This is a fascinating and unique study of the image and imagination in Mongolian Buddhism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, while demonstrating the importance of interdisciplinary work. The two authors, Vesna Wallace, a religious studies scholar, and Uranchimeg Tsultemin, an art historian, have produced a work that delves deeper into our comprehension of how text and art intertwine in Buddhism, as well as the role of the imagination in the creation of sacred works. Written by two of the leading scholars in their respective fields, it is not surprising that this collaboration has resulted in such a remarkable book.

The work consists of an introduction written by both authors and then two parts, each containing three chapters. Wallace wrote the first part, ‘Memory, imagination, and imagery’, while Tsultemin wrote the second, ‘The Jebtsundampa’s guru yoga: building imagined community in the present, past, and future’. They reunite in the conclusion and also provide two appendices. The first appendix consists of translations and transcriptions of the Mongolian inscriptions in the two paintings discussed, while the second consists of a series of consecration inscriptions. Although this is an interdisciplinary work, it is also undertaken with a bifurcated approach. The authors note (p. 3) that the organisation is artificial; nevertheless, it illustrates two different interdisciplinary approaches to the study of Mongolian Buddhism, while exploring similar connections between text, image, and ritual.

The first part focuses on the Kālacakra tantric tradition and draws upon sources throughout the Mongolian Buddhist sphere, including materials from Khalkha, Buryat, and Inner Mongolian Buddhists. Wallace demonstrates that despite the disparate origins of the texts, images, and rituals, they all weave together to foster the creation of mental images (the imagination) to aid in achieving rebirth in Śambhala, as well as protecting the Buddhist Dharma from those who destroy it. The Kālacakra tantric tradition became particularly popular during the rise of the socialist state in Mongolia after the death of the eighth Jebtsundampa Khutugtu in 1924. Indeed, Buddhist monks often uttered prayers and chants of the Kālacakra tradition before their execution during the purges of the 1930s in order to be reborn in Śambhala. Still, these practices were not confined to the period of outright and blatant attacks on Buddhism in the twentieth century by the Mongolian People’s Republic. Rather, they had already seen a rise in popularity during periods of crisis, including at the end of the Qing empire, and continued through the period of independence and the theocracy, and ultimately during the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party’s (MPRP) efforts to destroy Mongolia’s Buddhist institutions. In essence, the Kālacakra tantric tradition experienced growth during times of transition and uncertainty as practitioners sought some stability in their lives, even if it could only be achieved in the utopian reality of Śambhala.

Wallace vividly demonstrates the use of prayers by aspirants to distance themselves from the tumultuous events of early twentieth-century Mongolia while also connecting to an imaginable and sacred space (Śambhala) in the future. The prayers also promoted resistance and victory over the enemies of Buddhism. While these prayers were personal, they were also a collective action by the Buddhist community. Furthermore, through acts of imagination, the aspirants mentally created an alternate reality that remained private to the practitioner. Still, this affected how the imaginer (as Wallace puts it) viewed the temporal world, thus transforming the individual. In the third chapter, Wallace discusses rituals to repel the enemies of Buddhism. The imagination played an important role in these rituals, as the practitioner had to visualise the process to actualise it. To be successful, the ritual ‘must transcend the dichotomy of mental and physical actions of mental image and linguistic imagery’ (p. 152). As with other practices, the ritual carries commands to deities to stir them into violent action to protect the religion and vanquish its enemies. As Wallace notes, the ritual ‘enables the ritual performer to channel his frustration and antipathy toward the enemy through a sublimated form of the deity’ (p. 153).

The second part explores the guru yoga tradition of the Jebtsundampas, the reincarnate lamas of Urga, also known as Ikh Khüree, the monastic city that would become Ulaanbaatar during the socialist period. Tsultemin’s focus is on two paintings created in 1924, when the Eighth Jebtsundampa died. The first is Meditations of the Bogd Gegeen (the Jebtsundampa’s Mongolian title). The second is titled Vajrabhairava Maṇḍala. Both are thangka paintings that depict the birth and rebirth of the Jebtsundampa lineage and also what the authors term the ‘secret hagiography’. Additionally, and most importantly to Tsultemin’s study, is the depiction of the guru yoga ritual. Besides the images, which are abundant in both paintings, there are numerous inscriptions in both Mongolian and Tibetan within the paintings. Tsultemin also introduces four texts written by the lamas of Ikh Khüree that also belong to the guru yoga tradition. She demonstrates their connection and that the intent was for the thangkas to be studied both visually as well as textually. They were not simply images for the illiterate accompanied by text or vice versa.

The images allow the viewer to see the Jebtsundampa and his disciples as teachers and to gain insight into the invisible spiritual world that the Jebtsundampa interacted with on a regular basis. The paintings were not only sacred works but also instructional tools for the audience.

The volume could be a difficult work for those less conversant in Mongolian Buddhism, but the authors are aware of the challenges and make efforts to provide context throughout the book. This includes providing not only the socio-political historical background of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries but also ample context for the development of Buddhism in the Mongol tradition, particularly the two movements (Kālacakra and guru yoga) that the authors discuss. The authors provide remarkable depth in a relatively short space. Additionally, the texts and images in the paintings connect the Jebtsundampa Khutugtu to the Mongolian past through the inclusion of prominent historical figures such as Zanabazar, the first Jebtsundampa Khutugtu and other figures. Furthermore, the imagery promotes the legitimacy of the Jebtsundampa’s lineage and his fundamental role in maintaining order in society both in the temporal world and also as an imagined community in the future in the cycle of rebirth. This ties the present to the future as the guru yoga tradition also shaped how the Jebtsundampa’s disciples viewed the future, particularly after the death of the Jebtsundampa and the increasing hostility of the MPRP towards Buddhism. While a new Jebtsundampa did not manifest, he continued to dwell in spirit in the paintings and thus could still serve as a teacher through the medium of the paintings and the texts that were contained within them.

Wallace and Tsultemin successfully produce an interdisciplinary work on Mongolian Buddhism that demonstrates the importance of the intertwining of text, image, and imagination in the transformation of the religion and ritual, examining two contemporaneous facets of Mongolian Buddhism during a period of distress. Furthermore, they demonstrate how these works are influenced not only by history and religious doctrine but also by social pressures, and how the works affected the present practitioners as well as how they envisioned the future. Finally, the authors’ exploration of how the imagination functions in rituals and prayers is an important consideration in the study of religion, particularly during periods of crisis.