Black Gobi

Author: Yang Lan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: The vast Black Gobi, located between Xinjiang, Gansu, and Inner Mongolia, is a gobi of wind, a gobi of sunshine, and a gobi covered in black gravel. This uninhabited area stretching across the Silk Road is awe-inspiring. Through decades of relentless pursuit, the author combines field research with documentary studies to recreate the role of the Black Gobi in the geopolitical landscape of Central Asia in the early 20th century, attempting to solve historical mysteries left behind in the region and once again drawing the world's attention. The Black Gobi refers to a roughly 200,000-square-kilometer area in eastern Gansu and western Xinjiang, stretching from the Ejin River in the east to the China-Mongolia border in the north, bordering the Hexi Corridor in the south, and backed by the western section of the Tian Shan Mountains. It is primarily an uninhabited zone, larger in area than present-day provinces like Jiangsu. Regarding this desolate and barren Black Gobi along the ancient Silk Road, the most captivating legend is the story of the "Black Lama." In the early 20th century, a bandit named the "Black Lama" suddenly appeared in the Black Gobi. He seized control of the territory, with over 400 nomadic families following him, while the entire Ejin Banner at the time had only 98 nomadic families. It was said that he cut off transportation routes, targeting large merchant caravans and government officials, giving this sensitive area an "international" impact. At the time, the Republic of China government had lost Outer Mongolia, the Junggar, and the Tarim regions due to Russian interference, making them prone to unrest at any moment. If the Black Gobi region were unstable, the newly liberated northwest of China would once again be thrown into imbalance. As a result, the Republic of China government paid a high price to gather intelligence on the "Black Lama" in places like Ulaanbaatar (Kulun) and Khovd. Mongolia and the Soviet Union also sent agents multiple times to the Black Gobi. Meanwhile, many famous Silk Road explorers and researchers, such as the American Owen Lattimore, the Russian Obolensky, the Swede Sven Hedin, and the Dane Halfdan, paid attention to this figure, describing the "Black Lama" in their writings. For a time, there were conflicting accounts, leaving behind a wealth of contradictory documents. However, by the 1920s, the "Black Lama" had suddenly vanished, raising doubts about whether he had ever truly existed. Since then, his fate has been one of the topics explored by western historians. It was not until the early 21st century, with the gradual declassification of Soviet secret archives, that people learned that the "Black Lama" had been secretly assassinated by a Soviet KGB agent in 1924. After successfully carrying out the murder in the Black Gobi of China, the agent returned the "Black Lama's" head to the KGB headquarters in Leningrad, where it was preserved in formaldehyde for eternity. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the head was transferred to the Saint Petersburg Ethnographic Museum, where it is currently cataloged as "3394." In fact, the true story of the "Black Lama" is more intricate, complex, and thrilling than any detective novel, without any need for fiction.