Buddhist Rock Art in Mongolia

The predominant religion in Mongolia up until the communists takeover in the 1920's was Buddhism; more specifically, the Tibetan style of Tantric Buddhism. Since the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990's Buddhism has reemerged as the dominant religion once again.

The Yellow Sect of Tibetan Buddhism began to take hold in Mongolia during the late 1500's under the patronage of Altan Khan and his successors. He is the one who granted the Dailai Lama his title. Prior to Buddhism most Mongolians were followers of native shamanism and there are a great number of shamanistic influences in Mongolian Buddhism and Mongolian culture in general.

The communist government shut down most monasteries and exiled or killed the Buddhist monks during its rule from 1921 through 1992. We visited two of these monasteries during our visit. The first is a small temple in Gorkhi Terelj National Park up the valley from Turtle Rock. The second is the huge temple complex of Manzushir Monastery (which I am fairly certain is named after the Boddhisattva Manjusri) that was completely destroyed during the communist era and which has had only one building rebuilt. The ruins of several of the old building remain.

At both places we saw examples of Buddhist rock art that had survived from earlier eras.

Inscription in the old Mongolian alphabet, in Gorkhi Terelj National Park

Large Painted Rock Panel above the Ruins of Manzushir Monastery

Detail of the Bottom Image

Detail of the two left side images
Detail of the top image

Detail of the top right image

Detail of the far right image

Second shrine above the ruins of Manzushir

Derail of the image's face

Third shrine above Manzushir

Image of a wise old man inside the shrine

Detail of the image's face