Political Purge in Mongolia---Amber----

In the course of building socialism in Mongolia, its main ideological opponents were
Buddhist monks who were believed to be the enemies against our country’s
development. Even though this history influenced my family badly, we were able to
get over it. Under the idea of Stalin, the ferocious movement of political purge was
held in 1922-1940s. Many priests, heads of the monasteries, and saints were
arrested, tortured and executed. Also, over eight hundred monasteries and temples
were destroyed, and around twenty thousand monks were shot to death. This movement
has left the blackest stain in Mongolian history and in our ancestor’s life.

Also, this political purge had affected my grandfather’s life. My grandfather Sandag Bukh was a monk at Lamrim monastery in the mid 1920’s. During the crucial political movement against monks, he luckily managed to escape. However, he spent the rest of his life under a political eye in a very difficult situation. He married my grandmother Ewee to hide his identity. As I heard from my father, my grandfather Sandag used to read his Sutras, and practice Buddhism doctrines secretly at home. In addition, he summarized The Ganjuur, which is the most important and longest teaching of Buddha during the last 9 years of his life without even leaving his home.

Furthermore, my father’s early life was not that simple, for he was a son of a monk. My father Bayantsagaan used to study at a local school in Khovd province. Kids and neighbors also used to tease my father everywhere he went. He said he was so ashamed of my grandfather’s background. Moreover, the teachers’ attitude at his school was so hard for him; they used to not value him even though he was the best student. He was really interested in Buddhism like his father, but there was not any chance for him to study its teachings. Many years after that time, when the political situation had quited down, he went to The Academy of Science and Language, learnt Tibetan and graduated from Religious Study Department of Mongolian National University.

However, after eighty years since the political purge people still were uncomfortable with Buddhism and its disciples. When I was in junior high school I was very worried about revealing my identity of monk related family history. After all, all my classmates knew about both of my grandfather and fathers’ backgrounds. I did not have many friends, and my friends started to dump me. Some children and teachers even started to look down on me because of my father’s job. He was a head monk at Lamrim monastery, which was my grandfather’s school. He rebuilt the monastery again and started its activity to bring Buddhism back to Mongolia.

Everything changes with time. As time goes by people’s minds have changed about monks, or maybe they have forgotten about their earlier political views. In fact, people have started to be more open and nice to monks, which was a very great thing for a beginning of the new democratic Mongolia. Now my father can proudly do his job, and I can be more relaxed when I talk to people about myself. My father has gone to every province of Mongolia to rebuild seventy two temples and to restore great attitudes back to monks. Even though the political purge influenced our family profoundly, now we are living happily without any fear.