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<div align="center"><font face="Times New Roman, Times"><b>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.<br>
Here is the column that I've just written for the <i>Sandpoint
Reader</i>.<br><br>
MONGOLIA: TRAVELING IN THE LAND OF CHINGGIS KHAN<br>
By Nick Gier<br>
</b></div>
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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
In 2006 Mongolians will be celebrating
800</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=1><sup>
</sup></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times">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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br>
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.<br><br>
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 <i>ger</i> (Russian: <i>yurt</i>), 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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>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.<br><br>
Nick Gier taught philosophy and religion at the University of Idaho for
31 years.<br><br>
<br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=2>"The god you worship is the god you
deserve."<br>
~~ Joseph Campbell<br><br>
"Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings
who represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it."<br>
--Mohandas Gandhi<br><br>
"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." --Ma</font><font size=1>x Planck<br><br>
</font>Nicholas F. Gier<br>
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho<br>
1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843<br>
<a href="http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/home.htm" eudora="autourl">http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/home.htm</a><br>
208-882-9212/FAX 885-8950<br>
President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO<br>
<a href="http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/ift.htm" eudora="autourl">http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/ift.htm</a><br><br>
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