Even the gigantic gilt bronze Buddha who sat in the lotus position at the center of the ancient Gandan Temple on the high plateau is gone: he was donated to the Soviet motherland to make cannons in the Second World War. Ossendowski tells us that Ungern never liked that statue: it was of recent origin, and its face had not come to wear those tears of sorrow and joy which only time can bestow. How right he was, that bloodthirsty but cultured baron! New things lack that ballast of history which always adds to the pathos of an object.
