Urga

Urga, a town of Mongolia, on the river Tola, stands in a valley in the great Asiatic plateau, 180 miles SE. of Kiachta, on the trade route to Peking. It is the religious centre for northern Mongolia. has considerable trade, and a population (partly living in tents outside the city proper) of about 30,000, of whom 6000 are Chinese. In and about the town, which is the seat of the Bogdan or chief Lama of the Mongols (see LAMAISM), there were in 1895 about 14,000 Mongolian Lamas.