Analyzing the Cultural and Historical Significance of Mongolia in Relation to Its Socio-Political Context: Future Recommendations and Studies

1. Introduction

The interplay between culture and history plays a significant role in the overall prosperity and development of a nation. Mongolia, a nation steeped in rich cultural and historical heritage, strives to preserve and promote its culture through various means, especially in the arts and academic research. The goal of this research project is to address and analyze the essence of Mongolian culture in relation to its historical relevance, socio-political significance, future recommendations, and further analysis of impacting factors. Culturally, Mongolia is significantly affected by geographical proximity. While factors such as ethnicity, layered history, social, and economic development tend to be similar for most nations sharing borders, Mongolia's uniqueness stands out through its incredible preservation of culture and ethnicity, notwithstanding century-long conflicts and occupations. The neighboring nations have undergone significant alterations throughout history, leading to the erasure of native identities, cultures, and practices. These nations have left a wide trail of impacts on Mongolia, exposing it to the threats of socialism and westernization. While Mongolia has been politically free for over three decades, the threat of losing its identity persists. Longstanding efforts to promote, study, and analyze Mongolian culture have demonstrated how significantly its essence is affected by socio-political factors. The research project begins with a brief overview of Mongolia's geographical, social, and economic settings, followed by cultural definitions and a historical view of Mongolian culture. Then, the focus shifts to the socio-political depiction and analysis of the context. Finally, based on observations and analytical exploration, opinions are voiced on future recommendations and further study analysis.

2. Historical Background of Mongolia

Mongolia, a landlocked nation in East Asia bordered by China and Russia, possesses a rich history and culture that dates back millennia. After the Ice Age, Central Asian steppes became populated by nomadic tribes, ancestors of modern Mongols. In the 13th century, these tribes united under the leadership of Genghis Khan, forming the Mongol Empire, which, at its height, became the largest contiguous empire in history. The Mongols created a sophisticated centralized government, promoted trade and cultural exchange along the Silk Roads, and established one of the world’s earliest written laws. However, the empire began to fragment shortly after Genghis Khan's death in 1227, splitting into several khanates. As the leading power of the empire, the Golden Horde controlled most of Europe and Russia, while Ukraine and Crimea also came under Mongol dominion. (Fan, 2021)

Becoming a tributary of the Mongol Empire in 1280, China faced brutal invasions that shattered the economy and attracted resistance. Zhu Yuanzhang, a former Buddhist monk, rebelled against the Yuan in 1368, rallying peasants to his cause. The Mongols fled north and regrouped under the Northern Yuan dynasty. Meanwhile, China entered the Ming dynasty, which forbade trade with Mongolia, resulting in increasing poverty. Many Mongolian princely houses, seeking to maintain power and wealth, converted to Buddhism and adopted Chinese customs. However, the Chinggisid princes resisted, preferring closer ties with the Qing dynasty in Manchuria. After a decade of wars and attempts to convert Mongolia to Manchu customs, the Khalkha ultimately submitted to the Qing in 1691, resulting in Mongolia entering a tributary relationship with China for two centuries. (Wang & Tian, 2022)

In the mid-19th century, Russian expansion and the Treaty of Aigun pressured China to cede the Amur Basin and the Maritime Provinces. Mongolia became a protectorate of Russia, while St. Petersburg recognized China's suzerainty over Outer Mongolia. A 1911 revolution ended 200 years of Qing rule, prompting the declaration of independence by the Bogd Khan, who ruled despite Soviet intervention. However, the rivalry between Russia and China continued until China conceded all claims to Mongolia with the Sino-Soviet Agreement. Mongolia remained an isolated and impoverished nation under socialist rule until 1990 when peaceful reforms turned the state into a multi-party democracy. Since independence, Mongolia has maintained a delicate balance between two neighboring giants, Russia and China. The newly emerging geopolitics in Northeast Asia and the changing global environment will play a significant role in shaping the future of Mongolia in many aspects. (Yigit, 2020)(Zhu, 2020)

2.1. Ancient Civilizations and Nomadic Tribes

Mongolia, a landlocked country in East Asia, has a rich cultural heritage that is often overlooked in other parts of the world. Much of Mongolia's culture traces back to its ancient civilization. Ancient Mongolia, known as the Mongol Xiongnu Empire, was the first state of Mongolia. The Mongol Xiongnu Empire was a nomadic empire founded by a tribal confederation of the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu or the Mongol origin is a very hotly contested area, with research rising significantly among historians. Such debate in part relates to the central question of Mongol identity. Under King Modun, the empire reached its zenith circa 200 BC, stretching from modern Mongolia into Xinjiang, northern China, to the Russian Lake Baikal area and east to the Korean peninsula. The empire fell into decline circa 100 BC. (Miller, 2024)

In the 1st century AD, the Xiongnu split into western and eastern factions, with the latter gradually losing its territory to an aggressive Han dynasty expansion and finally dissolving in 91 AD. The Western Xiongnu tried to maintain resistance until the 5th century, when they were eventually defeated by the Wei kingdom.

Nomadic tribes have been an integral part of life in Mongolia since ancient times. Nomadic tribes called the Huns in Western Europe and the Turkish people in Central Asia successfully coexisted with the Mongolian nomads for more than 2000 years, and some of them founded dynasties and empires. The most magnificent was the Mongolian Empire founded in the 13th century AD, which controlled the Asian continent almost certainly after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Many of these tribes migrated to new territories for good pasture and increased their population by assimilating local ethnic groups. For instance, when Genghis Khan went to war in the early 13th century against the Tatar-Mongol Union at Karakorum, Mongolia had a population of more than 1 million. There were also Huns, Khiad, and Uru'ud tribes assisting Genghis Khan on military expeditions. Cities and towns built by the Mongols in Khuvaire, Bukhara, Samarkand, and other places have been preserved. Among the great religious legends and mythologies are the stories of the worship of local gods and the ancient belief systems of Shamanism, Turanianism, and paganism. The Mongol nation, as a combination of genetic strains, is now more than 4000 years old. (Koshymova & Mensitova2022)(Tugjamba et al., 2021)

3. Cultural Heritage of Mongolia

The cultural heritage of Mongolia includes art, music, applied, performing, and visual arts. With a history of nomadic civilization that spanned from the prehistoric period to the Middle Ages, Mongolia has a culture of lifestyle and world outlook reflecting man-and-nature harmony due to the impact of darkhads and shamanism. The initial creative arts of the Mongolian people are bronze sculptures representing the image of the world mother: Madonna of a deer, sheep, goat, horse, camel, and cow, first seen in the 17th-18th centuries. Mongolian art is characterized by decorative national symbols such as the sun, mother earth, dragon, elk, camel, deer, horse face, bow, and arrow. Fragments of a horse face and bow are filmed on the walls of the Xiongnu king’s tomb from the first centuries A.D. found in Inner Mongolia. Since the peace period under the Kangxi reign in the Chinggis Khaan period, Mongolian nationality has developed its applied arts. Mongols widely use colored Baikal matter holes, ornaments, and patterns with harmony, creating decorative arts such as textiles, precious stones, non-ferrous metals, trunks, tents, promotional hunting traps, and horse tack. Decorated gers, swords, saddles, bridles, stirrups, lariats, and traps of deer and sable are unique on their own. The Gold Plate of the Khaan period, holders of golden knives decorated with Sassanian knot and beast style, and two million garnets were found in Mongolia from the Golden period of Buddhism culture, the 1st century A.D. to the 13th century. Mongolian traditional arts and crafts include arts and crafts applied for living and lifestyle such as tents, harnesses, saddlery, utensils, weaponry, cattle bones, wood, leather, textiles, ornaments, gers, household utensils, everyday garments, embroidered woolen garments, and knitted cotton. Mongolian arts and crafts have been characterized by durability and perfection and are valuable for their utility efficiency, durability, economy, and art. Mongolian traditional arts and crafts are built upon labor and are aesthetic expressions of national mythology, life stories, and national symbols. Mongolian trans-cultural goods are actively sold to foreign archives, displayed by sewing cultural committees and endowments, in annual state trade rooms, and non-governmental and cultural resources are attracted. Mongolian arts and crafts have been utilized in mega shows and media, actively streamed on social networking sites, learning platforms, and earners, but high-quality production has not developed. The Mongolian cashmere industry and cashmere products have shrunk worldwide, and counterfeit national arts and crafts produced abroad across borders are dramatically increasing. (Shiqing2020)

3.1. Traditional Arts and Crafts

Mongolian culture consists of a wide array of ancient arts and crafts that have been passed down from generations and are representative of nomadic traditions like leatherworking (bags, boots, saddles), textile working (hats, belts), woodworking (ladders, bowls, tables), metalworking (knives, horseshoes), stone working (whetstones), felting (gers and carpets), painting (bannermen/door gods), carving (wooden spoons), and so on. Nomadic works are ingeniously crafted to be very light and handy; able to fold and make more space on horseback; easily repairable with local resources; with form suited to function. Such wisdom and liveliness of tradition also exist in settled traditions but have faded in their grasp of nomadic practices. There also exist artistic traditions that create ornamental works from local materials like wood, stone, copper, leather, wool, and felt. But these practices are more individually focused and are practiced at private family workshops; hence, there is no segregation between handicraft and handiwork. All the products are considered priceless pieces of art by the makers, with labor and materials put into the final products determining their monetary value. (Altangerel, 2020)

In Mongolia, to date, there are around 900 traditional crafts and about 200 traditional artists/specialists. Up until the mid-90s, Mongolian culture was heavily influenced by the Soviet Union, but since then it has revived its own spirit and grasp of culture, thus attempting to re-establish and revive its ancient traditions, works, and forms. The first step was to institutionalize the cultural works. Hence, the Ministry of Culture set up a cultural preserving institute. Then, categorizing the works, it undertakes research, seminars, and studies on the most endangered works, traditions, and forms. Listed works are covered under law and receive the state’s attention. Annual exhibitions showcase the ICH every summer, and auctions of the showcased items happen once every two years. Some of the auctioned items were sold for more than 7 million tugriks. (Dunlop, 2023)(Kenoyer et al.2022)

4. Socio-Political Context of Mongolia

With geographic positioning between Russia and China, Mongolia has acquired unique political attributes and interactions with its neighboring entities. Mongolia commenced a politically adventurous period after the 1990 peaceful revolution, transitioning to a multi-party political system. Mongolia, a presidentially led nation with a democratically elected parliamentary charter, features a five-member national security council overseeing military defense and law enforcement. Formed in 1992, the Parliament enacts laws and chooses national priorities. Mongolian political dynamics manifest through overarching party competition predicated on factions, prominent leaders, and power accessibility, framed within a pre-civilizational discourse heavily impacted by systemic transformations. Mongolia has amassed over thirty years of exposure to democracy. The nation boldly wrested independence from high-power China, only for a devastating decade of famine, economic collapse, and political unrest to befall the democratic opening period. After a peaceful transition to democracy during 1990–1992, the nation embarked upon a tumultuous era defined by political chaos, partisan shifts, personalistic and neo-patrimonial politics, public malaise, and reform stagnation. Nevertheless, Mongolia has largely stabilized since the late 1990s. Mongolia has persevered through adversities and singular biases since its early modernity, necessitating continuous adaptation to environmental change in order to survive and prevail in a politically cost-effective manner. Commencing in 1985, Mongolia experienced major systemic transitions in politics, economy, culture, and society that prevailed over a period of approximately twenty years. Mongolia’s political transition fundamentally changed political norms, structures, and processes. Mongolia drew internationally endorsed reform projects incorporating democracy and a market economy, enabling wide accessibility to readily applicable templates and models. Nevertheless, applying externally constructed templates kept Mongolia's political transition discourse and scientific knowledge very narrow, despite being notionally free of 'narrow-mindedness.' Mongolia’s accord with the Russian periphery influenced by Eastern Bloc reform patterns, prescribed centralized planning and exotic architecture with cultural imperialism. Dominant political narratives originating from Mongolian minds persisted within a pre-civilizational discourse framework, necessitating continuous externally oriented adaptation and incapacity for transparent self-reflection of processes, norms, and reforms adhering to democracy. Mongolian tenacity in retaining a national commensurable and self-evolving political order, the 1990 peaceful revolution-disabled historic fallacy discourse, limited global imagination capacity, decidedly local political variables, and ruled-out bifurcations conduced to political incidents and inadvertent closure scenarios. The monumental and singular transition from 70 years of a tightly knit political system to a democratic political order renders Mongolia’s prehistory, peasantness, and singular biases. (Nylander, 2023)

4.1. Government Structure and Political Landscape

Mongolia is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, where the President of Mongolia is the head of state and the Prime Minister is the head of government. Mongolia is the second-largest landlocked country in the world after Kazakhstan. It has a population of over 3.4 million and covers an area of 1,564,116 square kilometers. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. The capital and largest city is Ulaanbaatar, which is home to about 46% of the population. By the 1920s, Mongolia was under communist rule, as Soviet support helped Mongolia establish a republic. The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) led the country until democratic reforms culminated in a peaceful transition of power in 1990. (Sumaadii & Wu, 2022)

The Parliament of Mongolia is called the State Great Khural and consists of 76 members who are elected for four-year terms. Mongolia is administratively divided into 21 aimags and the capital city, which were formerly divided into Mongolia's six provinces. The Constitution of Mongolia was adopted in 1992 and is the fundamental law of the state. It enshrines the political, economic, and social foundations of Mongolia and establishes the organization, powers, and procedures of state bodies. The Constitution of Mongolia consists of 7 chapters and 69 articles. The President is elected for a four-year term and is restricted to two consecutive terms. The state officially recognizes some foreign languages as the most widely spoken languages in Mongolia. The Constitution of Mongolia guarantees the rights of citizens, such as freedom of speech, assembly, association, religion, the right to a family, and the right to happiness and privacy, while providing mechanisms to protect such rights. (Bat-Erdene, 2023)

The current political landscape in Mongolia is characterized by a multi-party system, where multiple political parties have the ability to gain power. Following the 1990 democratic revolution, Mongolia adopted a new parliamentary system of government. In the first democratic elections held in 1992, the People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP) won 50 out of 76 seats in parliament. The Democratic Party (DP) won only 18 seats. In 2008, the MPRP suffered separate defeats in the presidential elections. The DP gained 39 seats, while the MPRP dropped to 27 seats.

Following the 2012 elections, Mongolia’s political landscape changed radically. Both the MPRP and the DP lost power to the new Coalition of Democratic Forces. In protest against the coalition government, 12 parliamentary members from the MPRP left the party and established the National Democratic Party (NDP). This intimidation of the MPRP was nicknamed “the Ulaanbaatar Group.” The group blamed the MPRP for political crimes committed against the people in 1980–1990. The DP won the 2016 parliamentary elections and formed a government led by Prime Minister Jargaltulgyn Erdenebat.

5. Challenges and Opportunities for Mongolia

Mongolia faces numerous challenges and opportunities, the majority of which are intertwined within its economy, social life, and political context. On the one hand, rapid urbanization, driven by a booming mining sector focused primarily on coal and copper backed by foreign investments, presents challenges for conducting technical research, as cities become more imbalanced economically and socially. While the country’s capital is developing with new infrastructure and expansion projects, the countryside suffers from a lack of accessible medical services, education, high unemployment rates, and mass migration. On the other hand, Mongolia’s mid-income status enables access to concessional loans, presenting an opportunity to tackle the pressing issues in metropolitan centers, cities, and towns. (Helble et al., 2020)

In this context, significant economic and social disparities exist between the nomadic shepherds and urban inhabitants. The proportion of employment income of the wealthiest 15% of Mongolians is 60 times that of the lowest 15% segment. The top 10% of wealthiest nomads and the largest livestock-holding citizens, which constitute around 2% of the population, mainly lead the multi-cultural, multi-national, multi-business structure of the growing urban economy, while the expanding middle-income class, involving private business and urban citizens with degree-educated backgrounds, mainly invest in construction and real estate. As a result, the growth of a middle-income and industrialized urban economy entails widespread poverty, implying urgent requirements for conducting research in both the private and public sectors. (KAŞIKCI et al.2021)(Kaşıkçı et al., 2021)

Urbanization has a geographical presence and diverse socio-demographic, income, and occupational factors. In Ulaanbaatar, the capital city, rural-to-urban migration greatly affects the transformation from agricultural to non-agricultural settlement. This type of migration is mostly driven by severe winter conditions, extreme poverty, and access to education and employment. Women and unskilled labor are the majority in this process, which often results in various social problems, such as poverty, child labor, and social degradation of migrating and receiving families. Mongolian cities and towns, which survived collectivization and industrialization in a planned economy, have similarities and diversities in geographical location, population, and economic structure. However, the presence of unpredictable natural disasters, droughts, and political coups has forced many cities and towns to resort to economic depression and stagnation after the 1990s. Currently, the rapid development of the mining sector's knock-on effect on industrialization, agriculture, services, and business expansion to neighboring rural settlements is widening the development gap between Mongolia’s capital and its countryside. (Tarne et al.)

5.1. Economic Development and Sustainability

Currently, Mongolia is at a historic crossroads, with tantalizing economic promises on one hand and new challenges to its tradition and way of life on the other. If it is successful in meeting the latter, it may avoid the common pitfalls of resource-rich developing nations; if it fails, foreign interests may drain the land of its riches while its citizens grow poorer. Its size and unique geography present economic and political challenges that must be surmounted for Mongolia to find its niche in the wider world.

Mongolia is rich in resources, a product of some of the hottest geological upheaval, flowing trade routes, and volcanic oxidation around 350-400 million years ago. Mongolia is located at a geographic crossroads, bordered by China to the south, east, and west, and Russia to the north. This gives it unique advantages such as access to the expanding markets of Northeast China and a secondary path into the growing economy of greater Russia. However, Mongolia has the disadvantage of being landlocked, isolated from traditional northern trade routes through the railway choke point of the Selenge-Gobi Inlet. (Pieper, 2021)

Mongolia also presents great opportunities for niche development. The relative remoteness from other economic centers affords Mongolia a combination of privilege and responsibility, shielding it from the more violent global economic and political flux, while requiring it to develop its own independent identity and economic viability. Beyond mining, Mongolia's resource wealth includes sparsely populated air, silence, clean air and water, natural biodiversity, and renewable energy such as wind and solar. This permits diversified niche opportunities such as ecotourism, logging-free wood, organic agriculture, and clean energy production for export. Though nascent, there are already market and public-private funding opportunities that should be aggressively pursued.

6. Future Recommendations and Studies

Future recommendations revolve around multiple issues that require further study. To begin with, the Mongolian revolution and its patent implications need further examination. Naturally, this necessitates the application of different models of study. The study of international relations theory in conjunction with a specific model is a viable approach, as the theoretical framework helps to explore and explain the macro level, while the model allows for the investigation of deep-seated social and cultural experiences. The model recognizes the fundamental dichotomy of the individual-nature relation by emphasizing that every relationship is determined by the unique nature of that individual and by the aspects of nature, which is significant enough to shape their experience with the world. Its basic significance structures sociocultural transactions in various kinds of practices including the social, political, educational, economic, and scientific. As to Mongolian basic significance, there are two characteristics to be examined: (1) the individual as the pinnacle of value (individualism free of social responsibility), and (2) the ever-revolving swirling universe (the dynamic and holistic view on social and cultural institutions). With the modeling of basic significance, it is possible to evaluate and explore Mongolia’s philosophy of democracy, development, and even natural resources that have brought other nations to financial ruin, societal collapse, and political turmoil.

Another concern is how the cultural and philosophical implications of its nomadic identity would be prevented from being swallowed up by the sociocultural, political, economic, and technological forces associated with the higher plane of consciousness. Such an issue needs the cumulative efforts of scholars from various disciplines ranging from anthropology, philosophy, cultural studies, political science, to history. The overall goal is to comprehend what Mongolian positive assets and historical liabilities are from the viewpoint of different combinations of logics and modes of representation. In so doing, multidimensional alternatives to the knob of consciousness, development, and democratization may be anticipated. The overall intention is to maximize Mongolian cultural and historical significance, thus producing a healthy and wholesome body politic, society, and culture.

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