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In fact, the ability to sustain a religion that blended beliefs and practices of various traditions was a central variable that ensured the success of Chinggis Khan’s astute political strategy (Amitai & Biran 262). Khan reserved a special place for religious advisors in his cabinet, for he recognized “how useful religious leaders could be in securing the submission of the local population” (Amitai & Biran 263). Chinggis Khan recognized that religious leaders and trustworthy laypeople of different faiths were more likely than a political representative to convert people in far-flung territories not only to a new religion, but also to a new political agenda, one that was characterized by its emphasis on the development of national identity. To this end, Chinggis Khan was liberal in providing religious advisors and leaders, irrespective of their particular denominational affiliation, with a type of support and special privileges not enjoyed by the general population, such as exemption from paying taxes and exemption from compulsory labor (Amitai & Biran 264). Clearly, such privileges were useful in propagating the faith—or the faiths, as the case was—across the ever-expanding Mongolian empire.
Interestingly, however, Khan’s interest in promoting a tolerance and acceptance of religious diversity was not simply a smart political move; it also reflected a deeply personal motive. As Amitai and Biran report, Chinggis Khan was intensely interested in meeting a Daoist patriarch who was alleged to be 300 years old, as he believed that the patriarch may have held the secret to immortality, which he obviously would have enjoyed had this “fountain of youth” sprung forth with the waters of eternal life (263). Khan felt uniquely qualified, indeed, he felt called, to realize the potential glory of the Mongolian empire which he envisioned so clearly. While he himself was “never influenced by the passive philosophy of Buddhism or the rigid doctrines of Confucianism” (Onon 4), as he was a man who believed in assertive action and, when necessary, outright aggression, he recognized the value of Buddhism for Mongolian society, and found some of its tenets particularly useful. For example, Chinggis Khan was especially interested in the Buddhist precept regarding reincarnation, and Fagan argues that this particular influence of Buddhism may be the reason why Mongolians are traditionally so tolerant with respect to the diversity of faith beliefs and practices (35).
Yet how was it, exactly, that Chinggis Khan brought Buddhism back to Mongolia and ensured its pervasiveness among such a geographically scattered group of people? According to the University of Pennsylvania, “Mongolian princes, descendants of Genghis Khan, were vassals of the Manchu Emperor. They ruled Mongolia with Manchu administrators and Lamas, some from Tibet” (9). It was these Lamas who brought their religious practices with them and who were responsible for the dissemination and propagation of the Buddhist faith in Mongolia (University of Pennsylvania 9). Not surprisingly, over time the Tibetan Lamas conveyed their teachings to Mongolians who were inducted as Buddhist Lamas in the Tibetan tradition. These Mongolian Lamas were those individuals who, in turn, also spread Buddhism to neighboring regions (Kos’Min 45). Buddhism, as in the day of Chinggis Khan, remains an instrument of politicians as well as of the religious today (Kos’Min 46). One region particularly affected by Mongolian Buddhism, for example, is Altai, where the influence of Mongolian Buddhism has been so strong that “stories aboutfolk deities and forefathers, [have served to instill] a favorable disposition to Buddhism and mistrust in everything that is not Mongolian, including evangelism” (Kos’Min 48). It is through Buddhism, then, that political alliances are forged and maintained and regional identities are solidified. As it was in the past, so, too, is this idea of religion as an instrument of political connection still persuasive today in modern-day Mongolia.
The blend of syncretic beliefs and practices that Chinggis Khan permitted to exist in 13th century Mongolian society has persisted, more or less unchanged to a certain extent, into contemporary Mongolia. As Elverskog signals, Mongolian Buddhism draws from other Asian Buddhist practices and beliefs, but it is also uniquely Mongolian to the degree that it both embraces and contests traditional Buddhism and to the extent that it has been shaped by the significant “historiographical issues” described here (29). The unique expression of Buddhism in Mongolia, then, establishes two distinct Asian Buddhisms: one that is Mongolian, and one that is particular to the rest of Asia (Elverskog 29). The former may be considered to be less “pure” than the latter, but that is only because it reflects the particular influences discussed above.
The End of Chinggis Khan’s Rule and the Beginning of a New Era for Mongolian Buddhism
After the end of Khan’s rule, Mongolia was subsumed under Chinese rule, under which it remained until the collapse of the Manchu Dynasty in 1912 (University of Pennsylvania 9). At this time, the Mongolians decided to assert their independence, but their declaration of autonomy was a somewhat curious one: “Stating that their allegiance was to the Manchu Dynasty only, they affirmed that Mongolia should be independent of China if there was no Manchu Dynasty”(University of Pennsylvania 9). When the Machu Dynasty was officially no longer in existence or rule, the Mongolians proceeded to establish their own government, which was a “theocracy headed by the chief Lama of Mongolia, the Hoyd Khan” (University of Pennsylvania 9). Although the Lama Hoyd Khan’s rule was brief, as the Chinese reinitiated incursions into Mongolia just seven years later, the Lama’s tenure as Mongolia’s leader served the purpose of solidifying the presence and importance of Buddhism in Mongolia, not only as a religion, but as an instrument of political power.
