CPinMongolia.com is an active site for my ethnographic study of contemporary post-soviet socialist Mongol culture in Mongolia since 2004.

Autobiographical elements and critical reflection are woven into my narratives. In working with Mongolian and other cultural resources, I seek to reflect the creative practices of the people around the world with whom I have the good fortune to associate.

In terms of background, I have been studying Buddhist philosophical reasoning according to the tradition of Je Tsongkhapa since 1987. I have attended residential courses in centres and colleges of higher education all over the world. Until recently, these philosophical studies have run in tandem with the demands of a professional working life.

What’s the point in having a mind if you can’t change it?

These days I spend more time studying poetry and creating music with Mongolian cultural valencies and those of its neighbours. A strong and beautiful Khalkha Mongol voice sings in my heart. In keeping with our principle of life-long learning, I continue to study subjects with specialist tutors. Articles on this site and my You Tube Channels @cpleteshner and @cpleteshner299 reflect aspects of these ongoing educational endeavours and artistic collaborations.

The Zava Damdin Medallion, an award

The Zawa Damdin bLo bzang rta dbyangs (1867– ) Medallion

In November 2011, I was awarded the Zava Damdin Medallion in recognition of my scholarly contribution to the study of contemporary Mongolian culture in Mongolia. I understand that I am the first woman and Australian to have been publicly awarded this honour. Here I would like to also acknowledge my dear friend and colleague Sodontogos Erdenetsogt (Director-General of MONTSAME, Mongolia’s National News Agency) and to thank her for all that she has done and continues to do for so many others. Our scholarly collaboration is without parallel. The Honourable Professor Choirov Khishigtogtokh and Dr Hatagin Gotovin Akim received the same award for their own lifelong and much greater contribution to scholarship at the same official ceremony.

In October 2014 I was honoured with the position of inaugural Research Fellow (Nomadic and Buddhist Philosophies) at the The Zava Damdin Institute of Mongolia. This unexpected appointment is a great honour indeed. The inter-disciplinary discourses on this website and other contributions to Zava Damdin’s English language publications are harvests from this honorary and ongoing role.

In curating one’s own blog, one has the opportunity to exercise a particularly spacious and judicious freedom: to discern and (re)configure artistically what one considers to be more important in relation to what may be deemed less so. The curatorial aspect of blogging itself is a reflection of a contemporary modernity and its vast array of online discourses that inform, shape and engage trans-cultural diversities in a globalising world.

© 2013-2024. CP in Mongolia. This post is licensed under the  Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Documents linked from this page may be subject to other restrictions.   Posted: 6 January 2014. Last updated: I January 2024.