ИСТИНА

After the victory of the peaceful democratic revolution in 1990 religious freedom was proclaimed in Mongolia. The process of restoration of the Buddhist sangha began in the country. At the same time new religions and beliefs started spreading all over Mongolia. The unexpected success of Christianity among the Mongolians showed that the religious situation in Mongolia has dramatically changed and Buddhism has faced new challenges. While in the 1990s some scholars used the term ‘revival’ in their works about Buddhism after 1990 now it became evident that this term is not correct. Seventy years of the Soviet modernization and secularization changed the attitude of the Mongolians towards religion. Taking into consideration that the monasteries and temples were completely destroyed during the antireligious campaign of the 1930s and most of the Mongolians were brought up in the secular society it is clear that there is nothing to revive. What we see after 1990 is the attempts to find new ways to build a sangha in Mongolia. There are different views on the future of Mongolian Buddhism. I distinguish two main tendencies in contemporary Mongolian Buddhism. First one is the attempt to build national Mongolian sangha independent from the foreign influence, especially Tibetan one. The second is more oriented towards Tibetan community in exile and the Dalai Lama XIV. It is wide known that the various Tibetan organizations (like the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition), foreign monks and teachers (like Bakula Rinpoche) have helped to Mongolian Buddhists providing funds, literature, teachings and teachers. Many Mongolian monks have studied in the Tibetan monasteries in India. At the same time some Mongolian lamas have their own views on how Mongolian Buddhism should look like; some of them support Dorje Shukden worship, which was prohibited by the 14th Dalai Lama, and etc. So I argue that there are different trends in modern Mongolian Buddhism which represent different views on to what extent Tibetan Buddhists should be involved in the Mongolian affairs. Besides there are different trends in Tibetan Buddhism itself. Position of the Mongolian state as many facts show aimed at the decrease of the foreign influence in the religious affairs. Mongolia has strong economic ties with China and depends on Chinese investment. That is why Mongolian government tries to keep distance from the problem of Tibet. All these facts complicate contemporary relationships between Mongolian and Tibetan Buddhists. In my point of view the nature of Mongolian and Tibetan religious relationships has dramatically changed. Relations between Mongolian and Tibetan sanghas went from the national to the transnational level. Previous model of Tibetan and Mongolian relationships does not exist anymore. Contemporary interaction goes through various religious transnational networks where Mongolian believers can be connected to Tibetan Buddhism through the western teachers or monasteries in India. It makes the whole picture more complicated and diverse. In my paper I am going to consider all these processes and tendencies in detail. It is based on my field research conducted in Mongolia and analysis of the scholar literature on the subject.