And here is a free PDF:
halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/40/97/47/PDF/EFEO.pdfIsabelle Charleux, “Buddhist monasteries in Southern Mongolia” — Author’s manuscript
See the published version in The Buddhist Monastery. A cross-cultural Survey, Pierre Pichard & François
Lagirarde (eds), Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 2003, pp. 351-390
II. HISTORY OF BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN MONGOLIA FROM THE
FIFTEENTH CENTURY ONWARDS
1. The Dark Age, 1368- sixteenth century
After the fall of the Yuan dynasty in 1368, most of the Mongols returned to nomadic
life in their homeland. During this “Dark Age”, virtually nothing is known of Buddhism in
Mongolia: it seems to have retreated when faced with the resurgence of Shamanism.
15
However, the speed and the strength of the revival of Buddhism during the sixteenth century
can only be explained by the fact that it still coexisted with Shamanistic practices during this
period. Moreover, Southern Mongols had diplomatic, commercial or bellicose relations with
the surrounding Buddhist people of Gansu, Turkestanand Amdo (A-mdo, especially the
Kukunor area) who certainly influenced their Buddhist renaissance. There were probably
nomadic monasteries adapted to the pastoral life, too small to be recorded in the historical
sources. Indeed, the recently discovered Arjai (Baiyanyao百眼窯) caves show a rare case of
the continuity of a Buddhist presence from the Northern Wei (386-534) up to the Ming period
(1368-1644) (Charleux 1998: 18).
During the fifteenth century, the Western Mongols,who founded the Oyirad khanship
adopted Buddhism in order to legitimise their power. Their monasteries were probably also
moveable, nothing having been left after the fall of their kingdom.