The Spread of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia from the 16th to the 17th Century: The Spatial Formation of the World Heritage Site Erdene Zuu Monastery

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The paper touches on an interesting topic, however, the author does not use many important works by other scholars. So either he/she is not aware of them or he/she ignores them and pretends to be original and innovative. There is at least one work by Bao Muping (2011) which speaks about the same subject, while the Mongolian-Chinese inscription was already translated and published by Matsukawa (2011), pp. 30-31. The layout of the buildings together with photographs and the description of the Three Zuu and their content in 1912 based on the interview with a Mongol was published by Bareja-Starzyńska in the monograph by Tulisow, et al (2012). There are also some other comments. Geographical terms like "Mongolian Plateau" should not be used to refer to the "historical regions of Inner Mongolia and Khalkha Mongolia" as stated in endnote 2. In general many terms and names are used without due precision. The inscription in Chinese and Mongolian has been translated mainly based on the Chinese text and the Mongolian text has not been presented fully nor commented. Referencing is not precise, for example in endnote 3 "erdene zuu history" is mentioned without providing information about the exact Mongolian title, edition and access to the source as well as folios/pages with the relevant data. Or on p. 3 line 93 "many academic works and histories..." are mentioned without providing details. In the endnote 19 "Erdeniyin tobci" is wrongly translated as "Origin and Development of Mongolia", etc. It can be added that some information for example that "zuu" means temple is described with more detail in Bareja-Strzyńska (2012) where it is explained that "zuu" originates from "jo-bo", i.e. "Lord" in Tibetan.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The whole paper requires changes in its English style. There are omissions of particles, wrong words and prepositions. The transcription (transliteration) of people and place names from Mongolian to English is haphazard, sometimes referring to Classical Mongolian, sometimes to Modern Mongolian (Khalkha), and sometimes even to Japanese reading of Sanskrit words (like Tara rendered as Tala, etc.).

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

There is a contradiction on page five. The paragraph under (a) argues that "shun yi wang" refers to Altan Khan's son, but at the end of the paragraph it states, "Thus it is very likely that the Shun yi wang referred to in the black-ink inscription is Altan Khan." (lines 133-134). Clarify the argument.

Endnotes 10 and 11 can be combined, though a page number for the quoted citation needs to be added. Also cite the reference and page number for endnotes 14 and 15. Cite the source for endnote 25.

Line 222: state explicitly that it is the Third Dalai Lama (1543-1588).

Line 339: for consistency, the Hidehiro 2004 citation should go in an endnote.

Line 372: state explicitly that the stupa was destroyed in the 1960s during the Cultural Revolution.

Perhaps note possible Korean architectural influence one more time in the conclusion.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

It was comprehensible, but I recommend a close proofreading before final edits, there were several grammatical and syntactical errors.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf