CHAPTER VI 



THE SACRED CITY OF THE LIVING BUDDHA 



Far up in norfthern Mongolia, where the forests 

 stretch in an unbroken line to the Siberian frontier, 

 lies Urga, the Sacred City of the Living Buddha. The 

 world has other sacred cities, but none like this. It is 

 a relic of medieval times overlaid with a veneer of twen- 

 tieth-century civilization ; a city of violent contrasts and 

 glaring anachronisms. Motor cars pass camel cara- 

 vans fresh from the vast, lone spaces of the Gobi Des- 

 ert ; holy lamas, in robes of flaming red or brilliant yel- 

 low, walk side by side with black-gowned priests; and 

 swarthy Mongol women, in the fantastic headdress of 

 their race, stare wonderingly at the latest fashions of 

 their Russian sisters. 



We came to Urga from the south. All day we had 

 been riding over rolling, treeless uplands, and late in 

 the afternoon we had halted on the summit of a hill 

 overlooking the Tola River valley. Fifteen miles away 

 lay Urga, asleep in the darkening shadow of the 

 Bogdo-ol (God's Mountain). An hour later the road 

 led us to our first surprise in Mai-ma-cheng, the Chi- 

 nese quarter of the city. Years of wandering in the 

 strange corners of the world had left us totally unpre- 

 pared for what we saw. It seemed that here in Mon- 



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