Significance of Thirteen as a Symbolic Number in Tibetan and Mongolian Cultures

THE TIBETAN AND MONGOLIAN cultures as now known to us are similar in many respects. In general these similarities may be attributed either to: 1) the common behavior patterns and culture traits arising from a nomadic way if life which is important in both cultures, or to 2) the cultural borrowings which accompanied the transmission of Buddhism following the first contact between the two peoples of which there is any record at the beginning of the Mongol dynasty. Prior to that time they were geographically far apart and separated by other ethnic and political groups. Thus the coincidence among both Tibetans and Mongols of any culture traits which would point toward early pre-Buddhist links between the two peoples is of special interest. Thirteen, as a symbolic number of cosmic-historical and religious significance, constitutes one such signpost. Thirteen does not appear as a special number of symbolic significance in any of the numerologies of any of the great world religions. It does not show in any of the complicated Judeo-Christian numerology except in late Rabbinical regulations and a comparatively late emergence, for generally recognized reasons, as an omen of bad luck in Christian cultures. Nor does

Ancient history · Geography · Psychoanalysis · The Symbolic · Ancient Near East History · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Psychology

• Spiritual Nexus

  Open Access•Nabraj Lama•Global Journal of Cultural Studies•2024

  Add to list