Oldal 337 [337]
CREATING MONGOL DSURAG AND RE-CREATING BUDDHIST ART TRADITION IN MONGOLIA
the evolving Revolutionary art and later Soviet art set in. The iconoclasm of Buddhist
sacred art followed on an official level while objects survived hidden or transformed
to museum objects, often in anti-religious museums.° The anti-religious campaigns
of the mid-20" century almost ended the tradition of Buddhist art among the Mon¬
gols.f It was the period of transformation from traditional Buddhist thangka style to
the new modern “national style” of Mongol Dsurag, or Mongolian Painting. Well¬
known (monk) artists who used the Buddhist iconographic style to represent daily life
were namely Balduugiin Sharaw, known as Mardsan (Busybody), Jamba nicknamed
Tsagaan (white) and Jügder who usually had worked for the Eighth Jebtsundamba
Khutugtu, the last theocratic ruler of Mongolia, also known as the Bogd Khaan.
Balduugiin Sharaw’s (1869-1939) artistic career is of interest as being entrenched
to be the one who combined the tradition and modernity: he was a painter ofthe Bogd
Khaan Palace and the Bogd Khaan gave the nickname Mardsan (Busybody) to him as
he was gambling a lot. He transformed the traditional style of painting to Mongolian
portraits, and then later created revolutionary posters and portraits. His first tutor as
a Buddhist iconographer had been Jantsan, a locally famous dogshin (fierce) Buddha
painter and sculptor. Sharaw combined mineral paints with ink as well as Buddhist
canons and symbolism with (socialist) realism. Like the contemporary photographs,
his portraits often depict a clock, as an icon of modernity. The book Mongol Dsurag
from 1986 by Nyam-Osoriin Tsiiltem identified the paintings the “Koumiss Festival”
(Urs gargakh) and “Autumn” (Namar) as painted by Sharaw but with question marks
which referred to the uncertainty of Sharaw’s creation.’ However, the paintings such
as the “Winter Palace of the Bogd Khaan” (Bogd Khaanii öwliin ordon), “Summer
Palace of the Bogd Khaan”(Bogd Khaanii dsunii ordon), the “Koumiss Festival”
(Urs gargakh) and “Autumn” (Namar) are attributed to B. Sharaw today. He pushed
two traditional Buddhist genres, the depiction of a sacred place (Sharaw also painted
Lhasa) and the depiction of animal and human life (in the “Wheel of Samsara”, the
Buddhist concept referring the cycle of birth, life and death), presented in ethno¬
graphic realism. Today, the painting “Autumn” is irrevocably entitled as “One Day
of Mongolia” (Mongoliin neg ödör) painted by Sharaw in the public awareness.
Jambal, a clerk (donir, Tib. don gnyer) of the Bogd Khaan Palace, named deities
(burkhan) and portraits (gundaa, Tib. sku ‘dra) that Sharaw drew for high-ranked
lamas such as the Bogd Khaan, Bidsiya Tsorj (Luwsandondog) and Baldan Khachin.
Jambal recalled the skill of Sharaw: “When Sharav painted someone’s portrait, it
looked more identical than the person’s patiar, or photo. The portrait painted by
> Lang, Maria-Katharina: Ritual Objects between Conflict and Census: The Social Life of Sacred Arte¬
facts during Periods of Political Transformation in Mongolia. In: Ritual, Conflict and Consensus. Case
Studies from Asia and Europe. Ed. Kilianova, Gabriela — Jahoda, Christian — Ferencova, Michaela.
Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, Vienna 2012, 51-62.
6 Atwood, Christopher: Encyclopaedia of Mongolia..., 52-53.
Tsultem, Nyam-Osoryn: Development of the Mongolian National Style Painting “Mongol Zurag” in
brief. State Publishing House, Ulaanbaatar 1986.
The word patiar used among Mongolians is an inverted form of the word ‘portrait’ (Rus. nopmpem)
referring mainly to photos.
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