"مسألة الشرق الأوسط أو بعض المشكلات السياسية المتعلقة بدفاع الهند" [و‎‎٢‎٢‎٨] (٦١٦/٤٦٠)

THE BOGDO OF URGA
367
Mongolia, Chinese authority is being steadily displaced
by that of Russia, who is gradually getting as sure, if
not as open, a grip of all these outlying dependencies
of the Chinese Empire as she has already got of
Manchuria.
Nor is that all. There are indications of no slight
significance that she is already drawing Tibet within
her sphere of influence. Russian diplomacy has been
fully alive to the opportunities it possesses of opening
up relations with Lhasa through the Buddhist tribes,
who live on, or in immediate proximity to, Russian
territory, and are, therefore, more easily amenable to
Russian influence. It has unquestionably found a
most valuable ally in the Taranath-Lama, or Bogdo,
of Urga. Some interesting information with regard
to this potentate was given this summer in a lecture
delivered before the Royal Geographical Society by
Mr. C. W. Campbell, Chinese Secretary of the British
Legation at Peking and a distinguished scholar, who
had undertaken on his way home on leave an important
journey of exploration through some of the least known
regions of North-Eastern Mongolia. The Bogdo, he
tells us, is the pontiff of the Lamaistic Church in
North Mongolia, is popularly venerated as the third
in importance of the great avatars, or living gods,
coming after the Dalai Lama of Lhasa and the
Pantshen Lama of Tashilunpo, and occupies a political
position in the Mongol world analogous to that of
the popes of mediaeval Christendom. 1 he ecclesiasti
cal title is Cheptsun Dcimba Khutukhtu, which was
originally conferred by the Dalai Lama of 1 ibet in
a.d. 1653 on a son of the Tushetu Khan. I his prince,
the first Bogdo, was the St. Paul of Mongol Lamaism,
and is known in Mongol history as Undur Gegen.