Agvan Dorzhiev
Agvan Lobsan Dorzhiev[a][b] (1853 – 29 January 1938) was a Russian-born monk of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, sometimes referred by his scholarly title as Tsenyi Khempo.
Among Tibetans he earned a legendary status, while raising the British Empire's significant anxiety of Russian presence in Tibet at the final stage of the Great Game.
He left home in 1873 at nineteen to study at the Gomang College of the Gelugpa Drepung monastic university, near Lhasa, the largest monastery in Tibet.
He was probably also instrumental in saving the young Dalai Lama's life from the intrigues at the court in Lhasa, and over the years they developed a very close and lasting relationship.
[6][7] In 1896, the Tsar, Nikolai II, gave Agvan Dorzhiev a monogrammed watch for the services he had rendered to Badmayev's Russian agents in Lhasa.
[9] In early 1898 Dorzhiev went to Saint Petersburg "to collect subscriptions for his monastic college"[10] and became friendly with Prince Esper Ukhtomsky, Gentleman of the Bedchamber to the Tsar and orientalist.
Dorzhiev had suggested to the Tibetans that Russia seemed to be embracing Buddhist ideas since their recent advances into Mongolia and might prove a useful balance to British intrigues.
In the spring of 1900 Dorzhiev returned to Russia with six other representatives from Thubten Gyatso (born February 12, 1876; died December 17, 1933), the 13th Dalai Lama of Tibet.
[18] British troops captured several Russian-made Berdan rifles at Nagartse Dzong and breechloaders at Chumik Shenko, which heightened their suspicions of Russian involvement.
[19][20] These were never substantiated and there is no evidence that Dorzhiev was ever a Tsarist spy, although he had previously acted as a roving ambassador for the Dalai Lama in Russia, trying to gain support in the upper levels of Russian society.
A lama named Ulyanov published a book that same year attempting to prove that the Romanovs were directly descended from Sucandra, a legendary king of Shambhala.
[32] Dorzhiev managed to co-exist with the Communists during the 1920s but was again arrested by the NKVD during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge on November 13, 1937, and charged with treason, preparation for an armed uprising, and spying for the Mongolians and Japanese.
'[36] Rom Landau wrote a book called God is My Adventure dealing with a number of contemporary religious figures and movements, including the Graeco-Armenian mystic George Gurdjieff.
In it, he speculates that Gurdjieff, who is known to have spent time in central Asia, and believed to have been engaged in spying, was Agvan Dorzhiev (under the spelling "Aghwan Dordjieff").
