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COMBINING THE ANCIENT AND THE MODERN:
PROVIDING A DOCUMENTED RECORD OF RUSSIA’S
PAST AND PRESENT BUDDHIST MONASTERIES
WITH OPEN ACCESS ON THE WEB
Surun-Khanda D. Syrtypova
Institute of Oriental Studies of Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
Susan C. Byrne
Independent Researcher, London
This paper outlines how the goal and approach of the Documentation of Mongolian
Monasteries project (DOMM) are being adapted to find and locate the sites of the
monasteries in the three Republics and associated territories in the Russian Federa¬
tion which have a long Buddhist tradition: Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva. The team
of Russian researchers all of whom are involved in Buddhist or Oriental studies is
described. It will describe the systematic approach being taken and the parameters
being set for the intended data collection. It also details the work done to date on lo¬
cating sources and historical information and photographs prior to studying archives
in three Republics and adjoining areas as well as in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and
explains some of the challenges the project faces. The project will focus on locating
the monasteries existing in the three territories up to and immediately before their
destruction though it is intended that there will be a section on the website that ad¬
dresses the longer historical perspective of the presence of Buddhism in the land now
known as the Russian Federation dating back to the 7" century.
Buddhist Monasteries in the Russian Federation
In the 17" century, groups of Oirats migrated from the steppes of southern Siberia
on the banks of the Irtysh river to the lower reaches of the Volga, part of which is
now the Republic of Kalmykia, bringing with them the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition.
Not long after this the Buryats and other peoples of the Transbaikalian region began
to adopt Buddhism and in 1741 the Russian Empress Elizaveta (1709-1762) had to
recognize the existence of the Buddhist clergy there. The Queen’s decree was issued
at the insistence of the Orthodox Christian Church who wished to limit the official
number of Buddhist lamas to 150, and the decree itself is noted as the legitimization
of Buddhists in Russia. The territory of Tuva where Buddhism was introduced from
Mongolia with first monastery being built in the 1770s joined the USSR in 1944
(after the fall of the Qing Empire in 1911, although from 1913, Uryankhaiskii Krai
was under the protectorate of the Russian Empire).
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