Mongolia

The Central Asian region of Mongolia has had a diverse and significant religious history. From the [Page 819]formation of the Mongol state in the 13th century until the second conversion of the Mongols to Tibetan Buddhism in the latter part of the 16th century, the religious landscape of Mongolian territories was characterized by religious pluralism, which resulted from the Mongols’ contact with other cultures through their military campaigns, diplomatic relations, and trade.

Although shamanism was the predominant religion among the Mongol tribes prior to the formation of the Mongol state in the early 13th century, Nestorian Christianity was also practiced. According to a letter of the 11th-century Nestorian metropolitan of Marv to the Patriarch in Baghdad, about 200,000 Turks and Mongols had converted to Christianity by ...