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SURUN-KHANDA D. SYRTYPOVA — SUSAN C. BYRNE khüree once housing hundreds if not thousands of monks to simple dugan, jas or khurul deep in the countryside used only on special occasions in the religious cycle.* In this project the locations of the datsan, khure and khurul operating in the Russian Federation at the time just before the destruction will be sought and confirmed with the emphasis on the three Republics where Buddhism was widely practiced in the past and where the religion has been revived in the years since glasnost and perestroika. Archives and other academic and government sources will be used to gather the history of these establishments. One challenge will be to obtain information about the nomadic ‘yurt’ khure/khurul and individual lama practitioners. For example, a Tuvan monk explained that in Tuva it was common for monks returning from Tibet to prefer to operate as individual practitioners from a yurt “temple” as they did not want to enter the sangha in one of the khure in the country. Nomadic “wagon” (Rus. KHOHTKa) khurul were also common in Kalmykia though some eventually settled in one place with permanent buildings. In addition to this, the Russian project will aim to identify, locate and record all the active traditional Buddhist monasteries in the Federation and document the changes from the late 1980 to the present time. The intention is that all the information collected on the historical and modern religious establishment will be presented on a globally accessible website. The project will begin by finding and recording information about the historical Buddhist establishments before moving on to studying the Buddhist temples / monasteries in the Russian Federation that are active today. This paper addresses the research approach and work done to date on the historical datsan / khure / khurul. Discussions were held with experts in the field in order to scope the project, and the research team has been formed accordingly. In addition, the Tuvan part of the project has now received state approval. The Research Team The two authors of this paper have assembled a team of Russian researchers all of whom are involved in Buddhist or Oriental studies with a lead researcher based in each of the three Republics. Susan C. Byrne (London) is the project manager. Surun-Kando D. Syrtypova who is based in Moscow is the scientific tutor for the project. Andrei Bazarov (Ulan-Ude) is the lead researcher in the Republic of Buryatia. Ulyana Bichildey (Kyzyl) is the lead researcher in the Republic of Tuva. Delyash Muzraeva (Elista) and Elsa Bakaeva (Elista) are the lead researchers in the Republic of Kalmykia. 4 For a full explanation of the project see Byrne, Sue: Preserving Mongolia’s Buddhist Past as Memories and Traces Fade: the Documentation of Mongolian Monasteries Project. A Collaboration by International Researchers and the Arts Council of Mongolia. In: Mongolian Buddhism: Past, Present and Future. Ed. Birtalan, Agnes — Teleki, Krisztina — Majer, Zsuzsa — Fahidi, Csaba — Rákos, Attila. L’Harmattan, Budapest 2018, 241-265. 352
