Tibetan Buddhism in Buryatia and the Aginsky Area 1990

In the late 1940s, it was decided to revive to some extent the Buddhist religion in the USSR. By that time many people, including Dandaron and others, petitioned Stalin to re-allow Buddhism on a minor scale, which Stalin did, in two places. The new datsang of Ivolginsky was built just outside of Ulan Ude, a Central Buddhist Board was established there, and its Chairman, Lobsan Nima Darmayev, was given the traditional title of Bandido Khambo Lama. The former Divazhan (Sukhavati) building at Aginsky, a three-hour drive to the southeast of Chita, which had in the early 1900s been modified to be slightly Russian in its architectural style, was also returned to the Buddhists. The main tsogchen (assembly hall), however, was made into an alcoholics’ hospital-cum-prison work camp, and these alcoholics were only moved out in 1989.  A small dunkhang still stands. Connection by small airplane between Aginsky and Ulan Ude has recently been opened.

Tsugulsky is a two-hour drive to the east of Aginsky and is quite close to the Chinese border. The tsogchen, which had been used as an army barracks, is still standing beside being in a very poor condition, as it was basically left to fall apart. It is now being reconstructed and in 1989 was registered with the Central Buddhist Board. Gusinoozersky, about an hour and a half drive south of Ulan Ude, is halfway to the Mongolian border. There, there are two buildings that were also left to rot, although they are not in as bad a condition as those at Tsugulsky. Alexander Kocharov, who worked for the Buryat Art Restoration Board in Ulan Ude to restore its artwork, has since been replaced by another artist from Leningrad, Yuri Nikonorovich Borsoev, who is quite skilled in making Tibetan statues. There is very little money available however, and the Buddhists have not yet thought about becoming involved.

I have visited Ivolginsky, Aginsky and Tsugulsky, but when we drove past Gusinoye Ozero Lake on the way to the Mongolian border, my driver and guide did not know where the datsang was. I only lectured at the Buryat Institute of Social Studies in Ulan Ude, and that was just to scientists, not the general public.

In 1990 there are 36 lamas at Ivolginsky, twelve at Aginsky, and five at Tsugulsky. The abbot of Ivolginsky is Sodbo Lama, that of Aginsky is Zolto Lama, and that of Tsugulsky is Jimba Gyatso Tsybenov. The former two are in their thirties, while the latter is in his late sixties and is one of the most learned of the Buryats, as well as a physician and thangka painter. All of the lamas are genyens (laymen) and, except for one or two, all of them are married. They are all employed and paid by the state and so can be dismissed at any time. There is only one gelong (full monk) and one getsul (novice monk), and they took their vows only within the last few years, but from two different traditions. Choe Dorji, the new Deputy Khambo Lama, became a getsul in Mongolia. Sherab Gyatso, who is presently studying in Dharamsala, became a gelong with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in India. Many of the lamas have alcohol problems, but it was only the Dandaron group, however, that seemed to have the custom of consuming an entire bottle of vodka as part of offering Lama Chopa tsog.

In Buryatia, a distinction is made between the Mongolian and Buryat gelongs. After the destruction of the monasteries and the imprisonment of the monks in Mongolia during the Stalinist period of the 1930s, later, when Gandan monastery in Ulaan Baatar was opened, most of the old lamas were married. In order to justify continuing being married, some of the lamas claimed that the Eighth Bogdo Gegen Jabtzun Damba Khutugtu, who was married and who was the only one of his lineage to actually be the political ruler of Mongolia between 1911–1924, had given permission for getsuls and gelongs to be married. From the research of Sherab Gyatso however, no such permission was ever granted. On the basis of this justification, there arose the tradition of married Mongolian getsuls and gelongs, and ordination was given within this framework. It is unclear whether there were married getsuls and gelongs in Mongolia prior to the destruction of the 1930s, and prior to the Mongolian Revolution, and this needs to be researched. In Tuva, which followed Mongolian customs, the 94-year-old monk Shinbayol told me that before the Revolution of 1917, gelongs did occasionally marry, sometimes after they had become gelongs, even if they knew this was against the Vinaya monastic rules of discipline.

This Mongolian custom of married getsuls and gelongs was however not accepted in Transbaikalia, and probably not in Kalmykia either. The Buryats did not become getsuls and gelongs in modern times, then, because they followed more the Tibetan tradition and felt that monks should be celibate.

Ivolginsky is the only one of the two datsangs at which daily prayer sessions are held by the lamas. Each morning in the tsogchen, they recite the Heart Sutra, 21 Taras, Duhkar and various other prayers like Zangcho Monlam. Sometimes, they also recite A Concert of Names of Manjushri. On the second day of each month, they perform Lhamo and Jamsing, on the eighth the Medicine Buddha, and on the 30th the four mandala offerings to Tara. Once a year they do the self-initiations of Kalachakra (in a more abbreviated form than in Mongolia), Thirteen Deity Yamantaka, Luipa Chakrasamvara and Guhyasamaja, as well as the Drugchuma offering.  Only some old lamas have the initiations for these, except for Yamantaka, or know how to chant. Occasionally, Lama Chopa is performed. At the gonkhang (protector room), they do Jamsing and Lhamo every day.

At Aginsky, although they do not have daily prayers, they do have daily protector pujas: They do Jamsing each day, and other protectors upon request. They do Lama Chopa five times a year, sometimes Medicine Buddha and the four mandala offerings to Tara. Once a year, they do Thirteen Deity Yamantaka and Drugchuma offerings. At Tsugulsky, they also do Thirteen Deity Yamantaka and Drugchuma only a few times a year.

The young candidates to be lamas all go to the five-year training course at Gandan Monastery in Ulaan Baatar for their education. Before, only Buryats went. This year, in addition to 25 Buryats, seven Kalmyks have also gone. The Tuvans also wish to send ten people, even though they have 20 applicants, but they have not been well-informed about the procedure. In theory, European Russians could join as of this year, but the five candidates were rejected. Some think that they were rejected because they didn’t know how to speak Mongolian, while others speculate that the KGB-controlled Council for Religious and Cultural Affairs was behind it.

It should be noted that Khalkha, the main dialect of the Ulaan Baatar region of Mongolia, and the Buryat and Kalmyk dialects are mutually fairly unintelligible. Buryat is closer to Khalkha than Kalmyk. All of these dialects are, however, further apart than the Lhasa, Kham and Amdo dialects of Tibetan are, and are rather more like the difference between Hindi and Punjabi. It takes several months for a Buryat speaker to be able to understand Khalkha. Tuvans living on the border of Mongolia already speak Khalkha, although their own language is a Turkic dialect, related to Uighur. Thus when the Buryats insist that they will have separate teaching facilities from those of the Russian Europeans, it will not be easy for the Kalmyks or Tuvans to join them. Nor will it be a simple matter of just importing some Khalkha speaking lamas from Mongolia to teach them.

Christian missionaries are now active in Buryatia, but less so than in Mongolia. Rev. Moon’s organization is also here, just as it is all over the former Soviet Union, but not as strongly as in Kalmykia.

There are currently thirteen active monasteries in Buryatia. These include:

1. Ivolginsky Datsang, outside of Ulan Ude. There are 30 lamas with only 2 or 3 old men who are monks; the others are married genyen. The monastic school has four Tibetan teachers from India, headed by Yeshe Lodro Rinpoche, who speaks excellent Khalkha and Buryat Mongolian. He and the other Tibetans are frequently invited to people’s homes for rituals, which doesn’t allow a lot of time for them to provide teachings to the laypeople. The school has between 60 and 70 students, with three Dharma classes covering Tibetan language and basic debate, and one medical class. The students are mostly Buryats from the various datsangs of Buryatia, and the language of instruction is either Buryat or Tibetan. There are also three Russians, a few Tuvans and a few Mongolians in the first class. There is lam-rim instruction also in Buryat, and one American teaches English.
2. Gusinoozersky Datsan, the first monastery built in Buryatia, now has five monks and three teenage pre-novices, of whom one is Buryat, one Russian, and one from a mixed marriage. They study Tibetan language and do rituals. The abbot is a traditional emchi (doctor) and many local Buryats and Russians come to him for both medical treatments and religious rituals.
3. Aginsky Datsang has a monastic school with 30 students and two Tibetan teachers from India, with classes in Dharma and medicine.
4. Egutuisky Datsang, about 250 km southwest of Ulan Ude, now houses the Zandan Zhuu sandalwood statue of the Buddha.
5. Work on the construction of a large stupa at Kizhinga has stopped due to lack of funds.