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CREATING MONGOL DSURAG AND RE-CREATING BUDDHIST ART TRADITION IN MONGOLIA
“The main principle I follow is the Mongolian national thangka painting in style,
manner, and colour. Exactly old Mongolian. I try to make it the same way as old
thangkas that old masters did in the past. The School of Buddhist Art is different
in colours combining it with modern colours. My main goal is to follow the Mon¬
golian national [ündesnii] authentic [yadsguur] style, manner, and iconography.”
(D. Ukhaandsaya, Interview, Ulaanbaatar, 27 July, 2015)
Interestingly, D. Ukhaandsaya defines the specifics of the School of Buddhist Art,
where he graduated from, as having modern colours. One could point out that con¬
temporary Buddhist artists aspire rather to acquire and transmit the “tradition”,
“origin”, and “authenticity” than creating individual styles.
Mongol Dsurag artists claim that the art of G. Pürewbat’s school followed more
the Tibetan Buddhist art tradition while they inherited the pre-revolutionary Mongo¬
lian “traditional” art style. Having teachers educated at the Surikov Art Institute and
Repin Academic Institute of Fine Arts in Russia and the Mongol Zurag catalogue
by Tsültem as handbook, the Institute of Fine Arts has played a prominent role to
nationalise and institutionalise the Mongol Dsurag style including Buddhist art. After
all, what G. Pürewbat attained was to distinct Buddhist iconography as a religious
art from the profane art style Mongol Dsurag, which became the one unified style
during the communist time.
Both Mongol Dsurag and Mongolian traditional Buddhist art became an ad¬
vanced traditional style as representation of national identity connoting Mongolia
as a nation-state as well as Mongolians as ethnicity. Having their traditional culture
interrupted by the Cultural Revolution and other political interferences, Mongolians
in China (Inner Mongolians) perceive the art in Mongolia, in the spheres of education
and production, as being more “traditional” and “authentic” as well as professional.
Chao Ge, a well-known Inner Mongolian artist based in Beijing, describes that Mon¬
golians from the state of Mongolia have a culture that is more “traditional” and this
would be valid for music, literature and paintings. He claims, ““We Inner Mongolians
learn a lot from Mongolians.” (Chao Ge, Interview, Beijing, 25 September, 2019)
The number of students from Inner Mongolia studying Mongol Dsurag and
Buddhist art technique at the Mongolian National University of Arts and Culture in
Ulaanbaatar has increased in the last decade. In total, the University has up to six
hundred undergraduate and graduate students from Inner Mongolia of different fields
of art and cultural studies. Inner Mongolian students find it more comfortable living
in a community of Inner Mongolians and rent flats in each other’s neighbourhood. As
a result, a small “town” of Inner Mongolian students evolved nearby the University
building. Although they speak the Mongolian language, it is hard for them to follow
lectures because the University teachers use many Russian terms. The flow of artists
goes in not only one direction to Mongolia, but also an increasing stream of Mongolian
artists move to work and sell artworks in Hohhot and other towns of Inner Mongolia
Autonomous Region until 2020. M. Chinbat, Mongol Dsurag artist and lecturer at
the University, found similarities in artworks from Inner Mongolia and those in
Mongolia from the 1950s and 1960s in terms of exaggeratingly representing national
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