Zandan Zhuu. The most valuable relic of the Buddhist world is located in Buryatia. Datsans of Buryatia: Egituisky datsan. Sandalwood Buddha statue - Zandan Zhuu Buddha statue in Buryatia

One of the famous sacred places of Buryatia is the Egituysky datsan, located in the town of Khara-Shibir, in the Eravnsky district, approximately 280 km east of Ulan-Ude. Notable for the fact that it contains Sandalwood Buddha, a lifetime statue of Shakyamuni Buddha, 2 m 18 cm high, made 2500 years ago by order of Raja Udayana from sandalwood (in fact, through analysis it was established that the tree is a linden tree covered with sandalwood paste). There is a legend recorded by the Tocharian monk Dharmanandi in 385 AD. (in the Chinese translation of the Ekottara Agama Sutra from the Anuttara Nikaya according to A.A. Terentyev) that the Enlightened One was at that time in the heaven of the Thirty-Three Gods, preaching the Dharma to his mother Maya, who was reborn there after death. Raja Prasenajit desired to see the Enlightened One and ordered his statue to be sculpted. Maudgalyana, a disciple of the Buddha who achieved miraculous abilities, transported the masters to heaven, where they met the Enlightened One. The craftsmen were brought back to earth and sculpted a life-size Goshirsha sandalwood statue about two meters high.

""The statue came to the territory of Russia in Eravna thanks to the incredible efforts of the Sorzho Lama of the Egitui datsan Gombo Dorzho Erdyneev and many other people who risked their lives. The sandalwood statue was purchased by the lamas of the datsan during the Boxer Rebellion in China. According to another version, in the winter of 1901, after the defeat of the uprising in Beijing, the Buryat Cossacks carried out a precious statue from a burning monastery during a fire, and thereby saved it from death in the fire. As a trophy, the statue was taken with great care on a sleigh to Buryatia. At the same time, a metal copy of the statue was made, and the original was hidden. Until 1935, the statue was located in one of the sumes of the Egituisky datsan and was an object of worship and veneration. During the period of anti-religious repressions, the statue was transported to Ulan-Ude and kept in the funds of the National Museum of the History of Buryatia.""" from the history of the appearance of the statue on Buryat land. Chinese sources contain information about its movement from India at that time. In the 4th century, the monk Kumarayana from Kashmir, in order to save the statue from local wars, took it to Central Asia, where in Kucha (an oasis city on the Great Silk Road) he was forced to marry the sister of the ruler Jivaka and become a spiritual mentor in the state. His son Kumarajiva became a famous Buddhist sage. His fame became so great that in 384 Chinese troops besieged Kucha in order to capture Kumarajiva and bring him to China. The Sandalwood Buddha statue was transported with him, and what followed was the rise of Buddhist thought in China. At the beginning of the 8th century. The wives of the Tibetan king Srontsangambo from Nepal and China brought Buddhist relics, including the Sandalwood Buddha statue, to Tibet. The Nepalese princess Bhrikuti was revered as Green Tara, and the Chinese princess Wen-chen as White Tara. And already under the next ruler, King Tisrondetsan, Buddhism became the state religion of Tibet. According to other Chinese sources, the statue first came to Mongolia during the reign of Genghis Khan in the 13th century. and then was transported to China, where it is unknown how many years it was kept in the province of Li, in the Sandan-Sy monastery specially built for it - “Monastery of the Sandalwood Buddha.” The story of her stay in Russia is amazing. In China in 1890-1901. The Boxer Rebellion broke out (Yihetuan Uprising, secret society I-he-quan “Fist for Justice of Consent”). In June 1901, Beijing was captured by rebels, burned and destroyed. The Sandalwood Buddha statue was kept in the Sandan-sy monastery - “Sandalwood Buddha Monastery”, where all the Buddhist pilgrims of Mongolia, Buryatia and Tibet worshiped it when visiting Beijing. Orientalist and one of the oldest Russian Buddhists V.M. Montlevich writes about this: “But fragments of information about the abduction itself have been preserved, and this information is more or less reliable, because the famous Russian orientalist Boris Ivanovich Pankratov told it to me in 1969, for many years (32 years, from 1916 to 1948). spent in China. In the winter of 1901, after the defeat of the Boxer Uprising, the Buryat Cossacks, taking advantage of the turmoil and devastation in the city and the fire in the monastery itself, took out the statue. The operation was led by the head of the Russian post office, Gomboev. The statue was placed on a sleigh, covered with straw and matting, and disguised with provisions and postal props. There were two sleighs in total; the statue was transported on the second, as if it were a cargo sleigh. One can imagine the awe and desperate delight of those who carried out this bold and dangerous undertaking, because they performed a religious feat for the sake of spreading the Teaching, certainly fulfilling the order of unknown and revered teachers and lamas. The performers knew that there was a belief: where the Sandalwood Buddha is located, there is the center of the Buddhist religion. What believer would not be delighted to consider his country and his datsan as such a center. Without any special incidents, the statue arrived in Transbaikalia and was hidden in the Egituisky monastery (datsan). Then a metal copy of the statue was made and placed in the Egituisky datsan; the original was carefully hidden in secret place. This precaution was entirely appropriate. The uprising in China was brutally suppressed by the forces of England, Germany, Russia, Japan and France in September 1901. And soon Japanese experts arrived in Buryatia in search of the famous statue. The Japanese had information that the statue was located in the Egituisky datsan. Those who arrived were shown a metal copy, and they were forced to leave in complete disappointment.
Of course, the question of ownership of the statue arises. In response to the indignant demands of the Chinese for the return of the statue, the Buryat lamas replied: - Of course, we will give the statue back... when all our people bow to it.
Zandan Zhuu is not the only lifetime image of the Buddha; in the literature there are references to his painted portraits and other sculptures. Moreover, the Siamese and Burmese versions speak of a seated image of the Buddha, while the Mahayana texts speak of a standing sculpture.

Road to Egituisky datsan. On the way we met a couple of herons, which is considered a good sign. It is explained that the deities of the area welcome our desire to visit the Sandalwood Buddha.

The birds were practically not afraid of passing cars.

But as soon as we stopped to photograph them, the herons decided to fly a little further.

Datsan buildings appeared

Stupas oriented to the cardinal directions.

Main Dugan, which houses the Sandalwood Buddha statue

Traditional Wheel of Teaching and two deer on the sides

Here he is! The famous Sandalwood Buddha, a world relic of Buddhists! They say that when Buddha Shakyamuni first saw this statue, the statue took six steps towards him. Then Buddha Shakyamuni made a prophecy that the statue would be far away in the northern country and would contribute to the prosperity of the Teaching in that direction.

They say that the Sandalwood Buddha statue hangs in the air and you can drag a khadak under it.
Buddha prophesied its movement to the north: to China, Tibet, Mongolia. Where the Sandalwood Buddha went, the center of Buddhism also moved. In the 3rd century. the statue was transported from India to China. This was followed by the rise of Buddhist thought in China. In the 8th century The Nepalese wife of the Tibetan king brought the Sandalwood Buddha to Tibet. And already under the next ruler, King Tisrondetsan, Buddhism became the state religion of Tibet. In the 13th century, before the spread of Buddhism in Mongolia, we again find mention of the appearance of the Sandalwood Buddha there. The prediction comes true, and the appearance of Zandan Zhuu in Transbaikalia in the winter of 1901 is a good omen for the development of the Buddha’s Teaching in Russia.
Until 1935, it was located in one of the sumes of the Egituisky datsan and was an object of worship and veneration. During the troubled period of repression, Zandan Zhuu was transported to Ulan-Ude and kept in the funds of the Museum of the History of Buryatia.

On September 25, 1991, Zandan Zhuu was transported by helicopter to Zgituisky Datsan. In July 2008, the opening of the Palace for Zandan Zhuu took place.

According to the Buddhist tradition, he is considered a living Buddha - his images carry grace. The statue has a special iconography: the Buddha stands, with long arms reaching to his knees, among flowers and landscape, a “human” Buddha, similar to the Maitreya Buddha.

Zandan Zhuu has slightly squinted eyelids, his gaze is directed slightly upward, the right hand of the Sandalwood Buddha is raised in a welcoming and protective gesture, the left is turned with the palm forward, but with the fingers down. They say that not everyone can be at Zandan Zhuu: some cannot withstand this powerful energy flow and leave the datsan. Others, on the contrary, after some time discover that several hours have passed since the moment they sat down opposite the Sandalwood Buddha. The sculpture has a special “magnetic” power; there are many legends about this shrine. Old-timers say that the shrine eliminates negative deeds, bestows long life, and gives guidance for good luck, happiness, and health, if the worshiper hopes for it and believes in it from the bottom of his heart.

altar decoration

It's beautiful and light inside

Tent on the ceiling

The entrance to the dugan is guarded by snow lions

flowers are planted everywhere

Dragons entwining pillars

Stupas

Prayer wheels with Om Mani Padme Hum mantras inside. If you turn the drum clockwise, the mantras Om Mani Padme Hum ascend into space and delight all living beings.

Duganchiki on the territory of the datsan

We were given a short tour of the datsan

The history of the Sandalwood Buddha.

All guests from India and Tibet who arrive on the land of Buryatia strive to be at the Sandalwood Buddha. This is truly a world shrine. Dr. Nida Chtenatsang performs puja to the Sandalwood Buddha.
It is said that whoever sees the statue in person will not be reborn in the next life in hell.
The statue is recognized as a monument of federal significance and, along with the Atlas of Tibetan Medicine and the Incorruptible Body of Hambo Lama D.-D. Itigelov, by the decision of the large all-Alamic meeting (sugunda) of the Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia on April 22, 2003, it was approved as a Buddhist shrine.

In a distant Buryat datsan there is kept a statue of Buddha Shakyamuni, which is perhaps the most valuable relic of the entire Buddhist world. We are talking about the Sandalwood Buddha, who in distorted Buryat pronunciation is called Zandan-Zhuu in Tibetan. This statue can be compared to the Shroud of Turin or the Black Stone of the Kaaba. Why go far, its significance for the Buddhist world is comparable to the Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya or the Sinhalese tooth of Buddha. But unlike all of the above religious relics, the Buryat Zandan-Zhuu is almost unknown in the Buddhist world. What's the matter? Buryatia can no longer be called a “bear corner”, a godforsaken place, information about which can only be found in the notes of rare travelers. The Internet era has made everyone equal, and travel agencies compete in sophisticated methods of “promotion” of branded objects of the Republic. Why, then, does the Sandalwood Buddha remain a shrine? local significance, unlike, say, the Incorruptible Body of Itigelov, the pilgrimage to which is already gaining international scope?

To answer this question, you need to figure out whether the Buddha statue kept in the Egituisky datsan is so unique and sacred. Behind last years Two serious scientific works about it were published by the Czech religious scholar Lubos Belka and the famous St. Petersburg Buddhist figure Andrei Terentyev. Much of what will be said in this article is drawn from these works.

The story of the wanderings of the Sandalwood Buddha.

Buddhist legendary tradition claims that the lifetime sandalwood image of Shakyamuni Buddha was made in heaven, where the Buddha miraculously moved to teach the teachings to his mother, who was reborn as a goddess. The ruler of one of the small Indian states of that time, Raja Udayana, grieved for the missing teacher and ordered several sculptors to go to heaven and sculpt an exact copy of him there. Buddha liked the statue, and after his return to earth he declared it his deputy. Subsequently, for two and a half thousand years, the Sandalwood Buddha wandered throughout Asia. In the 3rd century. The statue comes from India to China, from where, in turn, it was transported to Central Asia, to the city of Kucha, the capital of the state of the ancient Indo-Europeans, the Yuezhi. Later, the statue may have traveled to Tibet, where a copy was made of it, which Tibetan Buddhists consider their main shrine. Another copy of the Sandalwood Buddha was taken to Japan, where it is still kept in one of the temples in Kyoto. The statue was worshiped by Kublai Khan, on whose instructions the Sandalwood Buddha was brought to Khanbalik by Marco Polo himself. Famous statue standing Buddha in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, destroyed by the Taliban, is also an enlarged copy of it. Finally, Zandan-Zhuu found a temporary refuge in Beijing, where he became the main treasure of the Manchu imperial court.

Burning Beijing.

The year 1900 became catastrophic for the decrepit Qing Empire. Outraged by the aggressive colonial policies of the European powers and Japan, Chinese peasants and artisans began to unite in detachments and destroy the embassy quarters. Russia was among 8 other powers that suffered from the actions of the rebels, and joined its troops to the foreign punitive contingent. As a result, punitive forces broke into the capital and completely plundered the imperial quarter of Beijing - Forbidden City. Europeans robbed palaces and, covering their tracks, burned them. The recollection of one of the eyewitnesses of the robbery was preserved: “The soldiers, burying their heads in chests of red lacquer, rummaged through the things of the empress, others stirred up piles of brocade and silks, some stuffed them into their pockets or simply poured rubies, sapphires, pearls, and rock crystal into their shirts or caps.” ; who hung themselves with precious pearl necklaces. They pulled clocks from fireplaces, took clocks from walls; sappers wielded axes, smashing furniture into splinters in order to select the precious stones with which the palace chairs were inlaid. One of them tried very hard to cut open a charming watch in the style of Louis XV in order to extract the dial on which the crystal numbers sparkled; he imagined they were diamonds” (link).

Operation "Urgent Evacuation".

The same fate awaited the Sandalwood Buddha Temple with its precious contents. However, the Buryat Cossacks from the Transbaikal Cossack Army who were part of the Russian contingent, at the request of the Mongol lamas, managed to secretly remove the statue from the city. For several years they took her to Buryatia. The operation was coordinated by the head of the postal service of the Russian Embassy, Nikolai Gomboev, the well-known and omnipresent Agvan Dorzhiev, and the rector of the Egituy datsan, Lama Zodboev. As reported in the research: “She was carried on a sleigh, covered with straw, matting, disguised with provisions and postal details” (link). When the statue was brought to Buryatia, it was decided to place it in a remote datsan so as not to attract undue attention to it. The Russian authorities had no idea about the daring act of the Buryat Cossacks, and if they had found out, they would probably have regarded it as a dangerous malfeasance. The operation did not go beyond the “Buryat circle”.

Floating statue

The Sandalwood Buddha statue is a 2m 18cm tall image of Shakyamuni Buddha along with a small pedestal. Contrary to the name, the statue itself, as analysis showed, is made of linden and covered with a layer of sandalwood paste. There is information that the upper part of Zandan-Zhuu’s head was originally decorated with a ruby or diamond, and the relics of Buddha were placed inside the statue. These valuable artifacts were probably stolen in 1935, when the statue was transported from Egita to Ulan-Ude. Tradition also claims that the statue does not rest on a pedestal, but seems to float in the air, a hair's breadth away from it. Therefore, it is supposedly possible to verify its authenticity by passing a silk thread between the soles of the feet and the base. However, such a check was not carried out, nor was there a full scientific analysis age of wood. And this despite the fact that the statue was for some time in storage in the Odigitrievsky Museum, which served as a museum storage facility, and under restoration in the Hermitage. In the 80s of the last century, the statue was returned to the Egituisky datsan.

China demands return of shrines

When visiting the Far Eastern art departments of the Louvre or the British Museum, you can see antique porcelain vases and panels that ended up there as a result of the sack of the Forbidden City in 1900. China has long been demanding Western countries and Japan for the return of valuables. If an agreement cannot be reached, the Chinese authorities and big businesses buy back the lost items at auctions. Thus, to date, about 200 units have been purchased for a total amount of 33 million US dollars (link). It is a matter of honor for the Chinese government to restore the Forbidden City to its former form and close a shameful page in the history of its country. This, however, is only a drop in the ocean, since the number of such exhibits, according to some estimates, is one and a half million. China understands this and aims to return at least the most valuable things.

Strange situation

In the case of the Sandalwood Buddha, the situation is strange, if not insoluble. In fact, in this story, the Buryats have fooled both China, leaving it without a masterpiece of world significance, and Russia, which will have to solve this problem if the authorities of a neighboring power pay attention to it. Officially in China, it is believed that the Sandalwood Buddha Statue burned down along with the temple in which it was kept. But how many masterpieces, considered irretrievably lost, have returned to their owners?

In 2003, the Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia recognized the Zandan-Zhuu statue as one of the three Buddhist shrines in Russia. However, at the federal level, the recognition of the Egitui shrine as an authentic monument of Buddhist art taken from China faces issues of cultural diplomacy.

Are your wanderings not over yet?

One of my St. Petersburg colleagues once expressed the idea that it is neither in the interests of Buryatia nor in the interests of Russia to promote mass media Question about Sandalwood Buddha. Sooner or later, this will lead to the PRC sending its experts and demanding the return of the shrine to Beijing. But, on the other hand, such progress has already begun. The studies I mentioned by Belka and Terentyev were written in English language and are probably already known to their Chinese colleagues.

Is Zandan-Zhuu destined to remain a shrine of local significance, an “internal Buryat affair,” or will the issue of Sandalwood Buddha ever enter the agenda of Russian-Chinese relations? One thing is clear, the sandalwood Buddha statue is a hostage to the situation, which means that its wanderings are not yet completed.

Sandalwood Buddha

in Buryat Zandan-Zhuu, Sandalwood Lord- unique and very ancient statue, a famous relic of the Buddhist world.
This sculpture of Shakyamuni Buddha, 2 meters 18 cm high, is made of sandalwood, as legend has it, around the 5th century BC, commissioned by Raja Uddiyana.

There is an opinion shared by the majority that it is the first and only statue made during the lifetime of the Buddha.

In the Buddhist tradition, she is equated with the living Buddha and brings limitless blessing to the world.

Currently, the Sandalwood Buddha is recognized in Russia as a cultural monument of federal significance.

History of appearance and path traveled

There are different points of view and many legends about how the very first image of Buddha Shakyamuni arose. The Indian version says that it was performed by Vishwamitra while the Buddha was giving a teaching. He carved the statue from sandalwood, looking at the reflection in the water, as a bright radiance emanated from the Enlightened One himself.

There is also a known mention in history of Shakyamuni Buddha, indicating the existence of a statue that arose during his lifetime and is known as the “Image from Uddiyana,” a statue made at the request of the ruler of this amazing ancient Buddhist country.
It is said that this sculptural portrait emitted “divine light.”

In the later Mahayana sutras it is written about him: “Maidgalyayana-putra, a follower of the Buddha, transported the artist to the heavenly spaces, where Shakyamuni Buddha retired for three months to convey the Teachings to his mother. There the artist saw the excellent signs of the Buddha's body and captured them in the form of a sandalwood statue. When the Tathagata returned from the heavenly palaces, the sandalwood image greeted the Lord of the World” (3). We are talking about the Sandalwood Buddha here.
According to A.A. Terentyev, according to Chinese translation Ekottara-agama-sutra (from Anuttara-nikaya), expounded by the Tocharian monk Dharmanandi (385 AD), the history of the appearance of the Zandan-Zhuu statue is as follows:
Buddha Shakyamuni resided in Tushita heaven, preaching the Dharma to his mother Maya, who was reborn there after death. At this time, Raja Prasenajit very much wanted to see the Enlightened Lord. Then the closest disciple of the Buddha, Maudgalyayana, who had achieved miraculous abilities, took the masters to the Buddha so that they could see him, and upon their return they sculpted a life-size statue of goshirsha sandalwood.
When Shakyamuni Buddha returned, the statue greeted him and took six steps towards him, and this served as the basis for the Buddha's prophecy about this statue: it will move to the north, and where it is located, Buddhism should flourish.
Centuries later, the Buddha statue actually left India.

Chinese sources mention information about her further journey in a northern direction.

China

So in the 4th century, the monk Kumarayana from Kashmir, wanting to save the precious statue during bloody local wars, took it to Central Asia. He settled in an oasis city along the Silk Road called Kucha, where he married the sister of the local ruler, Jivaka, and became a spiritual mentor. From that time on, Buddhism began to flourish there. The son of that same monk, Kumarajiva, grew up in an environment conducive to the study of the Dharma, and became a famous Buddhist sage. His fame was so loud that in 384 troops were sent from China to Kucha to capture Kumarajiva. Along with him, the Sandalwood Buddha statue was also taken to China. From that time on, China began to accumulate Buddhist wisdom.

Tibet

From China the statue went to Tibet at the beginning of the 8th century. Then the Chinese and Nepalese Buddhist princesses married the Tibetan king Srontsangambo and brought Buddhist relics to the Land of Snows, among which was a statue of the Sandalwood Buddha. The Nepalese princess Bhrikuti was considered the incarnation of Green Tara, and the Chinese princess Wen-chen was considered the incarnation of White Tara. Already under the next ruler of Tibet, Tisrondetsen, Buddhism became the state religion in this country.

Mongolia

According to other Chinese sources, during the reign of Genghis Khan, the Sandalwood Buddha ended up in Mongolia, at that time the first contacts of the Mongols with Buddhist philosophy took place, which subsequently culminated in the adoption of Buddhism at the state level.

From Mongolia the statue returned to China. It was kept in the province of Li, in the temple Buddhist monastery, built especially for her - Sandan-Sy “Sandalwood Buddha Monastery”. In the 19th century, this monastery was located on the territory of the capital of China. All Buddhist pilgrims from Mongolia, Buryatia and Tibet worshiped the wonderful statue when visiting Beijing.

Russia

From China in 1901, the statue went to Transbaikalia, and since then has not left Russia.

This happened thanks to our Buryat Cossacks, who found themselves in China at that time, but exactly how is not known.

Orientalist and Buddhist V.M. Montlevich wrote: “But fragments of information about the abduction itself have been preserved, and this information is more or less reliable, for it was told to me in 1969 by the famous Russian orientalist Boris Ivanovich Pankratov, who lived in China for thirty-two years (since 1916 to 1948)".

In 1890-1901, the Yihetuan Uprising broke out in Beijing, when the secret society I-he-quan "Fist for Justice and Harmony" organized unrest in the country, commonly known as the Boxer Rebellion.

In June 1901, Beijing was captured by rebels, burned and destroyed.

The world community reacted harshly to the uprising; the rebels were destroyed by the combined forces of England, Germany, Russia, Japan and France in September 1901. Our Buryat Cossacks, who found themselves in Beijing at this difficult time, also took part in these events.

According to one version, during a fire they took the precious statue out of the monastery, and thereby saved it from death, then in the winter of 1901 they delivered it to their native Buryatia as a trophy. According to another version, the sandalwood statue was bought by the lamas of the Egitui datsan during the uprising and came to Eravna thanks to the incredible efforts of the Sorzho Lama of the Egitui datsan Gombo Dorzho Erdyneev and many other people who risked their lives, taking it out of China with great precautions. One way or another, the precious statue of the Sandalwood Buddha went even further to the north, and ended up at the beginning of the 20th century in Transbaikalia, in the Egetui datsan of Russia. At the same time, a metal copy of the statue was prudently made, which was put on display in a special temple-dugan, as an object of worship and veneration, and the original itself was securely hidden. In search of the famous statue, Japanese experts soon came to Buryatia, who received information that the statue is located in the Egetuisky datsan. When they saw the metal copy, they were greatly disappointed and were forced to leave with nothing. Until 1935, the statue was reliably hidden in Buryatia, until the tragic times of anti-religious policies for Buddhism came in Russia, when datsans were destroyed, many valuable relics were destroyed, and lamas were repressed. But the statue survived even during this difficult time. It was among the relics that were transferred to the funds of the new Anti-Religious Museum, located in the Odigitrievskaya Church in Verkhneudinsk (now the National Museum of the Republic of Buryatia (Ulan-Ude), where it was kept under glass in a closet on the second floor. At the same time died in fire and without proper storage conditions great amount remarkable cult relics and works. On September 25, 1991, the statue was returned to the Buddhists, transferred to the same Egituisky datsan, where the metal copy was once openly venerated. For the first time in Russia, only now the Sandalwood Buddha appeared before people. This is regarded as a good omen for the development of Dharma not only in Buryatia, but in our country as a whole. The statue contains a strong blessing from the Buddha, creating favorable conditions for the flourishing of the Buddha's Teachings - Dharma, awakening interest in it.

Buddhist shrine of Russia

For some time, the statue was kept in the dugan temple of the Egituisky datsan in Buryatia, in a small wooden one-story building, unsuitable for storing cultural and historical values. It was impossible to create appropriate conditions for storing a world Buddhist shrine there.

Therefore, the Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia decided to build a special room for storing the statue while maintaining a constant microclimate. For 15 years, funds were raised for the construction of a temple-palace for the Sandalwood Buddha. Thanks to donations from parishioners of the Egituisky datsan and individual sponsors, the new Zandan Zhuu temple was opened on July 25, 2008. People from different regions of our country came to the ceremony of its consecration. The older generation of Buryats, driven by the desire to support and continue the traditions of their ancestors, sewed new festive ones especially for this celebration. National costumes. From noon to eight o'clock in the evening there was a never-ending line of people who came to the datsan to see the Buddha.
The long journey of the wonderful statue of Zandan Zhuu from India through China, Tibet, Mongolia, to Russia, from country to country, in a northern direction over the centuries has become evidence of the fulfillment of the Buddha’s prophecy. On April 22, 2003, the decision of the Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia was made to “approve as Buddhist shrines of Russia: the statue of Zandan Zhuu,

1901 Night cover over the huge eastern city fires are breaking out. The streets are filled with smoke and the heady smell of gunpowder. Shots, screams, moans are heard from everywhere

From the burning Sandan-Sy monastery, several military men carefully carry out a huge bundle and place it on a cart. On their high-cheeked, dark faces there are drops of sweat and joy mixed with anxiety. These are the Cossacks of the 6th Hundred of the 1st Verkhneudinsk Regiment of the Transbaikal Cossack Army in Beijing, engulfed by the Boxer Uprising, implementing the Buddha’s prediction. A 2,500-year-old prediction. Now let's talk about everything in order.

Inscription on the stone

Immersing the inquisitive traveler in the mysterious atmosphere of these places, the road, not far from the Egituysky datsan, has turned into a forest lane, leads to a mysterious stone that one of my hunter friends, Vladimir Nikolaevich Safeev, found in the taiga. Once, while chasing a wapiti wounded during a hunt, he sat down to rest and was surprised to find that he was sitting next to an unusual stone. On one side, facing the taiga thicket, it looks like an ordinary boulder. On the other side, which looks out from the wild rosemary onto the forest road, it seems to have been cut with a huge sharp knife and has a smooth matte surface in the shape of two semicircles, located one above the other. In the center of this site, it is unknown how a strange sign was made.

My friend, who was born and lived in these parts all his life, who walked the length and breadth of the local taiga, had not heard anything about this stone, just as other old-timers had not heard of it.

As it turned out later, this is a sign from the Sanskrit alphabet, read as “om”. It is with this that one of the most popular and significant mantras in Buddhism, “Om mani padme hum,” begins. My friend began to ask the local lamas what the presence of this stone could mean here. The answer he received was: “This is a strong place.” This means that these places have very powerful energy and are fed by certain higher power. And when I tried to somehow clarify with other clergy the origin of the inscription on the stone, I was told: the inscription was not made by hands. The rest is a mystery, the solution to which has not yet been solved.

Six steps towards

The Egituisky datsan itself, which has the Tibetan name “Damchoy Ravzheling”, is an ancient architectural complex on the banks of the Marakta River, founded in 1820. It once consisted of twelve buildings. There were philosophical, medical and astrological dugans.

Photo: anonim03.ru

More than three hundred Khuvarak students studied science there. They say that when they whispered a prayer, it could be heard at a distance of three kilometers. It’s hard to imagine, but this “bear corner” already had its own printing house at the beginning of the 19th century.

And this is not what the datsan was famous for. Its main attraction was and remains to this day the statue of Zandan Zhuu (Sandalwood Buddha). Well, here we come to the main secret. The history of Zandan Zhuu began 2500 years ago, when this only image of Buddha was created during his lifetime. It is now difficult to say how one of the first works of Buddhist art actually came into being, there is too much here that is not ordinary, but this Indian prince Siddhartha Gautama was also an unusual person.

I don’t know what to believe: either that the masters sculpted it from a reflection in the river, because the light emanating from it blinded them, or that they had to visit heaven, where Buddha was at that time... But, somehow be that as it may, his image came into being. It is said that when the Buddha approached the statue to compare the likenesses, it took six steps towards him. They say that this is what prompted the Buddha to make the following prophecy: the statue will move to the north, and where it is located, Buddhism should flourish.

You can believe it or not, but the prophecy came true. And in the chain of events that will be discussed further, there are no accidents.

Nail on the foot

Over these 2500 years, the statue slowly but confidently moved north. First, in the 4th century, the monks, saving the statue from internecine wars, transported it to the city of Kucha in Central Asia. Then she came to China. Then, as a gift, it migrated to Tibet, and during the time of Genghis Khan - to Mongolia. And wherever the statue appeared, Buddhism began to flourish everywhere. The following story is connected with Zandan Zhuu’s stay in China. When the clergy of the monastery left the room where she stood for the night, her face was turned to where the people turned the statue, but every morning she invariably looked north.

She remembered Buddha's prediction. This problem was solved very simply - a nail was driven into the statue’s foot. From Mongolia, it again moved to China, where it was located before the events that began this story.

Miracles of Sandalwood Buddha

Someday history will name the names of the Transbaikal Cossacks who saved the Buddhist shrine from fire, but for now they are unknown to us. However, the names of other people who risked their lives to save Zandan Zhuu are known. This is the head of the Russian post office Gomboev and Lama Erdeniin Sorzho of the Egituy datsan.

The statue was securely hidden on a cart and brought across two borders - Chinese and Mongolian - to Russia. When the priceless cargo was leaving Mongolia, the guards asked why it was so securely wrapped. And they received an answer from those accompanying them: this is a relative who died of the plague. There were no more questions.

In 1934, during the persecution of datsans, Zandan Zhuu was transported to the Odigitrievsky Cathedral of Ulan-Ude. At that time, the funds of the anti-religious museum were located there. In the early 80s of the last century, it was there that I had the opportunity to see it for the first time. On September 22, 1992, the statue was again returned to the believers and was now forever located in the Egituisky datsan. Thus ended the centuries-long wanderings of the Sandalwood Buddha. And only the hole from the nail in the statue’s foot reminds of its difficult fate. But the miracles didn't end there. One of the respected lamas told me that Zandan Zhuu stands without touching the surface of the pedestal: a thread runs freely between the base of the statue and the pedestal. Everything can happen in our extraordinary lands.

People come here from afar to worship the Sandalwood Buddha and ask him for health and long life for themselves and their loved ones. And the statue helps. Helps everyone who believes.

A small touch from the modern history of Zandan Zhuu

In 2012, I had the opportunity to visit the locations of Buryat police officers in the North Caucasus. We drove through Chechnya and Dagestan. So, in Kaspiysk, at the location of the combined detachment in the so-called cockpit, I saw at the head of a row of beds a slightly crumpled image of Zandan Zhuu cut out from some magazine. At the head - where icons are usually located - there was an ordinary piece of paper attached. But there was a shrine on it, from which the guys asked to help them return home. And they returned safe and sound.

Addition from the editors

This is how an unknown author described the story and his impressions of Zandan Zhuu. Let's add one more case. September 22, 1991, the day when Zandan Zhuu was returned to the datsan, turned out to be very cold. It was raining and snowing. A landing site for a helicopter was prepared in front of the datsan. He was late, there was a fear that due to such weather he might not arrive. But the wet people waited patiently in the bitterly cold wind. And then the long-awaited helicopter emerged from behind the clouds. After it landed, people formed a long living corridor. Many could not hold back their tears of joy. Especially those who were children in terrible years persecution of religion. Those, before whose children's eyes, they destroyed the Egituisky datsan so fiercely that the entire Egituisky valley was strewn with the pages of sacred books.

The pilots opened the cargo compartment, and the lamas carefully carried the sacred Burkhan Zandan Zhuu onto the Eravna land and carried it through the open doors of the datsan. The dream of returning the shrine of the then Khambo Lama Munko Tsybikov to his native datsan came true. He carried this dream through years of arrests, prison camps and long exile in Kolyma.

“We gladly accepted the order to deliver Zandan Zhuu.” It was difficult to fly. Wet snow, poor visibility. When we flew over Khorinsk, the ground was covered with snow. We chose a low flight ceiling. My colleagues Sergei Boyko and Vasily Bayusheev are experienced pilots. The responsible mission is completed. Let the prayers made in your datsan be heard by everyone. May God help everyone! - said then the commander of the Mi-8 crew A.V. Vatulin regional newspaper "Ulan-Tuya".

Almost 14 years later, on September 20, 2005, the helicopter made a circle of honor for the second time and landed at the Egituysky datsan. Imagine the surprise of the greeting villagers when they recognized the crew as the same pilots who had returned the shrine in extreme conditions in September 1991. This time, Mikhail Slipenchuk, who was getting acquainted with Buryatia, asked them to take them to the shrine. Seeing the enthusiastic curiosity of the children surrounding the helicopter, he asked the pilots to take the children for a ride. The children crowded into the cabin with joyful cries and for the first time in their lives flew around their native valley. And below at this time, a new guest, impressed by Zandan Zhuu, decided to help in the construction of a palace for the shrine.

(from Tib. tsan dan jo bo), or Sandalwood Buddha, is a statue of Shakyamuni Buddha that is perhaps the most valuable relic of the entire Buddhist world. Buddhist legendary tradition claims that the lifetime sandalwood image of Shakyamuni Buddha was made in heaven, where the Buddha miraculously moved to teach the teachings to his mother, who was reborn as a goddess.

The ruler of one of the small Indian states of that time, Raja Udayana, grieved for the missing teacher and ordered several sculptors to go to heaven and sculpt an exact copy of him there. Buddha liked the statue, and after his return to earth he declared it his deputy.

Subsequently, for two and a half thousand years, the Sandalwood Buddha wandered throughout Asia. In the 3rd century. The statue comes from India to China, from where, in turn, it was transported to Central Asia, to the city of Kucha, the capital of the state of the ancient Indo-Europeans, the Yuezhi. Later, the statue may have traveled to Tibet, where a copy was made of it, which Tibetan Buddhists consider their main shrine. Another copy of the Sandalwood Buddha was taken to Japan, where it is still kept in one of the temples in Kyoto. The statue was worshiped by Kublai Khan, on whose instructions the Sandalwood Buddha was brought to Khanbalik by Marco Polo himself. Famous standing buddha statue in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, destroyed by the Taliban, is also an enlarged copy of it. Finally, Zandan-Zhuu found a temporary refuge in Beijing, where he became the main treasure of the Manchu imperial court.

Representatives of the troops of the eight coalition powers in 1900. From left to right: Great Britain, USA, Russia, British India, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Japan.

In 1900, outraged by the aggressive colonial policies of the European powers and Japan, Chinese peasants and artisans began to unite in detachments and destroy the embassy quarters. Russia was among eight other powers that suffered from the actions of the rebels, and joined its troops to the foreign punitive contingent. As a result, punitive forces broke into the capital and completely plundered the imperial quarter of Beijing - the Forbidden City. Europeans robbed palaces and, covering their tracks, burned them. The recollection of one of the eyewitnesses of the robbery was preserved: “The soldiers, burying their heads in chests of red lacquer, rummaged through the things of the empress, others stirred up piles of brocade and silks, some stuffed them into their pockets or simply poured rubies, sapphires, pearls, and rock crystal into their shirts or caps.” ; who hung themselves with precious pearl necklaces. They pulled clocks from fireplaces, took clocks from walls; sappers wielded axes, smashing furniture into splinters in order to select the precious stones with which the palace chairs were inlaid. One of them tried very hard to cut open a charming watch in the style of Louis XV in order to extract the dial on which the crystal numbers sparkled; he imagined they were diamonds.”

The same fate awaited the Sandalwood Buddha Temple with its precious contents. However, the Buryat Cossacks from the Transbaikal Cossack Army who were part of the Russian contingent, at the request of the Mongol lamas, managed to secretly remove the statue from the city. For several years they took her to Buryatia. The operation was coordinated by the head of the postal service of the Russian Embassy, Nikolai Gomboev, the well-known and omnipresent Agvan Dorzhiev, and the rector of the Egituy datsan, Lama Zodboev. As reported in the research: “She was transported on a sleigh, covered with straw, matting, disguised with provisions and postal details.” When the statue was brought to Buryatia, it was decided to place it in a remote datsan so as not to attract undue attention to it. The Russian authorities had no idea about the daring act of the Buryat Cossacks, and if they had found out, they would probably have regarded it as a dangerous malfeasance. The operation did not go beyond the “Buryat circle”.

There is information that the upper part of Zandan-Zhuu’s head was originally decorated with a ruby or diamond, and the relics of Buddha were placed inside the statue.

These valuable artifacts were probably stolen in 1935, when the statue was transported from Egita to Ulan-Ude.

Tradition also claims that the statue does not rest on a pedestal, but seems to float in the air, a hair's breadth away from it. Therefore, it is supposedly possible to verify its authenticity by passing a silk thread between the soles of the feet and the base. However, such a check has not been carried out, as well as a full scientific analysis of the age of the wood. And this despite the fact that the statue was for some time in storage in the Odigitrievsky Museum, which served as a museum storage facility, and under restoration in the Hermitage. In 1991 of the last century, the statue was returned to the Egituisky datsan.

Officially in China, it is believed that the Sandalwood Buddha Statue burned down along with the temple in which it was kept. In 2003, the Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia recognized the Zandan-Zhuu statue as one of the three Buddhist shrines in Russia. In 2008, a new temple was built for her, equipped with a system for maintaining a constant microclimate.

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