dazanspb
The St. Petersburg Buddhist temple was built in 1909-1915. on the initiative of the outstanding Buryat lama and scientist Agvan Lobsan Dorzhiev (1853/54−1938). The architectural project of the temple was developed by Nikolai Matveyevich Berezovsky, a student of the Institute of Civil Engineers, and Gavriil Vasilyevich Baranovsky, an architect, on the model of a Tibetan cathedral church (“tsogchen-dugan”), which, however, was subjected to significant Europeanization in the spirit of Northern Art Nouveau. The construction was led by architects G.V. Baranovsky and R.A. Berzen (at the final stage), as well as a specially created committee, which included well-known Russian orientalists and experts on Buddhism, academicians V.V. Radlov and S.F. Oldenburg, F.I. Shcherbatskaya, V.L. Kotvich, A.D. Rudnev, Prince. E.E. Ukhtomsky, artists N.K. Roerich and V.P. Schneider, as well as the author of the approved project G. V. Baranovsky. Funds for the construction were partly donated by Dorzhiev and the XIII Dalai Lama, partly collected from believers in Buryatia and Kalmykia.
The temple was consecrated on August 10, 1915 and received a Tibetan name: Kun la brtse mdzad thub dbang mchhos byung ba’i gnas (Source of the Holy Teachings of the All-Compassionate Lord Hermit).
During the years of the civil war, the temple was pogrom and lost most of its relics and cult accessories.
In 1922-1937. the temple estate belonged to the Tibeto-Mongolian mission in the USSR, which was under the auspices of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. In 1938 (after the lamas were arrested and the mission liquidated), the temple building and two residential buildings attached to it were municipalized, religious objects were transferred to the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism. In subsequent years (until the end of the 1980s), the temple housed, respectively, a sports base, a military radio station, and laboratories of the Zoological Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
In 1987, the temple was visited by His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, who is traditionally considered its Patron.
On July 9, 1990, by decision of the executive committee of the Leningrad City Council, the Temple was transferred to the Leningrad Society of Buddhists. In 1991, it received its current name - Datsan Gunzechoinei, which is an abbreviation of its original name. The rector of the temple was Danzan-Khaibzun Samaev, who, after many years of study and spiritual practice, received full monastic ordination from the 14th Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. The abbot sought to revive the center of Buddhist education and culture by organizing the work of both the Khuvara school and the publishing business, actively holding holidays, concerts and exhibitions, inviting famous Buddhist scholars from abroad.
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The course for the active development of Datsan, which meets the modern conditions of society, was taken by the successor D.-Kh. Samaeva Buda Balzhievich Badmaev has been the rector of Datsan since 1997 and an outstanding Emchi Lama (healer) of modern Tibetan medicine. His life's work was the revival of Datsan Gunzechoinei as a multifaceted Buddhist complex, as its creators intended.
dazanspb
The St. Petersburg Buddhist temple was built in 1909-1915. on the initiative of the outstanding Buryat lama and scientist Agvan Lobsan Dorzhiev (1853/54−1938). The architectural project of the temple was developed by Nikolai Matveyevich Berezovsky, a student of the Institute of Civil Engineers, and Gavriil Vasilyevich Baranovsky, an architect, on the model of a Tibetan cathedral church (“tsogchen-dugan”), which, however, was subjected to significant Europeanization in the spirit of Northern Art Nouveau. The construction was led by architects G.V. Baranovsky and R.A. Berzen (at the final stage), as well as a specially created committee, which included well-known Russian orientalists and experts on Buddhism, academicians V.V. Radlov and S.F. Oldenburg, F.I. Shcherbatskaya, V.L. Kotvich, A.D. Rudnev, Prince. E.E. Ukhtomsky, artists N.K. Roerich and V.P. Schneider, as well as the author of the approved project G. V. Baranovsky. Funds for the construction were partly donated by Dorzhiev and the XIII Dalai Lama, partly collected from believers in Buryatia and Kalmykia.
The temple was consecrated on August 10, 1915 and received a Tibetan name: Kun la brtse mdzad thub dbang mchhos byung ba’i gnas (Source of the Holy Teachings of the All-Compassionate Lord Hermit).
During the years of the civil war, the temple was pogrom and lost most of its relics and cult accessories.
In 1922-1937. the temple estate belonged to the Tibeto-Mongolian mission in the USSR, which was under the auspices of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. In 1938 (after the lamas were arrested and the mission liquidated), the temple building and two residential buildings attached to it were municipalized, religious objects were transferred to the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism. In subsequent years (until the end of the 1980s), the temple housed, respectively, a sports base, a military radio station, and laboratories of the Zoological Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
In 1987, the temple was visited by His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, who is traditionally considered its Patron.
On July 9, 1990, by decision of the executive committee of the Leningrad City Council, the Temple was transferred to the Leningrad Society of Buddhists. In 1991, it received its current name - Datsan Gunzechoinei, which is an abbreviation of its original name. The rector of the temple was Danzan-Khaibzun Samaev, who, after many years of study and spiritual practice, received full monastic ordination from the 14th Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. The abbot sought to revive the center of Buddhist education and culture by organizing the work of both the Khuvara school and the publishing business, actively holding holidays, concerts and exhibitions, inviting famous Buddhist scholars from abroad.
.
The course for the active development of Datsan, which meets the modern conditions of society, was taken by the successor D.-Kh. Samaeva Buda Balzhievich Badmaev has been the rector of Datsan since 1997 and an outstanding Emchi Lama (healer) of modern Tibetan medicine. His life's work was the revival of Datsan Gunzechoinei as a multifaceted Buddhist complex, as its creators intended.