The Debate of a Paṇḍita Dog with a Monk: Critique of Buddhist Monastics in üg Genre Works of Agvaanhaidav

Lhagvademchig Jadamba

doi:10.3390/rel12121104

Abstract

It is in the nineteenth century that the üg genre of Mongolian literature became a favorite literary form for Mongolian writers. Most works written in this genre are didactic teachings on compassion for domestic animals, the ills of the transient nature of saṃsāra, and a critique of misconduct among Buddhist monastic communities in Mongolia. Through the words of anthropomorphized animals or even of inanimate objects, the authors of the works belonging to the üg genre expressed their social concerns and criticism of their society. One of such authors was a Mongolian monk scholar of the nineteenth century by name Agvaanhaidav (Tib: Ngag dbang mkhas grub), who in his works of the üg genre strongly advocated the development and preservation of the spirit of Mahāyāna Buddhism in Mongolia, and of the Geluk monasticism and scholarship in particular.

Highlights

The üg Genre and Its StudiesIn the nineteenth century, the üg genre developed as a specific literary form in the history of Mongolian Buddhist literary tradition
In Agvaanhaidav’s view, the best teacher is one who censures the wrongdoing, and a censure should be seen as a pith instruction
A literary genre of üg, which was fully developed in nineteenth-century Mongolia, was employed by monastic scholars as well as revolutionary writers as the means of religious pith instructions and socialist propaganda

Summary

Introduction

The üg genre developed as a specific literary form in the history of Mongolian Buddhist literary tradition. After the collapse of socialism in Mongolia in 1990, a historian of Mongolian literature, Lhamsürengiin Hürelbaatar (1990, 1992, 1996), published a number of üg works, mostly those of Agvaanishsambuu.7 Another literary scholar Hurgaagiin Süglegmaa (2005) examined the genre of üg, providing a detailed study of the üg poetry composed by Sandag. As Damdinsüren noted down that “we have been respectfully employing certain excellent characteristics of old literary works”, the tradition of writing the works in the üg genre continued in the twentieth century in a way of the “national in the form, and socialist in content”, with Mongolian revolutionary writers taking the advantage of the üg genre. Agvaanhaidav strongly advocated the two major principles that should be observed by monastics in Mongolia—a strict observation of monastic precepts and a cultivation of compassion for all sentient beings—the two principles that stand at the very foundation of Mahāyāna Buddhism.

The Life of Agvaanhaidav and His Works of the üg Genre

Findings

Conclusions