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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. Interestingly, 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 Pürewbat 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 monastery, 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 worshipping 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
