The Mind Creative
Irkutsk railway station Around Lake Baikal to
the east of Irkutsk in
the
Republic
of
Buryatia, which has a
population of around
one
million,
the
indigenous
Buryats
(about 30% of the
population)
practice
Tibetan Buddhism and
Shamanism. Buryatia
is
not
the
only
‘Buddhist homeland’ in
Russia. There is also the Republic of Kalmykia, on the shores of
the Caspian Sea to the north of Daghestan, with a population of
just under 300,000. Kalmykia is the only Buddhist region in Europe
(Buryatia falls in Asian Russia).
Like the Chechens, the
Kalmyks were deported en
masse by Stalin for alleged
collaboration with Germany
during the Second World
War, but were allowed to
return in 1957, only to find
much of their land settled by
Russians. However, Kalmyks
still constitute 57% of the
population and a majority of
them
practice
Tibetan
Buddhism.
Another view of the lake
There is even a ‘Jewish homeland’ in Russia, the so-called Jewish
Autonomous Area, which is situated in the Russian Far East,
bordering China. Established in 1934, its Jewish population peaked
in 1948 at around 30,000, about one-quarter of the Autonomous
Area’s population.
The name may be a misnomer, for the Jews here now number fewer
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