#tibmongol

So Tengrism really is an all pervasing part of Mongolian culture, even if Mongolians these days won't outright say "I believe in Tengrism/I'm a Tengrist."

Obviously Mongolia was Tengrist for the period of time before the conversion to buddhism during the Yuan dynasty, however the conversion to Buddhism in the Yuan did not exactly stop the Mongols belief in Tengrism, if anything they believed to something that could be described as a mixture between (vajrayana) Buddhism and Tengrism. This is similar to what happened in the other Khanates of the Mongol Empire. The Golden Horde, Chagatai Khanate and Ilkahante all eventually converted to Islam in their own times, however this kind of coexistence of their original Tengrist beliefs and Islam still prevailed, just like the Mongols of the Yuan dynasty and Buddhism. If anything, to the Mongols who converted to Islam, Islam was yet another path towards Tengri for them.

If anything, Tibetan Buddhism itself is a result of a similar kind of intertwining between folk religion and a major religion. Before Tibet converted to Buddhism, Tibetans followed a folk religion called "Bon", which is speculated to have been a similar religion to the Mongols Tengrism, perhaps because of the animistic aspects and reverence of ancestors. It was easier for the Mongols to accept this form of buddhism that was the result of a neighbour from a similar culture and climate rather than a more Sinitic version of Buddhism from an agricultural society and with a very different culture.

This history between Tibet and Mongolia is why I love Tibmon so much but I digress haha.

Tibetan lamas and Mongol Khans had something of a symbiotic relationship. The Khans would provide protection to Tibet through the use of their military and in turn the Lamas gave the Khans spiritual legitimacy to rule. This is quite funny seeing as Mongolia initially invaded Tibet in the 1240's under Godan Khan but gradually began to realise that Mongolia lacked the spiritual leadership that Tibet had.

After the collapse of the Mongol Empire, many Mongols went back to subscribing to mainly Tengrism rather than Buddhism-Tengrist mix that was around during the Yuan, however all was not lost. There was still a lot of Mongol interference with Tibetan politics, however now ti was the Oirat Mongols turn to convert. I feel as if lots of people make the mistake of crediting the actions of Oirat Mongol factions onto the Chinggisid/Khalkha Mongols (the Modern Mongolia we know now), however "Oirat" and "Mongol" during this time were seen as seperate groups by both parties - enemies even!

The last Khan of the Nothern Yuan dynasty - Koshugtu, followed the Karmapa school of Buddhism, and tried to suppress the Gelug school of Buddhism in Tibet along with the help of the Choghtu Mongol clan. The Oirat Khushut faction however won this war, allowing for the Gelug school of buddhism to reign supreme in Tibet, and in 1642 the fifth Dalai Lama was installed. In fact "Dalai lama" is a term that was a result of the Oirat Mongols - not the Chinggisid !

I don't think Mongolia stopped being a buddhist completely after the fall of the Yuan, as I said, Mongol Khans still followed Buddhism and there was still a lot of Mongol influence and intereference in Tibetan politics. I certainly believe that he was upset at the Oirat Mongol victory, less so because his preferred school of Tibetan Buddhism was defeated but more so that it meant that trying to re-establish a strong influence in Tibet has failed and was instead won over by his enemies, the Oirats, who began to act more rebelliously once the Yuan dynasty fell. I do think Mongolia retained his buddhist belief and it still influenced Mongolian culture and politics (again, literally tried to suppress Gelug Buddhism), but I think the ratio between Buddhist belief and Tengrist belief favoured the Tengrist side during this time.

When Mongolia was occupied during the Manchu-led Qing dynasty a few decades later, is when I think his Buddhist faith became stronger. In fact the Manchu rulers installed many lamas throughout Mongolia and seemingly encouraged the Mongols to take buddhism more seriously again, however this was not all just because Manchuria wanted Mongolia to escape samsara because of his great compassion for him or something. It is said that quite a few of these lamas were installed specifically by Manchuria to "pacify" the Mongol population, hinting that they may have had pro-Qing beliefs and were put there to discourage rebellion. In fact, some Mongol ultranationalists to this day will argue that Tibetan Buddhism was used by the Manchus to suppress and pacify the Mongols. And to be fair, a good portion of Mongolian men chose to become monks during this time, however this may have had more to do with escaping certain duties expected of male citizens.

Many years later in the 1930s, Buddhism went through a dark age in Mongolia. Purges of Buddhist monasteries and monks took place under the orders of Stalin. If a monk did not disrobe, they would be killed. I think this event only really strengthened Monglia's belief in Buddhism to be honest. He can be quite proud and stubborn (saying this in the nicest way possible) and so seeing a major aspect of his culture get destroyed would only embolden him to cling onto those aspects even hearder in defiance, even if he had to do so privately. His communication with Tibet was also limited during this time because of everything going on so it was also a sense of doing it out of respect/love for him (yeah sorry Tibmon is canon in my heart).

Another timeskip, but with the downfall of the USSR and Mongolia's transition to a market economy in the 90s and early 2000s. This era, though promising, was extremely hard on Mongolia. Unemployment was high, and alcoholism increased due to the uncertainty and stresses of Mongolia trying to navigate itself in this new era after being communist for so long. I heard from Mongolians that this was kind of like a "wild west" time, the country felt chaotic and lawless. I think the stressors of this time along with the decades after the purges meant that Mongolia was very much preoccupied with picking up the pieces and get his nation afoot economically. This isn't to say that Mongolia did not jump on the idea after the democratic revoluton of the 90's, he most certainly did. A kind of neo-Shamanism began during this time and many buddhist monasteries reopened, there was even around 70 churches built in Mongolia by 2002!

However during the time after that, I feel as if Mongolia became more... protective of his religion. There was intially a lot of enthusiam post 1990 and a welcoming of many curious visitors, howeer in the years to come, Mongolian shamans/shaman associations became more weary of Western neo-pagans who were seemingly interested in Mongolian shamanism however would only study this ancient belief from outside sources and who were generally very appropriative in their approach. So religion opened up again during this time and he was certainly pleased as Monglia was never one in believing in suppressing religion, however after so many years of being repressed, you can understand why he would become pretty protective and weary of outsiders taking interest, especially Western neo-pagan types.

Nowadays, I think religion wise, it's not as if he goes to a temple or a shaman every week and goes out of his way to be extremely devout, simply because I think he doesn't need to. Buddhism, Buddhism-Tengrism and Tengrism are all pervasive in Mongolian culture, in the mofits of their art and in the lyrics of their music and during major holidays. There is no huge force that's stopping him from practicing or destroying his monasteries.