Tseren says that when he was 5 he remembers the temple in his village of Kyuktya being intact. Tseren used to go there with his parents and was impressed by its beauty. Before entering, people circled around the temple. After the Kalmyks were exiled, all villages in the vicinity were destroyed, although the village of Bolshaya Moga survived which was where many monks lived in the past. Meaning ‘big snake’, the village of Bolshaya Moga derives its name from the large snakes that lived in that area but did not harm people. The abbot of the temple in Kyuktya was Gaaden bagshi. His younger brother Namka was also a monk and practiced medicine. Other monks of the gelyung rank that served there were Gavdzhi Aava, Chyorig Ovgen, Denzen, and Dandryk Mangaev. Besides gelyungs, there were also monks of the getsul rank, including Bembya and Sarang. Tseren Badaev is Gaaden bagshi’s nephew. Gaaden bagshi himself lived in the village of Iki-Aryl. From there he was exiled to Siberia where he died. Gaaden bagshi received his monastic education in Mongolia. Namka was good at treating diseases of the internal organs. He did massages and made medicine from herbs. Gavdzhi Aava could also cure people, but by means of prayers. Many monks studied in Mongolia or Buryatia. In 1933 all monks were arrested, but Gaaden bagshi and Gavdzhi Aava survived prison. In the past, monks could save crops from drought and insects by merely reading prayers.