Shamanism and Buddhism in Buryatia (video)

Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; RT (InstitutulHermetic.ro/Scoalamisterelor)

Russian, like European "shamans" (Pagans, Wiccans, followers of the Earth-based "Old Religion") as was the case around the world with amazing uniformity, were most often women (not Medicine "Men") and autistic-like introverts, psychics, and poets, who serve the people by interfacing with the unseen spirit world. Early Buddhists were shramans (WQ).

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Shamanism/Buddhism in Russia, Part II

(RT) Faces of Russia: Russian Far East above Central Asia, home of the Buddha and his relatives' "Shakya Land" (ancient Scythia/Bactria), near Mongolia, still thrives in Kalmykia and Buryatia.

• Buddhism in Buryatia, Far East Russia

Russian Buddhism: Vajrayana Buddhist temple in Buryatia, Russia (VOA.com/J. Weeks)

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Far East Russia: rural Buryatia

In 1701 there were eleven dugans (small Buryat Buddhist temples) in Transbaikalia.

In 1722 the border was delineated between Mongolia and Russia. Buryat tribes living nomadically in the northern part of Mongolia then became part of Russia. The Russian government closed off the border, induced the Buryat nomads to take on a relatively settled lifestyle, and made itself the authority on the region's religious matters.
 

Buddhism in Russia (Snelling)

Buddhist monastic universities, called datsans, were built in Buryatia -- including the one at Tsongol, completed in the early 1740s.

In 1741 Empress Elizabeth (Yelizaveta Petrovna) adopted a decree recognizing the existence of a "lamaist faith": She legally recognized the existence of eleven datsans, and with them 150 lamas. Buddhism was formally accepted as an official religion in the Russian Empire.
 

Kalmykia, indigenous-Buddhism in Europe

(In July 1991 the Buddhists of Buryatia commemorated 250 years of official recognition). [Alexandr Berzin, Tibetan Buddhism: History and Future Prospects, Moscow, 1992; Буддизм, Л. Л. Абаева, М., Республика, 1991 (Buddhism, L.L. Abaeva, Respublika, Moscow 1991)]. More

• Buddhist Revival in Buriatia: Recent Perspectives (Anna Bernstein, Mongolian Studies, Vol. 25, 2002, pp. 1-11, Mongolia Society)