were troubling me. "Where am I? In what epoch am
I living?" I knew not but I dimly felt the unseen touch of some great
idea, some enormous plan, some indescribable human woe.
After our noon meal the General said he wanted to introduce me to the
Living Buddha. It is so difficult to secure audience with the Living
Buddha that I was very glad to have this opportunity offered me.
Our auto soon drew up at the gate of the red and white striped wall
surrounding the palace of the god. Two hundred Lamas in yellow and red
robes rushed to greet the arriving "Chiang Chun," General, with the
low-toned, respectful whisper "Khan! God of War!" As a regiment of
formal ushers they led us to a spacious great hall softened by its
semi-darkness. Heavy carved doors opened to the interior parts of the
palace. In the depths of the hall stood a dais with the throne covered
with yellow silk cushions. The back of the throne was red inside a
gold framing; at either side stood yellow silk screens set in highly
ornamented frames of black Chinese wood; while against the walls at
either side of the throne stood glass cases filled with varied objects
from China, Japan, India and Russia. I noticed also among them a pair of
exquisite Marquis and Marquises in the fine porcelain of Sevres. Before
the throne stood a long, low table at which eight noble Mongols were
seated, their chairman, a highly esteemed old man with a clever,
energetic face and with large penetrating eyes. His appearance reminded
me of the authentic wooden images of the Buddhist holymen with eyes
of precious stones which I saw at the Tokyo Imperial Museum in the
department devoted to Buddhism, where the Japanese show the ancient
statues of Amida, Daunichi-Buddha, the Goddess Kwannon and the jolly old
Hotei.
This man was the Hutuktu Jahantsi, Chairman of the Mongolian Council of
Ministers, and honored and revered far beyond the bournes of Mongolia.
The others were the Ministers--Khans and the Highest Princes of Khalkha.
Jahantsi Hutuktu invited Baron Ungern to the place at his side, while
they brought in a European chair for me. Baron Ungern announced to the
Council of Ministers through an interpreter that he would leave Mongolia
in a few days and urged them to protect the freedom won for the lands
inhabited by the successors of Jenghiz Khan, whose soul still lives
and calls upon the Mongols to become anew a powerful people and reunite
again into one great Mid-Asiatic State all the As
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