Jack Weatherford: belief

Transcript context

…And genuinely, as I understand, maybe you can correct me, of course, there’s the practical aspect of those policies, but he himself was just curious about the different religions as well, as I understand. So he never chose any religion except the one from which he came. I guess, can you describe what he believed spiritually himself? It’s interesting, we said after the death of [inaudible 02:12:49], his grandson in Bamiyan and the slaughter that followed that, he went through a new phase in which he summoned religious scholars of all sorts of famous Chung Chang from China, who I despise. But anyway, he came with all of his magic formulas for things, and then a bunch of various Muslim leaders came. So Chinggis Khan was exploring all these different religions, and not just in a simple way. He had organized public lectures from these people and public debates, not antagonistic debates, but discussions among groups of people who hated each other and would never discuss anything. And suddenly this powerful man summons them and he has to say, “Okay, well explain your religion and explain yours.” And even sometimes you can’t just explain it in terms of your own scripture. What do you say to the people who believe a different? So he was exploring, but no, he never changed at all. He was an animist, we would say. That’s about the only term we know to use. Early in life he worshiped that mountain where he took refuge several times. Burkhan Khaldun, Burkhan Khaldun was the great refuge of his life. He would go to the top, he would pray. He would take off his hat. He would take off his belt. He would stand there before the sky and pray. Also later on, actually, this became rather dramatic. He would sometimes go away to pray, should we invade these people? So all of the subjects are waiting to hear what’s God going to tell Chinggis Khan when he goes up the mountain? There are episodes like that, but he was very sincere. But I think what happened, the Mongols have so many spirits in the water, the mountains, everything around them and you have to know them personally and pray to them and know what they like and don’t like. And should you sing to them or should you offer some milk products or what do you do? You have to know them. Well, you get away from Mongolia, and this was a problem in China, they didn’t know the spirits. This caused great consternation for the Mongols. You’ve got a land here and the spirits don’t like us. They’re hostile lands. We don’t even know who they are. We don’t know these spirits in China. It took a long time. And so gradually, Chinggis Khan, he moved from just the spirit of the mountain that he worshiped, which remained his main focus of worship his whole life, he removed that to the sky. That was the one universal spirit. It was everywhere in the world. The sky was the same for every people. orshiped, which remained his main focus of worship his whole life, he removed that to the sky. That was the one universal spirit. It was everywhere in the world. The sky was the same for every people. And so for the Mongolians in their language, the word for sky and the word for heaven and the word for God and the word for weather are all the same, Tenger. Or Mönkh Khökh Tenger in the case of the eternal sky when they’re talking about it in a religious terms, the eternal blue sky. So he became more universalistic in this animist vision of the world. So then the sky could embrace all religions, all religions, and all people were trying to attain the same form of enlightenment. Well… … to attain the same form of enlightenment. Well, enlightenment is too specific a word, but the same form of moral life and guidance from the sky. He felt that each person knew morality, each person could communicate it, know morality within themselves. They didn’t have to just be taught it by somebody from a book. And in fact, as one of his grandson, Mongke Khan said, “You people,” talking to all the others, to the Christians, the Jews, the Muslims, the Daoists, said, “You people have your scriptures and you don’t live by them. We have our spirits and our shamans and our drums, and we live by them” and I think it’s true.…

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