RELIGION-RUSSIA: Political Wrangling Overshadows Buddhist Revival

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Sergei Blagov

MOSCOW, May 25 1998 (IPS) - The rapid revitalisation of Buddhism in Russia since the fall of the repressive Soviet regime, may yet be undermined by the increasing politicisation of the priesthood and their involvement in regional electioneering.

Politically active Buddhist monks in the Russian federation republic of Buryatia have split behind rival lamas (priests) in the remote territory, lying between Lake Baikal and the Mongolian border, and home to two thirds of Russia’s Buddhists.

Earlier this month baton wielding paramilitary police moved into Buryatia to break up groups of Buddhist monks trying to stop a priceless 17th century Buddhist medical almanac from being shipped the United States for exhibition.

Buryat authorities say the protests were politically motivated and designed to discredit the republic’s president government ahead of June elections.

The Buryat, a nomadic people, converted to Tibetan Buddhism in the 16th century. Before 1917 there were some 200 temples and monasteries in the republic. But under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, thousands of lamas were executed or sent to the Gulag camps and their monasteries and temples destroyed.

Since the fall of communism, monks can work freely and visit India, Japan and other countries, to study Buddhist canon and establish contacts with other Buddhist faithful overseas.

The result has been a blossoming of interest in Buddhism in Russia and in Tibetan Buddhism in particular.

“It is a tricky task to come up with realistic estimates regarding the numerical strength of Buddhist followers in Russia,” says Dr Natalia Zhukovskaya of the Moscow based Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, and an expert in Buddhist studies.

“In Buryatia, for instance, many Christians visit Buddhist temples and some Buryat are still devoted to shamanist beliefs.”

She calculates that there are roughly 500,000 adherents of Buddhism in Russia. Matters are complicated by the 200 sects in Russia, including 14 in Moscow alone, that claimed ‘buddhism’ as a root when registering as faiths. The notorious Aum Shinri Kyo cu lt, whose members used nerve gas on the Tokyo subways in 1996, was registered in Russia as a Buddhist congregation.

“The Buddhist revival in Russia has got a boost from developing ties with Tibetan Buddhism,” says Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president of Kalmykia, another of Russia’s federated territories where Buddhism is prominent. Most Russian Buddhists belong to the Gel ugpa (Yellow Hat) sect of Buddhism, led by the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader.

However the Russian Buddhist revival has failed to bring peace and unity to the Buddhist congregations in Buryatia, where the sangha (priesthood) has split into two hostile factions.

Khambo lama (chief priest) Damba Ayushev was deposed by Nimozhan Ylyukhinov this year, although Ayushev’s term does not expire until May 1999. Two separate Buddhist congregations have developed in Buryatia, although Ylyukhinov’s group has not been offici ally registered by the authorities.

It was Ayushev’s supporters who led the protests against the removal of the unique Tibetan Medical Atlas and related drawings for exhibition in the United States. The Tibetan Medical Atlas is considered the finest of three surviving 19th century copies o f the original 17th-century medical treatise.

Its priceless drawings are presently on show until Jul. 12 at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University, Atlanta, and then go on to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, Indiana University and Newark, New Jersey over the next 12 months.

The four museums will pay Buryatia a total of 20,000 dollars for the loan of the works under a deal set up by the U.S. arts promotions firm Pro Cultura through the culture ministers of Buryatia and the Russian Federation.

With the support of the Dalai Lama and the U.S. actor Richard Gere, Pro Cultura has spent a reported 300,000 dollars on restoration work and special cases designed to preserve them in their restored state for another 200 years.

Despite this, on May 3, about 50 monks and khubaraks (lay followers) began a vigil outside the Buryat History Museum, which was storing the atlas, their aim to prevent its shipment to Atlanta.

The next day about 100 masked Interior Ministry troops arrived and cleared the entrance with batons; 30 monks and khubaraks were beaten and two monks and a camera operator arrested.

Khambo lama Damba Ayushev’s supporters claim the contract has legal loopholes that could result in the Atlas remaining permanently in the United States. Buryat republic president Leonid Potapov claims the protest was designed to discredit his government before Jun. 2 presidential elections in Buryatia.

Russian media claimed that two of Potapov’s 18 election rivals and members of a local criminal fraternity, the so-called ‘Wrestlers’ Gang’, were among the protestors. Film of Interior Ministry forces assaulting the monks was taken and later released by A lexander Korenev, one of Potapov’s rivals for the presidency.

Adding more mystery to the pot, some Buryat observers have claimed that the entire stand-off is part of a wider political move to secure power before a massive Russo-Chinese gas pipeline project comes on stream in the next few years.

The speculation is that the battle is on for control of the transit fees that will be levied by Buryatia when the 10 billion dollar, 3,700 kilometre long pipeline finally starts shifting an estimated 20 billion cubic metres of gas to China a year.

The pipeline plan, agreed last November, will ship gas from Russia’s Kovyktinskoye field, in the southern Siberian region of Irkutsk near Lake Baikal, through Buryatia and Mongolia, through to China’s Pacific coast port of Lianyunggang. The pipe may late r be extended under the sea to Japan and South Korea — massively increasing its potential profitability.

Zhukovskaya said it was significant that Ayushev, a former supporter of Potapov, had led the demonstration. “The Buryat lamas are too politicised,” she says. “They are interested not in spiritual matters, but rather more mundane affairs.”

Such ideas appal Valery Borschev, deputy chairman of the committee on popular movements and religious denominations at the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. “Any attempt to misuse religion as part of political infighting would be a

real crime,” he told IPS.

“Some Russian regional politicians are trying to play the religious card,” he warned. “They forget that conflicts between members of different faiths can prove much worse, much worse than ethnic conflict, even.”