Oldal 344 [344]
MARIA-KATHARINA LANG — TSETSENTSOLMON BAATARNARAN
characters (M. Chinbat, Interview, Vienna, 25 January, 2018). Through exchanges of
artists and graduates educated in Mongolia, Mongol Dsurag and Mongolian Buddhist
art technigue are spreading in Inner Mongolia and expanding as a re-nationalised art
style representing "being Mongol".
Commercialisation and Efficacy of Sacred Objects
Mongolian contemporary Buddhist art is eventually commercialised in production
and appropriation. Many small religious stores appeared around Gandan Monastery
from the 1990s on. Along with the rise of religious needs, art students and private
artists produced small thangkas and sold them to stores for 500 togrégs each. Inter¬
estingly, students copied thangkas out of the Mongol Dsurag catalogue by Tsiiltem.
According to the artist N. Khosbayar, they tried their best to paint beautifully but
they did not think of the religious faith. The establishment of the Mongolian Institute
of Buddhist Art could be seen as an attempt to save Buddhist tradition from being
commercialised by the early 1990s. D. Tulga recalls the situation then:
“When life got hard in the 1990s, people started to use every source to make
money. Gandan Monastery became like a market place selling paintings, souvenirs,
and (statues of) small deities for tourists. As there were not dedicated buildings,
people were selling things inside and outside of the fence in sparse. After two or
three years, they disappeared, as there was no need. The teacher [G. Piirewbat] did
a historical merit to stop what was nearly continuing for commercial purposes and
put into a right course.” (D. Tulga, Interview, Ulaanbaatar, 1 July, 2015)
Later, it eventually became a commercial competition over Buddhist art and Pürew¬
bat successfully handles it. He runs a Buddhist tourist resort, Aglag Monastery
(Aglag biiteeliin khiid) in his hometown in Téw province, which charges entrance
fee of 5000 tögrögs for foreigners, 3000 tögrögs for adults, and 1000 tögrögs for
children. It became a domestic travel package for tour companies to visit the mon¬
astery, including three meals, and the stay for a night for 120.000 tögrögs (approx.
40 Euros). Although it is a monastery, it is not allowed to bring items for worship¬
ping and offering such as khadags (sacred blue scarfs), incenses, milk, and vodka
to the site. Pürewbat is planning to build another big monastery with a mandala in
Ulaanbadrakh district of Dornogow’ province. According to him, the monastery
encompassing a ten metres high and 18 metres wide mandala will be a verification
of the revival of Buddhism in Mongolia.'? G. Piirewbat became a monopoly in the
market of Buddhist art dealing with big businesses of constructions of sites and
large-sized depictions of deities. Meanwhile, the business with small depictions of
deities in religious stores still continous. The name of G. Pürewbat became a brand
name so that copies are sold in religious stores labelled as “made by G. Pürewbat.”
9 http://www.budda.mn/news/1013.html.
342