Tibetan Buddhism and the Cult of Genghis Khan as Civilizational Factors in Mongolian Politics and the Russian Mongolian Intercivilizational Dialogue
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25178/nit.2026.1.24Keywords:
Mongolia, civilizational political science, Mongolian civilization, post-secularity, Buddhism of Mongolia, cult of Genghis Khan, confessional factorAbstract
The article presents a comparative study of the little-explored aspects of the influence of the confessional factor on the domestic and foreign policy of Mongolia, on the development of intercivilizational and interstate dialogue with Russia. The theoretical and methodological basis of the work is the multiparadigmatic approach of civilizational political science, which develops the toolkit of the founders of the civilizational approach (A. Toynbee, O. Spengler, N. Ya. Danilevsky).
An assessment is given of the confessional factor in both the civilizational and political processes of contemporary Mongolia. Its role in the development of the Russian Mongolian dialogue is shown, as well as its connection with Tibetan Buddhism, which is the dominant religious trend in contemporary Mongolia. The study examines how the confessional substratum is embedded in the civilizational identity of the Mongols and how it influences the course of Russian Mongolian intercivilizational interaction.
The authors conclude that Buddhism, shamanism, and the cult of Genghis Khan shape the multifaceted confessional substratum of contemporary Mongolian civilization. It is an important factor not only in the civilizational identity of contemporary Mongols and ethnoculturally related peoples, but also in the policy of the contemporary Mongolian state, both domestic and foreign.
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Author Biographies
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Aleksandr S. Zheleznyakov Institute of Sociology, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences; Institute of China and Contemporary Asia, Russian Academy of Sciences
Doctor of Political Sciences, Chief Research Fellow, Head, Center for Civilizational and Comparative Political Studies, Institute of Sociology, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences;
Chief Research Fellow, Head, Mongolian Studies Section, Institute of China and Contemporary Asia, Russian Academy of Sciences.
Postal address: 24/35, bldg. 5, Krzhizhanovskogo St., Moscow, 117218, Russia; 32, Nakhimovskiy Av., Moscow, 117997, Russia.
Email: zhelezniakovas@yahoo.com
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Svyatoslav V. Nikiforov Institute of Sociology, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences; Institute of China and Contemporary Asia, Russian Academy of Sciences
Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Candidate of Law Sciences, Senior Research Fellow, Academic Secretary, Center for Civilizational and Comparative Political Studies, Institute of Sociology, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences;
Senior Research Fellow, Mongolian Studies Section, Institute of China and Contemporary Asia, Russian Academy of Sciences.
Postal address: 24/35, bldg. 5, Krzhizhanovskogo St., Moscow, 117218, Russia; 32, Nakhimovskiy Av., Moscow, 117997, Russia.
Email: ursus-arktos@yandex.ru
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