Buddhist Revival in Kalmykia
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
A product by RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES Distributed with www.rbth.ru Opinion Reflections Feature RN’s Konstantin von Eggert on American, Russian Educators A Stalin’s Seven Sisters: DI ME Middle East Geopolitics Swap Skills and Know-How Staging a Comeback ess ON I XPR eg RI/L P.04 hoto P.05 P.06 O P L This pull-out is produced and published by Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russia) and did not involve the news or editorial departments of The Washington Post Wednesday, October 26, 2011 Religions A wondrous tradition is resurrected in an economically depressed region NEWS IN BRIEF Putin Proposes post- Soviet “Eurasian Union” Buddhist Revival in Kalmykia In his first article since announcing that he will run for another term as president, Prime Min- ister Vladimir Putin proposed in the daily Izves- One third of the population tia a “supra-national union capable of becom- of Kalmykia was deported ing a pole in the modern world, and at the during Stalin’s terror. As the same time an effective connection between Eu- region struggles, it returns to rope and the dynamic Asia-Pacific Region.” its roots for answers. Putin’s article mostly covered the economic as- pects of developing the new body out of exist- ANNA NEMTSOVA ing structures such as the Customs Union (which SPecIAL to RN currently unites Belarus, Kazakhstan and Rus- “Let all our wishes come true! Let sia) to cover more of the entire post-Soviet all living creatures be free of suf- space. fering, of danger, of diseases and Read the latest opinions at sadness! Let peace and happi- rbth.ru/13556 ness govern on Earth!” More than 2,000 Buddhists chanted the mantra, kneeling on mats before the Golden Abode of Buddha temple in Elis- Russia and U.S. Team Up ta, the capital of the republic of Kalmykia, one of three tradition- to Prevent Armageddon al Buddhist regions in Russia. In a gesture reminiscent of Hollywood’s “Arma- They repeated words of prayer geddon,” Russia and the U.S. are joining forces after the Kalmyk Buddhist lead- to keep the asteroids at bay and the earth safe er, Telo Tulku Rinpoche. Finally, - using missile shield technology. One of the the square grew quiet as the clinchers is that control of the project is put in group went into deep medita- the hands not of nations but of the United Na- tion. tions. As night fell, thousands of At first glance the brave new step switches the candles were lit. Buddhist monks focus of Russia-U.S. security talks from squab- K visiting from Tibet, Thailand, AN bles over missile defense shields in Europe to and the United States, as well B saving the world together. oto as Russian Buddhist regions of /F But not everyone sees big changes coming. Buriatya and Tuva, blessed those “This positioning has a right to exist but it does mages who gathered from all over Ka- I Y not affect the missile defense shield, which the lmykia and the neighboring GETT Americans are building in Europe,” Fyodor Ly- southern regions of Russia. They ukanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs, told sent candles flying skyward in The first Cer- Philosophy of Non-Violence and sculptures of Tibetan Buddhist traditionally give each other in and culture of Tibetan Bud- Kommersant. hot air balloons, illuminating the emony of Compassion,” held in Elista last scientists inside. Kalmykia. dhism. The religion was adopt- Tom Washington, THE MOSCOW NEWS dark night sky. Light offer- month. At the ceremony, the candle It’s a fittingly modest wish for ed by their predecessors, the The ceremony, an offering of ing to Bud- Despite objections from kites formed a path of light in people in this poor region, stuck Oirat tribes in Mongolia, in the light to Buddha, was introduced dha was held China, a group of 30 Tibetan the pitch-black sky. “That is our in sandy steppe as flat as a pan- 13th century and imported to to Russian Buddhists for the first last month monks from the Gyudmed Mon- white road,” somebody whis- cake. The republic of Kalmykia, the Russian empire when Oirats Russian Documentary time as a symbolic event cele- in Elista, the astery, assigned by the Dalai pered in the crowd. with its population of more than migrated there in 1609. brating the beginning of the in- capital of Lama, arrived to bless the re- “Have a white road” is the 300,000 people, chose to re- Films Come to D.C. ternational forum, “Buddhism: Kalmykia. public’s main temple and 17 most sincere greeting people vive the traditional philosophy CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 The Alexander Solzhenitsyn House of Russians Abroad, Russian-American Historical and Cul- ture Center and Russian Way Film Studio will present the 2nd annual Festival of Russian Doc- umentary Films November 23-30 in Washing- Ecology Nikolai Aladin’s research often went ignored ton, D.C. This year’s Festival will be accompa- nied by award-winning Russian directors like Igor Maiboroda, Sergei Zaitsev and Boris Shei- nin, who will have the oportunity to present Russian Scientist Never Gave Up on Aral Sea their films to an American audience. More details at http://www.cinema-rp.com Nikolai Aladin was an by a Japanese grant, it was the ly, pony-tailed, erudite and underground researcher no last ship afloat on the sea. strongly opinionated — has seen one would fund. Yet his “I went on 25 expeditions on his research and generously dis- results aided the sea’s partial this ship,” Aladin remarked in pensed advice often ignored. Only at Rbth.RU resurgence. his stentorian voice on a recent He first saw, or rather did not expedition to the sea. see, the Aral Sea in 1978. In VostocK-Photo CHRISTOPHER pala Aladin, a professor at the Zo- need of a vacation after defend- SPecIAL to RN ological Institute of the Russian ing his doctoral thesis at the zo- Nikolai Aladin approached the Academy of Sciences in St. Pe- ological institute, he went to Ar- rusting hulk of a small, rusty ship tersburg, has studied the Aral alsk, the northern port, to go on which the words Otto Sea longer than anyone. He can diving. Shmidt were still readable on take indirect credit for the re- The Aral, the world’s fourth- the bow. All around, the former cent rescue of the northern, Ka- largest inland lake, is located in bottom of the Aral Sea was zakh part that has turned the the desert east of the Caspian walkable, stretching to the ho- Aral from a symbol of cata- Sea (Aral means island in Ka- rizon and blending seamlessly strophic environmental misman- zakh). It is fed by Central Asia’s hoto into the surrounding desert. agement to one of model re- K-P two great west-flowing rivers, This research vessel was habilitation. the Syr and Amu Darya, which Will Occupy Wall Street come ostoc named after a famed Russian And yet his career has been /V bring it glacier water from the S R to Russia anytime soon? scientist and explorer of, ironi- anything but easy: except dur- TE Pamir Mountains. U E cally, the Arctic. When it ended ing the brief Glasnost years of R its last cruise in 1996, funded the late 1980s, Aladin — port- The Kazakh part of the Aral Sea is thriving again. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 Rbth.RU/13587 MOST READ Kalmykia (video) RUSSIA NOW 03 http://rbth.ru/13426 SECTION SPONSORED BY ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA, RUSSIA WWW.RBTH.RU Politics & Society When the Soviet Union divert- ed the rivers, it made the deci- Russian Scientist sion to let the sea die. Never Gave Up on Aral Sea CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Until the 1960s, it produced Sherpa to a Sea’s Rebirth 50,000 tons of fish a year. But in the 1960s, the Soviet author- ities began to divert water from toral thesis — to go diving. the two rivers to produce cot- “When I got to Aralsk, the port ton for uniforms and gunpow- was dry and the sea was more der, knowing the sea would than 30 kilometers [18 miles] die. away,” recalled Aladin. When “When I got to Aralsk, the he reached the sea, he found port was dry and the sea was that its salinity had doubled more than 30 kilometers away,” in less than two decades, pos- Aladin recalled. When he sibly the fastest rise in his- reached it, he found that its sa- tory. So he took samples and linity had doubled to 2 percent measurements; he decided he RCHIVES in less than two decades, pos- A would make his life work the L sibly the fastest rise in history. A study of how the fish and wild- So he took samples and mea- life adapted to the changes. PERSON surements and decided he M Since then, Aladin has become would make his life’s work the FRO an expert for a variety of in- study of how the fauna adapt- Nikolai Aladin cared about the Aral before it was popular. ternational environmental pro- ed to the changes. grams devoted to the Caspian The Fastest Shrinking Sea But back in St. Petersburg, Nikolai Aladin was born in tute of the Russian Academy and Aral Seas, including UNES- his proposals were met with eva- 1954 in Leningrad, now St. Pe- of Sciences in St. Petersburg. CO and the United Nations. He sive replies. While the decision tersburg. Since 1989, he has Aladin has been studying the has contributed to more than to sacrifice fish for cotton was been the head of the Labora- Aral sea since 1978, when he 200 articles in scientific publi- not secret, the authorities dis- tory of Brackish Water Hydro- first came to Aralsk for vaca- cations and gone on 41 expedi- couraged any examination of biology at the Zoological Insti- tion after defending his doc- tions to the Aral Sea.