Research Article
Journal of Global Buddhism 4 (2003): 18 - 34
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
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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
Journal of Global Buddism 18
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
19 Research Article
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
Journal of Global Buddism 20
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
21 Research Article
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
Journal of Global Buddhism 22
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
23 Research Article
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
Journal of Global Buddhism 24
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.
25 Research Article
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
Journal of Global Buddhims 26
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
27 Research Article
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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
Journal of Global Buddhism 28
(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.
(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 xaulibar
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
29 Research Article
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.
(7) Compare "The Revival," in Mongolia Today, issue no. 6, an online
magazine (www.mongoliatoday.com).
(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.
(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).
(10) There is virtually no data regarding the presence of nuns in precommunist
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
Journal of Global Buddhism 30
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.
(11) In the thirteenth century, rNying-ma-pa lamas were already present
at the Qans‘ court. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Karmabka‘-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, rNyingma-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).
(12) "The Revival," in: Mongolia Today, online magazine, issue no. 6,
12.10.2002.
(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
31 Research Article
from the Second to the Third World?," Copenhagen, NIAS, 2000.
(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.
(15) See T. D. Skrynnikova, "Sülde — the Basic Idea of the ChinggisKhan
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.
(16) Mong. MongGol ulus-un tusaGar toGtanil burin erketu bayidal-un
belge temdeg ni, in: MongGol ulus-un undusun xauli, arban xoyaduGar
zuil.
(17) In 1690 the first lCang-skya Khutukhtu Ngag-dbang-blo-bzangchos-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 qoriya),
which in the third chapter deals extensively with the cult of Chinggis
Journal of Global Buddhism 32
Qan.
(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.
(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. KollmarPaulenz,
"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
33 Research Article
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.
(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).
(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 dGelugs-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.
(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.
Journal of Global Buddhism 34