Ebook: Buddhism across the grasslands of Chinggis Khan

This book is a survey of Buddhist art, literature, monasteries and general history of Mongolian lands, the transcreation of the 6000 plus works in the Kanjur and Tanjur, highlights of Lamaism across the centuries, the writing of 220 philosophical, ritual, hagiographical and historical works under the Manchu dynasty, and so on. The development continued till 1920s when the communists took over. It also relates the destruction of 750 large monasteries uprooted down to their foundations, burning of five million xylographs and manuscripts according to Prof. Rinchen, the desecration of Erdeni Dzu and Choijin Lamin Sum the major cathedrals of Buddhism, the heart-rending genocide of monks who were herded into trucks length-wise and crosswise as they do with wood (none ever saw them): the book is a moving record of the barbarous destruction by the communists. The role of iconic intellectuals like Prof. Rinchen, Lobsang Vandan, Damdin Suren in these lurid years can be read in their own words. The anguished letters of Rinchen on the annihilation of the Mongol persona and the substitution of the Mongol script by Cyrillic are recorded here for the first time. The complete wiping out of monasteries, burning of books, millions of sacred images melted in furnaces in Kalmykia and Buryatia and now their renaissance are told in extenso. The discovery of the tales of Bhoja, Vikramaditya and Krsna unknown to modern research till then, the microfilming of the Tanjur, and the international networking of Mongolistics across Asia, Europe, USA and USSR by the efforts of Prof. Raghu Vira has been narrated.