Northern Studies and Mongolology　　　Takashi Irimoto

　North and Central Asia are important regions for northern studies. Vast, diverse environments are developing in these regions, from the shores of the Arctic Ocean and permafrost (tundra), as well as northern forests (taiga) stretching south, to the Steppes, desert and mountainous areas of inland Central Asia. The diversity of vegetation and geographical features between north and south is also seen in North America. The Eurasian Continent, however, is culturally characterized by a traditional lifestyle of pastoralism.
　To investigate the present research situation in inland Asia, I visited the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China in July 1995 and conducted academic exchanges with researchers at the Inner Mongolia University in Hohhot, the capital. The university, established in 1957, consists of 13 faculties and 43 courses, with approximately 5,000 students, 800 teachers and 800 staff. For studies of the minor ethnic group, Mongols, the university provides one faculty and five institutes which include the Faculty of Mongolian and Linguistics Literature, the Mongolian Language Research Institute, the Mongolian History Research Institute, the Surrounding Countries Research Institute, the Inner Mongolia Modern Research Institute and the Mongolian Literature Research Institute. These faculty and institutes are now housed in a new building called the Academy of Mongolology.
　An important role of the Inner Mongolia University is to study Mongolology and the Steppes. This university is the first of its kind established in a minority Chinese ethnic autonomous region and 30 percent of all the students come from minority ethnic groups. Its graduate school has five doctorate courses and 12 masters courses. In 1978, the university was recognized as one of the most important of China’s 88 universities. Under a national plan which began in 1993, the university has been enlarged and its educational conditions improved. At present, the Inner Mongolia University Project for the 21st Century is being prepared, and the university’s development is being planned through the Ninth Five-Year Project and the 2010 Long Perspective Project established by the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region.
　The university’s aims are the “modernization” of Mongolian study conditions (improvements in physical conditions such as buildings and equipment) and raise the academic quality to an international level. Mongolology is now an internationally recognized field, which is studied in 30 countries around the world. Mongolology, which traditionally focused on ethnic groups in northern China, such as the Julutin and Mongols, now also includes some ethnic groups in the Altai Mountains. Thus, Mongolology came to equate the study of Central Asia, requiring international comparative studies.
　The Faculty of Mongolian Literature and Linguistics now has seven Japanese students. They interact with other students at the university and learn from each other, which is considered good for all of them. The faculty consists of 45 instructors and staff, including 10 professors and 16 associate professors. The three courses of the faculty are Linguistics, Literature and “Newspapers.” In linguistics, studies of Dongxiang, Dahur and Boan of Altaic Mongolian Linguistic group are conduced. Subjects of literary students include folklore oral literature featuring the epic poem Jyangal, the history of Mongolian letters in the ninth century related to Mongolian characters and epigraphs in the 13th century, documentary records such as the Secret History of Mongol, modern literature including Mongolian poetry, and Mongolian literary theories.
　Newspapers” refers to the media. Students educated in the course will join broadcasting stations or newspaper companies. In addition, the comprehensive study combining natural science and the humanities has attracted public attention since 1980’s. Linguistic studies also need to be integrated into computer systems. In the university, “modernization” aims to create such new fields through modern facilities.
　The results of studies have been available to the public since the policy of freedom of information was carried out. The university publishes the quarterly Journal of Inner Mongolia University, and had printed 73 volumes by the first quarter of 1995. The university also has a publishing company, where books are published. In 1987 and 1991, International Symposia on Mongolology were held here. In the collection of materials, folklore literature, dialect surveys, epigraphs and other literature, and documentary records are the major items. The library of the Inner Mongolia University also houses the Mongolian Document and Information Center, which is closely related to Mongolology. Moreover, the library of the Academy of Mongolology consists of a display room with 1,700 types of valuable books and Buddhist scriptures and a reading room with 7,000 books related to Mongolian studies.
　Challenges and future directions for Mongolian studies are as follows. Mongolian studies are referred to under one domain, Mongolology, whose subjects pertain to multiple northern ethnic groups. Accordingly, Mongolology includes many fields, and concentrations on only one field of study are not complete. Mongolology is understood to have only three main elements: history, language and literature. Study of Mongolology alone cannot provide thorough knowledge of Mongolian history because it is related to world history. Studying the history also requires the study of the culture at that time because historical records are limited. Mongolology should not be restricted to its small field and more importance should be attached to related fields.
　Northern studies share many fields of study with Mongolology which allows for mutual collaboration on such subjects as ecology and worldviews of northern ethnic groups, animism, shamanism, and cultural traditions and changes. The Faculty of Letters at Hokkaido University has three students from Inner Mongolia: two graduate students and a graduate research student. In addition, due to academic exchanges in 1995, Monbusho (Ministry of Education) Scientific Research (Overseas Scientific Research) has been jointly conducted by the Inner Mongolia University and Hokkaido University since 1996 up to present. Studies of Mongolology in Japan have been accumulated in such fields as history, linguistics and ethnology. It is expected that academic collaboration between northern studies and Mongolology will widen mutual perspectives and help education, and research develop for the future.
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