20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

Ritual and state in contemporary Mongolia. The case of Chinggis Khan 555Historians have gone further than acknowledging Chinggis’ politicaland legal heritage regarding Mongolia or the positive aspects of Mongolrule, such as the development of links between Asia and Europe thatboosted trade and cultural and technical exchanges. In their re-appraisalof history, Chinggis’ action is treated as only positive and is reflected assuch in the judgment by political leaders and ordinary citizens, includingBuddhist monks who share a similar national pride. President Bagabandiand Defense minister Gurragchaa both insisted in their 2002 respectivespeeches (the latter pronounced his on the 3 rd of May at the laying of thefirst stone of the new ceremonial complex for Chinggis) see ibid. 19-21)that the Mongol emperor’s conquests provided peace in many states andgreatly contributed to Central Asia’s civilizations; that he favored goodrelations with his neighbors and would only fight in order to duly takerevenge or crush anyone threatening peace between nations; that he laidthe foundations for a democratic society, and that “his teaching should belearned and his example followed by his heirs, i.e. the Mongol nation”. Atthe ceremony, lamas from the main monastery were present, reading sūtra,making incense offerings and invoking good fortune (dallaga avakh); then,still in the Buddhist way, the three major figure of the state – the president,the speaker and the Prime Minister – put tea, ceremonial scarf khadag,powder of stone, etc., in the foundation hole.Some Mongolian scholars have proposed to use the universal ideologythat Chinggis developed from the worship of Tenggeri (or tenger: “sky;heaven”) the base of a new universal ideology or religion: as a product of thefirst “globalization” going back to the time of the Mongol empire, Chinggis’religion would fit the needs of humanity that is going today through a newglobalization. This is, roughly summarized, the proposition of one of themost eminent Mongolian historians, Sh. Bira 8 . Such insistence on theuniversal value of Chinggis’s global spiritual heritage by the Mongolianintelligentsia reflects a desire to counterbalance with the Mongol’s ownvalues – recently recovered – the strong foreign influence that is sweepingthe country today, especially the influence of Christian religion’s variousdenominations that are intensively spreading their gospels in Mongolia forthe first time.By discarding or downplaying any negative aspect of the historicalfigure of Chinggis Khan, by turning him into the untouchable foundingbackground of the author and the importance of his work popularizing and defendingChinggis Khan and the Mongols in the West.8See Bira 2004 on “tenggerism” and modern globalization.