Indo-Mongolian Relationship

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"The admiration of the Mongols for Sanskrit was so great that many

Sanskrit words have been borrowed and incorporated into Mongolian.

 

Even now Sanskrit words are used not only in literary but also in

colloquial Mongolian. It is interesting to note that in Mongolia when

the need arises for new scientific terms it is

 

often preferred to have them adopted from Sanskrit, rather than from

Latin or any other languages. Sanskrit terms relating to diverse

branches of science and philosophy, from cosmonautics to medicine and

botanics have been adopted in modern Mongolian terminological lexicon.

The names of planets and stars, including the cosmos, in modern

Mongolian are named in Sanskrit:

Sanskrit

Adya

Mongolian

Adya=(Sunday, Sun)

 

Sansk:Somya

Mong:Sumya (Monday, Moon)

 

Sansk:Angäraka

Mong:Angaraq (Tuesday, Mars)

 

It is worthwhile to mention that some Sanskrit words have been

Mongolized to such an extent that the Mongols do not event suspect

their foreign origin:

Sanskrit:

Sansāra

 

Abhyasa

 

Punya

 

Kšana

 

Dvipa

 

Graha

 

Jātaka

 

Šloka

 

Padaka

 

Rašayana

======================================================================

Mongolian:

 

 

Sansar (space)

 

Avyas (talent)

 

Buyan (good deeds)

 

Agshin (instant)

 

Tiv (continent)

 

Garig (planet)

 

Tsadig (tales, stories)

 

Shuleg (poems, verses)

 

Badag (strophe)

 

Arshan (mineral water, nectar)

 

 

 

 

 

The Mongols have a long tradition of having Sanskrit names:

 

 

 

Sanskrit

 

 

 

 

Mongolian

 

Arya

 

Aditya

 

Vajravali

 

Dharma

 

Čandra

 

Ratna

 

Utpala

 

 

 

 

Arya

 

Adya

 

Ochirbal

 

Darma

 

Zandra

 

Radna

 

Udval

 

 

 

 

 

The Indo-Mongolian Relationship: A Retrospective

http://www.mongolianculture.com/ProfBira-Lect.htm

Outlook On Buddhism

 

 

 

Prof. Sh. Bira (Mongolia)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite the expectation of some people, Mongolia has not ever

been completely isolated from the outside world, being sandwiched – to

use the jargon of modern journalism – between two giants – Russia and

China. On the contrary it has always been in close contact with great

civilizations – the Indo-Iranian, the Sino-Tibetan, the Eurasian in

old pre-modern times and even the Euro-American in our days. I share

the opinion of scholars who assert that the nomadic world of the

Mongols always needed relations with the outside world and the

external factor has played a great role in their history.

 

The geographical and geopolitical situation of Mongolia always

favored the mutual relationship between nomadic and sedentary

civilizations – the two main components of human civilization. The

grand territory of Mongolia has always been a bridge between various

civilizations. To be more concrete the great highways have since long

ago linked the east and the west, namely the great Silk Road and the

Eurasian steppe corridor, sometimes called the Silk Road of the

steppes, stretching from the Mediterranean and the Danube river up to

the Great Wall of China. Being the most mobile forces, the nomadic

peoples played an active role in the mutual contacts of peoples and

cultures of the different regions of the world. I would say that they

had been played no less a role in their own time then, as in today's

world with it's sophisticated means of communication. Along the above

mentioned roads there had been taking place the free flow of cultures,

ideas, and information.

 

Coming over to our topic, long before the appearance of the

Mongols into the historical arena India had become well known through

its civilization. Buddhism was first spread among the ancient tribes

who inhabited Mongolia – Hsiung-nu, Sien-pi, Toba, Turks and

Uighurs.In earlier periods Buddhism came to the Mongolian steppes

through Central Asian countries.

 

The Sogdians, the Khotanese and the Uighurs played an active

intermediary role in introducing Buddhism to the Eastern part of

Central Asia. Most of the Sanskrit loan words in Mongolian were taken

mainly from Khotanese and Sogdian forms through Uighur writing:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sanskrit

 

 

 

Khotanese

 

 

 

Sogdian

 

 

 

Uighur

 

 

 

Mongolian

 

 

Vinyā

Śasana

 

Jātaka

 

Vajra

 

Mahārāja

 

 

 

 

 

Vinai

 

Säsana

 

 

 

 

 

Vinai

 

 

 

Čittik

 

Bčr

 

My'rč

 

 

 

 

 

Vinai

 

Śasin

 

Čadik

 

Včir

 

Mharač

 

 

 

 

 

Vinai

 

Śasin

Čadiγ

 

Včir

 

Mharača

 

 

 

 

 

The Uighurs, one of the most advanced nomadic peoples, created

their own powerful kingdom in Mongolia in YIII – IX centuries. It was

after the collapse of their kingdom in Mongolia that they moved to

Eastern Turkestan. Even then they continued keeping close relations

with the Mongols. It was the Sogdians and the Uighurs from whom the

Mongols borrowed their script which originated from the Phoenician –

Aramaic system of writing.

 

The Sogdian – Uighur script, after having been adapted to the

Mongolian language, had been serving as a flexible instrument of

learning and literature for many centuries. All the Buddhist sutras

were translated into Mongolian and written in the Uighur script.

 

Although we can speak about the Indo-Mongolian interaction since a

long time ago, it's tangible results are translated to the later

period which lasted from the XIII century to the modern period. The

Mongolian state founded in 1206 by Chinggis Khan had become during his

successors reign the world's largest empire that has ever existed in

history. It stretched from the Far East to Eastern Europe, including

most of Asia as well as a good deal of Europe. India was not conquered

by the Mongols, although Mongol troops from Central Asia invaded the

frontier regions of India several times in the 1220's – 1230's.

Instead Indian civilization continued it's invasion into the Mongolian

steppes.

 

Two powerful streams of Buddhism can be observed that penetrated

Mongolia from two different sides – Central Asia and Tibet and China.

It does not exclude the possibility of direct contacts of Mongolia

with the northern parts of India, especially Kashmir while Buddhism

flourished there. From Chinese sources we know that in the reign of

Ögedie Khan the Kashmiri monk Namu and his brother came to the

Mongolian court. He stayed during the reigns of Ögedie Khan's

successors - Güyük and Mönke Khan. The latter appointed him as

Guo-shi, the State preceptor. He was given a jade seal to administer

Buddhist affairs. He was much honored at the Mongolian court. He was

assigned to the head of ten thousand Kashmiri households.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Namu was also on good relations with Khubilai Khan, the youngest

brother of Monke Khan. During the debates between Buddhists and the

Taoists of China, Namu together

 

with 'Phags-pa Lama from Tibet strongly supported the Buddhists, thus

securing the prevailing position of Buddhism in the empire.

 

I must say that in the earlier period of the Mongolian empire

Buddhism held a much more influential position at the Mongolian court

than we can expect. According to a stone inscription of 1346 in Ögedei

Khan's reign, there a huge Buddhist edifice was founded, a stupa

covered with a pavilion five stories tall with statues of various

Buddhas. It seems to me that in Kararkorum we had something similar to

the famous stupa Borobudur in Indonesia. Several Buddhist temples are

known to have been built in Karakorum. Buddhist books were studied and

translated , and great discussions on religion were held at the

Mongolian court. I have to say that not only Buddhism was popular in

Karakorum but other religions – Nestorianism, Christianity and Islam

were known as well. Mongolian Khans were surprisingly strong adherents

of the policy of religious tolerance. As witnessed by William of

Rubuck, a Fransiscan Friar, who met Möngke Khan, The Mongolian Khan

said as follows:

 

"We Mongols believe that there is but one God, by Whom we live, and

by Whom we die, and towards Him we have an upright heart…But just as

god gives different fingers to the hand, so has He given different

ways to men."

 

These words of Monke Khan sound very modern and very instructive to

those who in present day Mongolia are intolerant towards other

religions which are now penetrating Mongolia.

 

If you take the Yuan period of the Mongolian empire when Khubilai

Khan and his successors ruled over China, you will find a new period

that opened in the history of Indo-Mongolian contacts.

 

There were two varieties of Indian Buddhism accessible to the

Mongols in China. These were the Chinese and Tibetan varieties of

Buddhism. The Mongolian Khan preferred to choose the latter one, that

is the Tibetan variety of Buddhism or Tantric Buddhism which was most

popular in Tibet thanks to the efforts of the Sa-skya sect. Mongolian

Khans attached a special significance to Tibet because it was a center

of Buddhism which they wished to use as a powerful counterbalance to

Confucianism and to secure their domination in China. Tibet was not

conquered by the Mongolian troops, and enjoyed the status of being a

vassalage. Mongol Khans wanted to have Buddhism and Buddhist culture

prevail in the empire as they preferred to have non-Chinese, mostly

Central Asians serving in the bureaucracy and administration in China.

During that period Tibet had actually become some kind of a

midway-house between India and Mongolia, transmitting to Mongolia all

of what they had borrowed from Buddhist India

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

since a long time ago. Khubilai Khan, the founder of the Yuan dynasty

in China, not only converted to Buddhism himself, but officially

declared Buddhism the state religion within his cosmopolitan empire.

He invited from Tibet, the famous lama `Phagspa Lama lodoi-Tsaltsan,

the abbot of the Saskya sect, and put him at the head of the Buddhist

church. He granted him the title of the Imperial Preceptor (Ti-shih).

Khubilai Khan skillfully exploited the authority and knowledge of

`Phags-pa Lama in his policies of ruling his vast empire. And

`Phags-pa Lama was the right man for this purpose. He was not only a

great lama, but he was also a very learned in Buddhist literature,

especially in the so called epistolary writings or letters composed in

short verses by ancient Indian sages – Nagarjuna, Matrceta,

Cabdragoming and others with the purpose of expounding the main

postulates of Buddhism and the political concepts of universal

monarchies and sacred laws. In his numerous works written after the

pattern of works by the just mentioned authors, `Phags-pa Lama did his

best to glorify Khubilai Khan by prescribing to him the attributes of

universal rulers – Chakaravardins as Indian sages did the same

regarding their great patrons – Ashoka, Kanishka and others. The

Tibetan teacher urged Khubilai Khan to rule by peaceful means

according to the non-violence teachings of Buddhism, asserting that

peace can be obtained by peace only, just as fire can be put out by

water, but not by fire itself. `Phags-pa Lama could be considered to

have founded the fundamental philosophy of Khubilai Khan's policy.

According to this philosophy, the khan's power and Buddhist religion

(Dharma) constitute the two main principles of imperial policy. This

policy was adhered to by his successors in one way or the other. I

must say that Khubilai Khan's policy of the two principles had

far-reaching consequences and terms so that even after the collapse of

the Mongolian empire the Mongol khans persistently followed this policy.

 

Buddhism as the Indo-Tibetan factor in the Mongolian policy could

not naturally secure Mongol domination of China as well as elsewhere,

but it did greatly help them to rule over the sedentary society for

nearly a century and to withstand the danger of assimilation within

the far more numerous population of the conquered country. Unlike the

other nomads who conquered China, the Mongols were remarkably

successful in maintaining many features of their lifestyle – from

culinary and dress customs to language, military and political

institutions throughout the entire period of their domination. With

the takeover of power by the Chinese the Mongols retreated to their

homeland, and even then attempted to restore their rule in China, but

without any success.

 

The most important point is not so much what I have just told you,

but it is rather the after affects that the Indo-Mongolian intercourse

has left in the history of the Mongols.

 

Although the Indo-Mongolian contacts were mostly indirect and had

occurred much later than when Buddhism had been flourishing in India

itself, the cultural and spiritual

 

 

 

 

 

consequences of these contacts have been surprisingly great and have

lasted for many centuries until the recent period.

 

It is true that after the disintegration of the Mongolian empire in

the end of the XIY century, Buddhism went into decay and Shamanism

regained its position in Mongolia. But the linkage of the Mongols with

Buddhism via Tibet had not ever been completely interrupted. Source

materials provide us with historical data which testify to the

contacts of different parts of Mongolia with the various sects in

Tibetan Sa-Skya-pa, Karma-pa and Gelup-pa Lamaism. Moreover the second

half of the XYI century was a turning point of the Buddhist revival in

Mongolia. The most powerful rulers of the Mongols vigorously contested

with each other to adopt Buddhism in its varieties from Tibet.

 

In the end of the XYI century most of the Mongols were converted to

Lamaism, which by that time had become the strongest sect of Tibetan

Buddhism. Monasteries were built in different parts of Mongolia, and

Buddhist learning and literary activities developed further, and

interrelations between Mongolia and Tibet intensified more than ever

before since the period of the Mongol empire.

 

One can say that in those days there emerged some kind of a

religious and military alliance between the two countries. Altan Khan,

the ruler of the northern Mongols, and the third Dalai Lama of Tibet,

at their historical meeting in 1586, decided to establish the so

called Patron and Preceptor relationship. After the previously

mentioned policy of the two principles initiated by Khubilai Khan, the

Dalai Lama and Mongolian rulers did their best to implement this

policy for strengthening their power. Meanwhile, a new power had been

emerging in Central Asia, that is the Manchu empire in the Northeast

of China. The Manchus started to manipulate Tibetan Buddhism in their

empire building policy toward their neighboring countries, first of

all, in Mongolia. Thus Tibetan Buddhism became a powerful religious

and political factor in the whole of Inner Asia, and all the rivaling

forces tried to use it for the realization of their political

ambitions. In their struggle for the favor of Tibet Buddhism the

Manchus were more successful than anyone else. Manchu rulers, since

the beginning of their expansionism against Mongolia skillfully

manipulated the Tibetan factor. In this respect Mongolian rulers

turned out to have been less powerful and skillful in the final

analysis, they could not get united in their efforts to consolidate

their power against the Manchus. The Manchus proficiently played on

the nationalistic and religious feelings of the Mongols. First of all,

taking advantage of their ethnic and cultural affinity, the Manchus

declared themselves the rightful inheritors of the Chinggisids, and

launched a propaganda campaign that they wished to restore the great

empire of the Chinggisids. They claimed to have received the state

seal of the great Mongolian khans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Secondly Manchu rulers also declared they were real patrons of

Buddhism, and established a close contact with the religious

authorities of Tibet, including the Dalai

 

lamas. The Manchu emperor Abakhai even built a huge temple dedicated

to Mahakala, the main guardian of Buddhism, highly worshipped both by

Tibetan and the Mongols. He wished to make this temple a State

sanctuary for all Buddhists in his domain. It is not difficult to

understand that all these maneuvers of the Manchus greatly helped them

to gain the sympathy and support of the Mongols. Prominently, the

First Bogdo Gegen of Mongolia when he decided to acquire the

protection of the Manchus in the struggle with the Western Mongols is

said to have declared that the Manchus were closer to the Mongols in

customs and religion.

 

The Manchus persistently continued to patronize Tibetan Buddhism

in every possible way after their conquests of the lands of Mongolia.

it was during the period of the Manchu domination that Buddhism in

fact became the main religion of the Mongols. Moreover under the

conditions of the isolation and backwardness of the country Buddhism

had eventually become the sole driving force in the life of Mongols.

By the beginning of the XX century about 750 monasteries were

functioning in Khalkha Mongolia and the lamas constituted on fifth of

the country's population. Incidentally, Sherbatskoi, the famous

Russian Indologist who visited Mongolia in the early XX century

compared Mongolia of those days with Medieval India when Buddhism

flourished there.

 

I would say that the Buddhist influence on Mongolia was so great

that Mongolia had eventually become a part of the Indo-Tibetan world.

It is interesting to note that under the rule of the Manchus and

despite the fact that their emperors claimed to be the lawful khans of

the Mongols, Mongolian chroniclers persistently propagated the legend

about their genealogical affinity of the family of Chinggisids with

the long line of pedigrees of legendary and semi legendary kings of

India. They forged an extraordinary fabulous common genealogy on

Indian, Tibetan, and Mongolian kings, and according to this genealogy

the Golden clan of the Chinggisids could be traced back to as far as

the legendry king Mahasammata. Mahasammata was believed to be the

forefather of the kings of the Buddhist world. Mongolian chroniclers

tried in every possible way to link Mongolia with Buddhist India. They

elaborated a special scheme of writing history, that's the scheme of

the so called three Buddhist monarchies – India, Tibet and Mongolia.

If you read old Mongolian chronicles you will see with what pietism

this scheme was followed by their authors until recent times. Great

Mongolian khans were declared to be reincarnations of various Buddhist

Gods – Chinggis Khan being the reincarnation of Vajrapani, and

Khubilai Khan that of Manjushri.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The legendary genealogy of Mongolian Khans, together with a devout

faith in Buddhism, helped the Mongols to keep alive their memory of

their glorious history and it was obviously the vivid expression of

the reaction of the Mongols to the foreign

 

domination. Mongolian khans were famous not only for their real

historical kinship, but also for their spiritual relationship with the

sacred kings of Buddhist India.

 

If you take the intellectual and artistic activities of the Mongols

during the Manchu period, you can discover an interesting phenomenon

in Mongolian history. Most of the Mongolian translations of Buddhist

sutras and works of Mongolian learned lamas belonged to the Manchu

period. It is sufficient to mention the two great famous collections

Mahayana literature – the Ganjur and the Tanjur were fully translated

into Mongolian and published by means of wood block printing in

Beijing. The Ganjur (108 vols.) contains the commandments of Buddha

and it is divided into three broad selections – Vinaya, Sutra and

Tantra. the other collections Tanjur (225 vols.) comprises numerous

commentaries and independent philosophical and secular scientific

works of ancient Indian authors. The Ganjur and the Tanjur have been

highly esteemed by the Mongols as a great treasure house of Indian

wisdom, knowledge, and are worshipped everywhere in Mongolia. From

the academic point of view, the Tanjur represents a special interest.

It contains numerous works on different branches of knowledge –

philosophy, logic, grammar, poetics, prosody, medicine, astrology,

art, etc. For instance one can find more than forty Sanskrit

grammatical works including the famous Panini's grammar, the earliest

known grammar in the history of linguistics. Of great interest are the

works on ancient Indian medicine composed after the pattern of

Ayurveda, Sushrutasamhita and Čarakasamhita, the so called three

pillars of Indian medicine.

 

The Mongols not only translated a great deal of Buddhist

literature, but wrote many works on various subjects of Buddhism and

Buddhist knowledge including those on poetics, literature, medicine,

etc., not to mention religious works. The Mongols wrote not only in

their native tongue, but also in the Tibetan language which was the

language of the church and learning in Mongolia. The writings of

Mongolian authors were rather prodigious and had been highly praised

in Tibet itself. They are of prime importance for those who study

Buddhism. From these works one can see how the spiritual traditions of

Buddhist India had been transmitted through the mediation of Tibet and

how it was fruitfully continued by the Mongols until the modern era.

The Indian influence on Mongolia was not limited to religion and

culture only, but embraced the other spheres of life, from political

philosophy to language and folklore. Allow me to present some

examples. The old Indian language Sanskrit was popular in Mongolia,

because it was the language of Buddhism. It was believed to have been

the language of Buddha and therefore studied alongside Tibetan. The

admiration of the Mongols for Sanskrit was so great that many Sanskrit

words have been borrowed and incorporated into Mongolian.

 

 

 

 

 

Even now Sanskrit words are used not only in literary but also in

colloquial Mongolian. It is interesting to note that in Mongolia when

the need arises for new scientific terms it is

 

often preferred to have them adopted from Sanskrit, rather than from

Latin or any other languages. Sanskrit terms relating to diverse

branches of science and philosophy, from cosmonautics to medicine and

botanics have been adopted in modern Mongolian terminological lexicon.

The names of planets and stars, including the cosmos, in modern

Mongolian are named in Sanskrit:

 

 

 

Sanskrit

 

 

Mongolian

 

Adya

 

 

Adya (Sunday, Sun)

 

Somya

 

 

Sumya (Monday, Moon)

 

Angäraka

 

 

Angaraq (Tuesday, Mars)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is worthwhile to mention that some Sanskrit words have been

Mongolized to such an extent that the Mongols do not event suspect

their foreign origin:

 

 

 

Sanskrit

 

 

 

 

Mongolian

 

Sansāra

 

Abhyasa

 

Punya

 

Kšana

 

Dvipa

 

Graha

 

Jātaka

 

Šloka

 

Padaka

 

Rašayana

 

 

 

 

Sansar (space)

 

Avyas (talent)

 

Buyan (good deeds)

 

Agshin (instant)

 

Tiv (continent)

 

Garig (planet)

 

Tsadig (tales, stories)

 

Shuleg (poems, verses)

 

Badag (strophe)

 

Arshan (mineral water, nectar)

 

 

 

 

 

The Mongols have a long tradition of having Sanskrit names:

 

 

 

Sanskrit

 

 

 

 

Mongolian

 

Arya

 

Aditya

 

Vajravali

 

Dharma

 

Čandra

 

Ratna

 

Utpala

 

 

 

 

Arya

 

Adya

 

Ochirbal

 

Darma

 

Zandra

 

Radna

 

Udval

 

 

 

 

 

The Manchu domination in Mongolia lasted more than two hundred

years in the Northern part and nearly three hundred years in the

Southern part of Mongolia. In the final analysis the religious policy

of the Manchus that encouraged Buddhism in Mongolia gave such a

paradoxical result that even the Manchus could not foresee it. It is

really paradoxical that the more the Manchus tried to consolidate

their power in Mongolia with the assistance of Buddhism, the more the

Mongols eventually became spiritually and culturally alien to their

Manchu rulers. Buddhism had after all become the national religion of

the Mongols. On the other hand, the Manchus themselves had bgun to

acculturate and were finally assimilated amongst the Confucian

Chinese. Buddhism had gained a strong foothold in even in the

political sphere of Mongolian life. The more the Manchus encouraged

the Buddhist church in Mongolia, the more it became an influential

power in politics as well. There has emerged a powerful ecclesiastical

elite group that came to play a greater and greater role in the

country's life. The ecclesiastical leaders consisting of numerous

so-called Khutugus and Khubilgads, the great sacred lamas and

reincarnations, overshadowed even the secular authorities, the real

inheritors of the Golden clan of Chingissids. They mastered not only

the minds of the Mongols, but owned enormous material resources of the

country including cattle. They had their own leader in the person of

the YIII Bogdo Gegen Jebtsundamba Khutugtu who was almost the only

authority in Mongolia when several khans who had claims to power were

rivaling each other. As a result the ecclesiastical leaders headed by

the Bogdo Gegen supported by a wider circle of Mongols succeeded in

taking power when the Manchu empire was about to collapse. Thus in

1911 the YIII Bogdo Gegen declared the independence of Mongolia and

announced his wish to establish friendly relations with other

countries including the U.S.A., Japan and others. Bogdo Gegen was

proclaimed Bogdo Khan with the titled "Elevated by the

Many"/Oлноо

θpгдcθн/ is the Sanskrit loan word that means

Mahasammatsa, the name

of the legendary Indian Buddhist king. It is also a prominent fact

that in the political life of the Mongols for the last two centuries

that the institution of the Bogdo Gengens played a decisive role. The

first Bogdo Gegen Zanabazar who was proclaimed head of the Buddhist

church in Mongolia belonged to the Golden clan of the Chingissids, and

it was he who, under the threat of mutual annihilation of the Mongols

during the struggle between the Eastern and Western Mongols, decided to

 

 

 

 

 

submit to the Manchu's. And it is characteristic that two hundred

after this event the last Bogdo Gegen restored the independence of

Mongolia. I must say that under the impact of the Buddhist doctrine of

reincarnation that the traditional concepts of the continuity of the

khans power amongst the Mongols had undergone a great change. They

believed that the Bogdo Gegens through a lineage of a series of

reincarnations had the right to claim not only the sacred genealogy of

reincarnations of the Buddha's learned disciples that originated in

India, but also of the Golden clan of the Chinggisids in their own

country. That was the reason why the Mongols so enthusiastically

supported the Bogdo Gegen as a khan of the Mongols, and this event

once again shows that the spiritual influence of ancient India was

very strong indeed.

 

After all, Buddhism in its Indo-Tibetan variety has eventually

become an important component of Mongolian nationalism. Mongolian

nationalists of different periods tried to use it as their ideology.

The leaders of the so-called People's revolution in 1921 supported by

communist Russia put forward a slogan to restore State and Religion in

Mongolia. Even the totalitarian regime that existed during the last

seventy years occasionally tried to exploit the Indian factor and

Buddhism in their own way. India was the first non-communist country

with whom Mongolia established diplomatic relations since 1955.

 

With the democratic reforms that started in 1990 in Mongolia there

has begun a new period of a Buddhist revival. This unique historical

process of re-Buddhaisation is taking place alongside the

modernization of Mongolia along the road of democracy and the market

economy. Buddhism that was known to have to been greatly suppressed

during the last seven decades is now emerging once again from the

ashes of destruction. And no matter whatever steps the Mongolian

Buddhist revival goes through, it has to meet, in one way or the

other, the requirements of the county's development, and in this

process the Indian Buddhist factor that has a long tradition in

Mongolia might remain still furthermore in the years to come. At

present it should be properly understood that the former Tibetan

variety of Buddhism, that's Lamaism, cannot be dogmatically restored

as it had been before under the rule of the Manchus who encouraged it

specially for the purpose of consolidating their domination both in

Mongolia and Tibet. The present-day Mongolia needs more radical

reforms in the field of religion as well as in all the spheres of

life. It is difficult to think that under the present conditions

Lamaism can regain is predominant position in the spiritual life of

the Mongols and become a guarantee of national and cultural identity

as some people believe these days. Today's Tibet cannot claim any more

to be a religious center for the Mongols.

 

The question of how the Buddhist revival is really going on at

present and what we can expect in the future in another topic to be

dealt with separately by a more competent speaker.