The library of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute
of Oriental Studies contains a typewritten manuscript in
Russian (call number VII ж/эрд) entitled “What is
the Cause of the Religions Professed by Mongol Tribes?”.
The author is Erdenipel (Tib. E-rte-ni-’phel), the translators
into Russian Rinčen (Tib. Rin-chen) and Sambu (Tib.
Bzang-po ). The manuscript consists of 200 pages. The author, gabju (Tib. dka’-bcu) Erdenipel (1877–1960), was
one of the most educated people in Mongolia and the first
abbot of the Gandan Monastery (Tib. dGa’-ldan) in Ulan-Bator
after the resumption of religious services there in
1944. He appears to have written his work in the 1930s,
when he was compelled to leave the monastery because of
the political persecution of Buddhist monks by the authorities
in Mongolia. He may have undertaken his work at the
behest of the Mongolian Scholarly Committee. Anyway,
such a practice existed between the 1920s and 1930s. We
know that the Scholarly Committee on several occasions
commissioned works on the history of Mongolia by some
learned lamas of name or secular writers. In discussing the
construction of Erdeni Juu, Erdenipel remarks: “One can
suggest that Erdeni Juu. from the day of its creation by
Abatai Khan up to the 28th year of the Mongolian People's
Republic, has been in existence as such for 353 years”
(p. 156). He apparently takes here not the date of the
Mongolian People’s Republic’s promulgation, 1924, but the
date of Mongolia's attainment of independence in 1911,
used in the past as a reference point for dates. This would
mean that the work was finished in 1939, which correlates
with the figure of 353 years that passed since the foundation
of Erdeni Juu in 1586...
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