Mongolia country info

HISTORY
History of the warriors started 750 years ago, which has been divided into 8 distinct eras by Mongolian historians:
1. Clan Structure: This generation covers the time of from when the first men lived on the current land of the Mongols until the 3rd Century BC.
2. Ancient Empires of the Mongols: The First Mongol and the first nomadic empire of Khunnu was established 209 BC on the vast lands of Central Asia for the first time and continues up to the 13th Century AD.
3. Great Mongolian Empire and Mongol Empire: 13th & 14th Century
4. Political Splitting of the Empire: 15th Century to the 17th Century
5. Colony of Manchu Qing: 18th & 19th Century
6. The Authonomy of Mongolia: 1911-1919
7. The Communist Revolution and the communist regime: 1921-1990
8. Democratic Revolution and the Democratic political system: 1990 to the present

RELIGION
At present, Mongolia's main religion is Buddism, with 90% of the population ascribing to it. The remainder are Muslims, Shamanists and Christians. Mongolia's first religion was shamanism, which arose during the Clan structure era. At that time it was simple, just magic. According to archeological findings, about 100000-40000 years ago, the people who lived on the land of today's Mongolia had this religion. On the ancient earth, every clan had a belief about their origin in that they were descended from an animal or a plant, termed tutelary genius. The Mongols of the time honoured both deer and wolf.

Shamanism
The clans who lived on the land of today's Mongolia had a class society. The clan structure people believed that there was an external force of nature and they believed that they were poor and weak compared to it. So they worshipped the force, and became the basis of Shamanism. According to Shamanism, there are 99 heavens, 55 of which are the heavens of the west and have a good influence on human beings, and the remaining 44 are the heavens of the east which were considered bad. The Mongols worship the good 55 heavens once a year by worshipping a sacred mountain or an -ovoo'. During the ceremony of ovoo worship, shamans offer fire and food to the spirits of the mountains and the waters. And once a year shamans perform a special deed to abuse the bad heavens. According to Shamanism, after someone's death, his spirit goes to the heavens and his body stays under the ground. Today there are number of ethnic groups who are Shamanists, who live in the north western part of the country.

Buddhism
People say that Buddhism first came to Mongolia 3rd cenruty BC, but historical resources date its arrival in Modun Shanyu's reign 209-171 BC. since then, over 2000 years, Buddhism has been developing in Mongolia. By 1937, there were over 700 active monasteries in the country but as a consequence of the communist purges only 5 of them have survived. After the democratic revolution of 1990, reconstruction of many monasteries has taken place.