Buddhism in Kalmykia
The Kalmyks are the descendants of Oirat Mongols who migrated from Western Mongolia to Europe during the early part of the 17th century.
In the 13th century, they inhabited areas around the upper Irtysh river and the west side of Altai Mountains.
At the beginning of the 17th century, there was a mass exodus of Oirats to the Russian Empire because of a shortage of pastureland and the unstable political situation among Mongol tribes and a constant strife with the neighboring Kazakh Khanate.
They were permitted to nomadize within the allotted area along the Irtysh and Tobol rivers and were guaranteed military support against Mongols and Kazakhs.
In exchange for this permission, they were obligated to participate in military campaigns and to protect the southern borders of the Russian Empire.
Around the middle of the 17th century, the northern Caspian steppes on both sides of the Volga river were allotted to the Oirats.
[5]: 92 The Russian Empire did not interfere in the internal affairs of the Kalmyk Khanate until the middle of the 18th century, when it started to colonize the Volga steppes with Russian peasants, causing an economic crisis and the migration of approximately 70% of the khanate's population to Dzungaria.
The government prohibited the contact with Tibet and decided to limit the number of monks per Buddhist monastery.
[5]: 93 The anti-Buddhist reforms remained in force until 1905, when a summit conference either relaxed or abolished the regulations and allowed contact to resume with Tibet and Mongolia.
Furthermore, monasteries were allowed to open printing houses and schools, and monks were permitted to travel abroad and bring back Buddhist literature and ritual objects.
The Kalmyk republic officially ceased to exist based on a decree of the Supreme Soviet on 27 December 1943.
[5]: 91 Officially, religious revival was not allowed until the federal law on "the Freedom of Consciousness and Religious Organizations" came in force in October 1990,[5]: 94 but the first Kalmyk Buddhist community was already registered two years earlier, in October 1988, after an officially permitted lecture by the American scholar and translator of Tibetan Buddhist texts, Alexander Berzin.
The strike received a lot of media attention and led to an emergency conference of the Kalmyk Buddhist Union with 180 people partaking.
In the following two years of his absence, he was substituted by the teacher of Tibetan Buddhism and representative of the 14th Dalai Lama, Jampa Tinley.
Before returning to Kalmykia in 1995, Telo Tulku renounced his monk's vows due to a marriage, but he remained the Šajin Lama and head of the Kalmyk Buddhist Union and did not change his views regarding monasticism, including celibacy, despite no longer being a celibate monk himself.
[5]: 97 Telo Tulku and Andja Gelüng, the abbot of the Central Kalmyk Monastery, insist that monasticism is a mandatory part of Vinaya, because only monks with full vows can function as "true" teachers of Buddhism.
[5]: 98 'Pure Buddhism' is the traditional approach to the sangha, without any innovations, and without adding new elements under the influence of external factors.
In this regard, Kalmykia's official approach to reviving Buddhism differs from the contemporary developments in Buryatia and Mongolia, where a relative laicization of sangha can be observed and where the strict distinction between monks and laity is gradually disappearing.
In the wake of the Second World War, an estimated 526 Kalmyk refugees migrated from West Germany and surrounding areas to America in the late 1951 and early 1952.
[9] The babushki matsik are increasingly recognised for their role in preserving translated Tibetan Buddhist sacred texts, advantageously using their "politically negligible" status as old women to create untouchable religious material that could then be recorded and dispersed in periods of religious freedom.
