This article describes the humanitarian activities of a local monastery named Erdene Zuu, located in Uvurkhangai, Mongolia. The Erdene Zuu monastery is one of the historical monasteries of Mongolia. The authors collected qualitative data on the Monastery's humanitarian activities to learn about the purpose and background of the humanitarian activities of the Monastery. To collect primary and secondary data, the authors used in-depth interviews involving lamas with different ranks, observed the activities and measures of the Erdene Zuu Monastery, and reviewed information and documents shared on the website and social media about the Monastery. The qualitative data showed that between 20 and 28 lamas with different ranks stay in the Monastery, depending on the season. Furthermore, the qualitative data showed that the Monastery runs spiritual, functional, and philanthropical activities. For example, due to Covid restrictions, the Monastery has started online services that were perceived as emotional support to stimulate immunity and solidarity of the community. In addition, monks provided emotional and material support to local police during the lockdown of COVID. In the end, the Monastery assisted families in regards to state child protection and emergency interventions. The authors were keen to understand the meaning of monks' terms of "assistance" and interpret their meaning into terms of Buddhist social work.
Gelenkhuu et al. (Mon,) studied this question.