WITNESSES SPEAK

Monk Zhunai, 80 year old. Was a disciple at the Moltsog monastery in Dariganga (Sukhbaatar province). Now he lives near the Gandan Monastery.

- For being a monk I had to pay 400 tugriks tax per year. Big, really big money. A cow with a calf cost then about 50 tugriks. And elder monks had to pay even more. Imposing very high taxes they wanted us to abandon our monasteries. But when the plan failed they just used brutal force, sending elder monks to prison and taking younger ones to army. (interveiw of 1998)

Monk Sharavjamts, 82 years old. Studied at the Philosophy Faculty of the Dalai Gun monastery in Lun soum, some 150 km from Ulaanbaatar. Now lives in Khar Horin soum. 

- Our monastery was small, only about 500 monks. But it had five datsans: medical, astronomy and three of philosophy. In the first year almost all adult monks, about 200, were arrested. The remaining begun to leave. I also left.

Two years later when I turned 18, I was conscripted to the army. But instead they took me to the Internal Security ministry where I was interrogated for days. The wooden chair was very small but high so that my feet could not reach the floor.

Prime minister P.Genden (1895-1937; in center) was xecuted in Moscow on Mongolia's Independence Day.

 Investigators were working in shift not allowing me to sleep. No food or drink was given. After few days I could not speak becoming a live corpse. But I refused to pledge myself guilty because I was young and stubborn. At the end they were fed up and simply forced my finger tip on the interrogation record. Then they put me into a hospital to recover a bit before the trial. 

I was sentenced to death with the execution within 24 hours. Every night they took away people, and brought new ones. So many people! Only after 26 days they came after me. And then, I was told that the sentence was changed to ten years of prison. After prison I returned to Lun soum and tended animals. 

And now I am here, at the Erdene Dzuu monastery, again a monk. (interview of 1998)


B.Dashtseden, a journalist, lives in Ulaanbaatar.

- In 1937 I was studying at a soum school (Davst soum of Dornod province). I was homesick and decided with my classmate to run away and go home some 70 km away. We walked about 20 km passing the Tsagaan Lake when saw car trucks on the grass. That time a truck was such a rare thing that we become curious and followed the tracks.

Grass was very thick and high, and we almost stumbled over a dead monk. He lay there with his stomach inflated and worms crawling out of his mouth. We were so terrified that immediately began to run back. But dead bodies in red and yellow attires were everywhere and we did not know where to run.

 I do not remember how long we ran and when got home. My mother told us never to mention to anyone about what we saw. (interview of 1996)

Saint Khuuhen, another young innocent victim.

B.Norzhin, a pensioner, lives in Ulaanbaatar.

- This silver horse and an icon lamp are the only things that remained from younger brother of my mother-in-law. He was a priest in one of monasteries in Dornod province.

When he was arrested in 1939, he told his sister: "I will not return. Please make light in this icon lamp in my memory and give this silver horse (he used to play in childhood) to my future niece." He was only 18 year old then. 

His elder brother went to the capital city to find out what happened to him but was arrested and sentenced for 10 years. 

My mother-in-law tried to learn what happened to her younger brother but to no avail. Now she is gone and no one knows even his name. This is our family's sin. (interview of 1997)

 
Monk Damdin, 79-year-old, a teacher at the Buddhist school at Gandan monastery. Studied at the Anduu datsan until 1937. 

- Often teachers would fail to come to our class. We did not ask why, were even afraid to ask. It was obvious. 

"Leather boots" (peoples' nickname for Russian security men) used to came at night to the monastery dormitory, use flash light to see the face of a monk, ask the name and then took them away. 

All the books were taken to the Eastern Temple where they were burned. They closed the area so no one could see, but the smoke was coming out, perhaps for 2-3 months. 

The maginificent Bogdo Khaan's Winter Palace luckily remained.

The Gandan Monastery was so huge. There were more than a dozen datsans alone. The main temple could accomodate 1,000 believers at a time. Around the monastery there were lines and lines of quarters where monks used to live. In that year they were all empty, with opened gates and doors, personal belonging and books strewn around. People were avoiding the place long after. (interview of 1996) 



Danzandargia Gonchigiin (from Internal Security ministry's archive) 

The transcripts of his interrogation end with his hand written note: "As proof that each and every word in this record is true I am signing my name in Tibetan language." But he wrote his name in Mongolian script. This way 18 year old young man wanted to let others know that his testimony was a forced one. 

Almost none of these monks participating in Buddha Maidar prayer, survived the purges.

He was a reincarnation of a Buddhist saint, one of whose carefully selected young people trained from the very childhood. His file shows that he was sentenced to death in connection with a court trial of high Buddhist priests which took place four years before the interrogation. The security service waited until he reaches legal age to try and execute him.

His kins and fellows remember him as a nice, lively young man, very talented in music. Everybody loved him and people in his locality still remember his name. 

With every passing year there are fewer people who can tell about the years of Big Terror. They leave taking along the memories of the terrible past, severing the continuity of times.  

Also read in the Issue Special:
- Moscow and Peaceful Buddhists
- Cultural Genocide
- The Revival

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