, and Huntu from
the north. This mountain covered with virgin forest is the property of
the Living Buddha. The forests are full of nearly all the varieties
of animals found in Mongolia, but hunting is not allowed. Any Mongol
violating this law is condemned to death, while foreigners are deported.
Crossing the Bogdo-Ol is forbidden under penalty of death. This command
was transgressed by only one man, Baron Ungern, who crossed the mountain
with fifty Cossacks, penetrated to the palace of the Living Buddha,
where the Pontiff of Urga was being held under arrest by the Chinese,
and stole him.

CHAPTER XXXV

IN THE CITY OF LIVING GODS, OF 30,000 BUDDHAS AND 60,000 MONKS

At last before our eyes the abode of the Living Buddha! At the foot of
Bogdo-Ol behind white walls rose a white Tibetan building covered with
greenish-blue tiles that glittered under the sunshine. It was richly set
among groves of trees dotted here and there with the fantastic roofs
of shrines and small palaces, while further from the mountain it was
connected by a long wooden bridge across the Tola with the city of
monks, sacred and revered throughout all the East as Ta Kure or Urga.
Here besides the Living Buddha live whole throngs of secondary miracle
workers, prophets, sorcerers and wonderful doctors. All these people
have divine origin and are honored as living gods. At the left on the
high plateau stands an old monastery with a huge, dark red tower, which
is known as the "Temple Lamas City," containing a gigantic bronze gilded
statue of Buddha sitting on the golden flower of the lotus; tens of
smaller temples, shrines, obo, open altars, towers for astrology and the
grey city of the Lamas consisting of single-storied houses and yurtas,
where about 60,000 monks of all ages and ranks dwell; schools, sacred
archives and libraries, the houses of Bandi and the inns for the honored
guests from China, Tibet, and the lands of the Buriat and Kalmuck.

Down below the monastery is the foreign settlement where the Russian,
foreign and richest Chinese merchants live and where the multi-colored
and crowded oriental bazaar carries forward its bustling life. A
kilometre away the greyish enclosure of Maimachen surrounds the
remaining Chinese trading establishments, while farther on one sees a
long row of Russian private houses, a hospital, church, prison and, last
of all, the awkward four-storied red brick building that was formerly
the Russian Consulate.

We