Baikal Toba Professor receives Mongolia's highest national medal, the 'Order of the North Star'

On August 10, 2026, the 13th Congress of the International Mongolian Studies was held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (the first conference was held in 1959). Prior to the opening ceremony of the 13th Congress of the International Mongolian Studies Association (the first conference was held in 1959, it has been held every five years thereafter), a medal awarding ceremony was held at the National Palace of Mongolia.
At the same ceremony, Professor Baikal Toba, who specializes in Mongolian religion, education, and culture in College of Arts and Sciences, was awarded the "Order of the North Star," Mongolia's highest national decoration.
The conference featured 574 Mongolian researchers from 30 countries, and 20 researchers from eight countries—Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Israel, China, Russia, and South Korea—were awarded the Order of the North Star.

In recent years, Professor Toma has dedicated himself to the study of religion and education in Mongolia, particularly the research on Nordic missionaries in the Mongolian region and the study of Mongolian ethnic education during the Japanese occupation. This award recognizes the high quality of his work in these Mongolian studies.
Furthermore, Professor Toma presented a research paper at the 13th International Conference on Mongolia titled "A Study of Mongolian Intellectuals Who Received Modern Education in Japan in the First Half of the 20th Century - On Professor Chingeltai."