Ritual Efficacy or Spiritual Quest? Buddhism and Modernity in Post-Communist Mongolia

Abstract

Following a decade of theocratic regime and seventy years of Soviet domination with forcibly imposed atheism, Mongolia is today experiencing democracy and its correlate: religious pluralism. Surfing on the wave of globalisation, new creeds and cults have joined Shamanism and Buddhism, the two indigenous religions that had seemed forever lost in communist quicksand. The establishment of political pluralism in Mongolia in 1990 came with a display of strong nationalist and religious feelings. Buddhism remains the major religious actor on the post-communist religious scene and is comfortably situated in its cultural context. For centuries, in accordance with the political context, Mongol Buddhism has conveyed different meanings. Today its ritual practices display an illusory tradition but find a legitimacy in fidelity to the imaginary model. Beyond lie symbolic, national and moral resources that Mongols can call upon in the face of modernity. Keywords:Buddhism; modernity; post-communist Mongolia; religious pluralism; ritual practices