Sandalwood Buddha

in Buryat Zandan-Zhuu, Sandalwood Lord- a 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 Teaching 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 Sandalwood Buddha here.
According to A.A. Terentyev, according to the Chinese translation of the Ekottara Agama Sutra (from the Anuttara Nikaya), set forth 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 to store 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 temple Zandan Zhuu 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 national costumes especially for this celebration. 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,

A sculpture of Buddha 2 m 18 cm high, made of sandalwood, according to legend, 2500 years ago by order of Raja Uddiyana.

Located in the Egituysky datsan of Buryatia. It is a Buddhist shrine and is considered to be the first statue of Buddha in history and the only statue made during the lifetime of Buddha. In literary sources there are references to other lifetime portraits and sculptures, but there is no reliable evidence.

Vera Lubsanova, CC BY-SA 3.0

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.

Story

According to tradition, Buddha prophesied the movement of Zandan Zhuu to the North and, accordingly, the movement of the center of Buddhism.

In the 3rd century. the statue was transported from India to China.

In the 4th century, the monk Kumarayana from Kashmir, in order to save the statue from local wars, took it to Kucha, married the sister of the local ruler and became a spiritual mentor in the state. His son Kumarajiva became a famous Buddhist sage.

In the 8th century - the wives of the Tibetan king Srontsangambo brought a statue of Tibet. Under the next ruler, King Tisrondetsan, Buddhism became the state religion of Tibet.

In the 13th century. - location presumably in Mongolia.

Arkady Zarubin, CC BY-SA 3.0

In the winter of 1901, Sandalwood Buddha found himself in Transbaikalia. 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 Sandan-sy monastery (“Sandalwood Buddha Monastery”), where the statue was kept at that time, took it out. The operation was led by the head of the Russian post office, Gomboev. During the fire, the Buryat Cossacks carried the precious statue out of the burning monastery, and thereby saved it from death in the fire. As a trophy, the statue was taken with great care on a sleigh to Buryatia.

Vera Lubsanova, CC BY-SA 3.0

According to another version, Zandan Zhuu was brought 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. Upon arrival, a metal copy of the statue was made and placed in the Egituisky datsan, the original was hidden. During civil war Japanese interventionists learned the location of the statue. Upon arrival, they were shown a metal copy, and they left with nothing.

Stored in the 1930s Ulan-Ude, where the funds of the Museum of Local Lore are located.

In the 1980s, the statue was returned to believers. On September 25, 1991, Zandan Zhuu was transported by helicopter to the Egituisky datsan.

April 22, 2003 Decision of the Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia (): “To approve as Buddhist shrines of Russia: the statue of Zandan Zhuu, the Atlas of Tibetan medicine, the Precious body of Hambo Lama D. -D. Itigelov."

Temple for storage

For some time, the statue was kept in the dugan of the Egituisky datsan, in a small wooden one-story building, not suitable for storing cultural and historical values.

In this regard, the Buddhist Sangha decided to build a special storage room maintaining a constant microclimate.

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Buddhist legend about the appearance of the statue

According to the Tocharian monk Dharmanandi (385 CE) (Ekottara Agama Sutras from the Anuttara Nikaya), the Buddha was in Tushita heaven preaching the Dharma to his deceased mother Maya.

Prasenajit wanted to see the Enlightened Lord and ordered a statue of him to be made. Maudgalyayana took the masters to heaven, where they met the Buddha.

After returning, the craftsmen sculpted a life-size statue from sandalwood.

When Buddha Shakyamuni returned to earth, the statue took six steps towards him, then he made a prophecy that it would be moved to the north, and Buddhism would flourish there.

Impact of the statue on believers

Not everyone can be at Zandan Zhuu: some can’t stand it and leave the datsan. Others, on the contrary, find that several hours have passed since they sat down opposite the Sandalwood Buddha. It is believed 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.

The Egitui datsan “Damchoy Ravzheling” is located in the Republic of Buryatia, 300 km from Ulan-Ude on the picturesque western bank of the Marakta River in the Khara-Shibir area of ​​the Eravninsky district.

This requirement can be considered as unprecedented, since in the Buddhist tradition it is equated with the living Buddha and brings boundless blessing to the world.

Representatives of the Traditional Buddhist Sangha of Russia did not comment on this incident. However, it is known that these Chinese citizens did not introduce themselves or produce any documents.

According to the lawyer of the Traditional Sangha of Russia Bilikto Dugarova, most likely, these are scammers who attempted a provocation.

The goals of this provocation, most likely, lie outside the plane of religious relations. It is unlikely that these are representatives of some Buddhist organization in China. These are probably private individuals of foreign origin, and accordingly they should be dealt with by the Russian special services,” noted Bilikto Dugarov.

Nevertheless, this is an occasion to once again remind the public of the enormous significance of this Buddhist shrine.

Lifetime image of Buddha

According to the famous Russian Buddhist scholar Andrey Terentyev, in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, several sculptural and pictorial portraits are indicated that were made during the life of the Buddha. However, only one of these images is considered to have survived to this day. This is precisely the famous statue of the Sandalwood Buddha Zandan Zhuu, which is located in the Egituisky datsan.

It was originally a “life-size” (that is, about 2 m) sculpture made of goshirsha (a type of sandalwood), commissioned by Raja Udayana in the 38th year of Shakyamuni’s life.

This story was first recorded in writing in the Chinese translation of the Ekottara Agama Sutra, an expanded Mahayana version of the An Guttara Nikaya, compiled by the Tocharian monk Dharmanandi in 385. The oral tradition must be much older than this year, since already in Kushan times another version of this legend was known, according to which the making of the statue is associated with Raja Prasenajit, and not Udayana.

According to one version of this legend, in the 4th century, the Kashmiri monk Kumarayana, wanting to save this shrine from local wars, moved it to Central Asia, where Buddhism then flourished. He stopped in one of the oases of the Great Silk Road - in Kucha. The ruler of Kuchi ordered him to marry his younger sister and become the spiritual leader of the state. And his son, Kumarajiva (344-413), became such a famous Buddhist sage that Chinese troops were sent to Kucha to capture Kumarajiva and bring him to China.

Sandalwood Buddha in China

In 384, Kucha fell and Kumarajiva was taken to China along with this statue. The statue remained in Chang'an until 417, then moved to Jiankang, where it was kept in a monastery until 588. During the hostilities, this monastery was destroyed, but the statue was saved by a monk named Zhu-li, who transported it to Yangzhou, Jiangsu, and in 614 made a copy of this sculpture. Obviously, other copies were made, since the Japanese pilgrim Ennin, who visited China in 838, already mentions four statues of the Sandalwood Buddha.

In 970, another copy was made at the request of a Japanese pilgrim. Chōnen(938-1016) and taken to Japan. There it is still considered the holiest relic of Japanese Buddhism to this day. In 1018, it was installed in the Shaka Hall of Seikaji Temple, where it remains to this day.

He spoke about the history of the Sandalwood Buddha and the famous Zhang-zha Khutukhta Rolbi Dorje(1717-1786): “...And then they erected the Zandan Zhuu shrine in the great monastery of “Mingzhunsi” - a city located on the site of present Beijing during the Dai Zhin dynasty of Jurchen. Subsequently, all the emperors who inherited the throne gave her the highest honors, building many temples... And during the great Mongol dynasty Dai Yuan, Zandan Zhuu was installed in the Shen'ansi monastery. By order of Emperor Kublai Sechen (the Wise), they built a vihar monastery on the site of the present great White Stupa (Baitasy) and established a large monastic order, rendered unparalleled and unceasing honors and held prayer services. Subsequent Yuan (Mongol) emperors and the kings of the Ming dynasty prayed and worshiped equally diligently and diligently. The time has come for the Chin (Qing) Dynasty, the fourth year of Emperor Kangxi. The merciful chakravartin, the incarnation of the bodhisattva Manjushri, issued a decree to build a new temple called “Excessive Mercy” near the cherished city in the northwest in the halls of the yellow city, and the precious Zhuu was transferred there.”

Of the Russian researchers, D. Pozdneev was the first to write about this statue, who, in particular, noted that it was in the Sandalwood Buddha Monastery at the foot of this statue that the historical meeting of Dzanabazar and the Kangxi Emperor took place. They both sat on the same carpet, probably reminiscing about the historical meeting of the Pagba Lama with Emperor Kublai.

How Zandan Zhuu got to Buryatia

In 1900, during the Boxer uprising in China, the Sundansy monastery was destroyed, and the statue was transported to the temple of the Buryat village of Eravna - to the Egituisky datsan.

There are three known versions of the transportation of the statue to Russian territory. So, Bazaar Baradin reported that the Chinese monks themselves transported her there, saving her from French pogroms during the suppression of the Boxer uprising in Beijing. According to the second version, set forth by A. M. Strelkov, the monks took her to Utaishan, and there were Buryats there, namely the Egitui lama Erdeni Sorzho(his real name is Gombo Dorje), she was bought and brought to Eravna. According to the third version, the Buryat Cossacks took the precious statue out of the monastery during a fire and saved it from death. Then, in the winter of 1901, they delivered the statue to Buryatia as a trophy.

After the fire, Chinese monks, according to various sources, collected the ashes remaining from the burnt monastery into several large jugs. These jars are a religious relic that is still worshiped today.

Be that as it may, in January 1901 the statue was installed in the Egituisky datsan. In 1935, the Soviet government destroyed the datsans, and the statue ended up in the collections of the Anti-Religious Museum of Ulan-Ude. At the same time, they took out the diamond that had been inserted there thousands of years ago from the Buddha’s ur-na-koshi and broke the ushnisha of the statue, after which the sacred investments stored there disappeared. The statue itself, which, according to the Bolsheviks, had no “currency value,” survived.

Return to Egituisky datsan

On September 25, 1991, the statue was returned to the newly rebuilt Egituysky datsan. As the famous journalist and writer Alexander Makhachkeev, who then worked at the Ministry of Culture of Rb, told Baikalskaya Pravda, he had to participate at that time in the process of transferring the statue to the Egituisky datsan.

It is said that when the Sandalwood Buddha was taken out of Eravna, people threw money into the truck. Then this made a huge impression on law enforcement officials, because the truck arrived in Ulan-Ude literally filled with money. – told Alexander Makhachkeev.

According to him, when the decision was made to transfer Zandan Zhuu to the Buddhists, he was instructed to organize this process.

The sacred statue was kept on the second floor of the current Odigitrievsky Cathedral - the Anti-Religious Museum was located there. With the greatest precautions, we lowered the statue down the stairs from the second floor and loaded it into the car. I believe that Zandan Zhuu saved me from severe injury. After all, the stone gates of the cathedral are very narrow, the car literally shuffled sideways stone pillar and I almost lost my fingers. But, apparently, thanks to the help of Zandan Zhuu, I caught myself in time and removed my hand.

According to Andrey Terentyev, lifetime sculpture standing buddha really existed, and it was she who served as the prototype for the artists of Gandhara, Mathura and Bamiyan. By the 9th century there were at least four copies of this statue in China. It is difficult to say now which of them ended up in Beijing.

Currently, in the Egituisky datsan there is the same statue that stood for more than a thousand years in Beijing. The Buryat Zandan Zhuu, looking up in a completely unusual way, covered with dark sandalwood paste and three layers of Chinese gold leaf, exactly matches the description Rolby Dorje and other eyewitnesses who mention these features.

(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.


Photo © Buryad-Mongol Nom



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”.

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 has shown, 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 check 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. ❚



Photo © Buryad-Mongol Nom

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. It's about 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, in this case, does the Sandalwood Buddha remain a shrine of local significance, in contrast to, 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 - 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 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 check 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 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, Chinese authorities and large businesses are buying back 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 statue of Zandan-Zhuu 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.