Oldal 15 [15]
ACCOUNT ON THE SECOND CONFERENCE
ON MONGOLIAN BUDDHISM
The conference Mongolian Buddhism in Practice took place on 24—25 April 2017
at Edtvés Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary. The Department of Mongolian
and Inner Asian Studies, the Research Centre for Mongolian Studies, the Budapest
Centre of Buddhist Studies as well as the Institute of Ethnology, Research Centre
for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and the Embassy of Mongolia
in Hungary co-operated in the organization of this special forum. An exhibition of
photographs taken by the Hungarian researchers of Mongolian Buddhism accom¬
panied the conference.
The conference aimed to gather international scholars and monks to discuss differ¬
ent aspects of Mongolian Buddhism and to reveal its distinctiveness. In accordance
with the speakers’ own specific research interests, presentations covered various
aspects of Mongolian Buddhist culture and practices including history, art, philoso¬
phy, textology, monastic life and disciple, Cho practice, Tsam ritual dance, Owoo
veneration and other rites on prosperity, death and rebirth, and also revealed the
specialties of certain Mongolian Buddhist practices in China and Russia, and their
relations with Tibetan Buddhism.
85 speakers of 14 countries presented their research results including scholars,
Buddhist monks, and PhD students coming from Australia, Austria, China, the Czech
Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Mongolia, Poland, Russia, Switzerland,
the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
The conference started with Mongolian music and Buddhist chanting, followed
by the speeches of Imre Hamar, vice-dean of Eötvös Loránd University and director
of the Institute of East Asian Studies, Birtalan Agnes, the head of the Department
of Mongolian and Inner Asian Studies and the Research Centre for Mongolian
Studies, G. Chuluunbaatar, vice-president of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences,
S. Tömör-Ochir, vice-president of the International Association for Mongol Stud¬
ies, former President of the Mongolian Parliament. The greeting words of the Most
Ven. D. Choidsamts, the head abbot of Gangdantegchenlin Monastery, Centre of
Mongolian Buddhists was reviewed and Méngkebatu Ccorji, the sixth incarnation of
the Mergen Gegeen Monastery, Inner Mongolia, China held the keynote presentation
of the plenary session. His excellence Ds. Batbayar, the Ambassador of Mongolia
welcomed the participants, too.
The two-day conference had twenty panels with interesting papers covering vari¬
ous themes. The Embassy of Mongolia gave a reception in the evening of the first
day. The distinctiveness of the forum was the large number of participants: almost
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