Buddhism, Islam and Sanatan Dharma narrated in the speech of the Ambassador of Mongolia

Hello all, 

I am sharing this speech of the Ambassador of Mongolia for learning on the way humanity needs to be liberated from the genocides and wars which happened in the past and how the call for the same in our age within some administrative boundaries need to the confronted. Mongols are called Mughals as well. India is currently witnessing the politics of hatred for the Mughals since Mughals as Mongols accepted prophet Mohammad SUH and HRS. BJP is promoting the accursed hatred of muslims and muslimas in the name of Lord Ramchandra. This can not be sustained since spiritual updating for allegiance to the Divinely Chosen Guide of the age is mandatory for all souls. Among muslims and muslimas, there are sects which need to be eliminated through unity in allegiance to 49th Imam and Fatemi Khalifatullah Mowlana Kareem Shah Al Hussaini Aga Khan IV.  Talibaan as Students of Religious Seminary who are power in Afghanistan need to pledge allegiance to 49th Imam and Fatemi Khalifatullah. 

The speech shows on how the concept of reincarnation was used by Altan Khan for earning legitimacy . Also most not aware of the word KHAN need to know that this title was so much important among the Mongols. There is no incarnation of the bodies but the position of the Divinely Chosen Leader is the enduring for the Righteous in the posterity of prophet Abraham SUH and HRS known as Guru Brahamma. This position is not elected but exists in the unbroken chain https://ismailignosis.com/2018/07/11/the-seats-of-the-ismaili-imamat-from-medina-to-lisbon-632-2018/ Examining the chain shared here will show on how the unbroken chain has been alive since the time of Imam Hunaid.

The speech shows the date when the institution of Dalai Lama came in existence. What was the purpose of Altan Khan? Uniting Mongols. Now, we need to unite all souls NOT only Mongols .How this happens? This will happen only through acceptance of the Divinely Chosen Guide of the age and unity of neighborhoods across the world.

Reference to Buddhism, Islam and Sanatan Dharma narrated in the speech of the Ambassador of Mongolia:

Heritage, culture and the philosophy and teachings of Buddhism

5^th Edition of Bodh Gaya Global Dialogues, 25-26 March 2023

 

Good morning eminent scholars of Buddhism,

Friends in the Dharma

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Mongolia and India are “spiritual neighbours”, the links of which can be traced  back to many centuries. The culture and religion of Buddhism, which was born in India, penetrated into Mongolia several thousand years ago, according to Mongolian historians and scholars.

I would like to quote Prof. Lokesh Chandra, a pre-eminent Indian scholar. He had once said: “Culture is not just music and dance — culture is power…. In Mongolia they have Kalidasa’s Meghdoota in Mongolian. The Astangahridaya Samhita of Vagbhata is translated in Mongolian and they follow it. Most of the culture in Mongolia has gone from India.”

This authoritative and scholarly statement by the Indian scholar speaks for itself of the shared spiritual and cultural heritage between Mongolia and India. “A coin in Mathura of the second century BCE has an inscription that has the word Khagan on it and in Mongolian it means emperor”. And the word Khagan has been written as in the original old Mongolian script, which is very interesting, as this word in modern times is pronounced as Khan.

If we speak about the ancient spiritual links and the spread of Buddhism in the land of the Mongols, then we may have to step back into history.

In fact, historians have established that the spread of Buddhism in Mongolia from India underwent three different stages in history.

The first stage begins with the spread of Buddhism among the various Mongol tribes who were united under the Empire of the Huns. According to the earliest available source of information, the Han Chinese who had captured a Hun noble who governed the Khukh Nuur and Ganxu districts of the Hun Empire in 121 BCE, found human figures made of gold from the noble, which were later confirmed to be the figures of Lord Buddha. Interestingly, this is how the Chinese also for the first time came to know about Buddhism.

Buddhism is believed to have first penetrated into the land of the Mongols from the west, that is, through Xinjiang and Central Asia. At that time, Buddhism had spread west to present-day Afghanistan and Iran’s eastern part, but Buddhism disappeared after Muslim spread across these countries.

Although what we used to term as Tibetan Buddhism until recently, had penetrated into Mongolia strongly, many cultural and religious term, such as sutra, vajra etc. are of Sanskrit origin, which proves that the Mongols were exposed to Buddhism quite a long time back, but with the passage of time, it disappeared.

And according to historians and scholars, there was a second resurgence of Buddhism, which happened during the period of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) in the 13^th and 14hth centuries, when the Mongol emperors converted to Tibetan Buddhism.

The founder of the Yuan Dynasty, Khubilai Khan, invited lama Dorgon Chogyal Phagpa of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism to spread Buddhism throughout his realm (the second introduction of Buddhism among the Mongols).

Buddhism became the de facto state religion of the Yuan dynasty. In 1269, Kublai Khan commissioned Phagpa lama to design a new writing system to unify the writing systems of the multilingual empire. The Phags-pa script, also known as the "Square script", was based on the Tibetan script and written vertically from top was designed to write in Mongolian, Tibetan, Chinese, Uighur and Sanskrit languages and served as the official script of the empire. This was the second resurgence of Buddhism in Mongolia.

But with the downfall of the Yuan Empire, the Mongols once again returned to shamanistic traditions. Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (a shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance.

In 1578 Altan Khan, a Mongol military leader with ambitions to unite the Mongols and to emulate the career of Genghis Khan, invited the Third Dalai Lama, the head of the rising Gelug lineage in Tibet 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 recognized Sonam Gyatso lama as a reincarnation of Phagpa lama, gave the Tibetan leader the title of Dalai Lama  (meaning "Ocean Lama"), which his successors still hold. Sonam Gyatso, in turn, recognized Altan as a reincarnation of Kublai Khan. Thus, Altan added legitimacy to the title "khan" that he had assumed, while Sonam Gyatso received support for the supremacy he sought over the Tibetan sangha.

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.

This is in brief how Buddhism penetrated, spread and disappeared in the land of the Mongols.

However, the word disappeared may be inappropriate as the spirit of Buddhism continued and its traditions were carried through over the centuries to reach the 21^st century, when Mongolia became a democratic country in 1990, guided by the rule of law, and promotion of human rights, including freedom of belief and non-belief.

I dare to say that India was instrumental in the fourth period of resurgence of Buddhism in Mongolia.

Kushok Bakula, an important lama and Indian politician from Ladakh, who served as India’s Ambassador to Mongolia from January 1990 to October 2000, is mainly known for his efforts in reviving Buddhism in Mongolia.

I would like to specifically note that long before the spread of Buddhism in ancient Mongolia, there are historical evidences proving that there were Mongol lamas who were being educated at the Nalanda University, and scholars of our two countries mutually travelled to each other’s countries. From the time of the spread of Buddhism, cultural ties between the peoples of Mongolia and India grew, sutras by Indian scholars were translated into Mongolian languages, and Mongolian lamas visited India on pilgrimage.

Continuing his tradition, today hundreds of young Mongolian lamas are being trained in Buddhist philosophy, science and tantric studies in various Buddhist monasteries in India. There is continuous exchange of Buddhist scholars to various Buddhist conferences and meetings held in India and Mongolia. In June last year, during the Buddha Poornima, an Indian government delegation led by the Hon’able Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju visited Mongolia carrying the holy relics of Buddha, which was a blessing for thousands of Mongolian Buddhists. And more than 70 Buddhist temples and monasteries were given as gift the 108 volume words of Lord Buddha or the Mongol Kanjur in Mongolian language, which was reprinted in India. The publication and distribution of the Mongol Kanjur has become a symbol of cultural dialogue between Mongolia and India, and has contributed to strengthening diplomatic relations between the two countries, which were established in 1955.

 In 2015, when the Indian Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi made his first historic visit to Mongolia, also gifted the statue of Lord Buddha and his two disciples – Sariputra and Moggallana, to the Centre of Mongolian Buddhist, the Gandan Monastery. These statues were made by the famed sculptors Ram Sutar and Anil Sutar.

All this is happening as a part of the Strategic Partnership and the long-standing spiritual links between India and Mongolia, and our two peoples and I am confident that the shared culture and heritage of Buddhism will bring our two peoples much closer spiritually and culturally. 

 

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