Notes on Mongolia-India cultural ties
In a bid to beef up the cultural relations with untamed cosmopolitan, Indian govt is reprinting rare 108 volumes of Mongolian Kanjur manuscripts in collaboration with the Tourism Ministry which will be published and distributed among various institutes by March, 2022.
The nation crowning the skyline of the steppes has a distinct cultural identity among a variety of cosmopolitan societies. One will not find a city like Ulaanbaatar on Google Earth which used to be a nomadic settlement once but striking a perfect balance with urban lifestyle now.
Ever since India established formal diplomatic relations with Mongolia in 1955, the relations between the countries have constantly been strengthening due to shared convictions in Buddhist tenets. Buddhism was carried to Mongolia by Indian cultural and religious ambassadors during the early Christian era. As a result, today, Buddhists form the single largest religious denomination in Mongolia.
In a recent virtual event joined by Mongolian Minister of Culture, Ms Chinbat Nomin, Minister of State for Culture & Tourism (Independent Charge) Prahlad Singh Patel, discussions are made on the scopes of cultural exchange between India and Mongolia as 20 dedicated ICCR scholarships for studying ‘Tibetan Buddhism’ have already been allocated for Mongolians to study in specialized institutes of CIBS, Leh and CUTS, Varanasi, starting from 2020-2021.
Government of India, under the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, with the mandate of documenting, conserving and disseminating the knowledge preserved in the manuscripts. One of the objectives of the mission is to publish rare and unpublished manuscripts so that the knowledge enshrined in them is spread to researchers, scholars and the general public at large. Under this scheme, reprinting of 108 volumes of Mongolian Kanjur has been taken up by the Mission. It is expected that all the volumes will be published by March, 2022. This work is being carried out under the supervision of eminent Scholar Prof. Lokesh Chandra.
Mongolian Kanjur, the Buddhist canonical text in 108 volumes, is considered to be the most important religious text in Mongolia. In the Mongolian language ‘Kanjur’ means ‘Concise Orders’- the words of Lord Buddha in particular. It is held in high esteem by the Mongolian Buddhists and they worship the Kanjur at temples and recite the lines of Kanjur in daily life as a sacred ritual. The Kanjur are kept in almost every monastery in Mongolia.Mongolian Kanjur has been translated from Tibetan. The language of the Kanjur is Classical Mongolian.The Mongolian Kanjur is a source of providing a cultural identity to Mongolia.
Shri Patel thanked Ms.Nomin for the special prayers conducted by some of the leading monasteries in Ulaanbaatar for India during the pandemic. Ms. Nomin took the opportunity to express solidarity of Mongolia with India and Indian people in their fight against Covid pandemic.
Mongolia took swift and prudent early action to contain Covid-19 and consequently sustained a few cases with no deaths so far.
Cover image by UNESCO
