About Buddhism of Kalmykia
Kalmyks ⸺ people in the Russian Federation, descendants of the Oirat tribes of Western Mongolia. According to historical data, the acquaintance of the proto-Mongol and Mongolian tribes with the Teaching of Buddha took place in three waves:
Калмыцкие священослужители
Ойратские кочевья в Центральной Азии. Фрагмент карты «Imperii Russici et Tatariae Universae tarn majoris et Asiaticae quam minoris et Europae Tabula». («Российская империя и вся Татария, сколь великая в Азии, меньшая в Европе...») 1739 г.
The first wave of transmission of Buddhism began with the spread of this Teaching to Central Asia already in the 1st century AD, coming there through the Sogdians, Kuchans and Khotanese. These were the traditions of the Central Asian Hinayana and Mahayana
The second wave came to Mongolia in the 12th-14th centuries, during the period when the Mongol Empire was ruled by the sons and grandsons of Genghis Khan. These were the traditions of Tangut, Chinese, Central Asian Uyghur and Tibetan Buddhism
The third wave of Buddhism came to the Mongolian steppes from Tibet after the fall of the Yuan Dynasty in the mid-15th century. Its most important event was the meeting of the Mongolian Altan Khan with the Dalai Lama III, in which the ancestors of the Kalmyks, the Oirats, also took part
The third wave of Buddhism came to the Mongolian steppes from Tibet after the fall of the Yuan Dynasty in the mid-15th century. Its most important event was the meeting of the Mongolian Altan Khan with the Dalai Lama III, in which the ancestors of the Kalmyks, the Oirats, also took part
Phag-pa Lama and Kublai Khan (Tibetan thangka)
Arrival of the Dalai Lama III Sodnam Gyatso to Altan Khan (photo by B.U. Kitinov)
The ancestors of the Kalmyks, the Oirat tribes, came in the late 16th — early 17th centuries from Altai to the territory of modern Kazakhstan and Eastern Siberia, and then to the Lower Volga and the Northern Caspian. Having entered Russia as followers of the Buddha’s Teaching, the Kalmyks were the first to bring the living Buddhist tradition to the territory of the modern Russian Federation
Копия рисунка «Калмыцкий лагерь», опубликованного Карлом Бертухом в 1799 г.
Zaya-pandita Ogtorguin Dalai (Thangka. First half of the XVIII century, Western Mongolia)
In 1648, the Oirat Buddhist monk, educator and prominent statesman Zaya-pandita Ogtorguin Dalai (1599−1662) created the Todo Bichik script (Clear Script) and translated more than 200 important Buddhist works into the Oirat language. His translations from Tibetan, as well as his own works, became the basis for the development of Oirat literature, and later Kalmyk literature, which was completely autonomous from the Mongolian translation and literary tradition
«Ваджраччхедика праджнапарамита сутра» на ойратском письменности
Oirat Zaya-pandita Ogtorguin Dalai became the first Mongolian-speaking Buddhist monk to be officially canonized in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, as well as the first of the Mongolian Buddhist monks to whom the 5th Dalai Lama dedicated his poems. In addition, according to the largest researcher of Buddhism, Mongolian academician L. Khurelbaatar, Zaya-pandita is the most prolific translator in the entire history of Buddhism among the Mongolian peoples
Covers of books dedicated to the study of the Mongol-Oirat Great Code of 1640
In early September 1640, Oirat and Mongolian rulers gathered in the Tarbagatai tract and created a set of laws called the Great Code. This legislative act was based on the ten virtues of Buddhism. In world legal practice, this document is considered the first documented non-aggression and punishment of aggression pact on the planet
«Монголо-ойратские законы 1640 года» издание профессора К.Ф. Голстунского, Санкт-Петербург, 1880 г.
The first law on universal education in Russia was connected with the Kalmyk script «Todo bichik» (Clear Script). It was approved among the laws of Donduk Dashi Khan in the second half of the 18th century. Translated into Russian, the clause of this law sounds like this: «If the sons of noble people do not study, take a three-year-old horse, and send the sons to a teacher for training, from many famous people take a three-year-old ram, and from people of low rank take fifteen kopecks, and send their children to a teacher for training as before»
Residence of the Lamas of the Kalmyk people
Lama of the Kalmyk people Zodba Rakba Samtanov (1873−1887)
In pre-revolutionary Kalmykia there were more than 160 Buddhist temples and monasteries, many of which came with the Kalmyk people from Jungaria. The leadership of the Buddhist clergy and the spiritual life of the Kalmyk people was carried out by the chief Lama, who bore the title of «Lama of the Kalmyk people» or «Šajin Lama», which means «Supreme teacher, preserving the Teaching of Buddha throughout the entire period of its existence»
The Kalmyks took an active part in the Patriotic War of 1812 and in the Foreign Campaign of the Russian Army of 1813−1814, forming three national regiments. In honor of the victory over Napoleon, the Kalmyks built a Buddhist temple in 1814−1818, called the Khoshutsky khurul. At present, this is the only surviving pre-revolutionary temple of the Kalmyks and the oldest Buddhist temple in Europe, as well as the most striking example of Kalmyk religious architecture
One of the first well-known Russian researchers of Tibet was the Kalmyk Buddhist monk Baaza-bakshi (1846−1903). In 1891−1894, Baaza-bakshi made a pilgrimage to Tibet, following which he wrote «The Tale of the Journey to the Tibetan Country of Maloderbetovsky Baaza bakshi». This work was published in 1897 by the orientalist Alexei Pozdneev and created a furor in Russian and European oriental studies
Title page of Baaza bakshi's book
Buddhist pilgrim monk Baaza bakshi (1846-1903)
Potala Palace, residence of the Dalai Lamas. (Photo by O. Norzunov, 1901)
Овше Норзунов, исследователь Тибета
A huge contribution to the development of international relations between Kalmyk Buddhists and Buddhists of Tibet, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, China and Mongolia was made by the legendary Kalmyk traveler and explorer, the author of the first published photographs of Tibet in the world, Ovshe Norzunov. On February 5, 1905, in a report addressed to the Chairman of the Prime Minister of the Russian Empire Sergei Witte, monk Dorji Setenov, Prince Tseren David Tundutov, as well as zaisangs (princes) Ovshe Norzunov and Lejin Arluev asked to remove all restrictions in religious matters imposed by the tsarist administration, as well as to exclude the terms «idolater» and «pagan» from official practice and to equalize Buddhists in rights with the Orthodox. This fact is the official confirmation of Buddhism in Russia as one of the state religions
The First All Sovet Union Spiritual Buddhist Council, Moscow, January 20−23, 1927
Today, the main Buddhist temple of the Republic of Kalmykia is the temple of the "Golden Abode of Buddha Shakyamuni". This Buddhist temple is the highest Buddhist temple in Russia and Europe, its height is 64 meters
The temple houses the most unique Buddhist relic of the sarira of Buddha Shakyamuni, which was brought from Sri Lanka on November 18, 2011. In addition, there is a shoot of the legendary Jaya Sri Mahabodhi tree growing there, which is the only direct shoot of the Bodhi Tree, as well as the oldest tree on the planet with a written history
Реликвия Ламы Цонкапы
In the city of Gorodovikovsk in the Republic of Kalmykia there is the only tantric monastery in Europe, which is called the «Tantric Monastery of Lord Zonkawa». It houses a unique relic of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition Gelug ⸺ a fragment of the skull of Lama Tsongkhapa.
The Buddhist literary heritage of the Kalmyk people currently numbers more than 4,000 works concerning Buddhist philosophy, rituals, medicine, astrology, philology, geography, history of Buddhism, Buddhist epic works, secular literature and other areas. At present, they are being translated into the graphics of the modern Kalmyk language, translated into Russian and published by Russian scholars
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