Since the seventeenth century, Mongolian Buddhist tradition has identified numerous places across Mongolia as the dwelling places of the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and spirits such as nāgas, the lords of land (savdag), and others. The beautiful, unspoiled Mongolian landscape has been viewed as a horizon of national and Buddhist identities. The chapter examines the interconnection between the traditional pastoral and Buddhist culture and Mongolia’s landscape, which has in part shaped the sense of identity and cultural values of Mongolian Buddhists. The Mongolian landscape and its climatic conditions, which evidence the experiences and struggles of both humans and livestock, have influenced the Mongolian Buddhist culture and its reverential approach to the natural environment and the nonhuman entities controlling the landscape. Replacing some pre-Buddhist, Shamanic practices while absorbing others, the Mongolian Buddhist tradition constructed a set of symbolic meanings of the indigenous landscapes.
目次
Introduction The Environmental Preservation: Religious Taboos And State Regulations Animated Landscapes And Their Hidden Agents The Power Of Landscapes And The “Mongolian Buddhist Semiotics Of Nature” Conclusion
