The Buryats are a Mongolic ethnic group native to southeastern Siberia who speak the Buryat language. They are one of the two largest indigenous groups in Siberia, the other being the Yakuts. The majority of the Buryats today live in their titular homeland, the Republic of Buryatia, a federal subject of Russia which sprawls along the southern coast and partially straddles Lake Baikal. Smaller groups of Buryats also inhabit Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug and the Agin-Buryat Okrug which are to the west and east of Buryatia respectively as well as northeastern Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, China. They traditionally formed the major northern subgroup of the Mongols.
Ulan-Ude is the capital city of Buryatia, Russia, located about 100 kilometers (62 mi) southeast of Lake Baikal on the Uda River at its confluence with the Selenga. According to the 2021 Census, 437,565 people lived in Ulan-Ude; up from 404,426 recorded in the 2010 Census, making the city the third-largest in the Russian Far East by population.
Buryatia, officially the Republic of Buryatia, is a republic of Russia located in the Russian Far East. Formerly part of the Siberian Federal District, it has been administered as part of the Far Eastern Federal District since 2018. It borders Irkutsk Oblast and Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world to the north, Zabaykalsky Krai to the east, Tuva to the west and Mongolia to the south. Its capital is the city of Ulan-Ude. It has an area of 351,300 square kilometers (135,600 sq mi) with a population of 978,588. It is home to the indigenous Buryats.
The Kalmyks are the only Mongolic-speaking people of Europe whose national religion is Buddhism. In 2016, 53.4% of the population surveyed identified themselves as Buddhist. They live in Kalmykia, a federal subject of Russia in the southwest. Kalmykia borders Dagestan to the south, Stavropol Krai to the southwest, Rostov Oblast to the west, Volgograd Oblast to the northwest, and Astrakhan Oblast to the east. The Caspian Sea borders Kalmykia to the southeast.
Datsan is the term used for Buddhist university monasteries in the Tibetan tradition of Gelukpa located throughout Mongolia, Tibet and Siberia. As a rule, in a datsan there are two departments—philosophical and medical. Sometimes a department of tantric practices is added to them where the monks study only after finishing education in the philosophical department.
Ivolginsky Datsan is the center of the Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia. It is a Buddhist temple located in Buryatia, Russia, 23 km from Ulan Ude, near Verkhnyaya Ivolga village.
Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov was a Buryat Buddhist lama of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
Agvan Lobsan Dorzhiev was a Russian-born monk of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, sometimes referred by his scholarly title as Tsenyi Khempo. He was popularly known as the Sokpo Tsеnshab Ngawang Lobsang to the Tibetans.
Ivolginsky District is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the twenty-one in the Republic of Buryatia, Russia. It is located in the center of the republic. The area of the district is 2,660 square kilometers (1,030 sq mi). Its administrative center is the rural locality of Ivolginsk. As of the 2010 Census, the total population of the district was 37,983, with the population of Ivolginsk accounting for 19.4% of that number.
Historically, Buddhism was incorporated into Siberia in the early 17th century. Buddhism is considered to be one of Russia's traditional religions and is legally a part of Russian historical heritage. Besides the historical monastic traditions of Buryatia, Tuva and Kalmykia, the religion of Buddhism is now spreading all over Russia, with many ethnic Russian converts.
The Ulan-Ude Ethnographic Museum is an outdoor museum, located in the village Upper Berezovka, eight kilometres northeast of Ulan-Ude, Buryatia.
Bidia Dandaron was a major Buddhist author and teacher in the USSR. He also worked in academic Tibetology, contributed to the Tibetan-Russian Dictionary (1959) and made several translations from Tibetan into Russian. He is mostly remembered as a Buddhist teacher whose students in Russia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania continued both religious and scholarly work, and as an early Buddhist author who wrote on European philosophy, history, and science within a Buddhist framework. Among his students were Alexander Piatigorsky and Linnart Mäll.
A Khambo Lama is the title given to the senior lama of a Buddhist monastery in Mongolia and Russia. It is sometimes translated to the Christian title abbot.
Buddhism in Buryatia, a region in Siberia, Russia, has a deep-rooted history dating back to the 17th century when Tibetan Buddhism first arrived in the area. Initially adopted by ethnic groups like the Selenga and Zede Buryats, Buddhism gradually spread throughout the Transbaikal region. In 1741, it gained formal recognition as an official religion in the Russian Empire, with the establishment of Buddhist monastic universities known as datsans. Despite facing significant challenges during the Soviet era, including persecution and the closure of religious institutions, Buddhism in Buryatia has persisted and experienced a revival in the post-Soviet period.
The Central Spiritual Board of Buddhists of the USSR (TsDUB) was the authorized organization for Buddhists in the Soviet Union.
Atsaysky datsan "Tubden Darzhaling" is one of the oldest Buddhist Gelug monasteries in Buryatia, which operated from 1743 to 1935.
Bortoi is a village in the Zakamensky district of Buryatia, Russia.
Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences is a public research institution in Ulan-Ude, Russia, and a constituent institution for oriental studies under the Buryat Science Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It was founded on July 1, 1922 as the Buryat Scholarly Committee under the leadership of Bazar Baradin, with the objective of studying history, language, and culture of Buryatia. In 1949, it entered the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR under the name of Buryat-Mongolian Scientific and Research Institute of Culture.
Dorzhi Banzarov was a Buryat Orientalist and linguist, notable for being the first person of non-ethnic Russian descent to receive a Ph.D. at a Russian university. He is generally considered to be the first Buryat academic.
A khurul is a Buddhist monastery in Kalmyk (Mongol-Oirat) Lamaism. Some of the most famous Kalmyk khuruls are the Burkhan Bakshin Altan Sume (contemporary) in Elista, Republic of Kalmykia, Russia, and the Khosheutovsky khurul.
