Protecting Sacred Lands in the Gobi

Abstract (English)

This paper examines the role of pastoralism and Buddhism in Gobi environmental deliberations. I center this study on the narrative and historiography of the 5th reincarnation of the Noyon Khutuktu; Danzan Ravjaa (1803-1856) and the cultural center which has been built on the grounds of his monastery in Sainshand, Mongolia. This monastery was central to Gobi pastoralists’ commerce, trade, and education before the religious purges in Mongolia (1930’s) during which Danzan Ravjaa’s relics were hidden in 1,500 crates buried in the Gobi. Following the democratic revolution (1989). Much has been written of Danzan Ravjaa’s Poetry (Wickhamsmith, 2025) and Khamar Monetary which dug up the relics and (re)established a center for continued pastoralism as well as cultural heritage (e.g. Suglegmaa & Turmurbaatar, 2021). However, few scholars have addressed the continued environmental legacy of both Danzan Ravjaa and the monastery’s environmental heritage. This paper draws from my own work in the region, beginning in 2004, to ask how this center of religious revival in southern Mongolia negotiates the multiple and often competing demands of (international) religious revivalists, local pastoralists, mining companies, and international environmentalists. In what ways does the Khamar Monastery and Shambhala Land center encouraged nomadic communities to engage in environmental preservation? How is pastoralism presented as central to the narrative of both Danzan Ravja and contemporary Gobi society? And how do these narratives differ to those prevailing political and governmental narratives of culture, development, and economic expansion in southern Mongolia.