Role of religious belief in contemporary Mongolia
(62nd Meeting Friedensau, 2019)
Historically, Buddhism was and keeps being the main religion in Mongolia. Before the People’s Revolution of 1921, religion played an important role in the life of the country, however, at the period of Mongolia’s socialist development, its position was seriously undermined. In the 1990s, the revival of Buddhism began; its influence on Mongolian society became more noticeable. In present-day Mongolia more than half of the population practice Buddhism; Buddhism is supported by the state, which create favorable conditions for its spread in the country. Also among the believers in Mongolia there are a small number of Muslims, Christians (Protestants, Orthodox, Catholics), Judaists, followers of the Moon Church, etc. In modern conditions, Buddhism is viewed in Mongolia more as an ethnopolitical factor than as a system of religious beliefs and dogmas. It acts as a general cultural background of the secular Mongolian state oriented on democratic principles.