Mongol Familiarisation with European Medical Practices in the Nineteenth–Twentieth Centuries

Abstract

It was primarily Russian activities in Mongolia between 1860 and 1921, reflecting its geopolitical interests, that introduced European medical practices to the Mongols. Competing alongside other European powers, the Russian Government capitalised on conditions within Mongolia to increase Mongolia’s dependency on Russia. Thus, the Russian government’s motives for medical intervention, like that of other European groups, were mainly political, economic and cultural. In the context of Buddhist dogmatism and the expansive territorial distances between the Mongols (a term this paper uses to encompass all people of Mongol ethnicity in northern and central Asia), the reluctance of Russian doctors to disseminate European medical knowledge prevented its spread into Mongolia. Medical intervention was primarily a method of colonisation justified through healthcare support. Ultimately the familiarisation of European medicine in Mongolia was the first crucial step towards the amalgamation of traditional Mongolian and European medical practices after the Mongolian People’s Revolution.