Caspian-Uncharted Waters
Newly constructed Buddhist Temple in Artesian at the border with Dagestan.
REPUBLIC OF KALMYKIA-federal subject of the Russian Federation
Kalmykia is an only area of Europe in which the dominant religion has been Buddhism. Kalmyks make up 53.3% of the republic's population.
In 1931, Stalin ordered the collectivization, closed the Buddhist monasteries, and burned the Kalmyks' religious texts. He deported all monks and all herdsmen owning more than 500 sheep to Siberia.
The forced collectivization (as well as the dry, treeless landscape) was unsuited to the Kalmyk temperament and was a social, economic, and cultural disaster. About 60,000 Kalmyks died during the great famine of 1932 to 1933.
In December 1943, Soviet authorities declared the Kalmyk people guilty of cooperation with the German Army and ordered the deportation of the entire Kalmyk population to various locations in Central Asia and Siberia.In 1957-Khrushchev finally allowed their return .
After collapse of Soviet Union Buddhist revival is slowly taking place. Supreme Lama of the Kalmyks is Erdne Ombadykow, a Philadelphia-born man of Kalmykian origin who was brought up as a Buddhist monk in a Tibetan monastery in India from the age of seven . Ombdaykow divides his time between living in Colorado and living in Kalmykia and thanks to his activities numerous Buddhist temples were constructed in all major towns of Kalmykia.The word Kalmyk means 'those who remained'
