To what extent did the religion, ethnicities, and languages of the Mongolian region change because of its exposure to other cultures?
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During antiquity the country of Mongolia had 1 main ethnicity and language but they had many different belief practices. The country's ethnicity was Mongol and their language was also mongol. The mongols did have a few different religious beliefs such as *shamanism
( the belief that nature has spirits and only one can speak to the spirits ) and *ancestor worship ( to commemorate the spirits of their deceased ancestors are still among them and guiding them). -
The country of Kazakhstan changed Mongolia by exposing them to a new religion and language in the 12 century.They exposed them to the religion *Islam , a *monotheistic religion ( meaning they believe in one god ).Along with spreading Islam the Kazakstan’s also spread a turkic language among the Mongolians. -
The country of Mongolia was introduced to the new religion *Buddhism in the 1600’s. Due to the fact that Mongolia is between China and Russia small groups of each *migrated and *settled in Mongolia ,this impacted the Mongols' religion and ethnicity. The foreigners were all followers of Buddha and helped the religion gain followers after spreading their beliefs across Mongolia. -
Today Mongols have two main ethnicities that speak their own languages and practice their own religion.The largest ethnic group are the *Khalka Mongols who speak *Khalka Mongolian ,the country's official language, and they are mainly *Buddhist.The second largest group of mongolians are the *Kazakhs who migrated from the country Kazakhstan.They speak a Turkic language and are mainly Muslim. Lastly there are two very small groups of Chinese and Russian that make up about 1 or 2% of the population.