Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The personality of the 9th Panchen Lama in the Roerichs’ discourse appears in 1924, shortly after the hierarch’s flight from Tibet and the revival of eschatological sentiments around this event. In fact, immediately reaching an understanding or joining forces with him becomes a necessary component of the Roerichs’ plans and vision of the future. For example, the theme of Shambhala, so important for the Roerich family’s worldview, was directly associated for them with the 9th Panchen Lama. The activity in the exile of the Panchen Lama himself, a popular and active Buddhist teacher who often gave Kalachakra initiations, founded relevant faculties in monasteries and issued prophecies about the coming war of Shambhala, only convinced the Roerichs of the correctness of their own vision. At the same time, Nicholas Roerich readily appealed to the factor of the Panchen Lama and his influence on the Buddhists of Tibet, Mongolia and China, and hinted at his own contacts with the Tibetan hierarch during his conversations with the politicians of various countries in order to draw the attention of his interlocutors to his socio-political plans and proposals. It is noteworthy that the moods and plans of the 9th Panchen Lama and the Roerichs from time to time coincided quite precisely. The question remains whether this was a consequence of their contacts, correspondence, etc. or a simple coincidence. In the author’s opinion, the Roerichs’ contacts with the 9th Panchen Lama, at least through the Tibetan hierarch representatives, lasted at least from 1926 to 1935 inclusive. The sudden end of the Manchurian expedition and the death of the Panchen Lama a couple of years later contributed to the completion of this plot in the activities and reflections of the Roerich family.
Source: The Oriental Studies
Author: I. Otroshchenko
Institution: A. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies
Language: English
Topic: Indian and Buddhist Studies
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4406927976