Mongolia | Ulaanbaatar | Bogd Khan Winter Palace | Taranantha

Last weekend I wandered out to Erdene Zuu for the Celebration of Zanabazar’s 376 Birthday and to take photos of the First Sixteen Incarnations of Javsandamba. This weekend I wandered over to the Bogd Khan Winter Palace Museum, not far from my hovel in Zaisan Tolgoi,  to see the statue of Taranatha, the sixteenth incarnation of Javsandamba. As you know, Taranatha, the founder of Takten Damcho Ling Monastery in Tibet, eventually moved to Mongolia and died here in 1634. What is less known is that at least part of his bodily remains (his head according to some versions of the story) are inside the statue in the Lavrin Temple of the Bogd Khan Palace Complex.
 The Lavrin Temple of the Bogd Khan Palace Complex three weeks ago, before the last big snowfall
 Taranatha (1575–1634)
 Taranatha
Taranatha
Taranatha
Well-known scholar Nyamochir paying his respects to Taranatha
Ruins of Takten Damcho Ling, monastery in Tibet founded by Taranatha
The Twenty-fifth incarnation of Javsandamba and the Ninth Bogd Gegeen of Mongolia, currently living in Ulaanbaatar. 

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