The Jalkhanz Khutagt Sodnomyn Damdinbazar (1874-1923) was a high lamaist incarnation in northwestern Mongolia, and played a high-profile role in the country's independence movement. He served as Prime Minister twice, 1921 in Baron Ungern's puppet government, and 1922/23 under the MPRP. Damdinbazar was born in 1874 at Lake Oigon Nuur in the Nomrog district of present-day Zavkhan Aimag. His father Tserensodnom and mother Sonom were middle-class herders. In 1877 he was inaugurated as Jalkhanz Khutagt at Jalkhanzyn Khuree, in what is today Burentogtokh Sum in Khovsgol Aimag. From the ages of 16 to 20 he was instructed in Tibetan and Mongolian script, mathematics, astrology and religious matters and was a novice in a monastery at Ih Huree.