what is Mongolian literature?
This literary tradition based on oral roots connected to the nomadic life of the Great Steppes is surprisingly strong, even if it's not among the world's most ancient. The oldest Mongolian text is the Secret History of the Mongols, written some time after the death of Genghis Khan, i.e. in the 13th century. The Mongolian way of writing is a version of the Uyghur script adopted in 1204 for the emerging empire. Most likely, the Secret History wasn't the first chronicle written in this new imperial script. An earlier text, Altan Debter ("Golden Book") was known to some Islamic authors, but today is lost.
The Secret History is just the first of the Mongolian "three peaks"; the remaining ones are the oral epics (tuuli) of King Gesar and of Jangar. The story of King Gesar (or Kesar), in fact, is a shared legacy, namely a Tibetan one. It formed in quite ancient times, between the 2nd c. BC and 300 AD, and was written in ancient times only in Tibetan. Nonetheless, the performers of the Great Steppes transmitted it orally, and it played such an important role as I've just mentioned among the Mongols; also the oldest printed version (1716) is Mongolian. But curiously, the story of the fearless lord of the legendary kingdom of Ling is transmitted orally and performed up to our times in various parts of Central Asia. On the other hand, the tuuli of Jangar is shared among the Oirats (westernmost group of the Mongols) and the Kalmyks.
The imperial era (1204-1368) of the Golden Horde brough about a diversified legacy, including Buddhist religious literature translated into Mongolian and such documents as letters to the pope and various European kings. Nonetheless, the Mongolian capital in Karakorum was razed to the ground in 1380. The punitive expeditions from China put an end to the Mongolian empire in 1368, inaugurating two centuries qualified as the Dark Ages. The period didn't produce any important literary text known to our times, just some manuscripts found at the archaeological site of Olon-sume in China. The Dark Ages ended with the so called "Third Introduction" of Buddhism in 1576; it was a sort of religious consolidation among the shamanic tribes under Dayan Khan. It brought about a cultural Renaissance that continued almost till the end of the 18th century. One of the inventions of that period was a reform of writing system, Clear Script introduced by an Oirat monk Zaya Pandita. The linguistic standard that developed in this period is qualified as the Classical Mongol language.
The legacy of the Mongolian Renaissance remained intact up to 1921 (the establishment of the Provisional Government of Sükhbaatar, the beginning of the Soviet influence). Many monasteries were damaged during the Communist persecutions of the 1930s. On the other hand, the new literature of this period (1921-1989) developed along the official lines of socialist realism. The process of disintegration of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s initiated the search for new forms of expression, often based on the traditions of Mongol poetry.
The Secret History is just the first of the Mongolian "three peaks"; the remaining ones are the oral epics (tuuli) of King Gesar and of Jangar. The story of King Gesar (or Kesar), in fact, is a shared legacy, namely a Tibetan one. It formed in quite ancient times, between the 2nd c. BC and 300 AD, and was written in ancient times only in Tibetan. Nonetheless, the performers of the Great Steppes transmitted it orally, and it played such an important role as I've just mentioned among the Mongols; also the oldest printed version (1716) is Mongolian. But curiously, the story of the fearless lord of the legendary kingdom of Ling is transmitted orally and performed up to our times in various parts of Central Asia. On the other hand, the tuuli of Jangar is shared among the Oirats (westernmost group of the Mongols) and the Kalmyks.
The imperial era (1204-1368) of the Golden Horde brough about a diversified legacy, including Buddhist religious literature translated into Mongolian and such documents as letters to the pope and various European kings. Nonetheless, the Mongolian capital in Karakorum was razed to the ground in 1380. The punitive expeditions from China put an end to the Mongolian empire in 1368, inaugurating two centuries qualified as the Dark Ages. The period didn't produce any important literary text known to our times, just some manuscripts found at the archaeological site of Olon-sume in China. The Dark Ages ended with the so called "Third Introduction" of Buddhism in 1576; it was a sort of religious consolidation among the shamanic tribes under Dayan Khan. It brought about a cultural Renaissance that continued almost till the end of the 18th century. One of the inventions of that period was a reform of writing system, Clear Script introduced by an Oirat monk Zaya Pandita. The linguistic standard that developed in this period is qualified as the Classical Mongol language.
The legacy of the Mongolian Renaissance remained intact up to 1921 (the establishment of the Provisional Government of Sükhbaatar, the beginning of the Soviet influence). Many monasteries were damaged during the Communist persecutions of the 1930s. On the other hand, the new literature of this period (1921-1989) developed along the official lines of socialist realism. The process of disintegration of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s initiated the search for new forms of expression, often based on the traditions of Mongol poetry.
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