Buddhism in Mongolian History, Culture, and Society. By Vesna A. Wallace. Oxford University Press, January 30, 2015. 352 pages. ISBN-10: 0199958661 ISBN-13: 978-0199958665
摘要
This volume offers a thoughtful insight into current scholarship on Mongolian Buddhism. It is presented as a variable, non‐unified, but yet specific form of Buddhism, which developed in close interaction with indigenous religion and culture. Fifteen individual studies cover a wide range of issues connected to the adaptation, acculturation, and development of Buddhism in Mongolia, covering the period from its arrival in the thirteenth century, through its firm establishment in the Mongolian steppe, to very modern times. Contributions by both Western and Mongolian scholars reflect the role of Buddhism with respect to various issues of Mongolian history. The main focus of this volume is the interaction of Buddhism with Mongolian society and culture, which resulted in a form that cannot, as the editor argues, simply be labelled as “Tibetan Buddhism.” The chapters are organized into three parts, in which different methodological approaches are applied. These include historical, ethnographical, anthropological, and art historical approaches, as well as literary criticism. The first part of the volume focuses on several important figures of Mongolian history, whose lives and afterlife were intertwined with the development of Buddhism in Mongolia. The authors subsequently pay attention to the queen Jöggden, Oirat Lama Zaya Pandita Namkhai Jamtsu, and Shakur Lama. The encounter of Mongolian Buddhist scholars with European and Russian secular views is demonstrated specifically in the case of Zawa Damdin's work. The last chapter in this part analyses the process of incorporating the figure of Chinggis Khan as the founder of the Mongolian Empire into the Buddhist historiographical framework. The second part of the volume deals mainly with Buddhist religious and artistic practices that aimed to indigenize and popularize Buddhism among the Mongols. Besides the Mergen Buddhist tradition, which centralized Mongolian language, attention is also paid to the artistic work of Zanabazar with respect to his political aims. A chapter on the development of Mongolian poetry from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries also demonstrates the process by which frames and models from Tibetan culture were transformed by a Mongolian cultural setting. In the third part, the authors reflect on issues concerning more recent Mongolian history—the suppression of Buddhism during the Communist regime, which was accompanied by mock trials of Buddhist lamas. Finally, attention is also paid to the restoration of Buddhism in the post‐Soviet era and also to the role of women in this process.
