CHAPTER XLIV

A PAGE IN THE HISTORY OF THE PRESENT LIVING BUDDHA

The present Bogdo Khan of Outer Mongolia is a Tibetan.  He sprang from a poor family living in the neighborhood of Sakkia Kure in western Tibet.  From earliest youth he had a stormy, quite unaesthetic nature.  He was fired with the idea of the independence and glorification of Mongolia and the successors of Jenghiz Khan.  This gave him at once a great influence among the Lamas, Princes and Khans of Mongolia and also with the Russian Government which always tried to attract him to their side.  He did not fear to arraign himself against the Manchu dynasty in China and always had the help of Russia, Tibet, the Buriats and Kirghiz, furnishing him with money, weapons, warriors and diplomatic aid.  The Chinese Emperors avoided open war with the Living God, because it might arouse the protests of the Chinese Buddhists.  At one time they sent to the Bogdo Khan a skilful doctor-poisoner.  The Living Buddha, however, at once understood the meaning of this medical attention and, knowing the power of Asiatic poisons, decided to make a journey through the Mongol monasteries and through Tibet.  As his substitute he left a Hubilgan who made friends with the Chinese doctor and inquired from him the purposes and details of his arrival.  Very soon the Chinese died from some unknown cause and the Living Buddha returned to his comfortable capital.

On another occasion danger threatened the Living God.  It was when Lhasa decided that the Bogdo Khan was carrying out a policy too independent of Tibet.  The Dalai Lama began negotiations with several Khans and Princes with the Sain Noion Khan and Jassaktu Khan leading the movement and persuaded them to accelerate the immigration of the Spirit of Buddha into another human form.  They came to Urga where the Bogdo Khan met them with honors and rejoicings.  A great feast was made for them and the conspirators already felt themselves the accomplishers of the orders of the Dalai Lama.  However, at the end of the feast, they had different feelings and died with them during the night.  The Living Buddha ordered their bodies sent with full honors to their families.

The Bogdo Khan knows every thought, every movement of the Princes and Khans, the slightest conspiracy against himself, and the offender is usually kindly invited to Urga, from where he does not return alive.

The Chinese Government decided to terminate the line of the Living Buddhas.  Ceasing to fight with the Pontiff of Urga, the Government contrived the following scheme for accomplishing its ends.