Ninth Bogd receives Mongolian citizenship

Jambalnamdalchoijijantsan, the reincarnated
Ninth Bogd, is now a Mongolian citizen. Born in Tibet in 1932, he was
identified as the reincarnation of the Eighth Bogd when he was four years old.
He stayed away from Mongolia as he grew up and finally went to Dharamsala in
India in 1961. The Dalai Lama, already there in exile, formally anointed him,
under his seal, as the Ninth Bogd a year later.

His first visit to
Mongolia was in 1999 when came here after attending a religious conference in
Khalimag. However, he had to keep the visit secret as the Chinese leader Jiang
Zemin was in the country at the same time. Finally he came last year in the
autumn and returned for two months this year, at the invitation of the
Gandantegchilen monastery when he received his Mongolian citizenship. He has
since returned to Dharamsala and it is not clear where he will live from now
on.

The Eighth Bogd Khaan, Javzundamba Khutagt, was brought out of a Chinese prison
and proclaimed head of the theocratic government when Mongolia declared
independence from China in 1911. He was reduced to a ceremonial figurehead with
no real power when the People’s Government of Mongolia was declared in 1921. He died in 1924 and thereafter Mongolia became a republic,
abolishing the institution of the Bogd Khaan.