Golden Abode of Buddha Shakyamuni

Kalmykia is the one part of Europe where Tibetan Buddhism is the traditional religion - the Kalmyks are descended from Oirats who moved west from Dzungaria in the seventeenth century - and this temple, opened in 2005, is the largest Buddhist building in Europe. Inside stands a gilded seated Buddha about nine metres high. The complex is arranged on a formal plan: a white outer wall with prayer wheels set into it, a ring of seventeen pagodas each holding a statue of a Buddhist teacher, gates on the cardinal points, and the temple itself on a stepped platform. The city around it, Elista, is flat steppe with Buddhist stupas and pavilions scattered through it and a chess complex built in the 1990s when the region hosted the Chess Olympiad. The rebuilding of Kalmyk temples dates almost entirely from the 1990s onward.

History

The temple was built on the site of an old concrete-products plant, with the blessing of the 14th Dalai Lama, who visited Elista in 2004. It went up in just nine months, designed by S. Kurneev, V. Gilyandikov and L. Amninov, and opened on 27 December 2005, timed to the Kalmyk festival of Zul. The building is 63 metres high on seven levels, set in a mandala-shaped plan behind a wall of 108 white stupas; inside the nine-metre gilded Buddha are sacred objects, mantras and handfuls of earth from every district of the republic, and the fifth level is kept as a residence for the Dalai Lama (Russian Wikipedia, Golden Abode of Buddha Shakyamuni).

What's there

• The nine-metre Buddha - the gilded seated figure inside the main hall.
• The ring of pagodas - seventeen small pavilions, each with a teacher's statue.
• The prayer wheels - set into the white perimeter wall, turned clockwise.
• The steppe city - Elista, flat and open, with stupas through the streets.

When to go

April to June and September to October; summer on the steppe is very hot. Two hours for the temple, a day for Elista.

What to expect

The building dates from 2005, not from any older tradition - the older temples were destroyed. Shoes come off, dress rules apply and photography inside is restricted. Elista is remote, with a long road approach and limited services. Summer heat and winter wind are both severe.

Nearby

Elista's stupas and the chess complex are in the same city.

Key facts