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COMBINING THE ANCIENT AND THE MODERN
golia; National Museum of Tuva, scientific and special institutions of the Russian
Federation, as well as electronic resources of Buddhist organizations and institutes.
The list of sources will be added to as the research continues.
Buryatia and Transbaikalia
47 is the commonly published figure in Buryatia for the number of datsan in the ter¬
ritory at the time of the destruction (here Buryatia includes what is now the Republic
of Buryatia as well as parts of Zabaikalskii Krai (Chitinskaya Oblast) and Irkutskaya
Gubernia (now Irkutskaya oblast). The Chancery of Pandita Khampo Lama drew up
the list of monasteries in the territory in December 1911. He listed 31 monasteries,
all of which printed Buddhist texts.”
The larger figure of 47 monasteries in Buryatia comes from one of the first of¬
ficial maps of the Buryat Republic published in 1924 by Burnakomzem and a key
paper published in 1983 by researchers led by K. M. Gerasimova.”° For a deeper
understanding there are works devoted to the study of individual monasteries of
Buryatia or special aspects of Buddhism in this region. For example, D. Zhamsueva.
wrote monographs about several datsans of the eastern part of Transbaikalia,”’ V. Ts.
Lyksokova about Alarskiy datsan (Rus. Anapcxuit nauaH), Chimitdorzhin about Ivol¬
ginskiy datsan (Rus. Mponruuckuii jaan), a group of Buryat Tibetologists wrote
about the practice of block printing in the Buryat Buddhist monasteries and so on."
However, using readily available sources in English, a provisional list of 60 da¬
tsans has been generated. This now needs to be assessed against the received number
by a thorough search of archives not just in Ulan-Ude and Kyakhta but also in re¬
levant Institutions and Archives in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Chita and Irkutsk.
Thanks to the results of the comprehensive research by A. A. Terentyev in Burya¬
tia being published in his book in 2014,” the project now has archive photographs
of 33 historical Buryat datsans. Terentyev who studied for many years with learned
lamas in Aginsky and Ivolginsky Datsans, travelled widely in the territory collecting
information and photographs on the datsans from Buryat lama teachers and local
people as well as studying archival material. This resulted in him being able to iden¬
tify many of the datsans. More widely the issue of identification of objects in old
photographs is one that will have to be addressed by the project team. Experience of
working with archive images of monasteries in Mongolia has shown the authors just
how challenging identification can be. The work done by Terentyev in this regard not
5 Four Mongolian Historical Records. Ed. and transl. Rinchen, B. with a foreword by Raghu Vira.
Sata-Pitaka series; v. 11; v. 2. International Academy of Indian Culture, New Delhi 1959.
Tanganosa, I. P. — Tepacumora, JI. b. — aumes, J]. b. — MurynoB, I. LI.: JJamausm e bypamuu XVIII
—xHauasa XX eeKa: CMpyKMypa U COYUGIbHAA POlb Kybmo6ou Cucmemol. Hayka, HoBocuönpck 1983.
26
7 )Kamcyesa, J]. C.: AewucKue dayanoı kak namamnuku ucmopuu u Kynomypoı. Yınau-Yı3 2001.
8 Cprprpmosa, C. JI. — apmaepa, X. 1K. — Basapos, A. A. Bydduticxoe khuzoneuamanue Bypamuu …
> Tepeutses, A.: Byodusm 8 Poccuu — yapckoü u cosemcroü (cmapvie @omoepaguu). msn. Hapran,
Canxt-Ietep6ypr 2014.
359