Origin from 1741
In 1741, Empress Elizabeth of Russia issued a decree formally recognizing Buddhism within the Russian Empire, legally sanctioning eleven existing datsans, or monasteries, and the one hundred fifty lamas serving them among the Buryat Mongols east of Lake Baikal in Siberia. It was the first time the Russian state extended legal standing to a Buddhist institution on its own soil, following the 1727 Treaty of Kyakhta's earlier acknowledgment that Buddhism was present at all.
Facts
Dates
Start YearSourced to the subject's own account StatusSourced to the subject's own accountEstablished marks the Russian state's own legal recognition of existing Buryat datsans and lamas, not a claim about when Buddhism first reached the Buryats, which the decree's own language treats as already accomplished, or about the office of Pandito Khambo Lama, created under a later decree this atlas does not date here. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Mongols directly: "lamas serving them among the Buryat Mongols east of Lake Baikal in Siberia."
This source names Russian Empire directly: "recognizing Buddhism within the Russian Empire, legally sanctioning eleven existing datsans, or monasteries, and the one hundred fifty lamas serving them among the Buryat Mongols east of Lake Baikal..."
Occurred In
Spread Event Of
Closes the gap between the Kalmyks' own 1630 arrival on the Volga and the map's next entry in 1853, moving Buddhism's Russian thread from a migrating people's own practice to the Empire's own legal recognition of it, this time among the Buryats of Siberia rather than the Kalmyks of the Volga.
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