The new Соёнбот oрон temple at Delgeruun Choira Monastery was officially consecrated on 15 August 2017.
Regarding the statue of D.Sükhbaatar on his horse (to the left of the Соёнбот ордон temple above).
The statue is the original monument to D. Sükhbaatar (Mong. Дамдины Сүхбаатар 1893 –1923). The original statue of Sükhbaatar on his horse was carved from solid granite by the sculptor Sonomyn Choimbol and inaugurated in 1946 on the 25th anniversary of the Mongolian People’s Revolution in Ulaanbaator.
Before being removed in 2014, the monument had stood for 68 years in its original location: the centre of Sükhbaatar (now renamed Chinggis Khan) Square in front of Parliament House in Ulaanbaator, Mongolia’s political and economic capital. it was removed from the square as the result of a decision made by a Citizens Representative Meeting of Ulaanbaator. The statue was relocated to a nearby industrial store yard in UB, where it was awaiting crushing when Zava Damdin Rinpoche intervened by requesting through official channels that it not be destroyed.
The monument was subsequently relocated to Delgeruun Choira in Dundgovi Aimag, a complex and difficult long-haul logistics feat in itself, where it was unloaded and then covered with a heavy tarpaulin. It stood, protected, at the northern inner boundary in Zava Damdin Rinpoche’s retreat compound garden until he completed his solitary retreat of four years and more.
After the completion of the new temple (Соёнбот ордон) in 2017 the original statue’s hands (damaged during the initial dismantling and transport away from Sükhbaatar Square), were carefully repaired and the statue fully restored by trained stone-masons who were working onsite at Delgeruun Choira. Zava Damdin Bagsh considers such statues of historical import and cultural value, and therefore worthy of restoration and respect.
- Out and About 07: Соёнбот орон temple opening opening celebration
- Artscape 06: Соёнбот орон central temple room
- Artscape 05: Соёнбот орон: invoking culture-scriptural continuities
Note: ‘Landscape 04: Соёнбот oрон temple consecration’ is the second in a series of posts about the official opening of the new temple (Соёнбот ордон) at Delgeruun Choira Monastery in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. I wish to thank the Abbot Zava Damdin Rinpoche (1976 – ) for making available the resources from which I write.
end of transcript.
Prepared by C.Pleteshner, Research Fellow, Nomadic and Buddhist Philosophies for The Zava Damdin Scripture and Sutra Institute of Mongolia.
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