Organizer, Chair, and Discussant: Elizabeth Endicott, Middlebury College
This panel will consist of four papers devoted to the history of Mongolia from the Bronze and early Iron Ages to the late twentieth century. The belief systems that emerged in the heart of Inner Asia in the second and first millennia B.C.E. influenced the later nomadic culture and way of life that have survived even into the present era. Professor Esther Jacobson’s paper will explore cultural themes that link the distant past with the present.
The following two papers by Professors Yuan-Chu Ruby Lam and Gyorgy Kara will focus on historiography and Mongolian literary sources. Professor Kara’s paper will share new findings pertaining to an early Mongolian loan contract; specifically, he will address issues raised by the late Professor Francis W. Cleaves in his 1955 article entitled "An Early Mongolian Loan Contract from Qara Qoto." Professor Lam will examine two episodes in the history of Tang China and Tibet as they are portrayed in a seventeenth-century Mongolian chronicle.
Finally, Dr. Alicia Campi will address the issue of Mongolia’s unique political culture, explaining the evolution of the Mongolian political identity in the twentieth century. The continuing existence of nomadic culture in today’s Mongolia suggests a strong bond with the distant past.
All five participants in this panel have benefited by association with the late Professor Cleaves, either through having studied with him or through the high standards set by his scholarship.
Envisioning the Emergence of Pastoralism and Nomadism in the Mongolian Altay: Scenes from a Distant Past
Esther Jacobson, University of Oregon
This paper offers materials from several large petroglyphic sites in the Mongolian Altay in order to document economic, social, and cultural shifts among the Bronze and early Iron Age cultures of that region in the heart of Inner Asia. Hitherto unpublished pictorial resources allow us to begin to nuance our understanding of culture and values in the transition to pastoralism in the second millennium and then to mounted semi-nomadism in the first millennium B.C.E. By considering the pictorial representations against an integrated consideration of other indicators—e.g., the location and typologies of altars, the implications offered by location and elevation of pictorial imagery, and the implications of paleoenvironmental indices—we may begin to refine the rough generalizations which have pertained to the present. We also can document in pictorial form the emergence of the heroic epic tradition in the second millennium B.C.E.
The Mongol Fragments of Qaragota in St. Petersburg
Gyorgy Kara, Indiana University
This paper will present a new evaluation of the Mongol fragments from Qaraqota as well as some corrections to Francis W. Cleaves’ classical article on a loan contract. The significance of the unpublished fragments will be highlighted and new textual interpretations offered.
Two Sino-Tibetan Royal Marriages in Sayan Sechen’s Chronicle
Yuan-Chu Ruby Lam, Wellesley College
A 17th-century Mongolian chronicle, the Qad-nu üdusün Erdeni-yin Tobci (The Bejeweled Summary of the Origin of Khans) devoted part of its content on ancient Tibet, in which the two Tang dynasty princesses’ marriage to the Tibetan rulers were included. Nevertheless, Sayan Sechen, the compiler, was applying different historiography in handling these two historical events. For Princess Wen-cheng’s episode, Sayan Sechen provided a lengthy narration, whose origin had come from a Tibetan source. His writing was meant to mystify this particular marital event, and to weave it into a Tibetan Buddhist context. This paper will study Sayan Sechen’s work by comparing it with a Tibetan text.
As for the Chinese sources on these two royal marriages, both the official dynasty histories and the legendary literature about the two princesses will also be examined.
In conclusion, this paper will try to explain why these two royal marriages were treated differently in the above-mentioned Mongolian chronicle. Moreover, a contemporary view on the legacy of these royal marriages will also be discussed.
Mongolia’s Twentieth Century of Revolution
Alicia Campi, U.S.-Mongolia Advisory Group
The paper’s focus will be on the three distinct revolutions that Mongolia has experienced in the twentieth century—all of which have formed the modern Mongolian state. Attention will be given to the 1911 revolution against the Manchu Empire which resulted in the Autonomous Government under a theocratic ruler; the 1921 communist revolution which produced a seventy-year experiment in socialism under the guidance of the Soviet Union; and the 1990 democratic revolution which has promoted the establishment of democratic and free market institutions after the collapse and dismantling of the socialist system. Special significance will be given to the impact of political events in neighboring countries and to the resilience of Mongolian nomadic culture in explaining the nature and course of the three revolutions.