Between Dharamsala and the Golden Urn: Mongolian Buddhism in the Context of China’s Religious Policy
https://doi.org/10.22394/2073-7203-2022-40-2-105-127
Abstract
The article examines the influence of the religious policy of the People’s Republic of China on the development of the Buddhist Sangha of Mongolia. The author shows that this policy is based on models developed in times of the Qing Empire (1644–1912). There was a single religious space that connected Tibet, China and Mongolia. The key link connecting these Buddhist centers was the tulku institution — the characters of the Buddhist pantheon who were believed to be consciously incarnated. Tulkus were born in Tibet and Mongolia, approved by the Dalai Lama or Panchen Lama, while the Qing court tried to control the process. The laws and measures taken by Chinese government agencies actually establish Chinese control over the procedure for the search, approval, enthronement and training of the tulku. This policy directly affects Buddhism in Mongolia, where the institution of Khuvilgaans is being revived and there are close ties with the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan diaspora. It was the Dalai Lama who approved most of the living Mongolian tulkus, including the highest — the Tenth Bogdo Gegeen. At the same time, some Mongolian Buddhists reject the Tibetan interference and cooperate with Chinese religious and state organizations. The growth of nationalist sentiments in Mongolia, along with China’s religious policy, may eventually lead to the disintegration of the Tibetancentered structure and the isolation of the Mongolian Sangha under the leadership of the Tenth Bogdo.
Keywords
About the Author
R. Sabirov
Institute of Asian and African Studies, Moscow State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Rustam Sabirov — Associate Professor
Moscow
References
1. Ванчикова Ц. П. Хубилганы и хутухты в истории монгольского буддизма //Монголоведение в современном мире: опыт исследований, перспективы развития: материалы международной научной конференции «Улымжиевские чтения — X» / науч. ред. О. Н. Полянская. Улан-Удэ: Издательство Бурятского госуниверситета, 2019.
2. Кадырбаев А.Ш. Хубилай-хан — завоеватель или объединитель Китая? // Общество и государство в Китае. 2009. № 1. С. 56–75.
3. Кузьмин С.Л. Скрытый Тибет. История независимости и оккупации. СПб.: издание А. Терентьева, 2010 [http://savetibet.ru/2010/03/10/ancient_tibet_2.html, доступ от 21.10.2021].
4. Позднеев А. М. Очерки быта буддийских монастырей и буддийского духовенства в Монголии, в связи с отношениями сего последнего к народу. СПб.: Типогр. Имп. Академии наук, 1887.
5. Помелова Ю. П. Проблемы формирования национальной идентичности в Китайской Народной Республике (2002–2012 гг.). Специальность 07.00.03 — Всеобщая история. Диссертация на соискание ученой степени кандидата исторических наук. Нижний Новгород, 2020.
6. Почекаев Р.Ю. Политико-правовые взгляды Хутуктай-Сэчена-Хунтайджи (По данным «Белой истории») //Культурное наследие монголов: коллекции рукописей и архивных документов. III Международная конференция при поддержке президента Монголии. 20–22 апреля 2017 года. Сборник докладов. С. 107–120.
7. Сабиров Р. Монгольский буддизм в XXI веке: в процессе конструирования // Государство, религия, церковь в России и за рубежом. 2020. № 1(38). С. 86–105.
8. Сабиров Р.Т. Восстановление института хубилганов в современной Монголии//Религия и общество на Востоке. 2021. № 5. С. 192–220.
9. Сонинбаяр Ш. Багшийн тухай бодол [Мысли об учителе] // Говийн багш. О.Тагарваагийн тухай хөрөг дурьдатгал. Улаанбаатар хот, 2016. С. 201–205.
10. Aldrich, M.A. (2016) “The Dalai Lama in Mongolia: ‘Tournament of Shadows’ Reborn”, The Diplomat, December 3 [https://thediplomat.com/2016/12/the-dalai-lama-inmongolia-tournament-of-shadows-reborn/ accessed on 09.05.2022].
11. Atwood, Ch. P. (2020) “Bilingual Education in Inner Mongolia: An Explainer”, Made in Chine Journal [https://madeinchinajournal.com/2020/08/30/bilingual-educationin-inner-mongolia-an-explainer, accessed on 12.10.2021].
12. Atwood, Ch. P. (2004) Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire. Facts on File: Library of World History. New York, N.Y.: Facts On File.
13. Billé, F. (2015) Sinophobia: Anxiety, Violence, and the Making of Mongolian Identity. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press.
14. “China orders Tibetan monastics to study, converse in Chinese language” (2021), Tibetan Review, October 7, 2021 [https://www.tibetanreview.net/china-orders-tibetanmonastics-to-study-converse-in-chinese-language, accessed on 12.09.2021].
15. Dreyfus, G. (1998) “The Shuk-den Affair: Origins of a Controversy”, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 21(2): 227–270.
16. Dreyfus, G. (1995). “Law, State, and Political Ideology in Tibet”, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 18(1): 117–38.
17. Kadyrbaev, A. Sh. (2009) “Khubilai-khan — zavoevatel’ ili ob”edinitel’ Kitaia?” [Kublai Khan — conqueror or unifier of China?], Obshchestvo i gosudarstvo v Kitae 1: 56–75.
18. Kuzʹmin, S.L. (2010) Skrytyi Tibet. Istoriia nezavisimosti i okkupatsii [The Hidden Tibet. History of independence and occupation]. SPb.: Izdanie A.Terentʹeva [http://savetibet.ru/2010/03/10/ancient_tibet_2.html, accessed on 21.10.2021].
19. Lhagvademchig, J., Bold, Ts. (2019) “Mongolian Buddhist Diplomacy: Opportunities and Challenges”, The 13th Annual International Monglian Studies Conference. February 15–16, 2019. Washington, D.C.P. 61–69.
20. Lulu, J. (2017) “State-managed Buddhism and Chinese-Mongolian relations” [https://jichanglulu.wordpress.com/2017/06/29/sinified, accessed on 21.09.2021].
21. Martin, M. (2018) “Global Religion and the United Front: The Case of Mongolia”, China Brief 18(12) [https://jamestown.org/program/global-religion-and-the-united-frontthe-case-of-mongolia, accessed on 01.09.2021].
22. Pochekaev, R. Iu. (2017) “Politiko-pravovye vzgliady Khutuktai-Sėchena-Khuntaĭdzhi (Po dannym «Beloi istorii»)” [“Political and legal views of Khutuktai-Sachen-Khuntaiji (According to the “White History”)”], Kulʹturnoe nasledie mongolov: kollektsii rukopisei i arkhivnykh dokumentov. III Mezhdunarodnaia konferentsiia pri podderzhke prezidenta Mongolii. 20–22 aprelia 2017 goda. Sbornik dokladov. S. 107–120.
23. Pomelova, Iu. P. (2020) Problemy formirovaniia natsionalʹnoĭ identichnosti v Kitaiskoi Narodnoi Respublike (2002–2012 gg.). [“Problems of formation of national identity in the People’s Republic of China (2002–2012)”] Spetsialʹnostʹ 07.00.03 — Vseobshchaia istoriia. Dissertatsiia na soiskanie uchënoi stepeni kandidata istoricheskikh nauk. Nizhnii Novgorod.
24. Pozdneev, A.M. (1887) Ocherki byta buddiiskikh monastyrei i buddiiskogo dukhovenstva v Mongolii, v sviazi s otnosheniiami sego poslednego k narodu. [Essays on the life of Buddhist monasteries and Buddhist clergy in Mongolia, in connection with the relations of this latter to the people]. SPb.: Tipogr. Imp. Akademii nauk.
25. Ruegg, D. S. (1997) “The Preceptor-Donor (yon mchod) relation in thirteenth-century Tibetan society and polity, its Inner Asian precursors and Indian models”, in H. Krasser, M.T. Much, E. Steinkellner (eds) Tibetan studies — Proceedings of the 7th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Graz, 1995, Vol. ii, pp. 857–872. Band, Vienna
26. Sabirov, R. (2020) “Mongolʹskii buddizm v XXI veke: v protsesse konstruirovaniia” [Mongolian Buddhism in XXI century: under construction], Gosudarstvo, religiia, tserkovʹ v Rossii i za rubezhom 38(1): 86–105.
27. Sabirov, R. T. (2021) “Vosstanovlenie instituta khubilganov v sovremennoi Mongolii” [Restoration of the Institute of Khuvilgaans in modern Mongolia], Religiia i obshchestvo na Vostoke 5: 192–220.
28. Schwieger, P. (2014) The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China: A Political History of the Tibetan Institution of Reincarnation. New York: Columbia University Press.
29. Shimamura, I. (2020) “Magicalized Socialism: An Anthropological Study on the Magical Practices of a Secularized Reincarnated Lama in Socialist Mongolia”, Asiatische Studien — Études Asiatiques 73(4, April 26): 799–829.
30. Slobodnik, M. (2011) “A Difficult Rebirth: Tibetan Reincarnations in the Spotlight of Chinses Religious Policy”, Studia Orientalia Slovaca 10(1): 57–80.
31. Soninbaiar, Sh. “Bagshiin tukhai bodol” [Thought about the teacher], Goviin bagsh. O. Tagarvaagiin tukhai khөrөg durʹdatgal, S. 201–205. Ulaanbaatar khot, 2016.
32. Thinley, K. (1980) The History of the Sixteen Karmapas of Tibet. Boulder: Prajna Press.
33. Tsyrempilov, N. (2006) “Dge Lugs Pa Divided: Some Aspects of the Political Role of Tibetan Buddhism in the Expansion of the Qing Dynasty”, in B. J. Cuevas, K. R. Schaeffer (eds) Power, Politics, and the Reinvention of Tradition: Tibet in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: PIATS 2003: Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the Tenth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Oxford, 2003, pp. 47–64. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
34. Vanchikova, Ts. P. (2019) “Khubilgany i khutukhty v istorii mongolʹskogo buddizma” [Khuvilgaans and Khutugtus in the history of Mongolian Buddhism], in O.N. Polianskaia (ed.) Mongolovedenie v sovremennom mire: opyt issledovanii, perspektivy razvitiia: materialy mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii «Ulymzhievskie chteniia — X». Ulan-Udė: Izdatelʹstvo Buriatskogo gosuniversiteta.
35. Wallace, V. (2015) “Competing Religious Conversions and Re-Conversions in Contemporary Mongolia”, in A. Papaconstantinou, N. McLynn, D. Schwartz (eds) Conversion in Late Antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and Beyond, pp. 49–67. Farnham: Ashgate.
Review
For citations:
Sabirov R. Between Dharamsala and the Golden Urn: Mongolian Buddhism in the Context of China’s Religious Policy. State, Religion and Church in Russia and Worldwide. 2022;40(2):105-127. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22394/2073-7203-2022-40-2-105-127
Views:
49
Email this article 