Қалмық халқының буддизм діні

Buddhism under the Kalmyk people

The Kalmyks are the only Mongolic speaking people of Europe whose national religion is Buddhism. In 2016, 53.4% of the population surveyed identified themselves as Buddhist. They live in Kalmykia, a federal subject of Russia in the southwest. Kalmykia borders Dagestan to the south, Stavropol Krai to the southwest, Rostov Oblast to the west, Volgograd Oblast to the northwest, and Astrakhan Oblast to the east. The Caspian Sea borders Kalmykia to the southeast. The Kalmyks are the descendants of Oirats who migrated to Europe during the early part of the 17th century. As Tibetan Buddhists, the Kalmyks regard the Dalai Lama as their spiritual leader. The Šajin Lama (Supreme Lama) of the Kalmyks is Erdne Ombadykow, a Philadelphia born man of Kalmyk descent who was brought up as a Buddhist monk in a Tibetan monastery in India from the age of seven and who was identified as the reincarnation (tulku) of the Buddhist saint Telo Rinpoche by the 14th Dalai Lama.

The Oirats are the historical ancestors of the Kalmyks. The Russian Empire did not interfere in the internal affairs of the Kalmyk Khanate until the middle of the 18th century, when it started to colonize the Volga steppes with Russian peasants, causing an economic crisis and the migration of approximately 70% of the khanate's population to Dzungaria. Soon after, in 1771, Catherine the Great ended the independence of the Kalmyk Khanate.]] Another important contributor to the revival of Buddhism in Kalmykia has been the Dharma Center of Kalmykia. It was established in 1991 in Elista with the goal "to develop non monastic Buddhism and to educate the laity in the basic philosophy, history, and practice of Buddhism". In the 1990s, the center offered courses on the Tibetan language and Buddhist logic, and invited teachers of different Tibetan traditions. As a result of their efforts, several lay Buddhist communities had been developed by the end of the century. By 1962, the approximate Kalmyk population in the United States was 700.

The babushki matsik (matsg), meaning "group of old women precept holders" were groups of elderly women who maintained traditional Tibetan Buddhist practices during the forced deportation of Kalmyk nationals to Siberia in 1943. During this period, all Kalmyk Buddhist shrines and temples were demolished. The babushki matsik are increasingly recognised for their role in preserving translated Tibetan Buddhist sacred texts, advantageously using their "politically negligible" status as old women to create untouchable religious material that could then be recorded and dispersed in periods of religious freedom.