Choynzon-Dorzho Iroltuyev was born in 1843 in the village of
Naryn-Atsagat to a
zaisan named Irolto. From 1872, he studied at as a
samanera. He later studied at various monasteries in Mongolia and Tibet before returning to Russia in 1892 to become the abbot of Atsagat datsan. He met with future Emperor
Nicholas II (then
Tsesarevich) in 1891, and was a delegate at his
1896 coronation, representing the Buddhist clergy. Iroltuyev was appointed as
Pandito Khambo Lama in 1896. For six months in 1898 he travelled as a pilgrim to India, Thailand and China, collecting
palm-leaf manuscripts, sculptures and relics, and 333 volumes of
Buddhist texts in the Mongolian language. He also oversaw the construction of the in 1899, writing in a letter to
Transbaikal Oblast governor that the datsan was "proof of our government's merciful attitude toward all faiths before the eyes of our foreign neighbours". As Khambo Lama, Iroltuyev expressed support for
Buddhist modernism, and was one of several such Buryat clergymen who developed a form of Buddhist modernism in order to maintain Buryat identity amidst Russian colonialism and
Christianisation. During the
Russian Revolution of 1905 Iroltuyev spoke publicly in favour of granting autonomy to the
Transbaikal Oblast. Along with
Agvan Dorzhiev he led the establishment of the "Khambo Lama Party", which advocated for a middle course between two competing currents among the nascent nationalist movement (restoration of the and establishment of
zemstvos as in metropolitan Russia). He was also the head of the 1905 All-Buryatian Congress, and delivered 's demands for self-government and recognition of the Buryat language to Emperor Nicholas II. Iroltuyev died in November 1918 at
Egituysky datsan. He was buried in the village of
Shuluta, near the local datsan. In 1919, his body was exhumed and cremated and his ashes were interned in the datsan's
stupa, in accordance with tradition. == Notes ==