INTRODUCTION
Mongolia is a landlocked country sandwiched between Russia and China. Its territory is about the same size as Alaska. Mongolia has several mountain ranges, the highest being the Altai mountains, located in the far west. Much of southern and eastern Mongolia is occupied by a vast plain or grassland. The so-called Gobi region, Mongolia's semi-desert, lies in the south. It can go years without rain, but surprisingly it also has oases. Rivers are mainly in the north. The important Selenge river drains into Lake Baikal in Russia.
Mongolia has an extreme continental climate with long, cold winters and short, hot summers. Annual precipitation is usually less than 15 inches per year in the wettest areas. Mongolia is called the "Land of the Blue Sky" because it averages 257 cloudless days a year. On the other hand, Japanese call Mongolia "Sogen-no Kuni", which means the "Country of Grasslands". It is also true. Less than one percent of the land is arable, 8-10 percent is forested, and the rest is pasture including semi-desert.
Mongols have nothing in common with the Chinese. Not only is their language totally unrelated, but also their way of life is completely different. Mongolia's population is quite homogeneous. Over 90 percent of the population is made up of subgroups of the Mongol nationality, the largest being the Khalkha (70 percent of the total). They are mostly concentrated in the central and eastern areas of the country. Distinctions between the Khalkhas and other Mongols (including Buryads, Dorwods, Oolds, Bayads, Dzakhchins, Uriankhais, Uzemchins, and Bargas) are minor. The largest non-Mongol ethnic group is the Kazakhs (5.9 percent). They are pastoral, Turkic speaking Muslim people who live in extreme western Mongolia.
The modern Mongolian language, as the national language, developed after the establishment of the Mongolian People's Republic (MPR) in 1924 on the basis of the Khalkha dialect. The traditional Mongolian script, which originated from the Sogdian letters of Aramaic origin, was used in the MPR until 1941, when a new alphabet based on Cyrillic was adopted. After the democratic revolution of 1990 the use of traditional script was restored to a certain degree.
Today, the Mongolian language comprises several dialects, including Khalkha, Buryad, Oirad, Chahar, Kharchin, Khorchin, Ordos and others. Among all Mongolian scripts, traditional Mongolian is considered the most viable and is still used in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of China. This is primarily because its graphical pecularities make it suitable for all Mongolian dialects.
Shamanism, Mongolia's "old-time religion", had originated in pre-historic times and played a crucial part in the spiritual life of the Mongols up to the sixteenth century. Buddhism was first introduced during the reign of Khubilai Khagan (1215-1294) but did not spread widely. Buddhism, in the form of Yellow Hat religion or Lamaism, made further inroads into Mongolia from the second half of the sixteenth century. Its large-scale penetration was encouraged by the Manchu court which was anxious to pacify its northern neighbors.
Lamaist monasteries soon gained popularity and prestige, promoting literacy and disseminating knowledge and sciences. Lamaism became an inseparable part of everyday life of Mongols. The Jebtsundamba Khutagts (religious leaders of Khalkha) and many other Khutagts were indeed influential personalities and enjoyed enormous popularity among their followers. Many of them were philosophers, historians, writers, physicians and some of them were also excellent handicraftsmen.
MONGOLIA BEFORE THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Let's start with a typical situation facing a Mongol traveling abroad. Being asked "Where are you from?" he will certainly answer "I am from Mongolia". But this will usually elicit a second question: "Which Mongolia are you from, Chinese Mongolia or Russian?". It means that people know that Mongolia is somewhere between Russia and China, but they are not sure that Mongolia is an independent country.1
To understand the reason of such a question, we go back to a history not so distant but heavily distorted until recently. Almost every reader of a world history knows that the famous Chinggis Khagan, later recognized as a "World Conqueror", united all Mongols in a nation, created the first unified Mongol state, and adopted Buddhism in the thirtheenth century. His descendants eventually built an empire that stretched from Korea to Hungary. His grandson, Khubilai Khagan, founded the Yuan dynasty in China (1279-1364).2
The zenith of Mongolian power did not last long and by the mid- fourtheenth century its empire began to fragment. Mongols had no choice but to retreat to their homeland north of the Great Wall. One major reason why the Mongols could retreat so easily was that they were all excellent horsemen. Besides, they were still secure in the vast territories north of the Gobi from any threat coming from the north. But toward the end of the seventeenth century Mongols began to feel the eastward expansion of Russians which soon limited their freedom of movement greatly.
After the collapse of the Yuan dynasty , the Mongols had retreated to their homeland where they maintained the Northern Yuan state for a while. They were then divided into two major groups, the Eastern Mongols (including Khalkha) in the east and the Oirad Mongols in the west.2 Both groups claimed to be the rightful heirs to the Khagan's throne and sought to resolve their differences in a long civil war. The imperial forces of Eastern Mongolia's ruler Dayan Khagan defeated the Oirads around 1500 and reunited Mongolia for a while. The defeated Oirads moved northwest to the vicinity of the Altai mountain range where they established the famous Dzungar empire.
Created: September, 2000. Speaker Group.
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Modern Mongolia