The first distinctive style of Buddhist art associated with Mongolian patronage was that of Aniga (1244–78), who
’PHAGS-PA LAMA had invited from Kathmandu in Nepal.
Aniga’s school established a Sino-Tibetan style, which continued for centuries.
Zanabazar (1635–1723, see JIBZUNDAMBA KHUTUGTU,
FIRST) began native Mongolian sculpture with works of genius unsurpassed later. His school’s images, of gilt bronze or copper cast in two pieces, continued his Nepalese-influenced style through the 18th century. Works of his school outside Mongolia have been identi- fied particularly by the drum-shaped bases and the dis- tinctive gilded double vajra (powerbolt) on the bottom of the base. By the 19th century, however, Dolonnuur (mod- ern Duolun) became the main center for both routine and superior Buddhist images. Sculptures of the Dolonnuur school were made of hammered copper or bronze sheets and assembled in many pieces. Billowing scarves, distinc- tive flat crowns and earrings attached separately, and pro- fuse inlays of precious and semiprecious stones distinguish masterpieces of this style from those of the Zanabazar school.
The only surviving paintings of the SECOND CONVER-
SIONare the wall paintings of Maidari Juu (near BAOTOU)
and ERDENI ZUU, both dating from the late 16th century.
The background of the former already shows the influ- ence of Chinese landscape painting, with its attendant cool palate of greens and blues that forms so much of the overall look of Qing-era Tibetan and Mongolian thangkas. Extant Mongolian thangkas date mostly from the 19th and early 20th centuries, although surviving examples from the time, if not the hand, of Zanabazar are similar stylistically.
A distinctive feature of Mongolian guru portraits, par- ticularly of the Jibzundamba Khutugtus, is the interest in individual portraiture. Zanabazar’s self-portraits showed an early interest in this, and the Fourth Jibzundamba Khutugtu (Lubsang-Tubdan-Wangchug, 1775–1813) had portraits of his predecessors made from their mummified remains. Early in the 20th century painters such as “Busybody” Sharab used the new medium of ink to draw the flesh of the Khutugtus while drawing the clothing and attributes in the traditional manner in mineral paints.
By 1900 about 40 master artists were working in
Khüriye (modern ULAANBAATAR). The antireligious cam-
paigns of the mid-20th century almost ended the tradi- tion of Buddhist art among the Mongols. In Inner Mongolia Buddhist temples had already become so dependent on Chinese artisans working on commission
that no distinctly Mongolian Buddhist art survived the Cultural Revolution (1966–76). In Mongolia thangka painting survived on a small scale, to be revived after 1990 with the advent of religious freedom. The expensive and labor-intensive sculptural and temple banner tradi- tions were less hardy and have not been revived beyond purely functional needs.
See alsoBUDDHISM IN THE MONGOL EMPIRE; CHOIJUNG
LAMA TEMPLE; MONGOL ZURAG; PALACES OF THE BOGDA
KHAN; THEOCRATIC PERIOD.
Further reading: Patricia Berger and Theresa Tse
Bartholomew, Mongolia: The Legacy of Chinggis Khan (San Francisco: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 1995); N. Tsultem, Development of the Mongolian National Style Painting “Mongol Zurag” in Brief (Ulaanbaatar: State Pub- lishing House, 1986); ———, Mongolian Architecture (Ulaanbaatar: State Publishing House, 1988); ———, Mongolian Sculpture (Ulaanbaatar: State Publishing House, 1989).
Buin Nemkhu SeeBUYANNEMEKHÜ.
Bulgan province Created in 1937 from Khöwsgöl, Gazartarialan (modern Selenge), Central, and North Khangai provinces, Bulgan lies in north-central Mongolia with a frontier on Buriatia in Russia. Its territory was
mostly part of KHALKHA Mongolia’s prerevolutionary
Tüshiyetü Khan province, with small parts of Sain Noyan province. Teshig Sum, on the northern border, is primarily
Buriat, however. The new ERDENET CITYwas removed from
Bulgan’s jurisdiction in 1976. The province’s 48,700 square kilometers (18,803 square miles) cover the northern
foothills of the KHANGAI RANGE and the valleys of the
SELENGE RIVERand the ORKHON RIVER. It is a relatively wet
province. The population has risen from 30,900 in 1956 to 62,600 in 2000. Bulgan is one of Mongolia’s leading arable agricultural provinces, accounting in 2000 for about 19 percent of the country’s wheat harvest. The province’s 1,522,800 head of livestock in 2000 included the third- largest number of cattle (225,800 head). The capital, Bul- gan town, was originally Wang-un Khüriye, a combined monastery town and residence of the prince of Daiching Zasag banner. Its population in 2000 was 16,200.
See alsoAMUR; BURIATS IN MONGOLIA AND INNER MON-
GOLIA; DAMBA, DASHIIN; KHANGDADORJI, PRINCE; MAGSUR-
JAB; TSOGTU TAIJI.
Bulgaria SeeBYZANTIUM AND BULGARIA.
Bulghars (Greater Bulgaria) The Mongols conquered the Bulghars, a northern people on the Volga, who engaged in the fur trade, during the great western expedi- tion of 1236.
The Bulghars first appeared north of the Black Sea in 481 as a nomadic people speaking a Turkic language of
the Oghur subfamily, close to modern Chuvash. (See
ALTAIC LANGUAGE FAMILY.) Around 670 the Khazar
khanate dispersed the Bulghars, most of whom moved west to subjugate the Balkan Slavs and form the nucleus of modern Bulgaria. Another group, however, moved north to the confluence of the Volga and the Kama Rivers. By 921–22 these northern Bulghars controlled the trade of fur and slaves to the Middle East and KHORAZM. Khorazmian merchants converted the Bulghars to Islam. The capital city was known as Bulghar. The Bulghar warred constantly with the advancing Russians, but by 1150 they controlled the lower Volga city of Saqsin.
In 1224 the Bulghars ambushed the Mongol army of
SÜBE’ETEI BA’ATUR and JEBE as it passed Saqsin. In 1229
under ÖGEDEI KHAN (1229–41), Kökedei and Sönidei
attacked Bulghar outposts on the Yayiq (Ural) River, besieged Saqsin, and camped in the Bulghar heartland in 1232. The Bulghar cities and the local Qipchaq and Bashkir (Bashkort) nomads resisted successfully, and in 1235 Ögedei mobilized a much larger army under his
nephew BATU(d. 1255). In 1236 Sübe’etei took the city of
Bulghar, butchering the entire population. Saqsin city and the Bashkirs (Bashkort) were subdued in the same year.
Despite the conquest, the city of Bulghar reached its apogee of development in the 13th and 14th centuries.
The GOLDEN HORDE under Batu and his successors
allowed emirs of the old Bulghar families to continue rul- ing while paying the same fur tax. The Golden Horde encouraged caravan trade and began again to coin money.
In the time of ÖZBEG KHAN (1313–41) the Mongols
adopted Islam and soon became Turkicized in language, forming a new people called the TATARS. The revived Rus- sians sacked Bulghar again in 1399, and the crisis of the late 14th century that shattered the Golden Horde also broke up Bulghar’s prosperity. In 1446 the Chinggisid prince Ulugh Muhammad and a large body of Tatars occupied Kazan’ (a new and nearby rival of old Bulghar city), founding the independent Kazan khanate. Ivan IV, czar of Russia, conquered Kazan’ in 1552. The contempo- rary Tatars of Tatarstan are descendants of the fused Bul- ghar and Tatar peoples; the neighboring, mostly non-Muslim, Chuvash preserve a rustic form of the medieval Bulghar language.
See alsoOSSETES; QIPCHAQS; RUSSIA AND THE MONGOL EMPIRE.
Further reading: Th. T. Allsen, “Prelude to the West-
ern Campaigns: Mongol Military Operations in the Volga- Ural Region, 1217–1237,” Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 3 (1983): 5–24.
Buqa (Bögä, Boka) (d. 1289) Supreme Mongol comman-
der and vizier under Arghun Khan, ruler of the Mongols of the Middle East
Born of a minor branch of the JALAYIRclan, Buqa and his
brother Aruq were raised in the personal entourage of the Il-Khan Abagha (1265–82) in the Middle East.
Appointed as to tamghachi (keeper of the commercial tax), Buqa unsuccessfully supported Abagha’s son Arghun as khan after Abagha’s death. Qutui Khatun, mother of the victorious candidate, Ahmad (r. 1282–84), protected Buqa from retaliation, however. When Ahmad arrested Arghun in 1284, Buqa freed Arghun on the night of July 4, seized the camp, and led the army against Ahmad.
Once victorious, Arghun (r. 1284–91) appointed Buqa simultaneously commander in chief (beglerbegi) and vizier, holding the supreme red seal (al tamgha).
QUBILAI KHAN in China awarded Buqa the title of
chingsang (chengxiang, grand councillor). Buqa’s brother Aruq received the lucrative governorships of Baghdad and Diyarbakır.
Buqa’s ruling clique included junior Jalayirids like himself, ambitious Persian rivals of Shams-ud-Din Juvaini, the Assyrian Christian governors in Mosul and
Irbil, and the Georgian king Dmitri (1273–89; seeGEOR-
GIA). Eventually Buqa’s tight control alienated Mongol
commanders such as TA’ACHAR. Arghun dismissed Aruq
after the Jewish clerk SA‘D-UD-DAWLApromised to double
revenues and then gave the crown territories (injü) to Ta’achar and command of the center (ghol) to Qunchuqbal of the QONGGIRAD, thus vitiating Buqa’s financial and military power. Buqa feigned illness while plotting to overthrow Arghun. The plan betrayed, Arghun executed Buqa (January 16, 1289), Aruq (February 22), their families and supporters. The torture and demotion of Buqa’s Assyrian confederates sparked anti-Christian rioting in Mosul.
Buriad SeeBURIATS.
Buriat language and scripts Buriat is the language of the Buriat Mongols of southern Siberia and northeastern Mongolia and Inner Mongolia. According to the 1989–90
census figures, there were about 463,000 BURIATS world-
wide and up to 93,000 of the allied Bargas.
In the 13th and 14th centuries BARGA and Buriat
tribes inhabited the present-day Barguzin valley and the lands west of LAKE BAIKAL. The Barga were in close con- tact with the Mongols and form the ancestors of the mod- ern Barga and of the Khori Buriats. The Buriats of that period appear to be the ancestors of today’s Ekhired-Bula- gad group. The location of the Khongoodor tribe, ances- tors of the Tünkhen and Alair Buriats, is not clear.