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- Convenors:
-
Dotno Pount
(University of Pennsylvania)
Sam Bass (Indiana University)
Jonathan Brack (Northwestern University)
Stephen Garrett (University of Pennsylvania)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Theme:
- Religion
- Location:
- William Pitt Union (WPU): room 539
- Sessions:
- Friday 20 October, -
Time zone: America/New_York
Abstract:
Sacred kingship was central to Chinggisid empire formation and domination across Eurasia, both during the age of the United Empire (1206-1260) and following its dissolution as well as after the fall of the Mongol successor states in the fourteenth century. Faced with new configurations of power with the emergence of political and religious institutions, as well as with evolving patterns of ritual practice and ideas of worship, the Chinggisids and the custodians of their legacy found creative ways to embed the patterns of sacrality of Chinggis Khan and his descendants within local ritual domains. In this panel, we explore examples for the divergent strategies employed by religious agents and the Mongols themselves to assimilate the Chinggisid model of sacred kingship and ancestor worship in different historical contexts. The panel will offer a comparative view of such practices, ranging from the Islamic shrines of brick-and-mortar in Iran and the tent-cart and sülde shrines in Mongolia, to Mongolian incense offerings to the Manchu emperors, as well as the continuity into a subsequent dynasty in the elements preserved in the Manchu state shrine. As we describe these practices, we delve into the thoughts behind their creation or explanation.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 20 October, 2023, -Paper abstract:
In the Mongol system of sacral, divinized kingship, the ritual veneration of Chinggis Khan played a central role as it allowed the Chinggisid successors to maintain the flow of Eternal Heaven’s (Tenggeri) blessing and protection, to the Chinggisid family and thus guaranteed their dynastic stability and well-being. Yet, what happens to this principle of Chinggisid ancestor worship when the Mongols embraced world religions such as Buddhism and Islam? This paper examines the changes to Chinggisid ancestor worship in Mongol-ruled, Ilkhanid Iran (1260-1335), during the two decades following the Mongol court’s official conversion to Islam (1295). Specifically, I explore the relationship between Muslim court debates about shrine veneration alongside the adoption of Muslim, Shiʿi decorative and architectural motifs in the monumental mausoleum of the Muslim Mongol ruler Öljeitü (r. 1304-1316) in the city of Sultaniyya (Iran), which were employed to experiment with a new Islamic royal cult for the Chinggisid Ilkhans. Through these interrelated examples, I demonstrate, first, how Islamic discourses and material representations of shrine veneration were employed to assimilate, convert, and ethicize the Mongols’ immanentist sacral kingship, and second, how these Ilkhanid experimentations relate to the evolution of a new shrine-centered kingship in dialogue with the cult of saints in the post-Mongol Muslim world.
Paper abstract:
The cart-mounted ordos (palace tents, a.k.a. “hordes”) of the Cult of Chinggis Khan, and the cults of the various süldes(standards), which survive today mostly in the Ordos municipality of Inner Mongolia and more sporadically elsewhere, have seasonal and other periodic ceremonies of renewal. That is, the officiants re-make the main relics of worship as well as the felt and wooden structures of the gers. There are also stories of how the more enduring ritual implements made of precious metal were donated, robbed, returned, smelted, and re-made. Because of this constant renewal, these objects of worship may seem inauthentic since we are accustomed to being awe-struck before original and ancient objects. However, renewal is not limited to the material implements of the cult of Chinggis Khan. The core ritual aim of the entire cultic establishment can be seen as generational renewal of his realm – the perpetuation of Chinggis Khan’s sacrality across time and space. The corpus of cultic texts transmitted to our time is known as the Altan Bichig (Golden Writings), and it is typical of the liturgical genre for its accretions of texts across time. Some texts probably include information passed down since the 13-14th c., some are devoid of any Buddhist influence typical of the Second Conversion of the 17-18th c., while others were presented to the Cult by famous ecclesiastical figures in the 18thcentury, most prominently the incense prayer composed by the Mergen Gegeen (1717-66). In this paper, I will present 1) the statements recited at the end of rituals indicating what the propitiating descendants are asking of the spirits of Chinggis Khan and his Queen(s), and 2) an analysis of what is achieved by the actual rituals in the instruction text excavated from the Qara Shorong site in 1957. I discuss the metaphors used by the Cult of Chinggis Khan rituals – both verbally in its prayers and physically in the bodily/material performance – to argue for the centrality of renewal as a theme consciously elaborated. The ephemeral nature of the shrines’ materiality, when viewed in this context, is no longer a conundrum, as the object of preservation is the institutions and relationships that constitute the Chinggisid Polity, and the physical implements serve that purpose in their own renewals.
Paper abstract:
What does it mean to frame the Manchu-ruled Qing Dynasty as a shamanic state and its emperor as a sacred king? In what form were the shamanic traditions of the Manchus reflected in their state formation and ruling ideology? What preceding Inner Asian influences contributed to their ideas of legitimacy? These questions are pivotal for our understanding of China’s last dynasty. Well before the Manchu eight banner forces passed through the gates of Shanhaiguan and took hold of the city of Beijing, the Manchus were bearers of a distinct Inner Asian native religion, the archetypal “shamanism.” At the center of this tradition, was a structure known as the Tangse [Ch. Tangzi], which served as the main performance point for the Manchu shamanic tradition and an embodiment of the sacred charisma of the Manchu ruler and his Aisin Gioro clan. Situated on the outskirts of successive Manchu capitals, this shrine not only housed sacred objects but served as a central ritual site employing a cohort of shamans and other ritual personnel to perform offerings, blood sacrifices, and ritual obeisance to the shamanic central deity Abka Enduri [the Spirit of Heaven], the mafari [ancestors], and the enduri weceku [guardian spirits and household gods] on behalf of the Manchu ruler. From martial sacrifices to the sacred military standard before setting out on campaign to New Year's Day rituals and the making of solemn oaths, this site served as a venue for important religio-political rituals and demonstrations of the Manchu ruler’s role as sacred king before the Qing officialdom and nobility. From its earliest days, the possession of the Tangse was imbued with profound religio-political significance in efforts at early state centralization, while the shamans of rival factions were killed, their shrines desecrated, and possession of a separate Tangse by anyone other than the Aisin Gioro clan was strictly prohibited. This paper explores the connections between the Manchu ruler’s role as sacred king and Tangse as chief ritual site and the formation of a model of legitimacy rooted in shamanism through multilingual primary sources in Manchu, Mongolian, and Chinese. By comparison with preceding models of sacred kingship and maintenance of imperial shrines among the Mongols and other Inner Asian peoples and in contrast to ideas of shamanism as inherently fragmented and anti-institutional, this paper demonstrates that Manchu shamanism was a force for state-building quite as powerful as Chinggisid ideology or Buddhist cakravartin monarch ideals.