In the main Buddhist temple of Russia’s Republic of Tyva 1,000 little gold Buddhas have gone on display. The statues will then be moved to a unique temple when all the sacred ceremonies have been performed.
The 30 cm-high Buddhas were made under the personal supervision of Nepalese Lama Tuge Rinpoche. For almost a year the statues will go through ritual ceremonies before reaching its final destination – the renovated Buddhist temple “Ustuu-Huree”. The original temple was destroyed in the 1930s and the new one will be an exact copy of it.
The one thousand little Buddhas cost the republic five million rubles – more than $170,000. The money was collected by the people of Tyva.
“This is truly a national construction which is being supported by the republic’s authorities and by our famous fellow countryman Sergey Shoigu [of Russia’s Emergency Minister],” the Buddhist spiritual leader Dzambel Lodoy said.
Ustuu-Huree is one of the two major temple complexes of the republic. The construction was based on a project by the Tibetan Lama Kuntan Rimpoche, in association with Chinese masters.
“Reconstruction of Ustuu-Huree is an act of conscience. During the troubled years there were no temples left. They were all destroyed by the regime and many churchmen were repressed. That’s why I suppose my colleagues took it as their moral duty to provide personal help in reconstructing the history of Ustuu-Huree,” the head of the Tyva Republic Sholban Kara-ool said.