Mongolia & Tibet Notes 2
MONGOLIA
Buddhist 7-10th century AD
 Turkic ruins
 mainly pasturalists, horses
 great archers, the Kublai Khan, Genghis Khan
 Greco/Roman wrestling
 "American" cowboy boot come from Mongolia, came west with the Mongols to the
Turks to the Spanish, who brought them to the New World.
 Horse pasturalists -- ride, eat, milk (fermented mare's milk makes an alcoholic drink
called Koomus)
 Yurts, mobile housing, straw with canvas tent-like roof, used to
be hide
 vast grasslands, no trees, horse dung for fuel
 camels -- transport, meat, wool
 "O Mani Phadmi Om" -- Hail to the jewel in the lotus
 hideous Soviet architecture in the Mongolian Capital of Ulaan Bataar
TIBET
 Ancient Buddhist country, a theocracy until 1959, when following the Chinese
reclamation of the territory beginning in 1953, the leader, the Dalai Lama, fled to
India and it has been occupied and colonized by China
 World’s highest large land mass
 Most people are and have been herdsmen
 Buddhists who are not vegetarians
 Buddhists who have more ancient and more magical elements to their practices
 Most Tibetans enter monasteries for limited periods, then return to secular life,
however, many stay for life
 The Chinese destroyed 1000’s of monasteries to discourage religion. 1000s of lamas,
monks and nuns tortured and murdered.
 Buddhist who are “vivid” as opposed to those of Japan, who are “subtle”