Mongolia has always had a very defined artistic past with influences from all over the world this was evident at the time of the great Mongol Empire of Genggis Khan and Khublai Khan to the later days of Chinese occupation and Russian domination. Never the less the Mongol arts have always remained pure only taking in slight alterations but rarely loosing its unique identity.

In 1940 the  traditional mongolian script began to be replaced by the Russian cyrilic script, reflecting the completion of the enty of Mongolia into the soviet orbit, a process begun in 1921. Along the way religions in all its forms was banned, traditional folk displays were censored to present a more "civilized" outlook, whilst all and any mention of the great Mongol past, of its empire, of its customs was outlawed as reflections of "bourgeois nationalist apirations". 

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the domocratic reform implemented in the 1990's, there has been a strong resurgence and revival of all mongolian art forms, this is clearly visible if you spend some time in Mongolia at the present time. Art is once again being used to form and foster a national identity.