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Christianity in Mongolia
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Christianity in Mongolia
Christianity in Mongolia is a minority religion. Most Christians in Mongolia became Christian after the Mongolian Revolution of 1990. According to the Christian missionary group Mission Eurasia, the number of Christians grew from less than 40 in 1990 to around 40,000 meeting in 600 different churches in 2025.
According to the 2010 National Census there were 41,117 Christians (age of 15 and older) or 2.1% of total population. In 2020, Christians made up 1.94% of the population.
In the 7th century, Nestorianism was the first form of Christianity to be proselytized among the Mongols, although it was a minority religion and remained so. However, it had great philosophical influence on other Mongolian spiritual traditions, such as Buddhism and shamanism.
During the rise of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century, the Great Khans, though mostly Shamanists and Buddhist, were religiously tolerant towards the Nestorian Christians, Muslims, and Manichaeans. Many of the khans had Nestorian Christian wives from the Kerait clan, who were extremely influential in the Mongol court. During the rule of Möngke Khan, Christianity was the primary religious influence. After the breakup of the Mongol Empire in the 14th century, Nestorian Christianity nearly disappeared from the region.
There are only very few archeological traces of the prospering of Nestorianism among the Mongols. In Inner Mongolia, several Nestorian gravestones have been recorded in the past, but none now remain in situ.
Some Mongolians rejected the church structure and what was orthodox for the time, and borrowed elements from other religions and merged beliefs from several Christian denominations together. Some even identified Adam with the Buddha.
Syncretism along these lines influenced the way Chinese, Mongolian, and Tibetan Buddhism developed, and the effects of it can still be observed in the modern forms of these traditions.[citation needed]
The Orthodox Churches and their monks became victims to the Mongol invasion of Eastern Europe in the early 13th century. However, jarlig, or charter of immunity, also contributed to the strengthening of the Church. With the reign of Möngke-Temür, a jarlig was issued to Metropolitan Kirill for the Orthodox Church in 1267. While the church had been under the de facto protection of the Mongols ten years earlier (from the 1257 census conducted under Khan Berke), this jarlig formally decreed protection for the Orthodox Church. More importantly, it officially exempted the church from any form of taxation by Mongol or Russian authorities and permitted clergymen to remain unregistered during censuses and clergy were furthermore not liable for forced labor or military service. For the first time, the Orthodox Church would become less dependent on princely powers than in any other period of Russian history.
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Christianity in Mongolia
Christianity in Mongolia is a minority religion. Most Christians in Mongolia became Christian after the Mongolian Revolution of 1990. According to the Christian missionary group Mission Eurasia, the number of Christians grew from less than 40 in 1990 to around 40,000 meeting in 600 different churches in 2025.
According to the 2010 National Census there were 41,117 Christians (age of 15 and older) or 2.1% of total population. In 2020, Christians made up 1.94% of the population.
In the 7th century, Nestorianism was the first form of Christianity to be proselytized among the Mongols, although it was a minority religion and remained so. However, it had great philosophical influence on other Mongolian spiritual traditions, such as Buddhism and shamanism.
During the rise of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century, the Great Khans, though mostly Shamanists and Buddhist, were religiously tolerant towards the Nestorian Christians, Muslims, and Manichaeans. Many of the khans had Nestorian Christian wives from the Kerait clan, who were extremely influential in the Mongol court. During the rule of Möngke Khan, Christianity was the primary religious influence. After the breakup of the Mongol Empire in the 14th century, Nestorian Christianity nearly disappeared from the region.
There are only very few archeological traces of the prospering of Nestorianism among the Mongols. In Inner Mongolia, several Nestorian gravestones have been recorded in the past, but none now remain in situ.
Some Mongolians rejected the church structure and what was orthodox for the time, and borrowed elements from other religions and merged beliefs from several Christian denominations together. Some even identified Adam with the Buddha.
Syncretism along these lines influenced the way Chinese, Mongolian, and Tibetan Buddhism developed, and the effects of it can still be observed in the modern forms of these traditions.[citation needed]
The Orthodox Churches and their monks became victims to the Mongol invasion of Eastern Europe in the early 13th century. However, jarlig, or charter of immunity, also contributed to the strengthening of the Church. With the reign of Möngke-Temür, a jarlig was issued to Metropolitan Kirill for the Orthodox Church in 1267. While the church had been under the de facto protection of the Mongols ten years earlier (from the 1257 census conducted under Khan Berke), this jarlig formally decreed protection for the Orthodox Church. More importantly, it officially exempted the church from any form of taxation by Mongol or Russian authorities and permitted clergymen to remain unregistered during censuses and clergy were furthermore not liable for forced labor or military service. For the first time, the Orthodox Church would become less dependent on princely powers than in any other period of Russian history.
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