flickering pictures

Though it’s not exactly independent, the tiny Republic of Kalmykia is a self-governing member state of the Russian Federation. Located just west of the Caspian Sea and not far from Ukraine, it’s a bit of an oddity in über-secular Russia for the prominence that Kalmykian leaders give to spirituality — all the more so because rather than Russian Orthodox Christianity, most Kalmykians follow Tibetan Buddhism.

Weirdly (and awesomely), Kalmykia also happens to be the chess capital of the world, with all elementary school students required to play.

From a lovely old Guardian piece:

The history behind the Dalai Lama’s spiritual presence in this unheralded corner of the continent goes back to Genghis Khan and his - theoretically Buddhist - hordes, descendants of whom settled in present-day Kalmykia in the early 17th century. A western journalist who visited nearly 400 years later described the place as “more a state of mind”, but it is a miracle that even that exists. Because, like “the meek” in the Life of Brian scene which sends up the Sermon on the Mount, the Kalmyks, who make up just over half the population of 292,000, have had a hell of a time.

They have been abolished by Catherine the Great, butchered by Bolsheviks, invaded by Nazis, and exiled by Stalin before being allowed to return to their country by Khrushchev in 1957. By then, there were fewer than 70,000 Kalmyks left, and no Buddhist temples at all. And their mood was not helped when vast swathes of their country were reduced to desert by the sharp hooves of sheep imported from the nearby Caucasus mountains.

But the Kalmykian people slogged on, outliving Bolsheviks, Nazis and Stalinists alike. Kalmykia’s president today, Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov, is a proud Buddhist and president of the World Chess Federation, and has used his considerable wealth to further both passions among his 300,000 citizens. Among other projects, he brought the 2006 World Chess Championship to Kalmykia and built Europe’s largest Buddhist temple (photo above) in Elista, the Kalmykian capital.

Elista also features a Chess City that routinely hosts major international competitions, and its main square boasts statues of both Lenin and Buddha — two guys who I’m sure would have gotten along famously.

Thanks to other invasions by nominally Buddhist Mongols, Tibetan Buddhism is also common in the Russian republics of Buryatia and Tuva.

Image via Wikimedia Commons.

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