Buryatia, Buddha, and Baikal

So this past week I visited the city of Ulan-Ude in the state of Buryatia in the region of Siberia. Buryatia, like Tatarstan, is an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation, but its wealth comes more from agriculture, natural gas and tourism, as opposed to primarily petroleum. Here is the obligatory itty-bitty Meredith shot--but with the world's largest Lenin head! He's especially striking with fresh snow accents.

It was cold when we visited; the temperature ranged from

-20 to about 10 above F. I learned on my return, however, that those of you in the northern Great Plains had the same weather, so nothing new there!

Buryatia is a fascinating place, situated just north of Mongolia. The Buryati people are descendents of the Mongols, but have also been "colonized" in a way by the Tibetan Buddhists--or rather, I should say that the Eastern Buryats are primarily Buddhist. The Western Buryats still follow a naturist religion. I'm told,

however, that the lamas and the shamans will frequently refer a person to the other if they feel help is best found in the other spiritual world, so it is a peaceful coexistence. The Buryats are known as intellectuals and artists, and they remain enthusiastic in both areas. We had the opportunity to attend both a traditional play at the national theatre, and a concert including 'up-dated' traditional music. The orchestra was comprised of traditional instruments as well, like the harp seen in this photo (it's played horizontally however, rather than as pictured). The voices were strong and operatic, also a form of updating although Buryati music tends to be more melodic, in the Western sense, than some other Asian music. Here's a little clip (no video, bad sound....again....) of a duet that was sung. Most of the songs were about horses or love (no pickup trucks, though), and I suspect this is a "sorry baby I gotta go" kind of ballad, but can't say for sure (Carolyn or Helen, please feel free to correct this representation!)

We (I and Helen, another Fulbright scholar based in Moscow) were visiting Carolyn (Fulbrighter in Ulan-Ude)

following her generous invitation at orientation. Carolyn is from Alaska, so was already well acclimated to the natural surroundings. One of her colleagues, Paulina, was equally generous in introducing us to Buddhism and her husband, the colonel, ended up driving us to two of the primary datsans in the city area. Above is a close up from one of the prayer rounds. Buddhists leave small coin tributes in multiple places as part of prayer. Generally, prayers are seen more as "activated" rather than stated. Therefore, when visiting the datsan, you often walk around the building, stopping to turn prayer wheels, or hang prayer cloths as you go as seen in the following photos....

The monks also chant prayers, and people donate so that the monks will include them and their loved ones in the prayer. The belief is that the prayers of monks (and, generally, of men) are more effective, so the job of the monks and lamas is to conduct prayers

for health, long life, aversion of evil, etc. for the rest of us. The prayers are chanted for a period of 1 1/2 to 2 hours (note: there may be many variations on this, but this is what I saw) and people may come and go at any time during the prayers. Here is a little video from the largest temple complex (with all the usual caveats--poor photography, lousy sound, and jumpy photographer). Also, just barely audible is a bit of the prayer chant (sounds like metal clanging and droning) which was broadcast into the grounds from the tantric buddhist chants in the datsan shown at the right.

One of the most prominent sights in the region, however, is the world heritage site Lake Baikal. It is the world's largest and deepest fresh water lake, and has immense importance both culturally and economically. It's stunning. And it's quite cold there in December.

We were very lucky again in Carolyn's colleagues, as her dean arranged for her husband Boris to take us up to Baikal for the day. One of the students, Vitaly, also came along to translate. Vitaly noted that he had never seen Baikal in winter, but we chose to think of this trip as providing him a wonderful opportunity, rather than being crazy people who dragged others out in the cold. And it was cold! But again stunning. The lake is so long and deep that it moves almost like an ocean, even if you can see the other side. It is said to freeze completely over in January, but it is amazing in the creation of "ice dunes" and the tinkling of little ice crystals from the crashing waves. The video below mostly reflects the bellowing of the wind, although you can hear the water. The little appearance by Boris at the end gives a scale to show you just how windy it was--and remember that it's about -10F....It was really, really cold, but stunning (have I mentioned both of those things already?). I'll let the wind and the waves make the last statement...