LIFE ALONG THE RIVER: INTERACTIONS BETWEEN HUMAN SOCIETIES AND VALLEY ENVIRONMENTS IN THE CONVERGENCE ZONE OF THE INNER ASIAN HIGHLANDS, 1600S–1950S

The convergence zone of the Inner Asian Highlands consists of the present-day parts of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces in western China. It lies at the intersection of the Himalayan, Mongolian, Loess and Yungui plateaus, where the upper Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong and Salween rivers and their tributaries flow among towering mountains and segment the region into countless long valleys.

The conference will bring together scholars to discuss the interactions between the culturally diverse inhabitants and valley habitats in the meeting place of the Inner Asian Highlands. It aims to explore how different societies in the long “corridors” between Inner Asia and China proper have adapted to, negotiated with, transformed and interpreted their environments. 

We welcome proposals for 20-minute presentations. Please send your working title and abstract of 300 words and a short bio to Marnyi Gyatso (Email: lifealongtheriver2021@gmail.com).

Due to the uncertainties with Covid-19, the conference will be held on-line from New York. There will be no registration fee.

Deadline for the Submission of Abstracts: January 31, 2021

Digital collections related to Mongolia we discovered in December, 2020:

• "Virtual Kharakhorum" The 360 degree Virtual Reality exhibition of the Ikh Mongol capital of Karakorum, with reconstructions of nine major landmarks available. This Google Maps Street View-style exhibit is populated with period costumed pedestrians, vessels, and architecture.
  

Selected scholarly articles published in December, 2020:

• Oriental: The symbolic language of shamanic songs of the Buryats of Russia and Mongolia
• ResearchSquare: Trend in temperature extreme indices over Mongolia and associated large-scale circulations
• Sustainable Development: Amalgamating the Free Market and Traditional Nomadic Society: Sustainable Economic Development for Mongolia
• Mammalian Biology: Feeding ecology of the wolf (Canis lupus) in a near-natural ecosystem in Mongolia
• Pacific Focus: Political Change and Transitional Justice in Mongolia and North Korea: Determinants of Feature and Typological Connectivity
• Journal of International Studies: Mongolia and Russia relations: documents covering 2005-2020 period
• Meena: Enhancing Economic Relations between India and Mongolia: Tasks and Opportunities
• Index on Censorship: Dying for the mother tongue: Why have people in Inner Mongolia recently taken their lives?
• Mongolian Journal of International Affairs: Declaration on the Strategic Partnership between the United States of America and Mongolia
• Brill:Promoting Inclusive Education in Mongolia

PAST EVENTS:

TRADE AND TRAUMA ALONG THE SILK ROAD - CHRISTINE LEE
Dec 8, 2020

WATCH HERE

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"THE MONGOLS IN CENTRAL EUROPE: THE PROFILE AND IMPACT OF THEIR THIRTEENTH-CENTURY INVASIONS" ONLINE CONFERENCE, EOTVOS LORAND UNIVERSITY
Nov 26-27, 2020

WATCH HERE

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77NATION PODCAST WITH JULIAN DIERKES, MONGOLIA FOCUS
Dec 11, 2020

WATCH HERE

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77NATION PODCAST WITH AUBREY MENARD, AUTHOR OF YOUNG MONGOLS

Dec 21, 2020

WATCH HERE

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"SEA FRONTIERS OF MONGOL EURASIA: PEOPLE, NARRATIVES, LEGACIES" BY DR. F. FIASCHETTI, UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA
Dec 22, 2020

READ MORE

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UPCOMING EVENTS:

"INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO THE “14TH CENTURY CRISIS”: THE VIEW FROM NORTHEAST ASIA" WITH ULI SCHAMILOGLU, NAZARBAYEV UNIVERSITY

Jan 14, 2021

SIGN UP HERE

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"TOWARDS A CLIMATE HISTORY OF THE MONGOL EMPIRE" WITH NICOLA DI COSMO, MONGOLIA AND INNER ASIA UNIT, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY

Jan 26, 2020

SIGN UP HERE

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Interesting Links -- A variety of articles and content related to Mongolia were posted during December 2020. Here are some of the more notable ones:

• Financial Times, 12/01/2020: "Rio Tinto Mongolia row worsens as US hedge fund issues legal threat"
• Phys.org, 12/01/2020: "Gers and the grid: Combatting air pollution in Mongolia"
• Xinhua, 12/01/2020: "Mongolia's Saiga antelopes population increases to 8,500"
• The Diplomat, 12/03/2020: "How Changing US Administrations Shape Mongolia-US Relations"
• The Globe and the Mail, 12/03/2020: "Genghis Khan’s memory is erased from view as China cracks down on Mongolian culture"
• CNBCTV8, 12/03/2020: "India, Mongolia review developmental projects, discuss cooperation in combating COVID-19"
• The Diplomat, 12/08/2020: "Mongolia Grapples With Its First Real COVID Wave"
• Ukrinform, 12/09/2020: "Ukraine, Mongolia to hold number of high-level bilateral events"
• Nikkei Asia, 12/16/2020: "Mongolia loses battle to stay COVID-free"
• Japan Times, 12/16/2020: "Flipping the script: China school reforms spark Mongolian writing revival"
• Yahoo! India News, 12/28/2020: "Poland to open embassy in Ulan Bator"

Sources of Mongolian Buddhism, edited by Vesna Wallace: 544 pages; $150 (Oxford University Press, 2020)

Despite Mongolia's centrality to East Asian history and culture, Mongols themselves have often been seen as passive subjects on the edge of the Qing formation or as obedient followers of so-called "Tibetan Buddhism," peripheral to major literary, religious, and political developments. But in fact Mongolian Buddhists produced multi-lingual and genre-bending scholastic and ritual works that profoundly shaped historical consciousness, community identification, religious knowledge, and practices in Mongolian lands and beyond.

In Sources of Mongolian Buddhism, a team of leading Mongolian scholars and authors have compiled a collection of original Mongolian Buddhist works--including ritual texts, poetic prayers and eulogies, legends, inscriptions, and poems--for the first time in any European language.

Vesna A. Wallace is Professor of South Asian Religions and Inner Asian Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California in Santa Barbara. She has authored and translated four books on Indian Buddhism. Her most recent book is an edited volume on Mongolian Buddhism titled Buddhism in Mongolian Culture, History, and Society.

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A Monastery on the Move: Art and Politics in Later Buddhist Mongolia by Uranchimeg Tsultemin: 304 pages; $72 (University of Hawaii Press, 2020)

Based on little-known works of Mongolian Buddhist art and architecture, A Monastery on the Move presents the intricate and colorful history of Ikh Khüree and of Zanabazar, himself an eminent artist. Author Uranchimeg Tsultemin makes the case for a multifaceted understanding of Mongol agency during the Géluk’s political ascendancy and the Qing appropriation of the Mongol concept of dual rulership (shashin tör) as the nominal “Buddhist Government.” In rich conversation with heretofore unpublished textual, archeological, and archival sources (including ritualized oral histories), Uranchimeg argues that the Qing emperors’ “Buddhist Government” was distinctly different from the Mongol vision of sovereignty, which held Zanabazar and his succeeding Jebtsundampa reincarnates to be Mongolia’s rightful rulers. This vision culminated in their independence from the Qing and the establishment of the Jebtsundampa’s theocractic government in 1911. A groundbreaking work, A Monastery on the Move provides a fascinating, in-depth analysis and interpretation of Mongolian Buddhist art and its role in shaping borders and shifting powers in Inner Asia.

Uranchimeg Tsultemin is Edgar and Dorothy Fehnel Chair of International Studies at the Herron School of Art and Design, Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis (IUPUI).

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Batu, Khan of the Golden Horde: The Mongol Khans Conquer Russia by Diane Wolff: 178 pages; $19.99 (Genghis Productions, 2020)

This is the lost story of Batu Khan, a true nomad prince and the grandson of Chinggis Khan. 

Batu Khan distinguished himself in battle with the greatest strategist of the Mongol Army, the great General Subudei, by his side. Together they were victorious in the Russian Campaign and went on to invade Europe.

Very little is understood about the Mongol conquest of Russia. Because it was the furthest west that the Mongol Army had conquered, Russia became the attack wing of the Empire. 

Yet the Mongol Empire was as much about trade as it was about war. The roads that spanned the continents were opened for the first time since antiquity. Russia was located on the trade routes of the Silk Road and became the hub of trade between China and Europe. 

Batu could have become the ruler, but he had no intention of moving into the civilized world to become Supreme Khan. He liked growing rich from trade on the Silk Road. 

In a brilliant coup d'etat, planned with the most extraordinary woman of her time, the Princess Sorghagtani, Batu did not become the king, but instead became the kingmaker. This changed the course of European history. This is the story of his life and times..

Diane is a Florida born-and-raised author/scholar. In 2010, she published Tibet Unconquered, with an introduction by Robert Thurman, the foremost scholar in the U. S. on Tibetan Buddhism. In February of 2018, Diane did a reading from her book Civilizing the Khan: The Man Who Saved China at the 12th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL MONGOLIAN STUDIES CONFERENCE, sponsored by the Mongolian Cultural Center, at the Embassy of Mongolia in Washington, D. C.

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Along the Silk Roads in Mongol Eurasia: Generals, Merchants, Intellectuals, by Michal Biran (Ed.), Jonathan Brack (Ed.), Francesca Fiaschetti (Ed.); 360 pages; $29.95 (University of California Press, 2020)

During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Chinggis Khan and his heirs established the largest contiguous empire in the history of the world, extending from Korea to Hungary and from Iraq, Tibet, and Burma to Siberia. Ruling over roughly two thirds of the Old World, the Mongol Empire enabled people, ideas, and objects to traverse immense geographical and cultural boundaries. Along the Silk Roads in Mongol Eurasia reveals the individual stories of three key groups of people—military commanders, merchants, and intellectuals—from across Eurasia. These annotated biographies bring to the fore a compelling picture of the Mongol Empire from a wide range of historical sources in multiple languages, providing important insights into a period unique for its rapid and far-reaching transformations.

Read together or separately, they offer the perfect starting point for any discussion of the Mongol Empire’s impact on China, the Muslim world, and the West and illustrate the scale, diversity, and creativity of the cross-cultural exchange along the continental and maritime Silk Roads.

Michal Biran teaches Inner Asian, Chinese, and Islamic history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Jonathan Brack teaches Middle East Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Francesca Fiaschetti teaches Inner and East Asian History at the University of Vienna.

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Subjective Lives and Economic Transformations in Mongolia, by Rebecca M. Empson; 178 pages; £20 (UCL Press, 2020)

Almost 10 years ago the mineral-rich country of Mongolia experienced very rapid economic growth, fuelled by China’s need for coal and copper. New subjects, buildings, and businesses flourished, and future dreams were imagined and hoped for. This period of growth is, however, now over. Mongolia is instead facing high levels of public and private debt, conflicts over land and sovereignty, and a changed political climate that threatens its fragile democratic institutions.

Subjective Lives and Economic Transformations in Mongolia details this complex story through the intimate lives of five women. Building on long-term friendships, which span over 20 years, Rebecca documents their personal journeys in an ever-shifting landscape. She reveals how these women use experiences of living a ‘life in the gap’ to survive the hard reality between desired outcomes and their actual daily lives. In doing so, she offers a completely different picture from that presented by economists and statisticians of what it is like to live in this fluctuating extractive economy.

Rebecca M. Empson is Professor of Anthropology at UCL. Alongside teaching in the Department of Anthropology, her research has focused on personhood, ownership, memory and material culture (Harnessing Fortune, 2011), and forms of temporary possession in the global economy (Cultural Anthropology, 2019).

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Politics and Literature in Mongolia (1921-1948), by Simon Wickhamsmith; 360 pages; €115 (Amsterdam University Press, 2020)

This study investigates the relationship between literature and politics during Mongolia's early revolutionary period. Between the 1921 socialist revolution and the first Writers' Congress, held in April 1948, the literary community constituted a key resource in the formation and implementation of policy. At the same time, debates within the party, discontent among the population, and questions of religion and tradition led to personal and ideological conflict among the intelligentsia and, in many cases, to trials and executions. Using primary texts, many of them translated into English for the first time, Simon Wickhamsmith shows the role played by the literary arts - poetry, fiction and drama - in the complex development of the "new society," helping to bring Mongolia's nomadic herding population into the utopia of equality, industrial progress and social well-being promised by the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party.

Simon Wickhamsmith is a scholar and translator of modern Mongolian literature. He teaches in the Writing Program and the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at Rutgers University.