Buddhism in Saint Petersburg

Introduction (1)

The Buddhism of contemporary Russia is a tangled socio-cultural complex. It embraces the three-century-long monastic and lay traditions of the Buryats, Kalmyks, and Tuvinians, as well as those of newer Buddhist convert communities. The present article aims at revealing the five phases of Buddhism's spread and its subsequent consolidation in Russia.

The article starts with the early history of Buddhism in Russia, which is closely connected with the establishment of the Buddhist tradition in Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva (see Section I).

Russia's first contact with Buddhist religion and culture came in the late seventeenth to early eighteenth centuries. This was especially true for Saint Petersburg, the capital of the powerful empire at that time. In the time of Peter the Great and Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, the establishment of solid diplomatic and commercial ties between Russia and a number of Far Eastern and Central Asian countries led to the penetration of Buddhist culture in Saint Petersburg.

Buryatia, Kalmykia, and Tuva became an integral part of the Russian Empire, which generated the original research area of Buddhist Studies within the Russian academic fields. The first Oriental Studies center was set up in Saint Petersburg, to study the Buddhist tradition of the Buryats, Kalmyks, and Tuvinians and to translate Buddhist canonical texts. The publication of materials gathered during field research trips to Tibet and Mongolia and translations of Buddhist literary texts aroused public interest in this religious belief. On top of it all, they provided the textual basis that was necessary for Buddhism to spread further, and to penetrate into Russia (see Section II).

The beginning of the twentieth century marked the establishment of a Buddhist monastery in Saint Petersburg, which became the Buddhist outpost of the western part of Russia. Buddhist penetration into the northern capital of Russia took a long time, and was both dramatic and fascinating. Many factors contributed to Buddhism's spread in the northern capital of Russia, leading to the construction of the Buddhist temple in Saint Petersburg in 1913 (Section III).

The dramatic history of the datsanmirrors Russian culture and politics of the past: the relationship between Russia and Tibet, Buddhist persecution during the Soviet times, the birth of Buddhist covert communities in the early 1990s, and so forth. In the late twentieth century Russia witnessed the appearance of Buddhist convert communities as a new form of Buddhism. These communities were set up by Europeans and Buddhist teachers from India and Nepal. The intense religious and social activity of these groups integrated issues characteristic of the Tibetan Diaspora into the socio-cultural environment of Saint Petersburg (see Section IV).

I. The Early History of Buddhism in Russia

Although the ethnic, non-literate culture and history of the Buryats, Tuvinians, and Kalmyks is distinct, the evolution of their social and political organization as well as their written language has much in common. (2) This can be primarily traced to the fact that all three ethnic groups appealed to a Tibeto-Mongolian form of Buddhism. Moreover, the Buryat and Kalmyk acquisition...