Buddhism in Russia (PHOTOS)

John Snelling (amazon.com); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Close up of the largest depiction of the Buddha in Russia: Buryatia (buddhistdoor.net)

It's hard to imagine how big it is on the mountainside among the Russian pines.

Moscow's "Red Square" is like a fairytale Nutcracker church-and-castle of a capital.

The Buddhistic Temple in beautiful St. Petersburg, a Russian Vajrayana Buddhist datsan

Small Buddhist pavilions around the Elista Buddhist Temple in Kalmykia

Buddhism in Russia: The Story of Agvan Dorzhiev: Lhasa's Emissary to the Tsar

Buddhism in Russia: Lhasa's Emissary to Tsar

There is Buddhism in Russia, Ukraine, Siberia, Kalmykia (Europe), Buryatia, Afghanistan and the other formerly-Buddhist stans of Central Asia below Ukraine (formerly in the USSR/the Tsar's Empire) -- and there has been for a long time. Lenin's mother was from Kalmykia, the only indigenously Buddhist part of Europe.

It is mostly of the Mongolian Vajrayana or Tibetan/Himalayan tradition, as also found in Nepal and Bhutan.

There are datsans (Buddhist university-monasteries like Rinchin Datsan from the Tibetan Gelukpa school) all over the hinterlands of North Asia.

Russian Buddhism and anti-Putin FEMEN

This paperback from January 1993 by author John Snelling (now with a foreword by Stephen Batchelor) has earned 4.8 out of 5 stars (with 4 ratings). It is available in various formats and editions.

It is a fascinating story of political and religious intrigue. Buddhism in Russia tells the story of Agvan Dorziev, a Mongolian Buddhist lama.

He was instrumental in the founding of Buddhism in Russia. It includes an update of the status of Buddhism in Russia since glasnost with photos.

Russians are stunning beauties (like Maria Sharapova) on par with Scandinavian neighbors

Russian Buddhism is very old, like the datsan or Buddhist university of Ivolga Monastery

Russian Buddhism in the great Elista Temple of Kalmykia, now part of Europe.

There are European Buddhists? Yes. Young Buddhists Convention, Berlin (Hannah Prinzler)

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Didn't Communist Dictator Stalin destroy Russian Buddhism?

I hate those FEMEN troublemakers.

Stalin desired a "cultural revolution"[357], entailing both creation of a culture for the "masses" and wider dissemination of previously elite culture [358]. He oversaw a proliferation of schools, newspapers, and libraries, as well as advancement of literacy, science, and numeracy [359], but... The government's anti-religious campaign was re-intensified [363], with increased funding given to the League of Militant Atheists [355], so Buddhist monks, Christian priests, and Muslim imams faced persecution [351]. Many religious buildings were demolished, most notably Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior, destroyed in 1931 to make way for the (never completed) Palace of the Soviets [364]. Religion retained an influence over much of the Russian population; in the 1937 census, 57% of respondents were willing to admit to being religious, indicating that the number was actually higher even after communist abuses. More

When Wisdom Quarterly visited, officially "atheist" and communist Russia was nevertheless full of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, like Moscow's Red Square, and the monastic catacombs, where a long tradition of ancient [sort of Coptic] Christianity was still being practiced, with the government banning the export of icons or depictions of a Black African Jesus and famous disciples.

• Central Spiritual Board of Buddhists of the USSR

Unveiling massive Russian Buddha