ISSN
1527-6457
R
e s e a r c h A r t i c l e
Buddhism
in Mongolia After 1990
by
Karénina
Kollmar-Paulenz
Professor for the History of Religions
University of Berne, Switzerland
karenina.kollmar-paulenz@theol.unibe.ch
Introduction
In
1990 Mongolia turned from a communist country highly dependent, economically
as well as ideologically, on the Soviet Union, into a democratic country.(1)
Free elections took place for the first time ever, and the country
managed the transition to a democracy patterned after the Western
model comparatively well. In 1992 the Mongols confirmed this historic
turn by giving themselves a democratic constitution.(2)
The shaking off of communist rulership brought about a resurgence
of Mongolian religious traditions, Buddhism and the autochthonous
Mongolian religion alike.(3)
In northern Mongolia, the revival of the indigenous religious traditions
of the Mongols, including owō-worship, the mountain-cult
and, of course, shamanism, seem to be predominant. But in the rest
of Mongolia, Buddhism has experienced a massive renaissance. "Buddhism"
in the Mongolian context denotes Tibetan Buddhism in its Mongolian
form. Tibetan Buddhism underwent distinctive changes and adaptations
in the Mongolian cultural context, from the late sixteenth century
on. In the early twentieth century Mongolia belonged to a Tibetan
Buddhist world which stretched from Ladakh to the lower Wolga regions.
Up to 600 monasteries and temples spread over the country, with up
to one third of the male population leading a monastic life.(4)
In 1990, however, there existed but one functioning Buddhist monastery,
Gandantegchinlin in Ulānbātar, the capital of Mongolia. This
monastery was more or less a state-dependent establishment, with only
a few carefully chosen monks deemed "trustworthy" by the
communist government. Choibalsan, the "Mongolian Stalin,"
ensured that these monks and lamas were puppets under communist rulership.
The establishment of Gandanthegchinlin as the only functioning monastery
in the country and the state protection of the monasteries of Kharkhorin
and Erdeni dzuu was initially forced upon Choibalsan by Stalin himself,
who was pressured by a delegation sent to the Soviet Union by President
Roosevelt in 1944. In 1990 approximately one hundred lamas studied
at Gandanthegchinlin, forty of whom were destined to teach in the
few functioning monasteries of the Soviet Union. A traditional Buddhist
education, however, was not possible, as it was forbidden to study
Buddhist philosophy and dialectics, the core subjects of higher Tibetan
Buddhist education. Today nearly 200 monasteries and temples have
been restored throughout the country. More than 3000 monks are registered
(the number of nuns is not ascertained), and there is ongoing teaching
activity, mostly carried out by Tibetan teachers from the Tibetan
exile community in India. In this brief article, I will concentrate
on the situation after 1990, without however, referring any more than
necessary to the history of Buddhism in Mongolia.(5)
The Revival of Buddhism
When communist rule
in Mongolia broke down, the country looked back at the ultimately
fruitless attempt to erase all religion from the Mongolian landscape,
the indigenous religion as well as Buddhism. During the 1930s nearly
all the monasteries and temples were destroyed or secularized; the
monks were either killed or forced to marry. Laymen and monks succeeded
in hiding some of the religious books and cult objects from the government
and its catchpole, but most of the Buddhist literature and religious
objects were destroyed during the years of the communist purges.
The sudden revival
of Buddhism in Mongolia after 1990 is only astonishing at first glance.
Religion never ceased to exist in Mongolia. Even in the communist
era many Mongolians found a way to practice religion secretly. Today
even former party leaders admit to having practiced Buddhist rites
or to consulting astrologers during the time when the practice of
religion was officially forbidden. Since 1992 freedom of religion
has been guaranteed in the constitution, and the separation of religious
and secular institutions has been established.(6)
This new freedom of religion is observable everywhere in the country.
People flock to the monasteries, making circumambulations, giving
offering to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas whose statues are either
being restored or built anew. In 1996 a huge statue of the Bodhisattva
Nidüger üjegci (Avalokiteshvara) in the Maitreya temple
in Ulānbātar was installed. The yearly Mayidari festival,
first introduced in 1657 at the Erdeni dzuu monastery by the first
Jebtsundampa Khutukhtu Zanabazar, was held again at Ulānbātar,
in May of 2000 at the Gandanthegchinlin monastery.(7)
This monastery recently opened new colleges, structuring the monastic
institution after the Tibetan dGe-lugs-pa model. In order to also
make Buddhist teachings available for smaller monasteries in the countryside,
lamas are sent to these establishments. In 1998 the number of monks
at the Gandanthegchinlin monastery was over 300 and is still growing.
The abbot of the monastery is considered by other clerics to be the
head abbot of all of Mongolia’s monastic establishments.(8)
His prominent position could, at least theoretically, be threatened
by the Ninth Khalkha Jebtsundampa Khutukhtu, who has already visited
Mongolia one time. The Jebtsundampa Khutukhtu, also called Bogdo Gegen
or Bogdo Khan, was the highest Buddhist dignitary in Khalkha Mongolia
up to 1924, when the eighth Jebtsundampa died. Upon the death of this
Buddhist incarnation, who from the time of the third Jebtsundampa
was always an ethnic Tibetan, the communist government decided per
decree against his further incarnation. Even so, his reincarnation
was recognized in 1932 in a boy of four by the Reting Rinpoche in
Tibet, but due to the political circumstances his existence remained
hidden but for a few insiders. He later fled to India with the Dalai
Lama and lived quietly at Darjeeling and Mysore with his family.
(9) In 1991 Mongolian lamas requested the Dalai Lama's
information regarding the Ninth Jebtsundampa Khutukhtu, and only then
was he officially acknowledged as the ninth incarnation of this Buddhist
lineage that goes back to the famous Taranatha, a Tibetan Buddhist
historian of the sixteenth century. In the same year the Jebtsundampa
Khutukhtu moved to Dharamsala where he was officially enthroned. In
1999 he visited Mongolia, where he was acknowledged as the head of
Mongolian Buddhism. The visit, however, met with political obstacles
due to the Jebtsundampa's strong ties to the Tibetan exile government
and the Dalai Lama. The Chinese government was opposed to his visit,
and therefore the ties between this most important Mongolian Buddhist
incarnation and his spiritual homeland were not further strengthened
by it.
The Renaissance of
Monasticism
The revival of Buddhism
in Mongolia brought about a strong interest in monastic life, for
women as well as men. Whereas in the early 1990s the majority of monks
were old, today the young monks outnumber the old ones. It is not
only religious devotion that leads to the rapid increase of clerics
among the population. Being a monk or nun is considered a job, and
the clergy receive a small income. This may well be strong motivation
to join a monastery, in view of the bleak prospect of unemployment
for a large part of the population.
The demographic factor, however, causes problems concerning the education
of the monks and nuns. Knowledge of the holy scriptures, the liturgy,
and the offering of ceremonies and rituals in general, is scarce.
The old generation of monks is rapidly dying out. Thus, well educated
Buddhist teachers are rarely to be found among the Mongolian clergy.
Under these circumstances it is not surprising that from the beginning
of the period of religious freedom in Mongolia, the Tibetan exile
community and the Dalai Lama took a keen interest in the renaissance
of Mongolian Buddhism. Throughout the last seven centuries, Tibet
and Mongolia have maintained strong cultural, political, and religious
ties, and from the late sixteenth century onward, lamas of the dGe-lugs-pa
school of Tibetan Buddhism managed to convert the entire population
of Mongolia (with the exception of the Buryat Mongols) to Buddhism
in less than fifty years. Since the early seventeenth century, Tibet
and Mongolia have shared a common religious identity within the broader
religio-cultural context of the Asian countries dominated by Mahayana
Buddhism. Thus, in the early 1990s Tibetan lamas started to come to
Mongolia in order to instruct the Mongolian clergy and to develop
a programme of higher education for them. The former Indian ambassador
to Mongolia (from 1989 to 2000), Bakula Rinpoche, a native of Ladakh,
played a central role in this influx of Tibetan Buddhist knowledge.
He tried to reestablish Mongolian Buddhism on the basis of dGe-lugs-pa
monasticism. This aim implied the enforcement of celibacy among Mongolian
monks and nuns. Bakula Rinpoche himself ordained quite a number of
young monks and nuns.(10) Bakula
Rinpoche’s modelling of Mongolian Buddhism on the dGe-lugs-pa
tradition was, however, contested. Mongolians consider the fact that
the majority of monks turn their backs on their monastery and live
life as pastoral herdsmen to be a distinctively Mongolian Buddhist
way of life. Today the pattern of leading a religious cum
secular life in Mongolia is forming. Young people, after having performed
their work and/or domestic duties, during the afternoon drop by the
monastery with which they are affiliated and carry out their religious
obligations, either by reciting texts or by performing religious ceremonies.
Half of their day is thus spent in pursuit of a spiritual life although
they are not properly ordained.
Due to a lack of knowledge
of the philosophical and ritual differences of the various schools
of Tibetan Buddhism, the monks and nuns often cannot determine with
certainty the order of Tibetan Buddhism to which they belong. Since
the late sixteenth century the dGe-lugs-pa has been dominant, but
schools like the bKa‘-brgyud-pa, the Sa-skya-pa, and the rNying-ma-pa
have also been active in Mongolia. (11)
Who Pays for it all?
The rebuilding of
monasteries destroyed in the communist era and the erection of new
ones costs money. Who pays for these buildings? On one hand, Mongolian
Buddhism, since the beginning of the twentieth century, has been connected
in many ways to the international Buddhist world. It is not only Tibetan
Buddhist institutions that are providing a knowledge transfer to Mongolia,
which has suffered such a severe loss of its traditional Buddhist
culture. International Buddhist institutions have also helped establish
the necessary financial support to revive the Buddhist traditions.
This international connection has been dealt with in the forthcoming
article by Bareja-Starzynska and Havnevik, therefore I need not dwell
on it here. On the other hand, the Mongolian people constantly donate
money to restore old monasteries, temples, and stupas, and to establish
new ones. "All things here are donated by local people. And even
the building was erected with their help," says a twenty-three
year-old monk of the Shankh monastery, which was built in the seventeenth
century by Zanabazar.(12) Sometimes
only a ger, a felt tent, is erected, which serves as the
temple where monks and lamas perform religious services. In view of
the economic difficulties the country is facing after the breakdown
of the Soviet Union, and the transition to a free market economy,
it is noteworthy that Mongolians still find the means to finance the
building of Buddhist temples and monasteries.(13)
Once established, the monasteries depend on the continuous financial
support of lay people, as is customary in Buddhist societies throughout
Asia.
Creating a new Mongolian
Cultural Identity: The Role of Buddhism — and of Chinggis Qan
The fact that the
Mongolian government also financially supports the restoration of
Buddhist monuments brings me to an intriguing question to be asked
in the context of the revival of Buddhism in Mongolia: what role does
Buddhism play in the process of creating a new collective cultural
identity for the Mongols?(14)
Considering the fact
that the whole of the rather lengthy article twelve of the Mongolian
Constitution deals solely with the emblems of national identity, and
that these national emblems, which consist of the State Emblem, the
Banner, the Flag, and the Seal, are described in terms that refer
both to the traditional religion and to Buddhism, it is obvious that
Buddhism is considered of prime importance in the constitution of
Mongolian identity. The State Emblem, the sülde, an
autochthonous religious symbol into which the vital energy
of the ruler is incorporated and which is deeply grounded in Mongolian
indigenous ideas of the soul, is rooted in the white lotus, one of
the most important symbols of Buddhism, which serves as its base.(15)
Furthermore, in this article the keyimori (the "wind-horse"),
the cindamani (the "precious jewel"), and the ghurban
cagh (the "three times" of past, present, and future),
all of which play such a prominent part in Buddhist mythology and
philosophy, are pointed out as vital parts of the "symbols of
the independence and sovereignty of Mongolia."(16)
Since the early seventeenth century Buddhism has played a vital role
for the construction of Mongolian religious and cultural identity.
Since the conversion of the Altan Qaghan of the Tumed Mongols and
other Mongol rulers and nobles, the dGe-lugs-pa tradition of Tibetan
Buddhism has become dominant in the whole of Mongolia (including Outer
and Inner Mongolia). The unique conversion technique of Buddhism,
used as early as the seventh century, during the first introduction
of Buddhism into Tibet, was also employed in the Mongolian context:
the indigenous deities were incorporated into the Tibetan Buddhist
pantheon as "guardian deities," all of them, of course,
operating on the level of "conventional truth." Toward the
end of the seventeenth century, Cinggis Qan, who was worshipped throughout
Mongolia as a powerful ancestral deity, was already incorporated into
the Tibetan pantheon as the Bodhisattva Vajrapani.(17)
The Mongols were thus integrated into the Tibetan-Buddhist universe,
which in the symbolic representation of the three Bodhisattvas Avalokiteshvara,
Manjushri and Vajrapani, included Tibet, China and Mongolia as the
three poles of the Tibetan-Buddhist world. Since the seventeenth century,
Mongolian religious and cultural identity has been constituted by
two separate factors, indigenous religion and Tibetan Buddhism. Thus
the cultural identity of the Mongols is founded in religious syncretism,
defined from the point of view of the religious actor.
(18) Since the seventeenth century, the growing
number of the Buddhist clergy led to an increasing asymmetry between
the indigenous religion and the Buddhist foundation of Mongolian religio-cultural
identity. At the turn of the twenty-first century we can detect a
reverse motion. Whereas since the eighteenth century the religious
language of the Mongols was Tibetan, today the language problem is
an open question, which in the long term seems to have been decided
in favor of the Mongolian language. Buddhist treatises and prayers
for everyday use are increasingly being translated into Modern Khalkh
Mongolian, abandoning Classical Tibetan as the language of the religious.(19)
The increasing self-consciousness of the Mongols is obvious in the
symbolic meaning they attach to the use of the language. The translation
of Buddhist texts into the Mongolian language may be interpreted as
an indication that Mongolian Buddhism in the twentieth century is
determined to adapt to the challenges of a modern, secularized society,
seeking its own way apart from the pressure of the traditional, conservative
Tibetan dGe-lugs-pa clergy.(20)
I wish to conclude
this short article about contemporary Buddhism in Mongolia with the
following observations: whereas in the country itself the impact of
the Buddhist renaissance is obvious in many different respects, the
representation of Mongolia and its religious culture in the modern
medium of worldwide communication, the internet, is not as unanimously
Buddhist. Two tendencies can be stressed. If Buddhism is considered
an important part of the national heritage of the Mongols, a tendency
toward glorification of the Buddhist past can be observed. This is
obvious in the representation of the eighth Bogdo Gegen as a pious
and deeply religious Buddhist, painstakingly observing his Buddhist
vows.(21) Most of the websites
on Mongolia, however, stress the importance of Chinggis Qan for the
revival of a distinct Mongolian culture. Besides Mongolian Buddhism,
Chinggis Qan plays the most important role for the re-construction
of Mongolian cultural and religious identity at the turn of the twenty-first
century. In the wake of this Chinggis Qan renaissance the indigenous
religion of the Mongols will surely have its comeback, as is already
obvious in Buryatia, where the indigenous religious beliefs now play
a much more important role than Buddhism.(22)
Endnotes
(1)
"Mongolia" in the following article refers to the territory
of the former "Mongolian People’s Republic," with
its capitol Ulaanbaatar. It does not include the Mongolian Autonomous
Region of the People’s Republic of China, also commonly known
as "Inner Mongolia." The processes of religious transformation
and the ongoing renaissance of Mongolian Buddhism as described in
this paper do not pertain to Inner Mongolia. Over the years very little
research about Buddhism in Inner Mongolia has been carried out. An
indication that there is some interest in Buddhism among the Inner
Mongolian populace (who are highly Sinicized and often do not speak
the native language any more, at least in Huhot, the capitol) are
the many publications on Buddhist topics, as well as an interest in
Mongolian Buddhism, on the part of both Chinese and Mongolian scholars.
Recently Isabelle Charleux, a French art historian, has done some
research on the revival of Mongolian Buddhist monasticism in her unpublished
paper "The Reconstruction of Buddhist Monasteries in the Chinese
Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia: Between Sanctuary and Museum"
(paper presented at the International Seminar Revival of Buddhism
in Mongolia after 1990 in Warsaw, November 24-28, 1999). In recent
years there has been a distinct relaxation in the politics of practising
religion in China. As far as I could observe during my recent stay
in China (August 2002), worship in Buddhist temples is now part of
the everyday life of ordinary, pious Chinese. Practising Buddhism
is no longer forbidden. Return to Text
(2) MongGol
ulus-un undusun xauli (Constitution of Mongolia). The Constitution
was created with the help of German political scientists and law professors
during a conference held at Ulānbātar, September 9-13, 1991.
A representative of Amnesty International was also present. See documentation
in the World Wide Web at:
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/corff/im/Gesetze/Verfassung_und_Demokratie.html.
Return to Text
(3) I
avoid using the term "shamanism" as a descriptive term for
Mongolian indigenous religion because, although the shaman and shamanizing
are distinctive features of this religious tradition, they are not
necessarily the most decisive ones. Return to Text
(4) According
to L.W. Moses (The Political Role of Mongol Buddhism, Bloomington,
1977, p. 125), at the beginning of the twentieth century, in Outer
Mongolia (Khalkha territory) there were; "583 temple complexes,
plus an additional 260 religious meeting places of various kinds."
According to him, not one third of the male population, but nearly
40 percent allegedly joined the clergy, a number which seems to me
extremely high. Perhaps this number has to be understood in a Mongolian
Buddhist context. Only a minority of monks stayed in the monastic
complexes; most of them returned, after having finished their monastic
education, to their families and led the traditional life of a nomadic
herdsman. The vows of celibacy, in the Tibetan Buddhist context an
important aspect of the dGe-lugs-pa tradition, were often not kept
by Mongolian monks. Return to Text
(5)
For a general survey of Mongolian history see C. R. Bawden, The
Modern History of Mongolia, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson,
1968, which, although in part outdated, is still the most thorough
account of Mongolian history up to the twentieth century. More recent
works include: B. Baabar, History of Mongolia, Cambridge,
White Horse Press, 1999; and B. O. Bold, Mongolian Nomadic Society:
A Reconstruction of the 'Medieval’ History of Mongolia.
Richmond, Curzon, 2001 (NIAS monographs; no. 83). A concise account
of the history of Mongolian Buddhism that relies on the wealth of
Mongolian sources edited and translated since the early twentieth
century still needs to be written. B. Siklos, "Mongolian Buddhism:
A defensive account," in: S. Akiner (ed.), Mongolia Today,
London/New York, Kegan Paul, 1991, pp. 155-182, at least provides
a fresh outlook on the history of Buddhism in Mongolia. For general
information about the revival of Buddhism in Central Asia, including
Buryatia and Kalmykia, see L. Belka/M. Slobodnik, "The Revival
of Tibetan Buddhism in Inner Asia: A Comparative Perspective,"
in: Asian and African Studies 11, 1, 2002, pp. 15-36.
Return to Text
(6)
See the Constitution of Mongolia, MongGol ulus-un undusun xauli,
article 9: "1. The State shall respect the Church and the Church
shall honor the State. 2. State institutions shall not engage in religious
activities and the Church shall not pursue political activities. 3.
The relationship between the State and the Church shall be regulated
by law." (Mongolian text: 1. mongGol ulus-du toru ni shasin-iyan
kundudgezu, shasin ni toru-ben degedulen-e. 2. toru-yin bayiGululG-a
shasin-u, sum-e keyid ulus toru-yin uile azillaG-a erkilen yabuGulzu
bolxu ugei. 3. toru, sum-e keyid-un xoGurundu-yin xarilcaG-a-yi xauli-bar
zokicaGulun-a.) Interestingly, the Mongolian terms used for "religion"
here are "shasin," which traditionally is used
to denote "religion" in the broadest sense, and then "sum-e
keyid," two terms which literally mean "Buddhist temple
and monastery." The second and third paragraph of article 9 therefore
deal specifically with Mongolian Buddhism and not just any religion.
Return to Text
(7)
Compare "The Revival," in Mongolia Today, issue
no. 6, an online magazine (www.mongoliatoday.com).
Return to Text
(8)
The leaders of Erdeni dzuu and the Shankh keyid provided this information
during an interview conducted by Agata Bareja-Starzynska and Hanna
Havnevik in August 1998. Bareja-Starzynska and Havnevik are researchers
in the joint Polish-Norwegian research project The Revival of
Buddhism in Mongolia after 1990. See the forthcoming article
by Bareja-Starzynska and Havnevik, "A Preliminary Survey of Buddhism
in Present-Day Mongolia," in Proceedings of the International
Seminar Revival of Buddhism in Mongolia after 1990, held in Warsaw,
Poland, November 24-27, 1999. Return to Text
(9) He
abandoned his monastic vows at the age of twenty-five. This is not
uncommon among high Tibetan Buddhist dignitaries. The renunciation
of the monastic vows is criticized by lay people, but an incarnation
is generally considered to be outside the realm of human criticism,
because he or she is supposed to have such a deep spiritual insight
that they alone know what is right for them and their fulfillment
of the Bodhisattva vow (personal communication of Ani Chodolma, Kagyupa
monastery, Amdo Colony, U.P., India). Return to Text
(10) There
is virtually no data regarding the presence of nuns in pre-communist
Mongolia. The researchers of the nineteenth century, like Pozdneev
(see his famous Ocherki byta buddijskikh monastyrej i buddijskogo
dukhovenstva, St. Peterburg 1880) and others do not give us any
data as to the existence of nuns or nunneries. But, as in every Buddhist
country, there must have been at least a few women contemplating leading
the religious life of a nun. One of the most striking aspects of contemporary
Mongolian Buddhism is the emergence of a strong nuns' order. In the
late 1990s, at least three nunneries have been founded in Ulaanbaatar
and the vicinity. Return to Text
(11) In
the thirteenth century, rNying-ma-pa lamas were already present at
the Qans‘ court. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the
Karma-bka‘-brgyud-pa maintained strong ties to some Mongolian
tribes, as is evident from Tibetan sources like the Deb-ther-sngon-po,
written in 1478 by `Gos-lo-tsa-ba gZhon-nu-dpal. The Erdeni-yin
erike, written by Isibaldan in 1835, tells of dGe-lugs-pa, Sa-skya-pa,
Kar-ma-pa, rNying-ma-pa and Jo-nang-pa lamas being active in Khalkha
Mongolia. See fol. 35v11-12 of Erdeni-yin erike. (I used
W. Heissig's edition. See W. Heissig, Erdeni-yin erike. Mongolische
Chronik der lamaistischen Klosterbauten der Mongolei von Isibaldan,
1835, in Faksimile mit Einleitung und Namensverzeichnis herausgegeben,
von W.H., Kopenhagen, 1961). Return to Text
(12) "The
Revival," in: Mongolia Today, online magazine, issue
no. 6, 12.10.2002. Return to Text
(13)
The processes of economic transformation brought about a marked increase
in individual poverty. Today Mongolia faces many problems typical
of Third World countries, like rapid urbanization, energy production
difficulties, lack of skilled labour resources, and so on. See O.
Bruun/ O. Odgaard (eds.), Mongolia in Transition. Old Patterns,
New Challenges, Richmond, Curzon Press, 1996. For an overview
of the current economic situation and strategies to cope with it see
L. Dorj and D. Yavuukhulan, "Mongolian Economic Development Strategy,"
in The Mongolian Journal of International Affairs 8-9, 2002,
pp. 67-73. Compare also O. Bruun/ P. Ronnas, L. Narangoa, "Mongolia:
Transition from the Second to the Third World?," Copenhagen,
NIAS, 2000. Return to Text
(14) This
question has also been dealt with by K. Sagaster in, "Religion
and Group Identity in Present Mongolia," in K. Fülberg-Stolberg/
P. Heidrich/ E. Schöne (eds.), Dissociation and Appropriation
— Responses to Globalization in Asia and Africa, Berlin:
Verlag das Arabische Buch, 1999, pp. 185-193. Return
to Text
(15) See
T. D. Skrynnikova, "Sülde — the Basic Idea of the Chinggis-Khan
Cult," in: Acta Orientalia Hungarica XLVI, 1992-1993,
pp. 51-59, and Erkesecen, "Yisün költü caghan
tugh-un tuqai jöblelge," ("Advice on the white, nine-tailed
flag") in: Öbör mongghol-un neyigem-ün sinjilekü
uqaghan, vol. 3, 1989, pp. 43-53. Return to
Text
(16)
Mong. MongGol ulus-un tusaGar toGtanil burin erketu bayidal-un belge
temdeg ni, in: MongGol ulus-un undusun xauli, arban xoyaduGar
zuil. Return to Text
(17)
In 1690 the first lCang-skya Khutukhtu Ngag-dbang-blo-bzang-chos-ldan
had already written a Buddhist prayer to Chinggis Qan. The prayer
to Chinggis Qan, composed by the famous Mergen diyanci lama in the
eighteenth century, was popular throughout Mongolia, up to the 1930s.
Today Chinggis Qan is the outstanding symbol of Mongolian cultural
identity. The literature about him is enormous, here I quote but a
few important contributions: C. Zamcarano, "Kul’t Cingisa
v Ordose. Iz puteshestviya v Yuzhnuyu Mongoliyu v 1910g.," in
Central Asiatic Journal 6, 1961, pp. 194-324; H. Serruys,
"The Cult of Chinggis-Qan: A Mongol Manuscript from Ordos,"
in: Zentralasiatische Studien 17, 1984, pp. 29-62. Among
noteworthy Mongolian publications is the work of Qurcabaghatur and
Üjüm-e, Mongghol-un böge mörgöl-ün
tayilgh-a-yin soyol, Külün Buyir, 1991, (Öbör
mongghol-un soyol-un keblel-ün qoriy-a), which in the third
chapter deals extensively with the cult of Chinggis Qan. Return
to Text
(18) The
contested term "syncretism" can be used as a descriptive
category for Mongolian Buddhism. "Syncretism from the point of
view of the religious actor" delineates the religious performances
of an individual who, dependent on time and situation, draws upon
indigenous as well as Buddhist patterns of meaning, thus, respectively
establishing a specific normative framework in two socially and religiously
different contexts. Return to Text
(19) When
the Buddhist conversion of Mongolia was actively promoted in the late
sixteenth century, the complete Tibetan Buddhist canon, Kanjur as
well as Tanjur, was translated into Mongolian, the Kanjur as early
as the first decade of the seventeenth century. See K. Kollmar-Paulenz,
"The Transmission of the Mongolian Kanjur: A preliminary Report,"
in H. Eimer/ D. Germano (eds.), The Many Canons of Tibetan Buddhism,
PIATS 2000: Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the Ninth Seminar of the
International Association for Tibetan Studies, Leiden, 2000, Brill:
Leiden, Boston, Köln, 2002, pp. 151-176. The liturgical language
in these early times of Buddhist conversion was Mongolian. In the
eighteenth century, however, the situation changed completely: the
clergy started to use the Tibetan language as the language of liturgy.
Prayers and so forth were only recited in Tibetan, even the historical
works were written largely in the Tibetan language. The reasons for
this rather swift language change have so far not been determined,
and will be a topic for further research into the socio-cultural patterns
that shaped traditional Mongolia. In recent times, however, the trend
has again reversed, so that Mongolian is once again the preferred
language. For example, some works of the present Dalai Lama have been
translated into Mongolian. The language question is, however, not
yet settled. Sometimes, Tibetan prayers in Mongolian Cyrillic transcription
are printed, which lay people and lamas alike are supposed to recite.
These texts are unique and very difficult to re-transcribe into Tibetan
script (in order to understand their content). Mongolian lay people
will rarely understand the contents of these texts. Many monks, who
today often get a rudimentary education in the Tibetan language, will
fare at least a bit better. Return to Text
(20) The
Republic of Kalmykia is following a different language policy: Kalmykia
is the first Central Asian state to declare Buddhism the state religion.
Today, in primary schools elementary courses in the Tibetan language
are offered to the students, because the language of the clergy is
Tibetan and not Kalmyk (personal communication from Deliash N. Muzraeva,
Elista, summer, 1998). Return to Text
(21) Compare
Mongolia Today, online magazine, issue no. 6, 12.10.2002.
One article is even dedicated to Genepil, one of the consorts of the
Bogdo Gegen. The Bogdo Gegen, as a high dignitary of the dGe-lugs-pa
tradition, was, of course, not allowed to take a female partner. His
lax morals were the target of open criticism in early twentieth century
Mongolia. Return to Text
(22) Buddhism
in Buryatia was, however, never as deeply rooted as in Mongolia, due
to the rather late conversion of the Buryats to Buddhism (in the early
eighteenth century) and the pressure of the Russian Orthodox church.
Return to Text