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ABOUT: Johnny Harris is a filmmaker and journalist. He is currently based in Washington, DC, reporting on interesting trends and stories domestically and around the world. His visual style blends motion graphics with cinematic videography to create content that explains complex issues in relatable ways. He holds a B.A. in international relations from Brigham Young University and an M.A. in international peace and conflict resolution from American University. Press: NYTimes: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/09/op... NYTimes: https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion... Vox Borders: • Inside Hong Kong’s cage homes Finding Founders: https://findingfounders.co/episodes/j... NPR Planet Money: https://www.npr.org/transcripts/10721...

Soviet Union, empire, Russia, Central Asia, Far East, Vlad Putin, Czar, communist regime, capitalism, European, country, size, largest, Canada, Moscow, Mongols, Turkey, Korea, China

Eli from Russia in Buddhist Mongolia

(Eli from Russia) First impressions of Buddhist Mongolia: from Soviet Era to nomadic life

• Buddhism in Mongolia

How cold does it really get in Mongolia?

Eli in Buddhist Russia, RU Machu Picchu

Traveling in Eastern Europe's only indigenously Buddhist republic...on a camel

The camels of formerly Buddhist Central Asia

(Eli from Russia) REPUBLIC OF KALMYKIA. Four hundred years ago the descendants of Mongolian Oirats (Kalmyks) migrated to Europe. They created the Kalmyk Khanate, which lasted from 1635 to 1779, in the south of the European portion of Russia's massive territory. Today they form the majority in Kalmykia, located on the Kalmyk Steppe, on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. They are the only traditionally Buddhist people located in Europe, and they herd and ride Bactrian camels. This place, cold as it feels with the windchill, has burning water springs.

Time codes

• 

  Elista, capital of Russian Buddhist Kalmykia

  00:00 Welcome to the only Buddhist republic in Europe!
• 01:20 A day starts with Kalmyk/Mongolian salty tea
• 03:15 Let's find the Mongols!
• 05:10 Meeting the Bactrian camels
• 07:00 Being a guest in a Mongol yurt
• 09:50 Exploring Kalmyk steppes
• 12:20 Throat singing
• 14:15 A natural wonder in the steppe
• 15:28 Heading North!

Let's go to the Buddhist temple

Is this Europe?! Celebrating New Year in Buddhist Kalmykia

Southernmost republic of Russia | Makhachkala, abandoned villages, Khabib's, Machu Picchu

(Eli from Russia) Redheaded correspondent travels the length of a nation so big, it might as well be many countries called Europe 2.0. Dagestan is named the "hidden gem of the Caucasus in Russia." It is also the most multinational republic in the country. Let's discover its beautiful mountain villages, canyons (deeper than the Grand Canyon, USA), and get to know the local traditions.

Time codes

• 

  Russian redheads blend in well in Soviet Union

  0:00 Welcome to Dagestan!
• 1:36 Local cuisine and payment for breaking the dishes
• 3:30 Dagestan - hidden gem of the Caucasus
• 4:17 Makhachkala's beaches
• 6:50 Crazy drivers?
• 9:40 Natural beauties. The Sulak Canyon
• 11:02 Khabib's restaurant
• 12:56 Russian Machu Picchu - abandoned village of Gamsutl in the mountains
• 18:09 Sary-Kum sand dune near the capital
• 19:19 Why do Dagestanis love this region?

📌Videos from Chechnya: • The real life in Grozny | Is Chechnya...

- Real life in Grozny. Is the Chechen Republic of Russia safe for traveling? • The Chechen wedding isn't what you'd... - Visiting the Chechen wedding | Code of honor, traditions, and life of the Chechens

📌elinabakunova.com/russianclub: Russian Speaking Club where participants can practice the Russian language. Join at any level ;)

🔸What can be found on this channel? 👉🏻 Explanations of Russian culture and facts about Russia that are not found on Google 👉🏻interviews with people on the streets talking about controversial topics 👉🏻opportunities for education for international students learning Russian 👉🏻travel vlogs from the Big Country 📍

More videos: • Life in a provincial Russian town in... - Life in a provincial Russian town in the Urals | Perm • Russian culture | Habits you should a... - Russian culture | Habits you should adopt in Russia • Slavic languages | Are they similar a... - Slavic languages | Are they similar and can you learn all of them?

📸 elibakunova - on Instagram sharing more content about Russia, its cultures, traveling through, and daily life 🤍 elifromrussia - for those who feel like supporting this channel through Patreon

• Adopted WQ Russian Correspondent Eli Bakunova ("Eli from Russia"), YouTube, Jan. 20, 2024, Nov. 26, 2021; Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The old Buddhists of Europe (video)

DW, 7/12/19; Namepedia, 5/5/15; Jen Bradford, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Kalmykia is Europe's only Buddhist region

(Pal in China) May 19, 2022. Kalmykia is located in Eastern Europe in Southwest Russia. The Kalmyk nomads, a Mongol subgroup, came here about 400 years ago. They brought their Tibetan Buddhist tradition with them from East Asia. The republic was dissolved in 1943 under the reign of Russian dictator Stalin, spiritual leaders were persecuted, and Buddhist temples were destroyed. The entire Kalmyk people were deported to Siberia and only allowed to return to the region after the end of Stalinism. Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990, Buddhism has flourished again in Kalmykia. There are now Buddhist temples, pagodas, and religious statues, especially in the capital city of Elista.

Kalmykia: Europe's only Buddhist region | Europe to the Maxx

(DW Euromaxx) ELISTA - Welcome to Europe's only Buddhist Region, Kalmykia. Some 160,000 Buddhists live here. Kalmykia is an autonomous republic of the Russian Federation, located between the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea. For the series "Europe to The Maxx," Euromaxx reporter Hendrik Welling has made his way to the south-easternmost part of Europe. Join him on his tour to see the highest statue of Buddha in Europe, to hear the sound of overtone singing, and to learn more about the rich culture of this special place in Europe.

• Buddhism in Kalmykia
• #EuropeToTheMaxx

The grand Buddhist temple in Elista, Kalmykia, is full of European devotees.

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What the Buddha taught is True!

There is a place at the edge of Europe, by the Caspian Sea, just before the Ural Mountains, where one can find the only Buddhist people with roots in this old continent called Europe.

The Kalmyk people

Kalmyks have been living there since the XVIIth century, after a long journey from Mongolian Djungaria, a land in Far East Siberia.

Buddhist pavilions under a bright blue sky made out of wood with ceramic roof arcing inward.

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Kalmyk girl dressed in Russian fashion

Like all other people who have undergone an extensive journey looking for a new home, they tried to go back.

They have been chased around the steppes a few times: Kalmyks have been subjected to contrasting cultural influences and have emerged as quite original themselves.

• PHOTO: Kalmyk girl, wearing a red dress decorated with white lace and a head bonnet, typical of the Russian fashion of that time.

Map showing where the Kalmyk region is situated in the Ural Mountains

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From their shamanic roots, to the Tibetan [Vajrayana] Buddhism they practice, to the pressure of living under a Russian bureaucracy, to the surprise that this was once the chess capital of Europe, Kalmyk culture has felt it all.

Kalmykia is the most Eastern of European realms and the most Western of Asian cultures, uniting such strong contrasts in everyday life and reflecting its history even in names. More

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Autumn Festival: story behind the cakes (sutra)

CC Liu, Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Zen Vuong (Pasadena Star-News); Pacific Asia Museum

The glorious harvest moon refulgent with yin energy (donnalewisconan)

  

Father and son make lantern

The Mid-Autumn Festival celebrates harvest, family reunions, and hope for another year of good fortune.

Some believe the celebration’s roots originated from the Chinese rebellion against the Mongols, who detested moon cakes. The Chinese rebel leader, Zhu Yuanzhang, had a hard time organizing a coup because large gatherings were outlawed, reports ChinaTravel.com. So the rebels baked a slip of paper into moon cakes. It ordered insurgents to attack on the 15th day of the 8th lunar year. Thus the Chinese eat moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival to celebrate this successful overthrow.
  

Tea with dense, sickly sweet cakes.

Thanksgiving [means] the centerpiece for this Chinese and Vietnamese harvest celebration doesn’t include a bulky dead bird. During Zhongqiu Jie, or the Mid-Autumn Festival, people give family, friends, and colleagues moon cakes, a small but filling pastry embossed with a description of its innards or the name of a bakery. Others have patterns of clouds, the moon, or a rabbit [a lucky symbol of the moon]....

 

“It’s almost like a Christmas fruitcake. It’s a traditional gift...,” said Becky Sun, a Pacific Asia Museum spokeswoman. “Adult children give them to parents and seniors. Friends and business partners give them to each other...” More 

The Miserly Treasurer

Ken and Visakha Kawasaki (trans), Illisa Rebirth Tale (Jataka 78)

The miser didn't enjoy his riches either

This story was told by the Buddha while at Jetavana Grove about a tremendously rich royal treasurer.

He lived in a town called Sakkara near the city of Rajagaha and had been so tightfisted that he never gave away even the tiniest drop of oil that could be picked up with a blade of grass. Worse than that, he wouldn't even use that minuscule amount of oil for his own satisfaction. His vast wealth was actually of no use to him, to his family, or to the deserving people of the land.

 

Moggallana, however, led this miser and his wife to Jetavana, where they served a great meal of cakes to the Buddha and a large number of monastics. After hearing words of thanks from the Buddha, the royal treasurer and his wife attained stream-entry.

That evening the monastics gathered together in the Hall of Truth. "How great is the power of Ven. Moggallana!" they said. "In a moment he converted the miser to charity, brought him to Jetavana, and made possible his attainment. How remarkable is the elder!" While they were talking, the Buddha entered and inquired as to the subject of their discussion.

 

When they told him, the Buddha replied, "This is not the first time, monastics, that Moggallana has converted this miserly treasurer. In previous days too the elder taught him how deeds and their effects are linked together." Then the Buddha told this story of the past [past life].

 

The best cake is raw vegan berry cheesecake California-style (TheRawtarian.com)

 

Long, long ago, when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benaresaranasi, there was a treasurer named Illisa who was worth 80 crores of wealth. This man had all the defects possible in a person. He was lame and hunchbacked, and he had a squint; he was a confirmed miser, never giving away any of his fortune to others, yet never enjoying it himself either.

 

Interestingly enough, however, for seven generations back his ancestors had been bountiful, giving freely of their best. When this treasurer inherited the family riches, he broke that tradition and began hoarding his wealth.

 

One day, as he was returning from an audience with the king, he saw a weary peasant sitting on a bench and drinking a mug of cheap liquor with great gusto. The sight made the treasurer thirsty for a drink of liquor himself, but he thought, "If I drink, others will want to drink with me. That would mean a ruinous expense!" The more he tried to suppress his thirst, the stronger the craving grew.

 

The effort to overcome his thirst made him as yellow as old cotton. He became thinner and thinner until the veins stood out on his emaciated frame. After a few days, still unable to forget about the liquor, he went into his room and lay down, hugging his bed. His wife came in, rubbed his back, and asked, "Husband, what is wrong?" "Nothing," he answered. More

Buddhist Russia: Kalmykia

"Territories and Regions" (BBC)

The Republic of Kalmykia is a constituent republic of the Russian Federation situated south of the Volga on the north-western shores of the Caspian Sea. It shares its south-eastern border with Dagestan.

Kalmyks account for about 45% of the population. The rest are mostly ethnic Russians.

• Overview
  Facts
  Leaders
  Media

The Kalmyk people are descended from nomadic Mongol herdsmen who travelled westwards in the 16th and 17th centuries in search of pasture land, eventually settling around the Volga river. After an oath of allegiance to the tsar they were granted a khanate in exchange for services in guarding Russia's eastern frontierland.

Their fortunes were less favorable in the 18th century and many set off eastwards again. The word Kalmyk is derived from the Turkish for remnant and refers to those who remained.

The Kalmyks live in the only Buddhist nation in Europe and revere the Dalai Lama, who visited the republic in 2004.

In 1943 Stalin accused the Kalmyks of collaboration with the Nazis and deported them en masse to Siberia where around half of them died. They were only allowed to return home in 1957 after Khrushchev came to power in the Kremlin.

Now one of Europe's poorest and most underdeveloped regions with a crumbling infrastructure, Kalmykia was once a land of fertile if fragile steppe whose black soil was cherished by the herdsmen.

Soviet times changed all that. The land was ploughed and intensive grazing became the norm. Much of the steppe has now turned to desert.

Livestock raising remains the main economic activity and there is also some fishing and arable farming.

Facts

• Status: Semi-autonomous region of Russia
  Population: 329,000 (1990)
  Area: 29,400 square miles (76,150 sq km)
  Capital: Elista
  Status: Republic within Russian Federation
  Main ethnic groups: Kalmyks, Russians
  Languages: Kalmyk, Russian
  Religions: Buddhism, Christianity
  Resources: Agriculture, wool, caviar

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