Bogdo-Gegen

(Mongolian, literally, most august light), title of the head of the Lamaist sect in Mongolia. It was taken by the highest Lamaist hierarch of Mongolia in the middle of the 17th century, when Lamaism was established there as the ruling religion. The first bogdo-gegen, who was proclaimed in 1641, was Undurgegen (1635–1724), son of the very wealthy feudal landlord Khalkha Tushetukhan. During the period of autonomy of Outer Mongolia (1911–19), the eighth and last bogdogegen, Chzhebtszundambakhutukhta (1870–1924), became its theocratic ruler. After the Mongolian People’s Revolution of 1921, he was a monarch with limited powers (the decisive role was played by the people’s government); in 1924, after his death, Mongolia was proclaimed a people’s republic.