If you have not been to Mongolia and are not planning to go there, then you will hardly have heard of Uliastai (Улиастай) and Javklhant Tolgoi (Жавхлант толгой). And the two guidebooks [1] that I used don't say much about this town and Javklhant Tolgoi. The reason might be that it is a secondary destination, but it is a very interesting one, as I would like to point out here.
Uliastai (Улиастай) is located 1111 km from Ulaanbaatar (Улаанбаатар) [2]. Uliastai was formerly known as Javklhant (Жавхлант). It is an important city in the west of the country, which was founded during the Qing dynasty (清朝) as a garrison (1733) and from which the advance guard against the Dzungar Khanate set out (1755) [3]. It is still an important city, Wikipedia (English part) puts it in size as the 10th or 16th city of Mongolia; where the text in Mongolian for the 2006 census mentions Uliastai as the 17th largest city [4]. But that's hardly important and I was tempted to mention it only because of its inaccuracy. And moreover, this census was taken almost two decades ago.
Three essential revolutions are worth mentioning in our context:
- the Mongolian Revolution of 1911, which brought independence from China to Outer Mongolia [5]; the new government took over the administration of the Qing, borrowing a little bit from the West, but was essentially a Buddhist theocracy
- only 10 years later, there has already been the Mongolian revolution of 1921, during which a transition from theocratic monarchy to communist rule took place [6]; the Mongolian People's Republic was a satellite state of the Soviet Union and experienced all the horrors of Stalinism (only three temples had survived the iconoclasm of the Stalin era; Stalin himself had to stop the Mongolian communist leader, Khorloogiin Choibalsan (Хорлоогийн Чойбалсан), so that there was still something left left to show international visitors, and let's not forget that over 10,000 monks were also killed, whereof the word killing doesn't do justice to the brutality in the slightest)
- the Mongolian revolution of 1990 took a long time coming, but it was “a peaceful democratic revolution which led to the country's transition to a multi-party system” [7].
Under communist rule there were significant distortions in religious practice. Thousands of monks were killed and most of the monastery complexes and temples were destroyed. This is important for the following consideration, because Uliastai and Javklhant Tolgoi show the modern reconstruction, because the complex that I will describe later is at most 25 years old, most of the works here are probably much younger. A national piety is developing again in Buddhism. And with this keyword we should look first at what kind of Buddhism can be found in Mongolia.
Buddhism in Mongolia is a form of Lamaism. The term lama is probably familiar, it means teacher. The lamaistic form of Buddhism is a special form of Mahayana Buddhism, into which elements of Tantrism were also integrated. In addition, one should not forget that before Buddhism, Bön, a shamanistic teaching, was predominant in Tibet and from these pratices a lot of rituals and other content certainly migrated into this Buddhism. In addition to popular piety with elements such as circumambulating holy places or using prayer wheels, Lamaism also managed to promote esoteric practices. In Mongolia, elements of Tengrism, the previously dominant shamanism, were incorporated. Blue is the color of Tengrism, because the sky (Tenger / Тэнгэр) is blue. In the Himalayas, a white scarf is often placed around Buddha figures and laso around the neck of people. This is also done in Mongolia. However, the scarf is blue and is called Khadag (хадаг) [8]. The importance of Tibetan Buddhism for Mongolia is also reflected in the Dalai Lama's nine visits to Mongolia. Perhaps I should mention an important name out of the history of Lamaism in Mongolia: Öndör Gegeen Zanabazar (Өндөр Гэгээн Занабазар) [9]; see below. And even after Stalinism, Buddhism had a difficult time, so that most of the places where people could express themselves religiously in public were not available.
Javklhant Tolgoi (Жавхлант толгой) is new and construction is continuing diligently. The sanctuary is a large T-shaped area on a hill including the top of the hill. Walls border the site and you walk up the steps along the these walls. In the lower part there is a large ger. At the top there are stupas of different sizes; I read the numbers 9 and 11 (not nine eleven) [1], but the picture from the back of the hill already shows more and there are even more! In some you can look at statues behind glass. If I interpret it correctly, there will be a pavilion above the sacralarea, from which you can see the old garrison and Uliastai. There are also concrete statues of elk, ibex and argali sheep to admire. Back downstairs, prayer wheels of different age can be seen.
Even if you are not interested in modern stupas and old-style figures, it is worth climbing the hill to at least admire the view.
Links and Annotations:
[1a] Michael Walther and Peter Woeste: Mongolia. DuMont travel manual. Dumont Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2019. ISBN: 3770181417.
[1b] Michael Kohn: Mongolia. Lonely Planet Publications Ltd, 2008. ISBN: 101741045789.
[2] I know Wikipedia says 1115 km, but hand on heart 1111 km just sounds better. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uliastai
[3] And because I love unnecessary digressions so much: Marie Antoinette was born this year. In 1793 she was executed by guillotine - but that's only the beginning of bloodshed in this blogpost, I fear.
[4] https://mn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A3%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%B9
[5] Mongolian Revolution of 1911 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_Revolution_of_1911
[6] Mongolian Revolution of 1921 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_Revolution_of_1921
[7] Mongolian Revolution of 1990 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_Revolution_of_1990
[8] Khadag (хадаг) is the Mogolian word for the ritual scarf, formerly made of silk, now mostly made of polyester because of better durability. The Tibetan scarf is white to show the purity of the giver's heart, whereas the Mongolian is blue as the sky. The origins lie both in lamaism as well as tengerism (better word for shamanism). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khata
[9] Öndör Gegeen Zanabazar (Өндөр Гэгээн Занабазар) lived from 1635 to 1723 and was the religious leader of Lamaism, more specifically of the Gelugpa (Yellow Hat) lineage of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia [9a], and he also has been the secular leader. Zanabazar is known for his bronze sculptures or the development of the Soyombo script [9b]; overall he was a prodigious sculptor, painter, architect, poet, costume designer, scholar and linguist.
[9a] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanabazar
[9b] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyombo_script You can see the script on the Mongolian flag.
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