Galina talks about the history of the Bogdakhin clan. The Dalai Lama V and the Panchen Lama IV gave the Kalmyk people a mobile temple as a present. When the temple was brought to Kalmykia in 1681, Ayuka Khan and Monke Temir, who was a Derbet nobleman, allocated a place for the temple along the Manych river. People from various clans were tasked with protecting and looking after the temple. The temple was named Bogdo Dalai Lamyn Ik Khurul (Great Temple of the Dalai Lama) and people who lived around it came to be known as the Bogdakhin. The Bogdakhin clan consists of three arvn, including Bambudakhn, Mamudakhn and Danglakhn. In the past the temple housed a robe that belonged to the Dalai Lama V himself. The temple consisted of two yurts that were transported on carts. The temple had astrologists, doctors and philosophers among its stuff. In 1861 the temple was transported from Manych to Elista. There are two explanations regarding this. According to one story, the temple was brought to Elista in order to hide it, because the Russian authorities were demanding that the number of temples be reduced. According to another story, the temple was brought to the western outskirts of Elista to mark Kalmyk land. After the land reforms in Russia, Russian peasants in great numbers were coming to Kalmykia.When Purdash bagsh became its abbot, the temple received a new lease of life. Having carried out two pilgrimages to Tibet (from 1898 to 1900 and from 1902 to 1904), Purdash bagsh brought from Tibet various relics loaded on 12 horses. Believers flocked to the temple from all parts of Kalmykia. According to Muromtsev who was a student at St Petersburg University at that time, in 1913, out of 70 relics that were kept at the temple 30 were unique.One can read about Purdash bagsh’s pilgrimages in his Journeys of the Kalmyk Monk Purdash Dzhungruev to Tibet translated into Russian by Andrei Rudnev and Sanj Bayanov. A copy of this book is today kept at the local library in the village of Khar-Buluk.When in 1929 the temple was closed, its big relics were handed over to other temples, but smaller relics were put into three sacks and given to a local woman called Goga. In 1942 when the Germans occupied the village, the relics were buried. Although it is known that they were unearthed after the Germans retreated, what happened to the relics next is unknown. During the deportation of the Kalmyks, Goga and her granddaughter managed to take the statue of the Panchen Lama IV with them. The statue of the Dalai Lama V was kept by the Boldyrevs. In Siberia the Dalai Lama’s statue, however, was damaged. One day when the commandant of the settlement was passing by their house the Boldyrevs threw the statue into the oven in panic and damaged it. After exile, when the statue was brought back to Kalmykia a lama told the Boldyrevs that they should not keep a statue that is damaged. After performing a special ritual, the statue was left in a spring somewhere.At the beginning of 1990 the elders of the Bogdakhin clan decided to open a prayer house in the old gym. The first abbot of the prayer house was Ochir Boldyrev. Every morning the elders lit candles and read prayers. In 1998 the Bogdo Gegyan visited the prayer house, read prayers and said that a new temple would be built on its spot. Later a local businessman helped upgrade the prayer house into a temple.