Mongolian Buddhism is an important historical and cultural phenomenon that is inseparable
from Mongolian identity, and many aspects of “Mongolness” cannot be understood without
knowing the Buddhist practice in detail in both diachronic and synchronic perspectives.
The Buddhist religious practice embraces a variegated spectrum of forms, starting with the
monastic practice up to the everyday rituals, prayers, mantras repeated by believers. The
incorporating nature of Buddhism produced many local variants, and the Pre-Buddhist belief
system changed the original religious views considerably. The Mongolian areal variants
include many territorial and ethnic-specific elements of religious systems surviving in the
Buddhist rituals creating new and unique traditions.
The second volume of the series Aspects of Mongolian Buddhism follows in many respects
the features of the first volume: Aspects of Mongolian Buddhism 1. Past, Present and Future.
Ed. Birtalan, Ágnes – Teleki, Krisztina – Majer, Zsuzsa – Fahidi, Csaba – Rákos, Attila.
Budapest, L’Harmattan 2018. 474 p. (ISBN 978-2-343-14326-2). In the present publication
we offer a series of articles dedicated to textual tradition, rituals, holy masters, the historical
and political role of Buddhism among the Mongols, etc. Besides, the readers can get an
insight into the methodological framework of various institutes, and independent scholars
studying these fields.

Ágnes Birtalan