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The Khalkha Jebtsundamba Khutuktus (Mongolian: Жэвзүндамба хутагт, Javzandamba Khutagt; Tibetan: རྗེ་བཙུན་དམ་པ་ Jetsun Dampa; literally, "Holy Venerable Lord") were the spiritual heads of the Gelug lineage of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia. They also held the title of Bogd Gegeen, making them the top-ranked lamas in Mongolia.
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The first Jebtsundamba, Zanabazar (1635–1723), was identified as the reincarnation of the scholar Taranatha of the Jonang school of Tibetan Buddhism. Zanabazar was the son of the Tüsheet Khan Gombodorj, ruler of central Khalkha Mongolia, and himself became the spiritual head of the Khalkha Mongols.
Like Zanabazar, the second Jebtsundamba also was a member of Mongolia's highest nobility and direct descendant of Genghis Khan. After Chingünjav's rebellion and the successive demise of the second Jebtsundamba Khutugtu, the Qianlong emperor decreed in 1758 that all future reincarnations were to be found from among the population of Tibet.
When northern Mongolia declared independence in 1911, the eighth Jebtsundamba (1869–1924) was elevated as the Emperor of Mongolia, called Bogd Khan. He was the head of state until his death in 1924. The Communist government declared that there were to be no further reincarnations.
A reincarnation was in fact found almost at once in north Mongolia, and some high lamas of the dead Khutughtu's suite went to interview the child's mother, Tsendjav, and to instruct her in the details of the life of the former incarnation, so that she could familiarize the child-candidate with the tests which he would have to undergo. Faced with the possibility of a new Khutughtu who was born within Mongolia and was not even a foreigner from Tibet, the Communist Party Central Committee in July 1925, decided to turn the matter over to the aged Dalai Lama in Lhasa, whose decision would nonetheless be subject to the new law for the separation of Church and State. In February 1929 the installation of any further Khutughtus was forbidden.[1]
A 9th Jebtsundamba Khutuktu has been installed by the Dalai Lama. He was born as Jampal Namdol Chökyi Gyaltsen in 1932.
Bogdo gegeen (Mongolian and ceremonial Tibetan-language names)