Incense Offering to the Lord Chinggis Khan

Abstract This chapter translates two liturgies representative of one of the great transmutations of Inner Asian history: Chinggis Khan’s transition from brilliant conqueror to wrathful manifestation of a Buddha. As wrathful Buddha, Chinggis Khan acts as a hybrid protector—at once a Cakravartin Wheel-Turning King, a pious Buddhist laymen, a supramundane dharmapāla, and still a special envoy of Tngri’s supreme power as he was known from pre-Buddhist days. He appears in rituals such as the text that follows as both the man who historically conquered much of Eurasia in order to clear obstacles for the Dharma to arrive in Mongol lands, and as a Buddha for ritual actors invoking his blessing, purification, and protection required to complete the path to enlightenment. The first text is an eighteenth-century incense offering associated with the Inner Mongolian monastic tradition of Mergen Gegeen, while the second is a offering to Chinggis Khan traditionally written and recited in Tibetan but recently translated into Khalkha Mongolian using Cyrillic script as part of the ongoing postsocialist Buddhist revival.