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PROLEGOMENON
To the second volume of the series Aspects of Mongolian Buddhism
With the second international conference dedicated to Buddhism among the Mon¬
golian ethnic groups (April 2017) we celebrated the living religious practice.’ Since
its advent, Buddhism was practice-orientated and involved all layers of the society
—irrespectively of the area and political or cultural milieu spread in.
All the Mongols living around the world in Mongolia and other countries can
practice Buddhism: Mongolia is a Buddhist country and the Mongolian minori¬
ties in China and Russia have various possibilities for religious engagement. The
Buddhist religious practice embraces a variegated scale of forms, starting with the
monastic practice up to the everyday rituals, prayers, mantras repeated by believers.
The incorporating nature of Buddhism produced many local variants, and the strong
Pre-Buddhist belief system changed the original philosophy and religion consid¬
erably. The Mongolian areal variants include many territorial and ethnic-specific
elements of religious systems surviving in the Buddhist rituals.
Mongolian Buddhism is an important historical and cultural phenomenon that is
inseparable from Mongolian identity and many aspects of “Mongolness” can not
be understood without knowing the Buddhist practice in detail in both diachronic
and synchronic aspects. The festive and everyday practice implicates traditional
and innovative components which is an inexhaustible topic for studies. With the
present volume we offer a glimpse into various ways, elements, and interpretations
of historical and contemporary, monastic and lay, festive and everyday practice of
Mongolian Buddhism.
The second volume of the series Aspects of Mongolian Buddhism follows in
many respects the features of the first volume: Aspects of Mongolian Buddhism
1. Past, Present and Future. Ed. Birtalan, Ägnes — Teleki, Krisztina — Majer,
Zsuzsa — Fahidi, Csaba — Räkos, Attila. Budapest, L’Harmattan 2018. 474 p.
(ISBN 978-2-343-14326-2). All languages, Mongolian Buddhism is studied in, have
their place in an academic work. The attendance of the conference is reflected in the
large scale of topics and similarly to the previous volume we included articles of
researchers who have not been able to participate in the conference. The editors
of the book follow the policy of publishing contributions of the younger generation of
Mongolists and Buddhologists as well.
! Various materials concerning the events, cf. on the site:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/belsoazsia/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1397919163602109
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