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since the government has been built up on Soviet lines.  The lamas have the next greatest influence, about one third of the male population are lamas.  These consist of the red and the yellow lamas, they wear red or yellow outer garments according to the monastery to which they belong.  The head is of course the Bogdo or Living Buddha  He is the third highest, the first and second are living in Thibet and the third is in Urga.  In the eyes of the Mongols, he plays a most important role.  He has a [[underlined]] very fine temple [[/underlined]] near to the Tola river in Urga and also a semi foreign house nearby.  The poor man died about ten years ago and has not been replaced since.  He had been sick for a very long time and was getting blind.  In order to cure him a [[underlined]] big monastery [[/underlined]] was built in the northern corner of Urga, but even that did not help him.  During the last years of his life he became quite blind.  There is a rope hanging outside his monastery and all the mongols believe that the Bogdo holds one end of the same.  The greatest ambition of a Mongol was to touch that rope as it was the same as shaking hands with him.  Religious Mongols collected strange things all over the world as presents for [[underlined]] the Bogdo, [[/underlined]] no wonder when he died his palace was found to be filled with any amount of things.  He had motor cars, by the dozen, a Delco plant, machine guns, organs, pianos, diamonds and jewelleries, Chinese curios, valuable furs, of course it is impossible to describe all the various articles.  He even had a zoo, somebody presented him with an elephant, the poor animal must have felt very strange in Urga.

A lama is not supposed to marry and no woman under 16 is supposed to go near to a monastery, but the lamas do not take this law very seriously.  If the women are not allowed to come to them, there does not seem to be a law that the lamas do not go and find a soulmate.  Anyhow [[underlined]] the Bogdo [[/underlined]] always had some [[underlined]] lady companion [[/underlined]] in his palace.

The eldest son of each family must become a lama and enters the monastery as soon as he is about 6 years old.  There