MONGOLIA: Buddhism Enjoys A Major Revival Of Religious Faith Since The Fall Of Communism

Record ID: 790286

  • Title: MONGOLIA: Buddhism Enjoys A Major Revival Of Religious Faith Since The Fall Of Communism
  • Date: 20th November 2002
  • Summary: (L!2) NEAR ULAN BATOR, MONGOLIA (RECENT) (REUTERS ) GV: SUNRISE OVER SNOW-COVERED GRASSLAND SLV: HERDER WITH DOG IN FRONT OF HIS GER TENT GV: CLUSTER OF GER TENTS MV/CRANE: WOMAN SITTING INSIDE TENT CU: WOMAN'S FACE SLV: WOMAN WALKING TOWARDS ALTAR. SCU: WOMAN ARRANGING RELIGIOUS OBJECTS. CU: WOMAN LIGHTING CANDLE VARIOUS: OF WOMAN PRAYING. (2 SHOTS) CU: PHOTO OF 14TH DALAI LAMA SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Mongolian) ARIUNAA ENKHJARGAL, SAYING: "My father was a monk, and his father too. Our home has always been Buddhist, even during the socialist days when we couldn't practice openly. We kept our faith covertly and passed on the religious traditions secretly from generation to generation." GV: RUINS OF DESTROYED MONASTERY. SLV/CRANE: RUINS OF MONASTERY ENTRANCE. (L!2) ULAN BATOR, MONGOLIA (RECENT) (REUTERS ) WS: EXTERIOR OF MEMORIAL MUSEUM OF VICTIMS OF POLITICAL PERSECUTIONS. CU: MUSEUM SIGN VARIOUS: OF WAX DISPLAY OF MONK BEING INTERROGATED. (3 SHOTS) CU: PHOTO OF MONKS LINED UP TO BE SENTENCED IN MILITARY COURT. SLV: TSERENDULAM GENDEN, 75-YEAR-OLD DIRECTOR OF MUSEUM, SITTING IN FRONT OF LIST OF 30,000 PERSECUTED VICTIMS. CU: OF TSERENDULAM GENDEN'S FACE. CU: PART OF VICTIM LIST SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Mongolian) TSERENDULAM GENDEN, SAYING: "Communism taught us to hate each other. We were filled with hostility and suspicion toward our neighbours. We had to look over our shoulders, in order to defend ourselves and the people could not trust anyone. When communism fell in Mongolia, Buddhism came to fill the moral vacuum that the ideology had created." LAS/SLV: CHILDREN AT GANDAN MONASTERY FEEDING PIGEONS. MV/TRACK: PILGRIMS TURNING PRAYER WHEELS AT GANDAN MONASTERY. VARIOUS: OF PILGRIM PROSTRATING HIMSELF IN WORSHIP. (2 SHOTS) MV: ADULT LIFTING CHILD TO TOUCH BELL OF TEMPLE. SCU: HANDS REACHING FOR BELL SLV: GROUP OF MONKS STANDING IN COURTYARD OF GANDAN MONASTERY SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Mongolian) BUYAN UNDRAKH, 10-YEAR-OLD MONK, SAYING: "I saw a lot of children my age doing bad things, and I really hated it. They didn't care about how others felt and were only out for themselves. I wanted to do good things and help my friends out." WS: MONKS SEATED FOR PRAYER SESSION. SCU: YOUNG MONK READING SCRIPTURES. CU: YOUNG MONK RECITING. LAS/WS: INSIDE TEMPLE. CU: CANDLES BURNING. MV: MONK TURNING PRAYER WHEELS. CU: GOLDEN PRAYER WHEEL TURNING
  • Embargoed: 5th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS, MONGOLIA
  • Country: Mongolia
  • Topics: Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVAAQK21OPKBDWTT9GIUPZCH1ZUZ
  • Story Text: Harshly repressed during decades of Communist rule, Buddhism in Mongolia was almost wiped out. But, a decade after the fall of communism, the country is enjoying a major revival of the religious faith.
    As dawn breaks over the snow-covered steppes, Mongolians wake up to the ancient hymns and rituals of Lama Buddhism.
    In her ger, a circular tent traditionally used by Mongolia's nomads, Ariunaa Enkhjargal prepares ritual offerings for her morning prayers.
    But, before the collapse of communism in 1990, worship would have been unthinkable, even in this remote corner of Mongolia, hundreds of kilometres away from the next settlement.
    Once a centre of the Lama brand of Buddhism, the country is only now rediscovering its religious heritage after decades of purges.
    Lamaism arrived from Tibet in the 13th century at the same time Genghis Khan led his group of horseback fighters to create one of the largest empires the world has ever known.
    Mongolian Buddhism has since maintained a close affinity to Tibet, with its last living Buddha at the turn of the 19th century, Bogd Gegeen Javtsandamba Hutagt, being the third in the Lama hierarchy after Tibet's Dalai and Panchen Lama.
    While the communists launched a frenzied pogrom, burning temples and massacring monks, the attacks failed to extinguish the people's faith.
    "My father was a monk, and his father too. Our home has always been Buddhist, even during the socialist days when we couldn't practice openly. We kept our faith covertly and passed on the religious traditions secretly from generation to generation," said Ariunaa Enkhjargal.
    But much was destroyed during the years of repression.
    A pile of stones stacked high on the foot of the sacred Bodg Uul mountain are the only markers of the ancient Manjshir temple, which was used by Soviet tanks for target practice.
    Mongolia once claimed more than 110,000 monks, with more than 90 per cent of its population professing the faith before the communist revolution in 1921.
    In 1937, Mongolia's brutal dictator, Choibalsan, launched a purge in which more than 17,000 monks were executed and all but a handful of its 746 monasteries burned down.
    Until the demise of Mongolia's socialist regime in 1990, religion had become a forgotten chapter in the country's history.
    Tserendulam Genden is the director of the Memorial Museum of Victims of Political Persecution.
    Her blinded right eye serves as a painful reminder of the physical tortures she and her father suffered as political dissidents at the hands of the communist regime.
    "Communism taught us to hate each other. We were filled with hostility and suspicion towards our neighbours. We had to look over our shoulders, in order to defend ourselves and the people could not trust anyone. When communism fell in Mongolia, Buddhism came to fill the moral vacuum that the ideology had created," said Tserendulam Genden.
    At the Gandan monastery in downtown Ulan Bator, evidence of revival can be witnessed everywhere.
    Once gutted and used for parking military vehicles, the temple has come back to life.
    Every morning, hundreds of pilgrims flock to the temple for prayers and crowds of monks engage in lively religious debates on the vast square.
    For the monks studying at the monastery, Buddhism provides a moral standard in an uncertain post-socialist era.
    "I saw a lot of children my age doing bad things, and I really hated it. They didn't care about how others felt and were only out for themselves. I wanted to do good things and help my friends out," said Buyan Undrakh, a 10-year-old monk studying at the monastery.
    Since abandoning socialism in 1990, Mongolia has embarked on a painful journey of market reforms.
    The unemployment rate soared as thousands lost their jobs at state enterprises.
    Coupled with a series of harsh winters which wiped out thousands of livestock, the economic mainstay of Mongolia's 3 million people, more than 40 per cent of the population now live below the international poverty line.
    For some, Buddhism has become a spiritual bulwark against the harsh reality Mongolians are now facing.
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