Hangin was born in
Taibus Banner,
Chahar,
Inner Mongolia to a prominent family who had long been active in the
Qing Dynasty court. Due to the rise of
McCarthyism and charges against Lattimore, the project was eventually shut down, and Hangin had a series of tenures at
Georgetown University,
University of California, Berkeley, and
Columbia University (where he earned his master's degree in 1963). In 1961 he helped found the
Mongolia Society, a private, non-profit, non-political organization promoting the study of Mongolia, its history, language, and culture. He joined
Indiana University Bloomington in 1965 and taught in the Mongolian Program of the
Department of Uralic and Altaic Studies, earning a PhD in 1970 and becoming a full professor in 1982. Working throughout his life to promote international recognition of
Mongolia, he was invited to the ceremony establishing diplomatic relations between
the United States and Mongolia in January 1987. Together with
Tsorj Lama, former Abbot of the
Qorgho Monastery in
Western Sonid Banner, he founded the
Mongol-American Cultural Association in 1987.
Death and legacy Hangin died of
heart disease while doing research in
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The
Mongolia Society offers a scholarship in his name to Mongolian students who wish to study in the United States. Hangin acted as a conduit between Americans and Mongolians.
The New York Times, in its 1989 obituary, indicated that "[h]is efforts helped to lay the groundwork for recognition of the Mongolian People's Republic by the United Nations in 1961 and American recognition in 1987." ==Notes==