Tibet Foundation - Buddhism in Mongolia Introduction

Tibet Foundation's Buddhism in Mongolia programme was established in 1993 with the aim to assist Mongolians in their revival of Buddhism.
Young Monk blowing into a conch shell. Photo Sue Byrne. The Central Asian regions of Tibet and Mongolia have a long common cultural and religious heritage that dates back to when the Mongolian Khans dominated much of Asia. The Third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatsao, was given his title by the Mongolian Altan Khan and Tibet was one of very few countries to survive the onslaught of Chinggis Khan.

After the collapse of Manchu rule in Mongolia in the early years of the twentieth century a Soviet supported government came to power in 1921 and declared its intentions to remove the "rightist" influences in the country. By 1938, following ruthless purges of monastics by the country's Communist regime, Buddhism in Mongolia was practically eliminated.

All but six of the eight hundred monasteries in the country were destroyed and educated monastics were killed or exiled while the young and uneducated were made to work in factories or join the army. During five decades of cultural repression almost all Buddhist traditions were prohibited. Only Gandan Monastery in the capital Ulaanbaatar remained open.

Following a peaceful revolution in Mongolian in 1990 the public practice of religion became possible once more, and with the support of the Mongolian people the few remaining monasteries re-opened and new temples were built. Few outside observers expected to witness such extraordinary energy and tenacity being focused on returning Buddhism to the fore of Mongolian life, particularly in the conditions of great hardship and uncertainty that prevailed immediately after the revolution.

There are now several monasteries in the capital, a small temple in almost every aimag (province) capital and in many sumon (district centres) in the countryside. While Mongolian Buddhism has achieved a great deal in the past decade the revival still faces many obstacles, including:

•  Acute economic hardship with poverty on the increase

•  Infiltration and adoption of Western materialism, particularly amongst young people

•  Isolation from the world Buddhist community

•  An acute shortage of qualified teachers for monastics

•  Shortage of intelligible material for lay people, particularly children and young people

•  Inaccessibility of much of Mongolian Buddhist scholarship on Philosophy, Art, Traditional Medicine and other Buddhist subjects as it is written in old Mongolian script

The Buddhism in Mongolia programme is currently managing a host of educational and publishing projects that attempt to address some of these issues. Projects are implemented to reflect conditions across the spectrum of the Buddhist and lay community in Mongolia. Our operating principal is to respond to requests from Mongolian Buddhists both monastic and lay rather than impose projects on them. We work with the main monastic and academic institutions in Mongolia to develop and then to implement projects. The programme reflects the Foundation aim to further the understanding of Tibetan Buddhism and culture and to work towards their continuity and preservation.