Buddhist Monasteries in Southern Mongolia

Isabelle Charleux (1)

1 GSRL - Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités

At the beginning of the twentieth century, more than a thousand Buddhist monasteries of Tibeto-Mongol tradition were active in Southern Mongolia, now the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region in China. A century later, less than two hundred have survived. If we can only regret the massive destruction, the spared buildings still constitute a significant part of an important architectural tradition that began in the late sixteenth century.
The architectural eclecticism of the monasteries shows a blending of various influences and an adaptation of pan-asiatic Tibetan and Chinese models to the local Mongolian communities.
This original, remarkably varied and innovative architectural tradition deserves to be studied not only as the cultural heritage of a nomadic people but also for its importance in the history of Far Eastern Buddhist architecture.

Mots clés: Inner Mongolia; monastery; architecture; bouddhism; Mongolia

Mots clés: Mongolie; Mongolie-Intérieure; monastère; bouddhisme

Domaines: Art et histoire de l'art

Isabelle Charleux. Buddhist Monasteries in Southern Mongolia. Pierre Pichard & François Lagirarde. The Buddhist Monastery. A cross-cultural Survey, Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient, 2003, pp.351-390, 2003. ⟨halshs-00409747⟩