ORIGINAL DOMAIN.--Probably the Tibetan tableland.
EARLY EXPANSION.--Mongolia, Siberia, China, Indo-China, Malaysia,
Mesopotamia (?). The earlier Mongolians were extremely migratory, but
the more settled tribes developed into the later Japanese, Chinese.
Burmese, Siamese, and other peoples in the southeast and east of Asia;
and the native tribes of the Siberian plains. The wandering tribes
developed into the Turks, Magyars (Hungarians), Finns, Laplanders, and
Samoeids, of Europe, and the Esquimaux of America.
RELIGION.--Animism in the widest sense is the dominant note of Mongolian
religions. The worship of spirits extended both to the disembodied human
soul (ancestor-worship, which is now perhaps the most prevalent form)
and to the innumerable spirits, bad and good, which people earth, air,
water, the celestial and underground regions. Although nominal
Buddhists, the Chinese, Indo-Chinese, and Mongols live in terror of
malevolent spirits, and the Annamese scrupulously observe “Roast-pig
Day,” as they call their All-Souls Day, by littering the graves of the
dead with scraps of victuals. Among the Siberians this spirit-cult takes
the form of Shamanism, in which the Shaman (wizard or medicine man) is
the “paid medium” of communication between his dupes and the invisible
good or evil genii. In Tibet demonology still survives beneath the
official Lamaism; the Eastern Siberians are Bear-worshipers; and the
Polynesians have deified both the living and dead members of their
dynasties.
The historical religions are largely a question of race, the Mongols
proper, Manchus, Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Indo-Chinese, and Tibetans
being at least nominal Buddhists. The Turks, Tartars, and most Malays
are Mohammedans; and the Finns, Lapps, and Magyars now Christians. Other
so-called state religions--Confucianism and Taoism in China, Shintoism
and Bushidoism in Japan are other ethical codes fostered and upheld for
political purposes.