Monday, December 3, 2012

So much news, moving to Kalmykia (video)

Amber Dorrian, Wisdom Quarterly

  
Kalmyk flag, white lotus on blue and gold
() Elista, the only indigenously Buddhist capital in Europe, is also the Chess Capital of the World. It is the Kalmyk Republic's main city, a multiethnic metropolis with an industrious Eurasian population.
 
Kalmyk president, Dalai Lama (phayul.com)
The Kalmyks are descendants of the Oirats and other Mongol tribes from the time of Genghis Khan. They settled near Southern Volga along the Caspian Sea and fell afoul of Stalin during the Russian revolution.
 
During the time of imperial Russia, Kalmyks joined the Russian Army with the Cossacks. Lenin was part Kalmyk but an atheist rather than a Buddhist. The maniacal dictator Stalin did not take kindly to this minority ethnic group. 
 
So while everyone else around here heads for the Himalayas, I'm aiming for Europe. All I need is a Buddhist temple, a yoga mat, and a chess board. I can take it up with a little help from the friendly space-faring devas the former president of Kalmykia traveled with.

News overload
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousDecember 7, 2012 at 2:44 AM

    Kalmyks in Europe date from the time just after 1600.

    Genghis Khan and his descendants had been there long before and they named a sacred 'mountain' Bogdo in honour of the Mongolian original. It lies to the NE, well outside the present reduced boundaries of the republic. There is also, in the village of Rechnoe, a lone surviving authentic but somewhat ruined temple in semi-classical style from the 19th C. It also lies beyond the border.
    Everything is googlable!

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