Монгол бөөгийн зан үйл шашин мөргөл болсон түүх

History of Mongol Shamanism and Shamanic Religion constructed from Shamanic Practices

The paper traces historical documents of shamans identified and perceived to be a unified social group that can be covered under a certain term namely the ones Mongols now extensively use. As far as the paper currently finds Mongols had bö’e individual spiritual practitioners but the present popular term and concept böö mörgöl stands for “shamanism” and böögiin shashin referring to “shamanic religion” only appeared in the 19th century. The terms used not by shamans to identify themselves but Buddhist temples and scholars to refer to shamans. In this way, the paper presents historical documents and scholarly works that invented, constructed and made individual spiritual practitioners ‘social institution’ with a common address of böö mörgöl the Mongolian alternative of Western “shamanism” and böögiin shashin “shamanic religion”, through the treatment of Buddhist temples against individual shamans in the 19th century and conceptualization of mainly Mongol scholars in the 20th century. Extending the discussion of Western invention and construction of “shamanism”, the paper argues that “shamanism” is not only a western construction but also apparently local and regional constructions. The paper looks at the process and intentions of institutionalizing the so called böö mörgöl and böögiin shashin and applies it to critically approach the history of the study of Mongol shamanic practices. Since most scholarly works failed to see lack and absence of social institutionalization and unification of individual shamans they essentialized individual shamans to hold certain features.