The main periods of the development and formation of the Buddhist Tsanid school in Mongolia

In Mongolian history, Buddhism has spread thrice. During the time of its third spread, areas of Buddhist scholarship developed to a high level, to the extent that the specification of Mongolian Buddhism came into being. This development is inseparably linked to Buddhist logic as one of the five fields of knowledge (rig gnas che ba lnga) of Buddhism. Under the «logic», Indian sages developed a theory with components of philosophy, psychology and logic-epistemology. Within this framework, Tibetan and Mongolian thinkers then established new means of analysis, namely a particular system of dialectic or debate. Until today, this system continues to be taught as part of the education of most Tibetan and Mongolian philosophical schools, and it constitutes one of the keys to understand the Buddhist cultural tradition. The Mongolian sages who were educated through the system of discursive instruction within the frame of Mongolian philosophy investigated the deep conceptions and problems of Buddhist philosophy from all sides, creating many volumes in all ten major (po ti lnga) and minor fields of knowledge and thereby providing an important piece of evidence for the extensive development of Buddhist logic. While many contemporary researchers proposed a general historical periodization of Mongolian Buddhism, a more specific periodization of the history of Mongolian Buddhist logic is so far absent. In this paper, the author attempts to establish such a periodization based on historical primary sources.