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Buddhism in Mongolia derives much of its recent characteristics from Tibetan Buddhism of the Gelug and Kagyu lineages. Traditionally, the Mongols ethnic religions involved worship of Heaven (the "eternal blue sky") and ancestors and the ancient North Asian practices of shamanism, in which human intermediaries went into trance and spoke to and for some of the numberless infinities of spirits responsible for human luck or misfortune. Although the emperors of the Yuan dynasty in the 14th and 15th century had already converted to Tibetan Buddhism, the Mongols returned to their old shamanist ways after the collapse of their empire. In 1578 Altan Khan, a Mongol military leader with ambitions to unite the Mongols and to emulate the career of Genghis Khan, invited the head of the rising Gelug lineage to a summit. They formed an alliance that gave Altan Khan legitimacy and religious sanction for his imperial pretensions and that provided the Buddhist school with protection and patronage. Altan Khan of Mongolia gave the Tibetan leader the title of Dalai Lama ("Ocean Lama"), which his successors still hold. Altan Khan died soon after, but in the next century the Gelug spread throughout Mongolia, aided in part by the efforts of contending Mongol aristocrats to win religious sanction and mass support for their ultimately unsuccessful efforts to unite all Mongols in a single state. Viharas (Mongolian ''datsan'') were built across Mongolia, often sited at the juncture of trade and migration routes or at summer pastures where large numbers of herders would congregate for shamanistic rituals and sacrifices. Buddhist monks carried out a protracted struggle with the indigenous shamans and succeeded, to some extent, in taking over their functions and fees as healers and diviners, and in pushing the shamans to the fringes of Mongolian culture and religion. ==Tibetan background== Tibetan Buddhism combines Vajrayana with indigenous rituals of curing and exorcism, shares the common Buddhist goal of individual release from suffering and the cycles of rebirth. The religion holds that salvation, in the sense of release from the cycle of rebirth, can be achieved through the intercession of compassionate Buddhas who have delayed their own entry to the state of selfless bliss (nirvana) to save others. Such Buddhas, who also manifest as bodhisattvas, are not treated a deities in a polytheistic sense, but rise as enlightened beings in a universe of humans, mundane deities, opposing demons, converted and reformed demons and wandering ghosts of the regions into which Buddhism expanded. Tantrism contributed esoteric techniques of meditation and a repertoire of sacred icons, phrases and mudra that easily lent themselves to pragmatic (rather than transcendental) and magical interpretation. Tibetan Buddhism posits progressive stages of enlightenment and comprehension of the reality underlying the illusions that hamper the understanding and perceptions of those not trained in meditation or Buddhist doctrine, with sacred symbols interpreted in increasingly abstract terms. A ritual that appears to a common yak herder as a straightforward exorcism of disease demons could be interpreted by a senior monk as a representation of conflicting tendencies in the mind of a meditating ascetic. In Tibet Buddhism thus became an amalgam, combining colorful popular ceremonies and curing rituals for the masses with the rigorous academic studies of Buddhist canon in the monasteries. The basic Buddhist tenet of reincarnation was combined with the Tantric idea that Buddhahood could be achieved within a person's lifetime to produce a category of leaders who were considered to have achieved Buddhahood and to be the reincarnations of previous leaders. These leaders, referred to as tulkus, held secular power and supervised a body of ordinary monks or lamas ( "revered one)". The monks were supported by the laity, who thereby gained merit and who received from the monks instructions in the rudiments of the faith and monastic services in healing, divination, and funerals. Though Tibetan influence is prevalent in Mongolia, Mongolian Buddhism is distinct and presents its own unique characteristics. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Buddhism in Mongolia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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