Ja Lama - Falling From Grace

Falling From Grace

For his role in a number of noteworthy military victories, Ja Lama was conferred the high religious and noble titles of Nom-un Khan Khutukhtu and khoshuu prince Tüshe Gün, respectively, from the Eighth Jebtsundamba Khutukhtu. Moreover, the victories sealed Ja Lama’s reputation as a warlord and as a militant Buddhist monk, thereby enabling him to install himself as the military governor of western Mongolia. As the military governor, Ja Lama conducted himself like an autocrat, tyrannizing a huge territory with a reign of fear and violence beyond all reason and measure.

In February 1914, Ja Lama was arrested by Siberian Cossacks on the orders of the Russian consular officials in Khovd. The consulate had received numerous complaints from nobles in the Khovd region who disapproved of Ja Lama's autocratic behavior and despotic practices. Ja Lama was imprisoned in Tomsk for about a year and later moved to Irkutsk. In 1916, Ja Lama returned to his native Lower Volga region where he would remain until 1918.

In the summer of 1918, Ja Lama returned to Mongolia whose government immediately issued a warrant for his arrest. Ja Lama, however, managed to evade Mongolian authorities, and established himself in a retreat in the Black Gobi, on the border between Mongolia and the Chinese provinces of Xinjiang and Gansu. From there, he recruited followers and extorted or robbed passing caravans.