Religion in a former socialist state

A monk at the oldest Buddhist monastery in Mongolia, from here.

One of the things that Genghis Khan was famous for while he was conquering the world was his religious tolerance, believe it or not. He allowed all sorts of religions to be practiced in his territory, and though a shamanist he was very interested in Daoism. Eventually Buddhism would become the major religion of Mongols.

But Mongolia was led by communists from 1911-1991. And it was not immune to the atheism and religious purging that occurs with communist leadership. Much religious culture was destroyed along with most temples, and many monks were killed. Religion completely disappeared from public view in Mongolia.

And then a funny thing happened.

There was a peaceful transition to a democratic government.

And all of a sudden monasteries were restored. Monks became a part of daily life again, rural people practiced Shamanism, and the Kazakhs of the west practiced Islam again. There was very little drama regarding the reinstatement of religion.

There are still aftereffects, though. The World Factbook estimates that 38% of the population claims no religion, while 53% are Buddhist, 3% are Muslim, 3% Shaman, and 2% Christian.

Next time we'll discuss ethnicity in Mongolia. Did you know that according to a 2003 study as much as .5% of the world's male population is directly descended from Genghis Khan?