If one follows Samuel Huntington's classification, Mongolia could be described as a ‘solitary country’, just like Japan. According to Huntington's definition, it would then be ‘both a core state and the only state of the Mongolian civilisation.’[i] Although Mongolians also live in the borderlands of Russia and China, the level of ethnic-cultural and cultural-religious homogeneity of these people varies greatly in terms of region and degree due to the long period of ethnic mixing. Mongolian civilisation and culture in these areas are therefore in a rather fragile state. In both neighbouring countries, the state, sometimes influenced by ideology, has eroded Mongolian culture and civilisation to a greater or lesser extent over the last century.

In this respect, it is accurate to speak of the sovereign nation state of Mongolia as the core state of the Mongolian cultural area. It therefore makes sense that the authors of the Mongolian security concept (1994) included the sentence ‘Mongolia is the home of the Mongols’ in their text. The ‘hearth of the Mongols’ is characterised by the national script, history, customs, nomadic culture and civilisation, and, of course, by religion. The Mongolian state therefore sees it as its duty to promote and maintain this ‘hearth of the Mongols’ within the scope of its intellectual and spiritual potential and its political and economic possibilities.

Religion once came to Mongolia as Lamaism or Tibetan Buddhism, which was shaped by the disciplinary rules of the Vinaya and the Mahāyāna rules. Today, Tibetan Buddhism is only practised in Mongolia, Tibet and Inner Mongolia in the People's Republic of China, the Tibetan diaspora in India and some areas settled by Mongolians in the Russian Federation. Considering that this religion is freely practised above all in sovereign Mongolia and has therefore been able to develop there in particular, it makes sense to call the religion traditionally practised by most Mongolian citizens ‘Mongolian Buddhism’.[ii] 

The revival of Buddhism in Mongolia after 1990 was characterised by a national process and external impulses, although I would like to limit my remarks to the 1990s. Important stages of this national process were the decision of the Great People's Assembly to resume services in the monasteries of Erdene Zuu and Amarbayasgalant at the beginning of 1990, the president's directive of 13 February 1991 on the restoration of the Migchid Janrajsig (Avalokiteshvara) sanctuary in Ulaanbaatar and his directive of March 1991 on the founding of the Council for Religious Affairs, as well as the founding of the ‘Union of Mongolian Believers’. The ‘Union of Mongolian Believers’ addressed the invitation of rJe-btsun dam-pa and the question of his reincarnation as early as July 1991. The Basic Law, which came into force on 12 February 1992, finally stipulated: ‘In the Mongolian state, the state respects its religion, and the religion respects its state.’[iii] I would like to emphasise the use of the singular and the possessive form ‘its religion’ and ‘their state’ in this sentence, because, in my opinion, these linguistic peculiarities actually indicate that there is only one religion. The adoption of the ‘Law on the Relations of the State and Temples and Monasteries’ (Төр, Сүм Хийдийн Харилцааны Тухай) on 11 November 1993, which, among other things, regulated the legal status of monasteries and lamas, religious education, the founding of monasteries, the cessation of their activities, and the regulation of their property and economic issues.[iv]

In 1993, at the request of the Mongolian government, the Indian government sent the Buddha's ashes to Mongolia to give Buddhist believers the opportunity to pay their respects. President P. Ochirbat emphasised during the opening ceremony: ‘The Buddhist religion and – through it – the culture of India and Tibet have purified and deeply penetrated the culture and civilisation of the Central Asian nomadic people called Mongols.’[v] The Buddha's teachings penetrated deeply into the way of life, the views and the soul of the Mongols, and became an integral part of traditional Mongolian culture and civilisation, while the Buddhist sages of Mongolia also contributed to Buddhist culture, etc., in the opposite direction, according to President P. Ochirbat.

Another highlight was the inauguration of the Migchid Janraisig sanctuary in Ulaanbaatar, which took place during the night of 25–26 October 1996. During a state ceremony attended by the president, the prime minister and the deputy speaker of parliament, the sanctuary was handed over to the ‘Centre of Mongolian Buddhists’ and thus to the Gandantegchinlen monastery. The Dalai Lama had important relics brought to the sanctuary, including seven packets of the Buddha's ashes, a packet of the ashes of Baldan Adicha, bones or ashes of the Lamaist reformer bTsong-kha-pa, hair of all previous Pan-c'en Lamas, etc. The Janraisig sanctuary thus acquired a special holiness that also enhanced the reputation of the Gandan monastery in the Tibetan-Mongolian region.

The major events should not obscure the difficulties faced by the country-wide ‘Re-Lamaisation’. In 1997, there were 2,500 lamas and 160 monasteries in Mongolia, but were the new lamas really up to the demands of being a lama? Bakula Renpoche said in his friendly, diplomatic way: ‘After Buddhism in Mongolia had stagnated and faltered for many decades, it has awakened anew in recent years and is spreading... It is very important that all temples, monasteries and places of worship have a good regime and that their lamas strictly follow the order of the Vinaya. If they do, truly good lamas will arise who are very learned and well-behaved. If the first lamas are good, the later lamas will be even better."[vi] 

It is difficult to imagine today, when you see many of today's monasteries, that material problems also played an enormous role at that time, in addition to the human factor. The book ‘Summary of the History of the Temples and Monasteries of Mongolia’[vii] (Монголын Сүм Хийдийн Түүхийн Товчоо) certainly gives an idea that in many aimags and sum there were no longer any buildings on which new temples could have been built.

The question of external impulses and factors influencing the national process of re-Lamaisation is more complex than one might think. On the one hand, it is closely related to the centuries-long cultural-historical process described in President P. Ochirbat's 1993 quote mentioned earlier. Just imagine that this process was the common thread and that this common thread was suddenly cut in 1937. Nevertheless, as a student in socialist Mongolia, I repeatedly saw a small picture of the Dalai Lama in the living rooms of my Mongolian friends. That was in the years 1979-1981 and meant that the religious authority of the Dalai Lama was relatively unbroken even in socialist times. The Dalai Lama's visits to Mongolia in 1979 and 1981 clearly reflected this. His visits from 1990 onwards, on the other hand, were impressive social highlights.

What was the intention of the Dalai Lama with regard to the Mongols? First, the religious dimension: 1. The revival of the fundamentals of faith, 2. Since the Buddhist doctrine is taught by the Lama, the training and qualification of Lamas was considered the most important short- and medium-term task from the outset. Therefore, for example, at the behest of the Dalai Lama around the year 2013, about 400 Khalkh Mongols, Buryats and Kalmyks were given a corresponding, long-term training in the Buddhist doctrine in India. In addition, there is a dimension that I would describe as a more cultural-political one. The Dalai Lama repeatedly emphasised the cultural proximity between Mongolia and Tibet, Mongols and Tibetans. He said: ‘Tibetans and Mongols are the same because they are both born with a blue spot. Just as Mongolian customs have spread in our Tibet, so too are there many Tibetan customs in Mongolia. That is why I always say that the Tibetans and the Mongols are like twin children."[viii] If these statements were projected onto the real political situation, the impression sometimes arose that the emphasis on cultural proximity was perhaps also linked to the desire for solidarity. 3. The long-term intention was to revive the cycle of rebirths associated with Mongolia.

India played a prominent role in the process of Relamaisification. There was a cultural-historical background to this, which was connected with the origins of Buddhism and the spread of Lamaism among the Mongols, since the Mongolian members of the spiritual elite of Lamaism had to be proficient in Sanskrit as well as Tibetan. Sanskrit opened the way to a completely different spiritual world for them. The best example of India's role in re-Lamaisation was that India appointed the Dalai Lama's former teacher, Bakula Rinpoche, as its ambassador to Mongolia in 1990. Bakula then embodied the 20th rebirth of Bakula Gegeen and the 16th rebirth of Naidan Khuvilgaan. It is not without symbolic significance that the historical Bakula set out northwards to spread Lamaism there. Bakula's appointment created the unusual situation of India's ambassador being the highest and only embodiment of a Buddhist reincarnation in his host country. Bakula was the central figure in the Mongolian Lamaist process throughout the 1990s. In this respect, and also with regard to security issues, India was and is an ideal partner for Mongolia. The strategic partnership established in 2015 therefore has great potential for further development.

As for the influence of external Buddhism on Mongolian Buddhism, there is a little-recognised component. We know that in Buddhism, devotional faith is directed towards the spiritual teacher, the guru, as the object of faith. The disciple must submit to him completely. His teacher then subjects him to tests to test the strength of his faith. The disciple can choose another teacher, but must have his teacher release him from his vows. The bonds between teacher and disciple are lifelong and indissoluble.

Since 1993, Mongolia has sent several hundred young Mongolians to Dharmasala and the monasteries of Baldanbreivun and Sera in India for many years of Buddhist study. It can be assumed that they will return to Mongolia with a deep Buddhist knowledge after many years of study. But even in Mongolia they will remain students of their Tibetan teachers. It seems important to me that these lamas radiate the call of Buddhist scholarship from Mongolia in the near future, that these lamas, because of their own scholarship, gather students around them to enhance the radiance of the Mongolian cultural sphere.

In 2001, I read an article by O. Mashbat entitled ‘Some Questions of Contemporary Mongolian Culture’, which was published in ‘Strategi sudlal’. In this article, which gave me much inspiration for thought, Mashbat suggested that ‘alongside the dissemination of conservative views that preserve national identification from the state’, Mongolians should implement a vigorous foreign policy in Asian and global integration that ‘brings not only political-diplomatic and economic, but also spiritual “shares”.’[ix] 

If Mongolia is the heartland of its small cultural area, it must develop a great deal of soft power in order to develop radiance. Having radiance means increasing one's cultural immunity and being able to control it oneself. It goes without saying that in this context the Tenth Bogd in the Mongolian cultural area has a special role to play. 

[i] Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations. The Remaking of World Order in the Twenty-First Century, New York 1996, p. 214.

[ii] Ш. Баатар, Бурханы шашин Монголынх уу?, Зууны Мэдээ, 11.03.2010.

[iii] Монгол Улсын Үндсэн Хууль. Баримт Бичгүүд, Эмхтгэж тайлбар бичсэн Ж. Амарсанаа, О. Батсайхан, Улаанбаатар 2004, p. 463.

[iv] Төр, сүм хийдийн харилцааны тухай, Монголын Хууль Тогтоомжийн Түүхэн Эмх тгэл, Наймдугаар Боть 1993-1994. V сар, Улаанбаатар 2010, p. 187-190.

[v] Бурхан Багшийн Чандар Монголд Заларлаа, Засгийн Газрын Мэдээ, 1993 оны есдүгээр сарын 4-7.

[vi] Монголь Энэтхэг хоёр орны ард түмний хооронд сайн санааны элч болох хүсэлтэй, Зууны Мэдээ, 2000 оны аравдугаар сарын 4.

[vii] Монголын Сүм Хийдийн Түүхийн Товчоо, Ulaanbaatar 2009.

[viii] Далай Лам Монголчуудтай Уулзсаны Учир, Улс Төрийн Тойм, 2013.05.07.

[ix] О. Машбат, Өнөөгийн Монголын соёлын зарим асуудал: Гадаад хийгээд дотоод талд, Стратеги Судлал, 1-2(2001), p. 82-89.