Paper short abstract:

This paper situates the increased incidence of poisoning from spiritual aspects of landscape with respect to the order and systemization central to Soviet-era moral and social progress, tracing the confusion of body and landscape today as index of acute concern for the health of both body and nation

Paper long abstract:

In contemporary Mongolia, increasing worship of natural landmarks as a means to both revere the nation and heal the body exists alongside reports of heightened poisoning from spiritual constituents of landscape. Nature (baigal) was portrayed by interlocutors as increasingly unstable and ferocious (dogshin) in the 'age of the market', the cause of which was narratively related to decline in national moral character and recent political economic developments, such as widespread mining and rapid urbanization. Angered spirit masters mobilize to retaliate; 'In the valleys, rivers and mountains bad entities are running', as one healer stated. Calamity strikes (gai dairah) as incensed spiritual masters/aspects of landscape (lus, gazariin/uuliin ezen) chase after the offender to deliver punishment, colliding with innocent bystanders along the way.

As natural landmarks are increasingly used for medicinal purposes, reports of incorrect usage circulate; therapeutic landscapes can also poison and kill. Rituals to remedy such afflictions typically involve severing the spiritual entity from the patient (e.g. lusaas taslah) or removing the ailment it left in the body. This is representative of wider trends in the maintenance of health to keep the environment out of the body, especially the cold and wind, by following particular protocol (gam barih). Given the socialist state's role in promoting the centrality of order and systemization to the advancement of social and moral progress, this paper will trace the ways in which increased confusion of body and environment in marketized Mongolia indexes profound concern for the health of the body and nation.