Cosmologies of freedom and B uddhist self‐transformation in the M ongolian gold rush

Abstract

This article examines how M ongolian B uddhist monks view the freedom they have experienced since the fall of S oviet socialism in 1990. Whereas the anthropological literature on postsocialism tends to focus on political and economic transformations, I argue that contemporary M ongolian politics points to the coexistence and interdependence of human and nonhuman agents. The article highlights how, in the context of the country's current mining boom, postsocialist politics requires attention to contemporary religious practices and spiritual beings beyond the ‘secular’. Considering emerging forms of Buddhist environmentalism, I describe how the freedom projects of Mongolian monks crystallize the intersection of Soviet socialist materialism, neoliberal individualism, and a B uddhist ethics of self‐transformation.

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