2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
Mongolian Buddhism in the Twenty-First Century: Under Construction
ru
Original Article
AbstractFull textReferencesFilesAuthorsAltmetrics
Rustam Sabirov (Associate Professor)
Institute of Asian and African Studies Moscow State University
The article considers Buddhism in modern Mongolia in the context of the world of Tibetan Buddhism. The peculiarity of Buddhism in modern Mongolia lies in the simultaneous coexistence of different models and interpretations of Buddhism. The “socialist” model is the result of the transformations during the period of the People’s Republic of Mongolia: Buddhism is seen as a part of the cultural and national heritage, and the Hambo-lama is recognized as head of the Sang-ha. The “Tibetan” model assumes orientation to the Dalai Lama and those lamas who are close to him and calls for the restoration of the Tulku institution headed by Bogd Gegeen. Supporters of the “nationalist” model oppose the interference of the Tibetans altogether. Some lamas also defend the originality of Mongolian Buddhism. The emergence of the tenth Bogd Gegeen could potentially unite these disparate groups and significantly strengthen Mongolia’s position in the world of Tibetan Buddhism that now undergoes through difficult times. Despite the economic difficulties, “spiritual” dependence on the Tibetan lamas and the tight pressure from China, it is in the field of Buddhism that the Mongols manage to show their agency and act as an independent player. Alternative religious discourses presented by followers of shamanism and Christianity are much less efficient or popular. The article draws upon extensive field sources.
Keywords: Buddhism in Mongolia, tibetan Buddhism, DALAI Lama, Bogd Gegeen, Mongolia, буддизм в Монголии, тибетский буддизм, далай-лама, Богдо-гэгэн, монголия
Концепция национальной безопасности Монголии. Приложение к постановлению Великого Государственного Хурала № 48 от 15 июля 2010 года. Улан-Батор, 2010.
Родионов В.А. Буддизм и постсоциалистическая трансформация в Монголии // Власть. 2018. № 2. С. 94-99.
Сабиров Р.Т. Арест экс-президента Н. Энхбаяра и нетипичная демократия в Монголии // Восток. Афро-азиатские общества: история и современность. 2014. № 1. с. 79-89.
Abrahms-Kavunenko, Saskia (2019) Enlightenment and the Gasping City. Mongolian Buddhism at a Time of Environmental Disarray. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London.
Atwood, Ch.P. (2017) "The Lama Question: Violence, Sovereignty, and Exception in Early Socialist Mongolia by Christopher Kaplonski (review)", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 77(1): 212-218.
Balogh, M. (2010) "Contemporary shamanisms in Mongolia", Asian Ethnicity 11(2): 229238.
Barkmann, U.B. (1997) "The revival of Lamaism in Mongolia", Central Asian Survey 16(1): 69-79.
Bulag, U.E. (1998) Nationalism and Hybridity in Mongolia, pp. 71-81. Oxford, Clarendon Press.
Bumochir, D. (2014) "Institutionalization of Mongolian shamanism: from primitivism to civilization", Asian Ethnicity 15(4): 473-491.
Buyandelger, M. (2008) "Tricky Representations: Buddhism in the Cinema during Socialism in Mongolia", The Silk Road 6/1: 54-62.
Dreyfus, G. (1998) "The Shukden Affair: Origins of a Controversy", Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 21(2): 227-270.
Elverskog, J. (2006) "Two Buddhisms in Contemporary Mongolia", Contemporary Buddhism: An Interdisciplinary Journal 7(1): 29-46.
Elverskog, J. (2006) Our Great Qing: The Mongols, Buddhism, and the State in Late Imperial China. University of Hawai'i Press.
Elverskog, J. (2007) "Tibetocentrism, religious conversion and the study of Mongolian Buddhism", in U.E. Bulag, H.G.M. Diemberger (eds) The Mongolia-Tibet interface. Opening new research terrains in Inner Asia, pp. 59-80. Leiden.
Hangartner, J. (2011) The Constitution and Contestation of Darhad Shamans' Power in Contemporary Mongolia. Global Oriental.
Jadamba, L., Schittich, B. (2010) "Negotiating Self and Other: Transnational Cultural Flows and the Reinvention of Mongolian Buddhism", Internationales Asienforum 41(1-2): 83-102.
Jadamba, L. (2018) "Double Headed Mongolian Buddhism", The CESS Blog, February 28 [http://thecessblog.com/2018/02/double-headed-mongolian-buddhism-by-lhag-vademchig-j-shastri-visiting-researcher-university-of-shiga-prefecture, accessed on 21.02.2018].
Kaplonski, Ch. (2014) The Lama Question: Violence, Sovereignty, and Exception in Early Socialist Mongolia, pp. xvii + 259. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
King, M. (2012) "Finding the Buddha Hidden below the Sand: Youth, Identity and Narrative in the Revival of Mongolian Buddhism", in Change in Democratic Mongolia, pp.17-29. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
Kollmar-Paulenz, K. (2003) "Buddhism in Mongolia after 1990", Journal of Global Buddhism 4(1): 18-34.
Kontseptsiia natsional'noi bezopasnosti Mongolii. Prilozhenie k postanovleniiu Velikogo Gosudarstvennogo Xurala № 48 ot 15 iiulia 2010 goda [The concept of national security of Mongolia. Annex to the resolution of the Great State Hural] (2010). Ulan-Bator.
Kuzmin, S.L. (2017) "Management as a Tool of Destruction: Reincarnation of "Living Buddhas" in Modern Chinese Legislation", The Tibet Journal 42(1): 37-48.
Manduhai, B. (2013) Tragic Spirits: Shamanism, Memory, and Gender in Contemporary Mongolia. University of Chicago Press.
Manduhai, B. (2007) "Dealing with Uncertainty: Shamans, Marginal Capitalism, and the Remaking of History in Postsocialist Mongolia", American Ethnologist 34(1): 127-147.
Merli, L. (2004) "Chinggis Khan and the New Shamans", Inner Asia 6: 119-124.
Pelkmans M. (2009) Conversion after Socialism: Disruptions, Modernisms, and the Technologies of Faith, pp. 1-16. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Rodionov, V.A. (2018) "Buddizm i postsotsialisticheskaia transformatsiia v Mongolii" [Buddhism and post-socialist transformation in Mongolia], Vlast' 2: 94-99.
Sabirov, R.T. (2014) "Arest eks-prezidenta N. Enkhbaiara i netipichnaia demokratiia v Mongolii" [The arrest of former President N. Enkhbayar and atypical democracy in Mongolia], Vostok. Afroaziatskie obshchestva: istoriia i sovremennost' 1: 79-89.
Shimamura, I. (2014) The Roots Seekers: Shamanism and Ethnicity Among the Mongol Buryats. Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan: Shumpusha Publishing.
© Article. Rustam Sabirov, 2020.