Religion: Buddhism and Visit to the Buddhist Monastery, Амарбаясгалант Хийд

Note: The following blog posting on religion is dedicated to my college Theology advisor, a Professor J. Murphy.

As a part of Cross-Culture Training for PST, all three host community groups had a schedule visit to Amarbayasgalant Khiid (Амарбаясгалант Хийд), one of the top three Buddhist monasteries in Mongolia. Amarbayasgalant Khiid was originally built between 1727 and 1737 by the Manchu emperor Yongzheng and dedicated to the Mongolian Buddhist Zanabazar, whose mummified body was later moved there in 1779. While touring the monastery grounds (27 temples and statues, though only five temples are open to tourists), I couldn’t help but noticed how similar the architecture was to Gyeongbokgung, the main palace of the Joseon Dynasty in Seoul, Korea. From the symmetrical layout to the imperial color scheme, the architecture was distinctively Chinese. I later found out that the monastery was built according to the Manchu style. My earlier thought makes sense given that both Mongolia and South Korea were influenced by the Chinese.

The history of Buddhism has a difficult past in Mongolian history. In 1924, when Bogd Khaan – the 8th Jebtzun Damba (reincarnated spiritual leader of Mongolia) – died, the then communist government prevented a successor from being found. The years of repression that followed peaked in the spring of 1937 when the government ordered the army to destroy religion. The obliteration that followed resulted in 700 monasteries being destroyed and 17,000 monks arrested, never to be seen again. Freedom of religion would not be restored until the democracy movement in 1990, 53 long years later.

Today, around 80% of Mongolians claim to be Buddhist of the Mahayana variety as practiced in Tibet (popularly known as Tibetan Buddhism). However, as culturally observed by curious PCTs, Mongolians tend not to be the practicing kind. In the northern aimags of Khentii, Selenge, Bulgan and Khovsgol, the Buddhism that is practiced is mixed with elements of Shamanism. This is largely because during the time of religious oppression, Shamanism survived because there were no books or buildings to destroy. And later on, with the installation of religious freedom, it co-existed in within the mix of Buddhism.

Two to three generations of Mongolians grew up without Buddhism. Maybe the reason why Mongolians identify themselves as Buddhist even though they don’t practice is because most people no longer understand the Buddhist rituals or their meanings, and the current standing monasteries in Mongolia suffer from a chronic lack of trained Buddhist lamas.