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). Here we're talking about about Sandalwood Buddha.
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 state religion.

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, sandalwood statue was bought by the lamas of the Egituy datsan during the uprising and came to Eravna thanks to the incredible efforts of the Sorzho Lama of the Egituy 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 on further 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 famous statue Soon Japanese experts arrived in Buryatia and received information that the statue was in the Egetui 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, transferring to the same Egituisky datsan, where a metal copy was once openly revered. 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 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,

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.

Zandan Zhuu (Sandalwood Buddha or Sandalwood Lord) - a sculpture of Buddha 2 m 18 cm high, made of sandalwood, according to legend, 2500 years ago by order of Raja Uddiyana.

Finding of Zandan Zhuu by the Egitui datsan

In the winter of 1901, the Sandalwood Buddha found himself in Transbaikalia. After the defeat of the Boxer Uprising, the Buryat Cossacks, taking advantage of the turmoil and devastation in Beijing, 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 postal and telegraph service of the Russian embassy in China N.I. Gomboev. 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 sculpture was taken with great care on a sleigh to Buryatia.

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, but the original was hidden. During the Civil War, Japanese invaders learned of the location of Zandan Zhuu. Upon arrival, they were shown a metal copy, and they left with nothing.

In the 1930s, the Sandalwood Buddha was kept in the Odigitrievsky Cathedral in the city of Ulan-Ude, where the funds of the Museum of Local Lore were then housed.

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

On April 22, 2003, the Decision of the Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia was issued: “To approve as Buddhist shrines of Russia: the statue of Zandan Zhuu, Atlas of Tibetan Medicine, Precious body of Khambo Lama Itigelov.”

Sandalwood Buddha Temple

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 Traditional Sangha of Russia decided to build a special storage room maintaining a constant microclimate. On July 25, 2008, the Sandalwood Buddha Temple was opened.

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 transported the masters to heaven, where they met the Buddha. After returning, the craftsmen sculpted a life-size statue from sandalwood. When Shakyamuni Buddha 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 temple. 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 provides guidance for good luck, happiness, and health, if the worshiper hopes for it and believes in it from the bottom of his heart.

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Notes

Literature

• Buryats /Ans. ed. Abaeva L. L., Zhukovskaya N. L.; Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology named after. N. N. Mikhlukho Maclay. - M.: Science, 2004

Excerpt characterizing Sandalwood Buddha

“Oh, that would be so terrible...” she began and, without finishing from excitement, with a graceful movement (like everything she did in front of him), bowing her head and looking at him gratefully, she followed her aunt.
In the evening of that day, Nikolai did not go anywhere to visit and stayed at home in order to settle some scores with the horse sellers. When he finished his business, it was already too late to go anywhere, but it was still too early to go to bed, and Nikolai walked up and down the room alone for a long time, pondering his life, which rarely happened to him.
Princess Marya made a pleasant impression on him near Smolensk. The fact that he met her then in such special conditions, and the fact that it was her at one time that his mother pointed out to him as a rich match, made him pay special attention to her. In Voronezh, during his visit, the impression was not only pleasant, but strong. Nikolai was amazed at the special, moral beauty that he noticed in her this time. However, he was about to leave, and it did not occur to him to regret that by leaving Voronezh, he would be deprived of the opportunity to see the princess. But the current meeting with Princess Marya in the church (Nicholas felt it) sank deeper into his heart than he foresaw, and deeper than he desired for his peace of mind. This pale, thin, sad face, this radiant look, these quiet, graceful movements and most importantly - this deep and tender sadness, expressed in all her features, disturbed him and demanded his participation. Rostov could not stand to see in men the expression of a higher, spiritual life (that’s why he did not like Prince Andrei), he contemptuously called it philosophy, dreaminess; but in Princess Marya, precisely in this sadness, which showed the full depth of this spiritual world alien to Nicholas, he felt an irresistible attraction.
“She must be a wonderful girl! That's exactly the angel! - he spoke to himself. “Why am I not free, why did I hurry up with Sonya?” And involuntarily he imagined a comparison between the two: poverty in one and wealth in the other of those spiritual gifts that Nicholas did not have and which therefore he valued so highly. He tried to imagine what would happen if he were free. How would he propose to her and she would become his wife? No, he couldn't imagine this. He felt terrified, and no clear images appeared to him. With Sonya, he had long ago drawn up a future picture for himself, and all of this was simple and clear, precisely because it was all made up, and he knew everything that was in Sonya; but it was impossible to imagine a future life with Princess Marya, because he did not understand her, but only loved her.
Dreams about Sonya had something fun and toy-like about them. But thinking about Princess Marya was always difficult and a little scary.
“How she prayed! - he remembered. “It was clear that her whole soul was in prayer. Yes, this is the prayer that moves mountains, and I am confident that its prayer will be fulfilled. Why don't I pray for what I need? - he remembered. - What I need? Freedom, ending with Sonya. “She told the truth,” he recalled the words of the governor’s wife, “except for misfortune, nothing will come from the fact that I marry her.” Confusion, woe maman... things... confusion, terrible confusion! Yes, I don't like her. Yes, I don’t love it as much as I should. My God! get me out of this terrible, hopeless situation! – he suddenly began to pray. “Yes, prayer will move a mountain, but you have to believe and not pray the way Natasha and I prayed as children for the snow to become sugar, and ran out into the yard to try to see if sugar was made from snow.” No, but I’m not praying for trifles now,” he said, putting the pipe in the corner and, folding his hands, standing in front of the image. And, touched by the memory of Princess Marya, he began to pray as he had not prayed for a long time. Tears were in his eyes and in his throat when Lavrushka entered the door with some papers.
- Fool! Why do you bother when they don’t ask you? - Nikolai said, quickly changing his position.
“From the governor,” Lavrushka said in a sleepy voice, “the courier has arrived, a letter for you.”
- Well, okay, thank you, go!
Nikolai took two letters. One was from the mother, the other from Sonya. He recognized their handwriting and printed out Sonya's first letter. Before he had time to read a few lines, his face turned pale and his eyes opened in fear and joy.
- No, this cannot be! – he said out loud. Unable to sit still, he holds the letter in his hands, reading it. began to walk around the room. He ran through the letter, then read it once, twice, and, raising his shoulders and spreading his arms, he stopped in the middle of the room with his mouth open and eyes fixed. What he had just prayed for, with the confidence that God would grant his prayer, was fulfilled; but Nikolai was surprised by this as if it was something extraordinary, and as if he had never expected it, and as if the very fact that it happened so quickly proved that it did not happen from God, whom he asked, but from ordinary chance.
That seemingly insoluble knot that tied Rostov’s freedom was resolved by this unexpected (as it seemed to Nikolai), unprovoked by Sonya’s letter. She wrote that the latest unfortunate circumstances, the loss of almost all of the Rostovs’ property in Moscow, and the countess’s more than once expressed desires for Nikolai to marry Princess Bolkonskaya, and his silence and coldness lately - all this together made her decide to renounce him promises and give him complete freedom.
“It was too hard for me to think that I could be the cause of grief or discord in the family that had benefited me,” she wrote, “and my love has one goal: the happiness of those I love; and therefore I beg you, Nicolas, to consider yourself free and to know that no matter what, no one can love you more than your Sonya.”

Zandan Zhuu (Sandalwood Buddha)

Egituisky datsan. Photo: Arkady Zarubin

Zandan Zhuu, “Sandalwood Buddha” or “Sandalwood Lord” - 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 the only one made during the life of the Buddha (in literary sources there are references to other lifetime portraits and sculptures, but there is no reliable evidence). 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, the 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 from India was transported 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.
• In the winter of 1901, the Sandalwood Buddha found himself in Transbaikalia. After the defeat of the Boxer Rebellion,

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. Upon arrival, a metal copy of the statue was made and placed in the Egituisky datsan, the original was hidden. The Japanese learned the location of the statue. Upon arrival, they were shown a metal copy, and they left with nothing.

• In the 1930s, it was kept in the Odigitrievskaya Church in Ulan-Ude, where the funds of the Museum of Local Lore were housed.
• In the 1980s, the statue was returned to believers and placed in the Egituisky datsan.
• April 22, 2003 Decision of the Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia (Ivolginsky Datsan): “To approve as Buddhist shrines of Russia:

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 Shakyamuni Buddha 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.

Sources

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Books

• Sandalwood Buddha of Raja Udayana / The Sandalwood Buddha of the King Udayana, A. A. Terentyev. An ancient Buddhist legend said that during the lifetime of the Buddha, a sculptural image of him was carved from sandalwood. Over time, this statue was transported to China, where...

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Living spiritual teaching spreads not only through conversations with the Teacher and reading books, but also through the visual perception of works of art, the interior, and architecture of temples. Learning through observation is associated with a visual model of the macrocosm of the universe and the microcosm of man. This observation allows you to see the subtlest spiritual experiences and moral qualities: love, joy, kindness, wisdom. An example of such dissemination of knowledge is religious shrines.

One of the revered shrines of the Buddhist world is the Sandalwood Buddha statue, Zandan Zhuu, located in the Egetui datsan of Buryatia. He is considered a living Buddha - his images carry grace. On the tanks he has a special iconography: he stands, with large long arms almost reaching his knees, among flowers and landscape. This is a bodily human Buddha, similar to Buddha Maitreya, but at the same time located among the blessed heavenly worlds.

The Sandalwood Buddha statue is considered to be an extant lifetime image of Shakyamuni Buddha, commissioned by Raja Uddiyana. 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 returned to earth and sculpted a life-size Goshirsha sandalwood statue of about two meters. height.

When Buddha Shakyamuni returned to the earthly world, the statue greeted him by taking 6 steps. And the Enlightened One made a prophecy that it would be moved to the north, and Buddhism would flourish there.

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. Nepalese princess Bhrikuti was revered as Green Tara, and 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 a 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 a second, as if 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.

After the revolution, in the thirties, when Buddhism was in disgrace, the Sandalwood Buddha became a “prisoner” for many years - it is stored in a glass cabinet on the second floor of the Odigitrievskaya Church in Ulan-Ude, where the funds of the Museum of Local Lore are housed. And, I must say, this was a happy fate for the statue, because in those hard years, many wonderful religious monuments of antiquity perished in fire and unsightly storage conditions. Only in the 80s was the statue returned to the believers, no longer secretly, but openly placed in the same Egituisky datsan where the metal copy once stood.”

The prediction comes true, and the appearance of Zandan Zhuu in Transbaikalia in the twentieth century. is a good omen for the development of Dharma in Russia.

The Sandalwood Buddha statue seems to emanate Buddhist teachings from itself, creating conditions for everyone interacting with it in the form of karmic situations favorable for the prosperity of the Dharma. The statue manifests itself as a living Buddha, arousing interest in the texts and teachings, awakening the desire to study Buddhist thinking - the possibility of practicing the Dharma.