Narrow screen resolution Wide screen resolution
Mongolia Lives A New Era Of Revival, Spirituality Print E-mail
Written by UCANews   
Monday, 03 November 2008
Uyangaa has traveled 700 kilometers through grasslands and desert, far south of the capital, just to visit this dusty temple yard in the eastern Gobi desert.

She bows down at a large rock and whispers into one of its ear-like holes, then lights a match and burns a piece of paper with her handwriting.

"I just confessed my sins and burned them," the 26-year-old office manager explains afterwards. "It was a very cleansing experience."

Pilgrims from all around Mongolia visit this shrine at Hamriin Hiid Monastery, considered a "center of energy" because of the peculiar magnetic field surrounding it.

On their devotional journey, pilgrims climb through a rock tunnel, a symbol of rebirth, to visit a site of 108 caves -- the same number as there are volumes in Ganjur, the Tibetan Buddhist canon.

They also pay respects to the founder of the monastery, 19th century Venerable Dogshin Noyon Hutagt Danzaravjaa, a lama (monk) of the Red-hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism who was a poet, philosopher and artist.

Venerable Baatar, a 65-year-old Buddhist monk who acts as a guide, says Venerable Danzaravjaa will soon have followers in the caves he found in 1840s.

"There are a dozen young monks now training in India," he said. "They will move into the caves and meditate for 108 days like their predecessors."

The caves, barely large enough to sit in, were formed by underwater volcanic activity in prehistoric times, he said. Monks used them for meditation before the 1921 revolution.

During seven decades of Communist rule, religious practice almost disappeared in Mongolia. About 700 monasteries and temples were destroyed, thousands of monks were killed, and religious practices were restricted.

Since democratic changes began in 1990, however, new laws allowed freedom of religion, and people started rebuilding some old temples and monasteries.

A revival of spirituality has ensued, says professor Samdangiin Tsedendamba of the religious studies faculty at the Mongolian National University.

"All the hidden spiritual desires of people became very strong, and people started openly practicing various religions, especially Buddhism, Shamanism and nature worship," the professor said in an interview with UCA News.

Many religions, considered new in Mongolia, also came in from outside, including various Christian Churches and denominations, Mormons, Bahai followers and Hindu sects. Islam, traditionally a religion of the Kazakh minority, revived too, he said.

Tsedendamba, also secretary of the Council on Religious Affairs under Mongolia's president, said no official statistics exist on religious affiliation. However, the government started to pay more attention to relations between religious groups.

It has introduced initiatives promoting religious tolerance and plans its second international symposium on the subject next year in cooperation with the International Association for Religious Freedom.

"So far there is no mentionable antagonism between the various religious groups, although some complaints arrived in the past ... about allegedly Protestant groups destroying ovoo or idols," he said. "To tell the truth, we never found the real culprits."

  Ovoo, heaps of rocks on hilltops and roadsides, began as shamanistic shrines, but Buddhists have adapted them as places of prayer. Mongolians traditionally circle them for good luck on travels.

Tsedendamba said the number of Protestants has reached 30,000-40,000. Two decades ago, no Christian community existed in Mongolia.

Political and religious freedom in Mongolia, meanwhile, has had an influence beyond its borders, among Buriad -- Mongolian tribes living in Russia around Lake Baikal -- and Inner Mongolians in northern China.

"The Buriad used to be less religious than the Mongolians during Communism," Tsedendamba said. "Now, however, they demonstrate more visible signs of religious practice than us, maybe because they are a minority in Russia, and their national identity manifests itself in religion."

Living on the periphery, they tend to be more religious than people in more central parts of Russia, he said. "In Mongolia also, we can observe much more intense religious practice in the countryside than in the capital."

From society's point of view, "religion has both good and bad sides," Tsedendamba observed. "Those who apply religious ethics, philosophy and morals are obviously very beneficial for the society, while those people who practice on a merely superstitious level may not be so."
Last Updated ( Sunday, 02 November 2008 )