One of the internationally recognised research fields of the Department of Mongolian and
Inner Asian Studies (Eötvös Loránd University) is the multilateral studies of various aspects
of Mongolian Buddhism. This topic appears already in Gábor Bálint of Szentkatolna’s
(1844‒1913) ‒ the first Hungarian Mongolist’s ‒ linguistic materials, recorded among the
Kalmyks in Astrakhan (1871) and the Mongols in Urga (1873). His materials are invaluable
sources of 19 th -century Mongolian Buddhism. The topic became one of the major academic
subjects of Louis (Lajos) Ligeti (1902‒1987), the founder of our Department and establisher
of the philological research and philology-based education of Mongolian religious, historical
and linguistic sources. We, the second and third generations of disciples, adherently follow
his traditional methodology, nevertheless try to introduce new research approaches, as in the
conference in 2019 and the present volume: i. e. the aspects of “tradition, invented tradition
and innovation”.
The theme of the third conference (2019) and the present collection of articles is a topical one
as it is closely connected to such social, political and cultural phenomena as “country
branding”, “country image”, “cultural branding”, all of them interwoven with the aspects of
tradition, innovation and invented tradition.
Previous volumes of the series
Aspects of Mongolian Buddhism 1. Past, Present and Future. Ed. Ágnes Birtalan – Krisztina
Teleki – Zsuzsa Majer – Csaba Fahidi – Attila Rákos. Budapest, L’Harmattan 2018. 474 p.
(ISBN 978-2-343-14326-2)
Aspects of Mongolian Buddhism 2. Mongolian Buddhism in Practice. Ed. Ágnes Birtalan –
Krisztina Teleki ‒ Judit Béres. Budapest, L’Harmattan 2020. 458 p. (ISBN 978-2-343-20886-
2)

Ágnes Birtalan