Ja Lama.  Who was he?  Ja Lama was a conqueror and adventurer who alternately terrorized and uplifted what is today southern Russia, northern China, and Mongolia.  Many Mongolians believe he helped their nation gain its independence from China and Russia in the early twentieth century.  On the other hand, Ja Lama was supremely cruel, inflicting unspeakable tortures on his enemies and those who disagreed with him, and ruled the lands he conquered with an iron hand.  He brooked no dissent.
     We might describe Ja Lama as a big fish in a small pond.  Outside of the region in which he roamed, few were aware of him.  Ambushed later in his life, alone and without help, he eventually endured the fate he imposed upon so many others:  he was executed, shot by a firing squad at the age of sixty. 
     And where is Ja Lama today?  I don't know for sure, but in an ironic twist, his skull is now on display at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, labelled simply, "No. 3394, head of a Mongolian."
     As the Bible often notes, though we are amazing and grand, ultimately we are dust--and one day to dust we shall return.
     And it's over.  Sic transit gloria.
     Ah, how we need the fact of God.