Buddhism after the restoration of the Estonian Republic: 2005–2012
Estonian Nyingma Encyclopaedia of Buddhism
In 2005, Ven. Väärtnõu started the first web portal, the Encyclopaedia of Buddhism in Estonia, which contains scientific works, terminology, articles, travelogues etc, and has so far published more than 3200 articles. This encyclopaedia is the result of Väärtnõu’s years of personal work and the work is done on a voluntary basis. Most of the articles About Buddhism in the Estonian Wikipedia are written by Väärtnõu.
International Buddhist conferences “Buddhism & Nordland”
In February 2007, the first international conference, “Buddhism & Nordland”, was organised by Ven. Väärtnõu. This three-day annual Buddhist conference is the first and only conference in Europe which investigates Buddhism in the Nordic Countries and has gathered high level academics and Buddhist scholars from all over the World in Tallinn. From 2007–2011 five “Buddhism & Nordland” conferences were held in Tallinn University, and they were organised and funded by Estonian Nyingma.
Buddhist Thangkas
Venerable Väärtnõu is the author of original Estonian thangkas. In recent decades, he has also created thangkas using computer graphics. His thangkas, which grew out of his deep Knowledge of Buddhism, have found their way into the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm, MC University in Thailand and the possession of Thailand’s Royal Family.
In 2008–2010 Estonian Nyingma, under the guidance of Ven. Väärtnõu, built a Buddhist temple, Prayer Wheels and a new 10m high Stupa at the Estonian Nyingma Centre in Veltsa. Today Estonia has five Buddhist Stupas, which are the only Stupas in the Baltic states.
