Three Ritual Prayers by Öndör Gegeen Zanabazar

Abstract This chapter covers three main works of Öndör Gegeen Zanabazar (1635–1723), who was the first head of Mongolian Buddhism. All three prayers translated in this chapter were composed in the Tibetan language. The first of them remains the most important prayer in the daily practice of Mongolian Buddhists, thus being the main prayer of Mongolian Buddhism in general, in which the texts of different Tibetan Buddhist traditions and lineages are otherwise used. The second translated prayer is a food offering text, often used in tantric rituals, and the third prayer is connected to a mantra recitation and the sādhana (“method of realization”) of Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. It contains a profound tantric doctrinal meaning and is closely related to the soyombo writing system created by Öndör Gegeen Zanabazar himself.