Buddhism: Buddhism in Mongolia
BUDDHISM: BUDDHISM IN MONGOLIA
Buddhism in Chinese, Central Asian, Kāśmiri, and Tibetan forms influenced Mongolia's ancient and medieval nomadic empires in varying degrees. From 1580 to 1920 Tibetan-style Buddhism dominated Mongolia and touched every aspect of life. Communist antireligious campaigns destroyed this hegemony, but after 1985 liberalization led to a renewed religious revival. The Mongolian plateau can be divided into Mongolia proper (Outer Mongolia, now the independent State of Mongolia) to the north, and Inner Mongolia (now an autonomous region in China) along the borders of China proper. From the fourth century on, the Mongolic-speaking Xianbi in Inner Mongolia and north China patronized Chinese Buddhism. The Kitans, another branch of the Xianbi, whose Mongolic language has been partly deciphered, became avid patrons and practitioners of Chinese Buddhism under their Liao dynasty (907–1125). Many rulers of the Türk empires, which dominated Mongolia proper from 552 to 745, also patronized Buddhist monks from the Central Asian oasis states and from China.
By the twelfth century, Mongolia and Inner Mongolia were occupied by a variety of Turkic and Mongolic-speaking tribes, and Buddhist influence had virtually disappeared. The unification of the plateau by Chinggis Khan (Genghis, r. 1206–1227) and his conquests brought the Mongols again in touch with Buddhism among the Uighurs of the Central Asian oases (in today's eastern Xinjiang) and in northern China. In 1219 Chinggis Khan granted tax exemption to all Buddhist clerics. Buddhism, alongside Christianity, Daoism, and Islam, became one of the four favored religions of the Mongol empire. Until 1253, the khans chiefly patronized Chinese dhyāna (Zen) monks.
With the conquest of the Xi (western) Xia or Tangut dynasty in northwestern China completed in 1227, the Mongols learned of its long-standing ties with Tibetan Buddhist clerics. In 1240 the Mongols first reconnoitered Tibet to find a Tibetan cleric. In 1247, the first Tibetan Buddhist lama came to the court of a Mongol prince. Mongol expansion also brought contact with Kāśmiri monks.
In 1251 a new branch of Chinggis Khan's family seized power. Möngke Khan (r. 1251–1259) began actively patronizing Tibetan and Kāśmiri Buddhist leaders of several different lineages. Möngke's brother Qubilai Khan (r. 1260–1294) made 'Phags pa Lama, of the Tibetan Sa skya pa monastic order, the chief cleric of the empire. From then on, the imperial family of the Mongols in China, as well as many aristocratic Mongol clans, regularly received tutoring and Tantric initiations from Sa skya pa and other Tibetan Buddhist hierarchs.
The Mongols adopted the Uighur script under Chinggis Khan. In the late thirteenth and early to mid-fourteenth centuries, the Mongols in China sponsored many Buddhist translations. Although the translations were generally made from Tibetan texts, the translators were strongly influenced by Uighur Buddhist terminology. The translations of Chosgi-Odsir (fl. 1307–1321) were particularly famous. A Nepalese artist, Aniga (1244–1278), invited to Qubilai's court, began a school of Nepalese-influenced Inner Asian Buddhist artwork. Surviving monuments of the era include the White Pagoda in central Beijing. Mongol princes also patronized other religions and 'Phags pa Lama and succeeding court chaplains participated in the Mongol ancestral cults maintained at court. Buddhist clergy served as astrologers and diviners.
After 1260, the Mongol dominions in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Kazakhstan, and in Central Asia broke away from the power of the great khans in East Asia. The local Mongol rulers continued to patronize Buddhist monks, called baqshi, who were sometimes Tibetan, Kāśmiri, or Chinese, but mostly Uighur. This patronage in the Mongols' western domains ceased after successive waves of Islamization from 1295 to 1335.
Although the Mongol great khans were expelled from China in 1368, they continued to rule on the Mongolian plateau in the name of the Chinggisid dynasty. Buddhist monks were appointed as court chaplains at least through 1455, but after that the influence of Buddhism declined. Particularly after the reign of Dayan Khan (1480?–1517?), the ancestral cult of Chinggis Khan became the focus of court religious life.
From the 1550s on, Mongols expanded into Kökenuur (Qinghai) in northeastern Tibet where they again came in contact with Tibetan Buddhist clerics. At the same time, Altan Khan (1508–1582), in Höhhot of modern Inner Mongolia, gave refuge to millenarian Buddhists fleeing persecution in China. After making peace with China in 1571, however, Altan Khan extradited the millenarian leaders and instead turned to Tibetan lamas. The Second Conversion that made Mongolia a pervasively Buddhist country began in 1578 when Altan Khan and the Chinggisid nobility of southwestern Inner Mongolia met the Third Dalai Lama of the new Dge lugs pa, or Yellow Hat, order of Tibetan Buddhist monks.
In Tibet itself, the passionately convinced Dge lugs pa adherents fought fierce opposition in order to purge Buddhism of noncanonical tantras and practices. The embattled Dge lugs pa saw the Mongol conversion as a chance to create a purely Yellow Hat society. Mongol rulers converted to Dge lugs pa Buddhism, destroyed shamanist ancestral figures, and severely punished shamanist sacrifices. As Dge lugs pa missionaries expanded to eastern Inner Mongolia and Mongolia proper during the seventeenth century, they also struggled tenaciously against adherents of older Buddhist orders, particularly the Sa skya pa. The missionary endeavor of the Dge lugs pas paid off in 1642 when Güüshi Khan, ruler of the western Oirat Mongols (from today's northern Xinjiang) invaded Tibet, destroyed the enemies of the Yellow Hats, and enthroned the Fifth Dalai Lama as Central Tibet's secular and religious ruler. By 1700, non-Yellow Hat Buddhism had essentially disappeared from Mongolia. Shamanism was more tenacious, but by 1800 it survived in institutionalized form only on the eastern and northern fringes of the Mongolian plateau. From 1800 on, another wave of Dge lugs pa missionary activity converted many Buriat Mongols in southern Siberia.
During the Second Conversion, noblemen dedicated their children to monastic life. Monastic institutions rapidly took shape all over Mongolia. In 1639 the son of a Chinggisid nobleman became the first of the line of Jibzundamba Khutugtus, the most holy Mongolian Buddhist incarnate lama lineage. This First Jibzundamba Khutugtu, named Zanabazar (1635–1723), also become a major political leader who led the Mongols of Mongolia proper into submission to the Manchu Qing dynasty (1636–1912). He was also one of the great sculptors of the Buddhist artistic tradition. Translation of the Buddhist scriptures culminated in the complete translation of the Tibetan Buddhist canon, first of the Bka' 'gyur (the canonical sutras and tantras), in 1628 to 1629 and then of the Bstan 'gyur (the canonical Indian commentaries) in 1749.
By the 1830s virtually every aspect of Tibetan monastic culture had been transplanted to Mongolia. With only a few exceptions, Mongolian Buddhist services were carried on in Tibetan language. In the 1918 census of Mongolia proper, about 45 percent of the Mongolian male population had received some monastic education and hence were considered lamas. Only about a third of these, however, actually lived in monasteries as celibate lamas. The rest left the monasteries in their late teens and became married householders, performing all normal lay duties. Nuns (chibagantsa ) were almost always widows or unmarried older women who took vows; no organized nunneries are known. Incarnate lamas and major monasteries also had lay subjects, called shabi (disciples). Mongolia's present capital, Ulaanbaatar, developed around the monastery of the Jibzundamba Khutugtu. Other major monasteries include Erdeni Zuu in central Mongolia and Badgar Juu in Inner Mongolia.
Mongolian Buddhist literature was first nurtured by translated Indian and Tibetan works. Many Mongolian scholars wrote in Tibetan on Buddhist philosophy, tantra, astrology, medicine, and grammar. In the eighteenth century, the Third Mergen Gegeen Lubsang Dambi Jalsan (1717–1766) designed a Mongolian-language liturgy that incorporated local Mongolian deities and spirits. He also began the tradition of writing didactic poetry and devotional songs in Mongolian; many of his songs are still sung today. This tradition reached its height with the wild poet and incarnate lama Danzin Rabjai (1803–1856).
Lay Mongolian religious life revolved around a number of cults such as that of the oboo (cairns), the "White Old Man" (tsagan ebügen ), and the rituals of the household fire, particularly that of the Lunar New Year. Many scholars have seen these as "survivals of shamanism," yet they were completely integrated into Mongolian Buddhist practice. In fact, the oboo cult actually seems to have been introduced into Mongolia from Tibet in the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries. Poems and sermons addressed to the laity castigated social evils such as hunting, blood sacrifices, alcohol, smoking, and youthful romance, while advocating filial piety, frugality, and obedience to authorities in religion and state.
After the Manchu Qing dynasty changed its policy to sinicizing the Mongols in 1901, the Eighth Jibzundamba Khutugtu (1870–1924) declared Mongolia proper independent in 1911. Under his theocratic rule from 1911 to 1919, clerical privileges in Mongolia expanded to unprecedented levels. Several monuments of Buddhist architecture were built, including the temple housing the 80-foot high statue of Avalokiteśvara and the Green Palace.
In southeastern Inner Mongolia, the Chinese-influenced writer Injannashi (1837–1892) had sharply criticized Buddhist lamas for their ignorant and arrogant rejection of the world. This criticism, reflecting a long-standing Confucian critique of Buddhism, developed in the early twentieth century into an anticlerical ethos that pervaded the new schools movement in eastern Inner Mongolia. By contrast, many Buriat Mongols of southern Siberia clung strongly to Buddhism in resisting Tsarist Russia's policies of Russification and Christianization. After 1917, the lama Agwang Dorzhiev (1853–1938) and the secular intellectual Tsyben Zhamtsarano (1881–1942) strongly advocated the compatibility of Buddhism with modern science and socialism.
In independent Mongolia, a Soviet-supported leftist regime was installed in 1921. When the Eighth Jibzundamba Khutugtu died in 1924, Mongolia was declared a People's Republic. In 1929, mass anti-Buddhist campaigns began among the Buriat Mongols of southern Siberia and in Mongolia proper. Popular support for the monasteries remained strong and religiously based insurrections in Mongolia in 1932 forced a temporary reversal. Between 1936 and 1939, however, pressure from Moscow resulted in the complete destruction of institutional Buddhism in Mongolia and Siberia. In Mongolia, perhaps 50,000 lamas were arrested or shot.
After 1944 one monastery was reopened in Mongolia proper and two in Buriatia. Education of children in religious tenets was prohibited. Lamas were prohibited from performing any religious functions outside the monasteries. All lamas were expected to marry. In 1947 the Chinese Communists came to power in Inner Mongolia. After a period of limited religious tolerance, anti-Buddhist persecution began there in 1958, which resulted in the destruction of all Buddhist institutions after 1966.
In 1979 liberalization in China allowed Inner Mongolian monasteries to open again. By the 1990s, Buddhist monasteries again enjoyed a qualified toleration, although the Communist party still controlled education and public discourse. After 1989, the collapse of the Soviet bloc brought full religious freedom to Mongolia proper for the first time. Old Buddhist monasteries are being rebuilt, often with funds from India, Japan, and the Mongolian government. Child-monks are being trained in new religious schools. At the same time, Buddhism faces new competition from evangelical Christian missionaries. Among the Buriat Mongols, Christian missions are much more limited, but Western-based advocates of non-Dge lugs pa, non-traditional forms of Buddhism have brought new divisions.
Bibliography
Atwood, Christopher P. "Buddhism and Popular Ritual in Mongolian Religion: A Reexamination of the Fire Cult." History of Religions 36 (1996): 112–139. Challenges the "shamanist survival" theory of Mongolian popular religion.
Bawden, C.R., trans. Tales of an Old Lama. Tring, 1997. Describes the monastic life and atmosphere in the period from 1900 to 1921.
Berger, Patricia, and Theresa Tse Bartholomew, eds. Mongolia: The Legacy of Chinggis Khan. San Francisco, 1995. Introduces Mongolian Buddhist art, focusing on Zanabazar's sculptures. Extensive bibliography.
Heissig, Walther. The Religions of Mongolia. Translated by Geoffrey Samuel. Berkeley, Calif., 1980. Surveys the sixteenth–seventeenth centuries' Second Conversion and aspects of the popular pantheon from the perspective of "shamanist survivals." Extensive bibliography.
Hyer, Paul, and Sechin Jagchid. A Mongolian Living Buddha: Biography of the Kanjurwa Khutughtu. Albany, N.Y., 1983. Describes life in an Inner Mongolian monastery between 1915 and 1949.
Lattimore, Owen, and Fukiko Isono. The Diluv Khutagt: Memoirs and Autobiography of a Mongol Buddhist Reincarnation in Religion and Revolution. Wiesbaden, Germany, 1982. Memoir of an active figure in the theocratic regime who was later tried for counterrevolutionary activities in 1930.
Miller, Robert James. Monasteries and Culture Change in Inner Mongolia. Wiesbaden, Germany, 1959. Surveys Inner Mongolian Buddhist institutions.
Moses, Larry William. Political Role of Mongol Buddhism. Bloomington, Ind., 1977. A useful survey of the antireligious campaigns, despite the absence of post-1990 revelations.
Pozdneyev, Aleksei M. Religion and Ritual in Society: Lamaist Buddhism in Late 19th-Century Mongolia. Translated by Alo Raun and Linda Raun. Bloomington, Ind., 1978. By far, the fullest description of clerical life in nineteenth-century Mongolia, by a sympathetic Russian Mongolist.
Zhukovskaia, N.L. "Revival of Buddhism in Buryatia: Problems and Prospects." In Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia 39, no. 4 (Spring 2000–2001): 23–47. Describes the conflicts in modern Buriat Mongol Buddhism.
Christopher P. Atwood (2005)