Mongolian Studies
The Mongolia Program at Western Washington University was established in 1975 as a part of the Center for East Asian Studies. Courses on ethnic Mongolia have treated cultural matters as well as history and politics. Attention is given to historical changes and the present political divisions.
- Faculty & Staff
- Courses
- American Center for Mongolian Studies
- Student Scholarship
- Travel Grant
- Resources
- Publications and Other Activites
- Mongolian Holdings in WWU Libraries
- Links
Faculty & Staff
Paul D. Buell, Adjunct Professor
A major contributor to the Mongolian-English dictionary published under the editorship of the late Gombojab Hangin and to several works on Mongolian medicine and food, he teaches Mongolia-related courses through Western Washington University's extended education programs. See: http://www.wwu.edu/~extended/
Linda A. Kimball, Anthropology
Teaches a course on the Mongols and one on the Peoples of Inner Asia. She has completed a 600-page manuscript on the Kalmyks.
Wayne V. Richter, Curator, Mongolia Collection, Western Washington University Libraries
Offers tutorials in classical Mongolian and Mongolian scripts.
Henry G. Schwarz, Professor Emeritus, Program Founder
Author of many books on Mongolia; retired since 1993 but still active at WWU and in Mongolia; currently the president of the Mongolia Society of the United States.
Edward Vajda, Modern and Classical Languages
An expert in Russian Language and in Comparative Linguistics, he teaches courses on Nomadic Civilizations and on Mongolian history and culture.
see website for Dr. Vajda: http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/
Courses
Students can concentrate in Mongolian Studies in the East Asian student-faculty designed major. Under advisement with the program chair students can arrange appropriate language study and relevant course work.
The East Asian Program includes three courses that deal intensively with Mongolia. These include: EAS 210, Introduction to Nomadic Civilizations; EAS 313 Early Inner Asia; and 314 The Mongols.
Tutorials may be taught under the rubrics EAS 300 and 400. Tutorials in classical
Mongolian and Mongolian scripts are taught only by special arrangement. Information regarding independent study of Mongolian is available on the Extended Education website.
Courses currently offered:
217r Introduction to Beginning Mongolian Language I (4)
This course is designed to introduce beginning Mongolian language students to the basic features of the Mongolian language and script. It also provides students the opportunity to gain communication skills. Students are expected to gain a beginner's proficiency in the areas of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in Mongolian.
Instructor: Bolortsetseg Smith. 10 assignments, 3 examinations.217s Beginning Mongolian Language II (4)
Mongolian 217s is a continuation of Mongolian 217r and is designed to introduce beginning Mongolian language students to basic features of the Mongolian language. This course is the second in a series of three courses in first-year Mongolian language. Students are expected to gain a beginner's proficiency in the areas of listening, reading, writing and speaking in Mongolian.
Instructor: Bolortsetseg Smith. 9 assignments, 3 examinations.
Student Scholarship
Since 1999, a $500 scholarship has been offered annually to students in Mongolian Studies. For full information and appliation forms, please go to the scholarship section on the Center for East Asian Studies' home page.
Resources
Teaching and research are supported by the largest collection of books on Mongolia in North America. In 1989, a survey was conducted of Mongolian holdings at libraries in the United States and Canada. The result, based on figures supplied by each library and published in the newsletter of the Mongolia Society, revealed that the largest category, defined as having more than 500 titles, includes only Western Washington University, with approximately 2,800 titles, and the Library of Congress. Consistent with the Program's policy, the library collection is broadly representative of all parts of Mongolia; it also has many works on the Buryat, Kalmyk, Oirat, Daghur, Dongxiang, Engger (Eastern Yugur) and other Mongolian groups. In addition to twenty-five titles of Mongolian serial publications currently on subscription, the WWU Libraries also house incomplete runs of about fifteen other periodicals from all parts of Mongolia, including many local and "internal" publications. Several scores of records, tapes, slides, maps, and other audio-visual materials help support the Program's efforts to provide its students with the very best resources. Among the Center's unique resources is a nearly complete collection of the email daily news which provides primary source material for contemporary studies:
- The Mongolian Daily Newsletter e-mail archive.
- The Mongolian Monthly Digest e-mail archive.
- The Mongolian Conservation News e-mail archive.
(for additional information visit Dr. Edward Kaplan's website http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~kaplan/)
Please go to In 1990 the American government recognized the national importance of Western Washington University's Mongolia Program by awarding a major grant to assist in the library acquisitioning process and the publication of a printed catalog. This catalog was published in 1992 under the title Mongolia and the Mongols, listing 3,562 titles. The catalog is being kept up to date and by 2001 has grown to about 6,000 titles. This catalog is a unique resource in North America, and printouts of all or parts of it are available, at cost, by contacting the address listed at the end of this brochure. Also available are lists of works on Tibet, Manchu-Tungusic studies, and Turkic peoples.
The resources on Mongolia at Western Washington University are directly supported by sizeable collections of books dealing with neighboring ethnic groups and related materials. For example, many of the estimated 1,500 Tibetan titles deal with subjects like Buddhism and certain sagas that have direct relevance to Mongolia. More than a thousand Uighur and other Turkic titles from
Eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang) contain materials about Mongols, particularly those living in that region.
Publications and Other Activities
The Center for East Asian Studies has consistently supported the Mongolia
Program by inviting Mongolists to several sessions of its East Asian Colloquium
and also by hosting the North American Conference on Mongolian Studies in 1978. In 1997, an Endowment Fund for Mongolian Studies was activated. This fund provides scholarships in
perpetuity, support for the Mongolian holdings in Western Washington University's library, and research projects on Mongolia.
The Center has also sponsored the publication of several books related to
Mongolia in its two series, Studies on East Asia and East Asian Research Aids
and Translations. They include Mongolian Short Stories (1974), Bibliotheca
Mongolica (1978), Studies on Mongolia (1979), Professor Poppe's autobiography
Reminiscences (1983), Mongolian Publications at Western Washington University
(1984), The Minorities of Northern China (1984), Mongolia and the Mongols:
Holdings at Western Washington University (1992), the English edition of
Academician Shirendev's autobiography Through the Ocean Waves (1998), The
Last Mongol Prince: The Life and Times of Demchugdongrub (2000), and Mongolian Historiography from the Thirteenth to the Seventeenth Century (2002).
For further information, contact the Center director, Professor Kathleen
Tomlonovic, at: Center for East Asian Studies, Western Washington University,
Bellingham WA 98225-9057; or by telephone: 360-650-3836; or fax: 360-650-6110 or e-mail: kathleen.tomlonovic@wwu.edu. Inquiries regarding purchase of publications should be directed to Edward Kaplan at kaplan@cc.wwu.edu.
Mongolian Holdings in WWU Libraries
Links