[Vision2020] The Land of Chinggis Khan

[Nick Gier]

Greetings:  I just got back from 3 weeks in Mongolia and I have many new 
images of Tibetan Buddhism for my CD on Asian Deities, which I sell at cost 
for $10.  E-mail me if you are interested.
Here is the column that I've just written for the Sandpoint Reader.

MONGOLIA: TRAVELING IN THE LAND OF CHINGGIS KHAN
By Nick Gier
At a recent tourist briefing in Ulaan Baatar, the public relations officer 
for the American Embassy described Mongolia as a good friend wedged between 
two bad neighbors. Being a good US friend means that Mongolia gets $10 
million in aid for improving health, education, and private business.  In 
return Mongolia is providing 150 troops under Polish command in Iraq. It 
also has a few dozen troops in Afghanistan. When we arrived at the national 
airport, we noticed an Alaska National Guard C-130 parked on the 
tarmac.  Some of us inferred that it was involved in ferrying US troops to 
Iraq, but we were told that it was a joint "arctic defense" program between 
Mongolia and Alaska.

I asked the embassy official why it took so long to make friends with this 
former Soviet satellite.  We recognized the Soviet Union in 1933 and 
Communist China in 1978, but have had diplomatic relations with Mongolia 
only since 1987. The answer was that Mongolia was a small nation that got 
lost and forgotten in the Cold War. Soviet allies in Eastern Europe, North 
Korea, North Vietnam, and Cuba got much more of our attention.

Some say that the Mongolians took to Communism more enthusiastically than 
the Russians. They produced their own Lenin, Sukhbaatar, whose statue 
stands in the center of the capital city Ulaan Baatar.  There was also a 
large statue of Lenin right in front of our Soviet era hotel. 
Unfortunately, the Mongolians created their own Stalin, Choibalsan, who 
ordered the execution or imprisonment of tens of thousands in 1937-39 and 
was responsible for the destruction of most of the Buddhist monasteries.

Buddhist scholars have generally ignored Mongolia, even though there were 
at one time over 700 monasteries and a distinctive school of Buddhist art 
and architecture.  Initially, I was blaming myself for not being more 
informed about Mongolian Buddhism, but now I find equal fault with my 
teachers and the books that I've consulted over 25 years of study. The 
title Dalai Lama, for example, is a Mongolian phrase and the fifth Dalai 
Lama was a Mongol.  Indeed, if it had not been for the Mongolians the 
Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism would not be as dominant as it is today.

In 2006 Mongolians will be celebrating 800 years a nation, which was 
founded by Chinggis Khan in 1206.  Some parliamentarians are proposing to 
change the name of the capital city to Chinggis City and replace 
Sukhbaatar's statue with one of the Great Khan.  To complete the nation's 
move away from Communism, the tombs of Sukhbaatar and Choibalsan will also 
be removed from the front of the Parliament Building. The only prominent 
relic of Soviet times will be the Cyrillic alphabet, which combined with 
the architecture, makes travelers think that they have mistakenly arrived 
in a Russian city.  The old Mongolian script is beautiful but unwieldy for 
the digital age.

Chinggis Khan's army, tens of thousands of deadly accurate bowmen on 
horseback, conquered most of China, Central Asia, and Russiamaking it the 
largest land empire in history.  The Mongols introduced gun powder, paper 
money, freedom of religion, pony express, diplomatic immunity, and the idea 
of international law as well as equality before the law. Chinggis was not 
the first Asian warrior to wreak havoc in Eastern Europe, but he was 
different from his predecessors.  He promoted soldiers and civilians on the 
basis of merit, not tribal or religious connections.  He also outlawed 
slavery, torture, and the kidnapping of brides. Those who resisted the 
Great Khan were destroyed; it is estimated that 30 percent of the Central 
Asian population was killed.  Those who surrendered were spared and 
integrated into his society, including soldiers, scholars, engineers, 
merchants, and artisans.  For example, a French artist designed the ornate 
fountain, flowing with four different fermented drinks, which stood in the 
middle of Chinggis' throne room.

Chinggis welcomed all religions at his court and two of his sons became 
Christians. Under his grandson Kublai Khan, the founder of China's Yuan 
Dynasty (1271-1368), Mongolians became Buddhists and 90 percent of them 
retain that faith today.  The Buddhists insisted that animal sacrifice be 
abolished and the religion had a pacifying effect on the ancient warrior 
society.
Ever since Chinggis Khan's coronation in 1206, Mongolians have celebrated 
Nadaam, a festival we enjoyed July 11-13.  It is dedicated to the "manly 
sports" of wrestling, archery, and horse racing.  (Women now compete in the 
archery competition.)  Mongolian wrestling is roughly similar to Japanese 
sumo and a Mongolian is now the sumo champion in Japan.

Forty percent of Mongolia's 2.8 million still live as nomads on what 
appears to be an endless expanse of pasture.  Mongolia is the world's 
largest land locked country about the size of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, 
and Louisiana combined. The families we visited appeared to be healthy and 
happy.  The open air and a meat/dairy diet leads to a life expectancy of 68 
years. A typical extended family has 200-300 goats and sheep. At one camp 
we learned that there were over 100 horses.  It is said that Mongolians 
learn how to ride before they walk. Bactrian camels are also common, 
especially in the Gobi, and are used to move households several times a 
year. The house of choice is the traditional ger (Russian: yurt), a sturdy 
felt structure that withstands both severe winds and cold. Today's ger 
camps also include cars (mainly Korean), trucks, motorcycles, generators, 
and satellite TV.  Tourists stay in well appointed ger camps all through 
the countryside.

The Communist government established schools everywhere and the country 
enjoys 97% literacy.  (The vaccination rate is higher than ours.) The 
herders do miss the extra fodder that Soviet helicopters provided during 
harsh -30 degree winters.  The bad winter of 1999-2000 have forced families 
into Ulaan Baatar where several hundred thousand live in gers with backyard 
latrines.

An empire that was once founded on manly sports will soon become a nation 
led by female professionals.  Young boys are usually held back as herders, 
but the girls are going to school in droves.  Women undergraduates now 
represent 70 percent of university enrollment and 80 percent of graduate 
students are women. In the most recent Fulbright competition for graduate 
study in the US, 19 of 20 finalists were women.  Mongolian NGOs are led and 
staffed primarily by females. There are some serious discussions about what 
impact this will have on a once male dominated society.  There may well be 
an increase in an already high male alcoholism rate and more cases of 
divorce and domestic abuse.

         When the Soviets pulled out in the early 1990s, Mongolia suffered 
a depression twice as bad as the Great Depression.  Except for utilities, 
transportation, and the mines, all businesses are beginning to thrive in 
private hands. There have been regular elections since 1992, and despite 
problems with corruption and cronyism, Mongolia has a good chance to 
preserve its traditional culture as well as prosper as a liberal democracy.

Nick Gier taught philosophy and religion at the University of Idaho for 31 
years.



"The god you worship is the god you deserve."
~~ Joseph Campbell

"Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings who 
represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it."
  --Mohandas Gandhi

"Modern physics has taught us that the nature of any system cannot be 
discovered by dividing it into its component parts and studying each part 
by itself. . . .We must keep our attention fixed on the whole and on the 
interconnection between the parts. The same is true of our intellectual 
life. It is impossible to make a clear cut between science, religion, and 
art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of its various parts." 
--Max Planck

Nicholas F. Gier
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho
1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843
http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/home.htm
208-882-9212/FAX 885-8950
President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/ift.htm

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