Ethnic and Religious Processes in Western Mongolia (Based on Social Research)

Abstract

Since I millennium BC. a significant influence of the Iranian complex of beliefs on the worldview of nomadic peoples could be noted. Due to the function of the Silk Road and the formation of nomadic empires in the beginning of a new era and the following centuries, Buddhist, Manichaean, Nestorian, Taoist missionaries have been intensified. From the period of the late Middle Ages the position of Islam in the region became stronger, although the penetration of this denomination in the region have noted in the previous period. The presentday period in the history of both Russia and Mongolia marked with significant transformations in various fields, including national and state-confessional policy. Under the slogan of the revival of the national culture, some ethnic groups entered into the conflict zone and the religious denominations have been actively involved in the process of transformation, of not only spiritual, but also socio-economic and political character. In the developing conditions of religious variety of Central Asia the ethnoconfessional monitoring which research and analyse the religious practice of the population, the relations of society and the state to questions of religion, the reasons and forms of interconfessional tensity, appearance of religious intolerance and influence of religion on the international relations and etc. The article is devoted to the present-day ethnic and religious situation in Western Mongolia. The paper presents the results of opinion polls of people of Bayan-Ulgii and Hovd aimags of Mongolia, aimed at the study of the relationship of religious and ethnic factors in the condition of modernization of Mongolian society. The study showed that despite the realization of freedom of conscience and modern state-confessional policy in Western Mongolia, the dominant religions are Buddhism (Hovd aimag) and Islam (Bayan-Ulgii aimag), providing the important influence on the culture and education of the population. In addition, last years, a penetration of Protestant missionaries is noted. The similar tendency of strengthening of the Protestant factor marked in other places of Central Asia and Southern Siberia–in Altai, Tuva, Khakassia and Buryatia.