Blonds, stores, traffic: Life in Russia

What NORMAL, usual Russian neighborhood looks like

Buddhism in Russia (Snelling)

(Arisha in Russia) Buddhism is the third-largest religion in Russia, behind Christianity and Islam. As of 2025, it was practiced by approximately 1.4 million Buddhists, representing about 1.0% of the country’s total population [1].

• In America we misuse the term "White Russian" as if that were the exception, when it is the largest of Russia's 93 ethnicities. Russia is massive and includes many indigenous peoples from Northern Europe to the Arctic Circle.

We have so many Russian ethnicities! (Eli)

Buddhism is considered one of Russia's traditional religions -- with the only indigenously Buddhist region in the world in Kalmykia -- and is legally a part of Russian historical heritage [2]. Russian dictator Vlad Lenin, a disaffected Christian who became a nominal/official communist-atheist, had at least one indigenously Buddhist relative.

I'm very Asian and 100% Russian

Historically, Buddhism was incorporated into Siberia in the early 17th century [3]. Besides the historical monastic traditions of the Buryats, the Kalmyks (Kalmykia being the only majority Buddhist republic in Europe), the Tuvans, and a part of the Evenki people (in Buryatia) [4], Buddhism is now spreading all over Russia, with many young ethnic Russian converts [5, 6].

Ancient Tartaria/Tartary was probably in Russia.

The main form of Buddhism in Russia is Vajrayana, particularly the Gelukpa school of Tibetan Buddhism, to which the Dalai Lama belongs, informally a tradition known as the "Yellow Hats" [6, 7] with other minority Tibetan and non-Tibetan Buddhist schools, such as the Mongolian.

Although Tibetan Buddhism is most often associated with Tibet, it spread into Mongolia. Via Mongolia, Buddhism spread into Siberia before spreading to the rest of Russia.

In the early 20th century, the famous Datsan Gunzechoinei in Saint Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) was the northernmost Buddhist temple in Russia. More