A devotional doha by the Mongolian scholar-poet Zava Damdin (b. 1976).

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ABOVE THE TSAIDAM PLAIN

(English Translation)

Far away across ten thousand lands
Beyond a thousand rivers
In the midst of the snowy mountains
Upon a green carpet of grass

In that wondrous palace of Dharma*
From my venerable Bogd of the heart
I learned the profound teachings
And trained my wayward mind

He cared for me with a mother’s heart
He strengthened me with a father’s firmness
He showed me that which lies beyond the teachings
He revealed that which is beyond their meaning

When I wandered the world
He taught me the meaning beneath its surface
When I sat alone in meditation
He made me steadfast, untouched by loneliness

My Bogd of the heart
Is no longer beside his son*
Yet now, little swallow that I am,
The courage of a garuḍa has settled within me

The venerable elder
Is no longer beside his son
Yet in me, a small wolf cub,
There is the gall of a white wolf*

My Bogd, lord of future ages
Abides far away in the eastern realm*
Yet in me, so small and limited,
There is the lion’s roar

My great father, the Bogd
Dwells in the realm of Agniṣṭha*
Yet in me, his humble son,
There remains a fragment of thunder

Across the vault of the hazy blue sky
White silk curtains are drawn
Above the Tsaidam Plain*
A dense mist-frost settles

Though people may bring me sorrow
I shall regard them as sun-maidens*
Though I, his son, may long for him
My Bogd will never abandon me

Within the lake of my breast
There is a white lotus
At its centre I have forever enshrined
My venerable Bogd in worship

A song composed in remembrance of my teacher, the Venerable Bogd Gevsh Tüvden Perenlei. Concerning his deeds, they are difficult to describe; concerning his renown, impossible to exhaust. Sung on the fifth day of the first month of Spring in the Year of the Mouse.

Delgertsogt Mountain

28.02.2020

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Translated by C.Pleteshner
English interpretation 18.06.2026 from the original Mongolian 28.02.2020

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ЦАЙДАМ ТАЛЫН ДЭЭ

(Original Mongolian)

Tүмэн газрын алсад
Мянган мөрний чандад
Цаст уулсын төвд
Зүлэгт ногоон дэвсгэрээ

Гайхамшигт номын өргөөнд
Зүрхний өвгөн Богдоосоо
Гүн номлолд суралцаж
Өвч сэтгэлээс дассансан

Эхийн сэтгэлээр асарч
Эцэг мэт хатуужуулав
Номын цаадахыг үзүүлж
Утгын цаадахыг таниулав

Ертөнцийг бэдэн явахад
Ерөнхий утгасыг зааж
Гагцаар диянчлан суухад
Гансрал үгүй хатангатгав

Гагц зүрхний Богд минь
Хөвүүний дэргэд үгүй
Эдүгээ бялзуухай над
Гарьдын зориг суув л

Өвгөн буурал тэр бээр
Хөвүүний дэргэд үгүй
Бяцхан бэлтрэг над
Цагаан чонын цөс бий л

Ашдын өрлөг Богд минь
Алс дагшинд залраастай
Өчүүхэн мөхөс над
Арслангийн уулга бий л

Агуу эцэг Богд минь
Агнистын оронд саатаастай
Адаг хөвүүн над
Аянгын хэлтэрхий бий л

Хөхүмдэг огторгуйн мандалд
Цагаан торгон хөшиглөж
Цайдам талын дээр
Хүдэн манан жаварлав

Хүмүүн намайг гуниглуулавч
Наран дагина болгооно
Хөвүүн би санагалзавч
Богд минь намайг орхихгүй

Өвчүүн нууран дотор
Цагаан лянхуа бий л
Өвгөн Богдыгоо төвд нь
Өнөд онголон тахив би

Хулгана жилийн хаврын эхэн сарын шинийн таванд алдрыг нь өгүүлэхүйеэ бэрх, хэргийн тухайд өгүүлбээс Өвгөн Богд Гэвш Түвдэн Пэрэнлэй багшийгаа санан дуулсан дуулал.

Дэлгэрцогт уул

28.02.2020

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TRANSLATOR NOTES

1. The opening stanzas refer to Zava Damdin Rinpoche’s period of formal study with Larampa Geshe Thubten Trinley at Rabten Choeling Centre for Higher Tibetan Studies on Mont Pèlerin, above Lake Geneva / Lac Léman near Vevey, Switzerland. The poem’s “snowy mountains,” “green carpet of grass,” and “wondrous palace of Dharma” thus evoke both an actual place of monastic learning and the remembered landscape of scholarly training.
2. The terms эцэг (“father”) and хөвүүн (“son”) are used throughout the poem in the traditional Buddhist sense of the teacher-disciple relationship rather than indicating a biological kinship.
3. Богд (Bogd) is retained rather than translated as “Holy One” or “Master.” In Mongolian Buddhist usage it is both an honorific and an expression of profound devotion.
4. Зүрхний Богд / Гагц зүрхний Богд is rendered as “Bogd of the heart” rather than “heart’s Bogd” or “beloved guru,” preserving the directness and intimacy of the original.
5. Гарьд (garuḍa) is left untranslated. In Buddhist and Central Asian literature the garuḍa symbolizes fearless spiritual power and transcendent vision.
6. Цагаан чонын цөс literally means “the gall of a white wolf”. The image has been preserved rather than interpreted. The white wolf occupies a special place in Mongolian cultural memory and steppe cosmology. Unlike the grey wolf of many Eurasian traditions, the white wolf is a rare and auspicious being, often associated with nobility, purity of lineage, and the untamed vitality of the steppe. In Mongolian folklore and epic literature, wolves are admired not merely for ferocity but for courage, endurance, intelligence, and fierce devotion to kin. Thus, when the poet declares that within him there remains “the gall of a white wolf,” he seems to be invoking not aggression but an inherited strength of spirit—a fearless resilience received from his teacher and carried forward despite loss and separation.
7. Literally, алс дагшинд (“in the distant east”). In Mongolian Buddhist usage, the east is often associated with auspicious and sacred realms; hence “the eastern realm” preserves both the geographical and symbolic sense of the original. 
8. Агнистын орон refers to Agniṣṭha (Akaniṣṭha), the highest pure realm in Buddhist cosmology. The Sanskrit-derived name is retained.
9. Tsaidam (Mongolian: Цайдам, Tibetan: Tsaidam/Qaidam) refers to the vast high-altitude basin lying between the Tibetan Plateau and the mountain ranges of present-day Qinghai. In Mongolian Buddhist memory, it evokes not merely a geographical landscape but a sacred frontier of pilgrimage, monastic learning, and spiritual exile. In this poem, I feel that the “Tsaidam Plain” functions both as a real place and as a landscape of Rinpoche’s remembrance—a wide, wind-swept expanse across which the disciple recalls the presence of his Teacher. The plain’s openness mirrors the emotional and spiritual distance that separates master and student, while also serving as the setting in which memory, devotion, and lineage endure.
10. The line Наран дагина болгооно admits more than one reading. It is my understanding that in classical and literary Mongolian, the object of болгох (“to make,” “to regard as”) may be left unstated. I have therefore translated the phrase as “I shall regard them as sun-maidens,” taking the implied object to be the people mentioned in the preceding line and preserving the doha’s movement from sorrow toward a transformed way of seeing others.
11. I have retained “sun-maidens” rather than translating дагина as ḍākinīs. Although the latter would be possible in a Vajrayāna context, the Mongolian text itself invokes the image of the наран дагина (“sun-maiden”), and I wished to preserve its poetic and imaginal quality rather than narrow it to a specifically technical Vajrayāna Buddhist term.
12. I have kept “breast” rather than “chest” for өвчүүн. For non-Mongolian readers, “chest” may sound too anatomical, whereas “breast” more naturally suggests an inward place of feeling, devotion, memory, and courage. It therefore helps the English reader enter the symbolic force of the image: an inner lake, held close within the body, where the white lotus of devotion appears.
13. And finally, I do not ordinarily accompany my translations of Zava Damdin Rinpoche’s dohas with artwork of my own choosing, preferring to leave the reader free to encounter the poem on its own terms. In the case of On the Tsaidam Plain, however, I have included a visual rendering of the Tsaidam / Qaidam Basin, whose vast landscape forms the geographical setting of the poem. The illustration is intended only as a point of orientation for readers unfamiliar with the region, and not as an interpretation of the poem itself, whose deeper meanings belong to the reader’s own encounter with the text.

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Translation of Buddhist poetry (doha) is always an interpretation into another culture. Any errors in this regard are entirely my own, and for these I humbly apologise.

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End of transcript.

Please refer to the INDEX for other poems and articles that may be of interest.

© 2013-2026. CP in Mongolia. “Mongolian Poetry 52: Above the Tsaidam Plain” is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Documents linked from this page may be subject to other restrictions. Posted: 18 June 2026. Last updated: 18 June 2026.