RUSSIA: Saint-Petersburg, the second largest city in the Russian Federation this week celebrated the 100th anniversary of its historical Buddhist temple “Datsan Kunzechoinei” built by Tsenshab Agwan Dorjiev, a debate partner of His Holiness the 13th Dalai Lama, who had made a considerable contribution in establishing cordial relations between Russia and Tibet.
The celebratory events were attended by spiritual heads of the Russian Buddhist republics: Telo Tulku Rinpoche (as Honorary Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Head Lama of the Republic of Kalmykia), Damba Ayusheev (Head Lama of the Republic of Buryatia) and Lobsang Chamzy (Head Lama of the Republic of Tuva).
Among the events organized to mark the occasion is an exhibition ‘St. Petersburg datsan – The 100th anniversary of the temple’ in the Engineering house of the Peter and Paul fortress. The exhibition presents more than 230 exhibits from leading St. Petersburg museums and private collections. As part of the exhibition a sand mandala of Avalokiteshvara is being built in the fortress. Inside the temple, the ceremony was held to consecrate statues of Kalachakra and Four Guardian Kings.
According to a Russian scholar A. Andreev who wrote a book on Saint-Petersburg temple, in 1908 Tsenshab Agwan Dorjiev brought an official letter from His Holiness the 13th Dalai lama to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs containing a request to build a prayer house for the local Buddhists in Saint-Petersburg, a capital city of Russia at that time. Previously, in 1906, 13th Dalai Lama, even though he had never been in St. Petersburg, mentioned to Tsenshab Agwan Dorjiev that the temple should be build in the northern part of the city. 1909 Agwan Dorjiev applied for the permission to build “a house with the prayer facilities”. He enclosed a certificate showing he has necessary amount of money (80 thousand rubles out of which 50 thousand was offered by the 13th Dalai Lama).
The temple which was built in 1915 had an utmost historical importance as it united followers of Tibetan Buddhism across Russia. A prominent role in the project was played by Buryats and Kalmyks ‒ many of them received their higher religious education in the Buddhist monastic universities of Tibet and were able then to preserve the values of love and compassion even in the most turbulent time in history.
In 1919 the temple were ransacked during the Bolshevik Revolution and have lost most of their relics and ritual objects. In 1922-1937, temple belonged to the Tibetan-Mongolian mission in the USSR. After the liquidation of the mission in 1938, the building was transferred under the jurisdiction of the municipality, the objects of worship were handed over to the Museum of History of Religion and Atheism. In 1990 the temple was passed to the Leningrad Buddhist community.
-Report filed by Office of Tibet, Russia –
