Pope Francis will be in Mongolia from Thursday, August 31, until Monday, September 4. This is the first visit by a pope to this East Asian country, which boasts one of the world's smallest Catholic communities, with only some 1,500 followers out of a population of three million. Situated between Russia, of which it was a satellite at the time of the Soviet Union, and China, its main trading partner, Mongolia is an important diplomatic intermediary for the Holy See.

But this former Soviet country also represents a high-potential mission land for Francis, who intends to put the Church's "outskirts" back in the spotlight. In August 2022, the Pope made the Italian missionary Giorgio Marengo – the apostolic prefect of Oulan-Bator, the Mongolian capital – a cardinal, which, at 48, made him the world's youngest. But is there really room for the development of Catholicism in Mongolia? In an interview with Le Monde, anthropologist Grégory Delaplace analyzed the country's religious landscape, which has been constantly reshaped by the upheavals of history.

The most present and influential religion is undoubtedly the Gelug school of Buddhism, known as the "yellow hat" school – in reference to the color of the clothing worn by monks and dignitaries. This is the school of which the Dalai Lama is the highest representative, a fact which has led to recurrent tensions with China.

Between 1921 and 1924, before the establishment of a socialist republic based on the Soviet model, Mongolia was even a veritable theocracy for a few years, ruled by a high dignitary of Gelug Buddhism. The influence of the Buddhist clergy was considerable. Benefiting from substantial donations, monasteries were not only rich and powerful places but also major centers of intellectual production. What's more, every family was required to send one child to a monastery. There was talk of a state within the state, which the socialist regime could not tolerate. This led to massive repression of the clergy in the 1930s.

Today, monks are fewer in number and less powerful, but still very much present. The country's entire religious life is structured by Buddhist liturgy. During the Lunar New Year, for example, many Mongolians continue to visit monasteries to prepare for the coming year, find out about potential obstacles to prosperity, find out whether they'll be lucky, what they should avoid doing, perform rituals to compensate for unfavorable astrological configurations, and more.

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