Monastery of Zaya-pandita: History and Modern Times

Abstract

The article presents the results of the study on the history and culture of one of the four largest monasteries of Mongolia – the Zaya-gegen monastery in the Arkhangai aimag, as well as a brief historical and biographical information about the founder of the monastery, Zaya-pandita Luvsanprinlai. The purpose of the study is to reconstruct the main stages of the formation of the monastery complex, to identify the role of Zaya Pandita in the spread of Buddhism in the central part of Khalkha and to identify the current state of the monastery. We collected extensive material during the field work in the monastery in 2022. It has been established that the development of the monastery was greatly facilitated by the personality of its founder, Zaya Pandita, and his legacy in the form of a library with unique books and by a number of highly qualified Buddhist teachers. The library of the monastery contained manuscripts with unique recipes of medicines compiled by Mongolian lamas; names and images of many plants of the Mongolian flora were carved on stones, which were subsequently used as teaching aids for students of medical datsans. Zaya Pandita can be rightfully considered as one of the founders of the spread of Tibetan medicine in Mongolia; he was one of the outstanding scholars of his time, who wrote a number of important historical works. Also, the development of the Zaya-gegen monastery was facilitated by its strategic geographical location on the route of Chinese-Mongolian-Russian trade. During the research historical-biographical, chronological, comparative methods, the method of historical-topographic analysis of the monastery objects, and the method of participant observation have been used. Due to the use of these research methods and obtained information, the main stages of the history of the monastery, its current state, as well as the place, role and prospects for its further development in modern Mongolian society have been identified.

Keywords

• mongolia
• buddhism
• zaya-pandita luvsanprinlay
• monastery of zaya-gegen
• history and current state of the monastery
• buddhist monasteries