Vegging Out in Mongolia

Andrew Cullen

Where's the beef? A plate of Mongolian vegetarian food.

Andrew Cullen's great Eurasianet piece from June 3 about the budding vegetarian scene in Mongolia stayed with me for quite some time after reading it. I decided to write Andrew, asking him to give the story behind the story about how he came to explore this unlikely veggie scene. Here's what he had to say:

What really drew me to the trend as a story, besides the
surprise factor of people from a country that is inextricably linked to
livestock and meat-eating turning towards vegetarianism, was the spiritual
undertones that link the whole veggie scene here.  Literally every
vegetarian restaurant that I've visited has a religious affiliation, albeit
often unofficial ones.  Mongolia is not a particularly religious place:
Soviet-enforced atheism and the ultra-pragmatism of nomadic life kept religion
from being a serious social force during the last century. Since 1991, religion
has made a sort of comeback, as Buddhism returned and Christian missionaries
arrived, but it still doesn't have much impact on the public sphere. But then
these restaurants appeared, adhering to very strict spiritually influenced
guidelines that challenged Mongolia's dietary and spiritual status quo.  “I have a problem with lamas eating meat. Not the lay
people, but those who have taken vows,” Altanzaya, the co-owner of what is
perhaps Mongolia’s most popular vegetarian restaurant, Luna Blanca, told me.
“The compassion part we didn’t understand, even though we were pretending to be
Buddhist. How can you pray for all sentient beings and still want to eat meat?”
she asked.  The Supreme Master Ching Hai in particular seems everywhere.
I would guess that at least half the restaurants are owned by the Supreme
Master's followers. Somehow, the Supreme Master has inspired a level of
devotion that few other religious strains can claim in Mongolia, and it is
probably the most powerful force driving the spread of vegetarianism in the
country, especially in the countryside (Hovd's veggie restaurant is part of the
Supreme Master's chain). Mongolia's vegetarians tend to be incredibly serious about
their lifestyle. They need to be to keep it up here, I suppose. But they
believe very strongly that vegetarianism has a powerful, positive impact on
their health. Many also feel that being vegetarian is key to stopping climate
change and, essentially, saving the world. This idea is perhaps
misguided: virtually all Mongolian meat is free range and organic,
and the dry land is not realistically going to provide the entire population,
however small, with enough vegetables for everyone to swear off meat. But
ultimately people being concerned about their health and the environment, and
making conscious decisions to benefit their bodies and their world, is not
going to be a bad thing for Mongolia.