Distribution of the Mongolic or Yellow Division
Original Domain.—Probably the Tibetan tableland.
Early Expansion.—Mongolia, Siberia, China, Indo-China, Malaysia, Mesopotamia (?). The earlier Mongolians were extremely migratory, but the more settled tribes developed into the later Japanese, Chinese. Burmese, Siamese, and other peoples in the southeast and east of Asia; and the native tribes of the Siberian plains. The wandering tribes developed into the Turks, Magyars (Hungarians), Finns, Laplanders, and Samoeids, of Europe, and the Esquimaux of America.
Religion.—Animism in the widest sense is the dominant note of Mongolian religions. The worship of spirits extended both to the disembodied human soul (ancestor-worship, which is now perhaps the most prevalent form) and to the innumerable spirits, bad and good, which people earth, air, water, the celestial and underground regions. Although nominal Buddhists, the Chinese, Indo-Chinese, and Mongols live in terror of malevolent spirits, and the Annamese scrupulously observe “Roast-pig Day,” as they call their All-Souls Day, by littering the graves of the dead with scraps of victuals. Among the Siberians this spirit-cult takes the form of Shamanism, in which the Shaman (wizard or medicine man) is the “paid medium” of communication between his dupes and the invisible good or evil genii. In Tibet demonology still survives beneath the official Lamaism; the Eastern Siberians are Bear-worshipers; and the Polynesians have deified both the living and dead members of their dynasties.
The historical religions are largely a question of race, the Mongols proper, Manchus, Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Indo-Chinese, and Tibetans being at least nominal Buddhists. The Turks, Tartars, and most Malays are Mohammedans; and the Finns, Lapps, and Magyars now Christians. Other so-called state religions—Confucianism and Taoism in China, Shintoism and Bushidoism in Japan are other ethical codes fostered and upheld for political purposes.