Mongolian Matters » buddhism

Pilgrimage in the Gobi Desert

khuushuur — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 04:18:00 +0000

Pimgrimage in the Gobi – Danzanravjaa’s Shambala Dornogobi

An interesting view at Danzanravjaa’s Shambala Pilgrimage in the East Gobi.

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The Buddhist and The Christian

khuushuur — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:14:00 +0000

While having posted on the bizar joint listing of Christians and Shamanists in religious statistics some time ago, the last weeks have seen a frontal confrontation of some senior Buddhists with the American director of the News/Christian channel “Eagle TV”. The fire was sparked off by a letter of Norwegian Buddhist Federation President Egil Lothe to the UB Post and Mongolia Web News. User comments, another letter by Lothe and a reaction from the head of FPMT Mongolia express a vocal irritation with practices and arguments of the Eagle TV director. He himself seems “not amused” with Lothe’s arguments, reflecting in a blog post called “Responding to Dishonesty“.
But any illusion of an open discussion is smothered as Mr. Minder’s request for mutual respect is answered by a short post on the blog of the Eagle boss

….It’s a little quote from a guy in Myanmar who was helped by missionaries after a cyclone all but destroyed that country.

“Buddha did nothing while we were suffering. But your Jesus loves us.”

And that pretty much says it all.

No further comments…

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technorati: mongolia

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Chinese version of Mongolian Buddhist History

khuushuur — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 09:23:00 +0000

“Between 1600 and 1640, when the Great Ch’ing Empire (Daicing Gurun, Daic& ing Ulus) emerged, there were many central Tibetan priests and Tibetan Buddhist priests from Mongolia (usually called lam-a, lama,

At that time, there were large numbers of lamas in Mongolia and China, but only two of them were on the side of Ming. Both of these two lamas were invited by the Chinese military leaders in Liaotung to serve as fu k’uan. The lamas were Lama Wang (Wang lama, Sangs-rgyas Pa-sangs) and Lama Li (Lii lama, Bsod-nams Mtsho). Both of them were Chinese. Lama Wang came from the Hsuan-hua Ta-tung area and had previously engaged in negotiations with Mongolia there. His activities in Liaotung, still diplomatic work with Mongolia, were recorded from 1622 to 1629. “

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Anniversary of Danzanravjaa

khuushuur — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 08:28:00 +0000

Today marks the 150th anniversary the death of Danzanravjaa – the “Fifth Wrathful Noble Saint of the Gobi”, one of the greatest literary figures and educators in Mongolian history. Born in 1803, Danzanravjaa produced a remarkable output of songs, poems and teachings, in addition to founding Mongolia’s first museum, theatre, and mixed school.
The anniversary is to be commemorated on an international scale, with a program of special events to be held throughout the year. Danzanravjaa is one of 42 historical figures whose anniversaries will be celebrated in 2006-2007 by UNESCO.

Among the actions to commemorate this anniversary:

The Arts Council of Mongolia is implementing a one-year project to improve facilities for the conservation of the unique and historically important cultural artifacts of the Danzanravjaa Museum in Sainshand, and to ensure appropriate maintenance of the museum’s collection of objects and books through museum staff training (http://www.artscouncil.mn/marketing_program4.html). This one year project was awarded by the US Ambassadors Cultural Heritage grants fund in competition with countries from all over Asia and started its implementation in July 2005.
Restoration of Khamar Monastery in the East Gobi, former seat of Danzanravjaa, is to continue throughout 2006, with the completion of the “Shambhala Land” complex of 108 stupas and the improvement of the monastery’s circumambulation path.
Ten young monks have been sent to India with the sponsorship of Miserior (www.tilopa.net) and the US-based Kunzang Palyul Chöling (www.tara.org). It is hoped that these young monks will return to help re-establish Khamar Monastery as a leading centre of Mongolian Buddhism.
INMongolia Consulting Ltd. is to release a CD of songs by Danzanravjaa, performed by leading Mongolian artists. The release will coincide with events held to commemorate the anniversary of Danzanravjaa in summer 2006. Danzanravjaa’s songs continue to enjoy considerable popularity throughout Mongolia today, with “Ulemjiin Chanar” and other works taking an important place in the folk repertoire (www.inmongolia.com).
Further biographical information can be found at www.danzanravjaa.org.

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technorati: mongolia

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Can’t worship Buddha right way

khuushuur — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 07:32:00 +0000

In “The Transformation of Household Rituals in Mongolia: One History of Religions in a Modern Nomadistic Society” by Japanese researcher Katsuhiko TAKIZAWA, I came across an interesting observation:

An informant told me that he gave Buddha’s images, sutras and the other Buddhist tools to Gandan Monastery at the time of his father’s death in 1977, because he didn’t know how to worship Buddha right way. This mentality of “those who can’t worship Buddha right way must not have Buddha’s images” was found in many informants’ talk. This mentality often accompanies the idea of “curse”.

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Article: Byambajav reclaims sacred lands

khuushuur — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 07:31:00 +0000

Byambajav reclaims sacred lands
http://www.un.org/works/sustainable/byambajav_story.html

Bogh Khan, a Mongolian mountain, rises within one of the world’s oldest nature preserves. Home to the Manchi monastery, it is a sacred place to local Buddhists. Such reverence did little to protect the mountain in the 1930s, when Stalinist forces destroyed the monastery. But Lama Byambajav hopes that Bogh Khan’s spiritual significance will guard it against the new danger that threatens the mountain today – environmental degradation.

Since 2000, Byambajav has been at the center of a movement to encourage environmental preservation in Mongolia by reviving the traditional Buddhist reverence for nature. Working with the World Bank, World Wildlife Fund, and the Alliance for Religions and Conservation, Byambajav is trying to resurrect a centuries-old custom of preserving the natural landscapes that encompass sites considered sacred in local Buddhist tradition. As the leader of a Buddhist university in Mongolia, Byambajav is part of the Sacred Gifts to the Living Planet Campaign, a partnership between the World Bank and the Buddhist community that seeks to identify and protect these sacred places.

“It is sacred duty of ours, no matter of what religion we belong, to protect and hand over to next generation this untouched nature of Mongolia,” Byambajav says.

By identifying sacred sites throughout the country and re-introducing them to the local populace, the Sacred Gifts program hopes to create strong moral and religious support for environmental protection and enforcement measures. In his post as university president, Byambajav educates monks from monasteries throughout Mongolia about the importance of environmental awareness and teaches them conservation methods that they can bring back with them to their home communities.

“He is interested in environmental conservation not for economic reasons, but because it is the right thing to do. It’s the moral thing to do,” said Tony Whitten, a biodiversity specialist at the World Bank who has spearheaded the program.

Byambajav was part of a group formed to identify Mongolia’s sacred sites. The group compiled a nationwide list by writing to the country’s district governors, monks and academics and asking them to provide the names and
locations of their own local sites. The list currently includes about 600 sacred places, mostly mountains, forests, trees and springs. Maps and descriptions of these sites were published earlier this year in a booklet with forwards written by the prime minister of Mongolia and the president of the World Bank.

From among the 600 sites, the group selected five in which to begin pilot conservation programs. The five sites represent a diversity of natural zones and regions: Mazshir monastery in the central region, Amarbayasgalant monastery in the north, Baldan Breeven monastery in the east, Suvarga Hairhan mountain in the Hangai region and Zuun Choir monastery in southeastern Mongolia.

At each location, the group installed stone tablets identifying the sacred site. Representatives of the Sacred Gifts programme held educational sessions with monks from local monasteries, who joined with other people from the community in cleaning up the surrounding areas. As a result of this local commitment to the revival of these sacred sites, the traditional bans on hunting and logging have been successfully re-introduced.

The interaction between the group and the local monasteries has revealed that each of these sacred sites faces its own environmental threats. The monks at the Amarbayasgalant monastery in Selenge province told the group
that discarded plastic bottles were the biggest problem in their region. The monks already have started collecting these bottles and they are trying to educate the community about the need to properly discard them. The group now is now seeking a local recycling scheme and pricing the transportation of the bottles to the nearest facility, if no local option exists.

The entire Sacred Sites project thus far has cost roughly $70,000 – funded mainly through the World Bank – and the group hopes to extend the pilot program to other parts of the country suffering from environmental degradation. Some of the new sacred sites might encompass gold-mining operations in central and northern Mongolia. By re-introducing the worshipping traditions, local communities might be able to pressure mining companies who are not complying with requirements for environmental protection and restoration.

The program also could evolve into an entirely new initiative: spiritual tourism. Manchir monastery on Bogh Khan mountain could become a retreat center led by the Buddhist community. “It would be a spiritual, conservation-oriented tourism,” Whitten says.

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Northern Buddhist Conference on Ecology and Development

khuushuur — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 12:42:00 +0000

See for more informoration the official website of the Northern Buddhist Conference on Ecology and Development.

As the sound of chanting spread across a room full of several hundred Buddhist monks in Ulan Baator this morning, the newly elected President of Mongolia launched a unique event.

The occasion was the launch of the Northern Buddhist Conference on Ecology and Development.

The meeting was historic for two key reasons. It was the first conference bringing together the Buddhist monasteries in Mongolia since 1911. It is also the first body to broker partnerships between Buddhist communities, Northern Buddhist governments, the World Bank and other international bodies.

Joining leading Buddhists from Russia, Mongolia, China, Korea, and Cambodia were senior figures from the World Bank, Dutch Government, international environmental organizations such as WWF, and the Alliance of Religions and Conservation.

President Elect His Excellency Nambar Enkhbayar – who is also ARC’s International President – heralded the meeting as “a moment that Buddhism could begin to take its rightful place in civil society in Asia.”

Teresa Serra, Director for Environment and Social Development of the World Bank, spoke of the recent interest of the World Bank in working with religions. She also, most importantly, expressed the Bank’s firm commitment to continue to develop this aspect of its community based programmes.

In a powerful presentation, the Vice President of the China Buddhist Association, the world’s largest national Buddhist group, spoke about the need for Buddhists to once again help locate the philosophy and beliefs of compassionate protection of nature which: “for centuries has protected the environment of China and Mongolia.”

This was reflected in the speech of the Minister for the Environment of Mongolia who drew attention to: “the vital moral, ethical, practical and spiritual need for myths and legends which help us understand our interrelationship with all aspect of creation.”

In a day packed with practical project outlines, such as Russian Buddhists working actively with ecologists to combat erosion, and the idea of Mongolians adopting a new custom of planting a tree in the Gobi to commemorate each person who has died, the potential for Buddhism to help create a more ecological world was clear.

“We hope this is the beginning of many more practical partnerships in this region,” said Martin Palmer, Secretary General of ARC. “In the past ten years we have already done some very successful work with Buddhists, the World Bank, WWF and governments.” He cited the reintroduction of sacred ecological texts to encourage Mongolian Buddhists to protect their landscape, and the work in the Buddhist sacred mountains of China. “These, and other projects, have shown it is possible to work together to make real changes. The Northern Asian Buddhist network has a very exciting future.”

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