking price. I won’t say there were not some heated exchanges between Ms. R. and the otherwise charming young ladies who served the tea and quoted the prices, but for Ms. R. all this was just water off a duck’s back.

Tea sampling

More tea sampling

I just sat back and sipped tea, not wishing to concern myself with the mundane details of unseemly haggling. Anyway, you have to speak Chinese, a language which seems specifically designed for yelling at people, to get the really good prices.

Ms. R. quite pleased with herself after a hard session of bargaining.