On July 17-19, 2014, the Sixth Dorzhiev Readings "Buddhism and the Modern World" scientific conference was held, organized by the Aya-Ganga Buryat Culture Society Charity Foundation (St. Petersburg), the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IVR RAS, St. Petersburg), the Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia with the participation of the Institute of Mongolian Studies, Buddhology and Tibetology Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMBT SB RAS, Ulan-Ude) and the Russian Association of Mongolian Scholars.

This year, the conference was held at the Institute of Biotechnologies of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Ulan-Ude, Republic of Buryatia) and the village of Naryn-Atsagat (Zaigraevsky district of the Republic of Buryatia).

Dorzhiev Readings are a regular scientific event that takes place every two years. Over the past ten years, conferences have been held in St. Petersburg, Ulan-Ude and in a number of Buryatian villages (Alkhanai, Aginskoe, Atsagat), historically associated with the name of Hambo Lama Agvan Lobsan Dorzhiev (1854-1938), an outstanding Buryat scientist, religious and public figure, founder of the St. Petersburg Buddhist temple "Gunzechoynei".

A special feature of this conference is the idea chosen by the organizing committee to continue the traditions of mutually enriching cooperation laid down by Agvan Dorzhiev and Buddhologists of the school of Academician F. I. Shsrbatsky. The main task is to expand and strengthen contacts between representatives of academic science and traditional Buddhist scholars.

The topics of reports and discussions are directly related to the biography of Aghvan Dorjisv and the historical fate of Buddhism in Russia. The greatest attention was paid to the problems of the revival of the Buddhist tradition in Russia, the functioning of Buddhism in the culture of Mongolian-speaking peoples. Interesting discussions were held about Buddhism, the state and society in the modern world. Part of the reports was devoted to the preservation and study of Buddhist manuscript, book and archival heritage, scientific expeditions to the regions of Central Asia, as well as Buddhist cult monuments.

The conference was attended by scientists, religious figures, educational and cultural workers, employees of state institutions from St. Petersburg, Moscow, Ulan-Ude, Irkutsk, Yekaterinburg, Elista, Szczecin (Poland), Chita, the village of Aginskoe (Buryatia). A total of 38 reports were submitted and 34 were read.

The conference was opened at IMBT SB RAS. The scientific director of the conference, Head of the Department of Information and Communication Technologies, addressed the audience with welcoming words. I. V. Kulganek, Rector of the Agin Buddhist Academy (Agin datsan "Dechen Lhundubling") Chingiz Lama Sultimov, Vice-president of the All-Buryat Association for Cultural Development, founder of the Agvan Dorzhiev Foundation E. D. Dagbaev. Vice-President of the Aya-Ganga Buryat Culture Society, Honored Worker of Culture of the Republic of Buryatia Ts-D. A. Sambueva read out a greeting from the President of the Society, Head of the Department of Theory and History of Sociology of St. Petersburg.GU A. O. Boronoeva.

The morning session on August 14 was devoted to the activities and new archival data about the life of Aghvan Dorzhiev. Yu. V. Kuzmin made a report on the role of Agvan Dorjisva, G. N. Tsybikov (a traveler-researcher, ethnographer, Tibetologist, Mongol scholar, Buddhist scholar, statesman, translator, professor of several universities) and P. A. Badmaev (a doctor of Tibetan medicine, the first translator of the medical treatise Zhud-Shi) in the "Tibetan question" (Baikal State University of Economics and Law). G. S. Mitypova (Baikal State University) continued the topic with a story about the joint activities of Agvan Dorzhiev and Ch. D. Iroltuev (an outstanding religious and public figure of the Buryat people, pandito Hambo Lama, head of 32 datsans and Buddhists of Eastern Siberia from 1893 to 1911). Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Mongolian Language and Literature of Khulunbuir University (China) Soelma introduced her colleagues to the Vagindra manuscripts available in China, which was created by Aghvan Dorzhiev. D. G. Chimitdorzhin, editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of Tibetan Medicine, introduced data on the activities of Agvan Dorzhiev in the Kyrmen datsan (now Ust-Horde datsan). Ch. S. Sultimov's report "Eight great mahasiddhas eight great lamas of the land of Ochirvani" about the great lamas of Agin datsans-Shiragune Jamyan Sundue was heard,

Galsan Zhimbe Tugulburov, Namnane bagshe, Lobsan Balchin lama, Lobsan Choibsan lama, Dorji Zhigmit Danzhinov, Zhimba Zhamso Erdyniev, Zhambal Dordi Gomboev.

Afternoon sessions were held in the tourist ethnocomplex "Star of the Nomad" Zaigraevsky district. It is located in a picturesque place of the Atsagat Valley, 60 km from Ulan-Ude, at the foot of the sacred Tamkhita Mountain, on the top of which the rite of veneration of local spirits is performed annually, and along the western border flows the mineral healing spring-Atsagat Arshan. In the ethnocomplex, participants of the conference could get a closer look at the traditional culture and life of Buryats, taste Buryat cuisine, and see the so - called five jewels of Buryats-camels, sheep, goats, cows, and horses.

The sessions were devoted to philological (literary and linguistic) problems, as well as the historiography of Buddhist works and the history of the development of Buddhism in the modern world. Presentations were made by: A. A. Burykina (Institute of Linguistics). research. Russian Academy of Sciences ) - on the vocabulary associated with Buddhism in the Russian language of the XVIII-early XXI centuries; Yu. V. Boltach (IVR RAS) - on a work by a Korean Buddhist mentor of the XII century. Puril Pochjo-kuksa Chinulya; B. S. Dugarov (IMBT SB RAS) - on the mythological image of the Baltic Buryats Khan Shargainoyon, son of the supreme deity, Eseg Malan-tengri, his shamanistic cult and Buddhist transformation; L. S. Dampilova ( IMBT SB RAS) - on the Buddhist factor in the shamanic ritual materials of the Buryats; K. Pyasetsky (Szczecin University, Poland) - about the history of the development of Buddhism in the city of Szczecin.

The participation of young colleagues in the conference is gratifying. At a high scientific and theoretical level, reports were prepared by young employees of the Institute of Internal Affairs of the Russian Academy of Sciences: A. A. Sizova - about Lamrim, a text that tells about the steps leading to full Awakening in accordance with the teachings of the Buddha, written by Kyura Yondzin; V. P. Zaitsev - about the epigraphy of the Khitan state (nomadic tribes that inhabited the territory of modern Mongolia and China); V. V. Shchepkina - about Buddhism in the lands of the Ainu, the ancient population of the Japanese Islands; D. G. Kiknadze - about the Japanese collection of stories collected in Uji in the XIII century; D. A. Nosova - about Buddhist imagery in the non-fairy prose of the Mongols; Enkhbat Munkhtsetseg (St. Petersburg.GU) - about Buddhist and shamanic terms in the explanatory dictionary "Mirror of Manchu-Mongolian literature".

One session was devoted to Buddhist art, museum studies, cultural studies and ethnography. Presentations were made by: V. N. Mazurina (State Museum of the History of Religion) - about the figure of Lokeshwara in the ritual practice of Nepalese people; M. F. Albedil (MAHE named after him. Peter the Great (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences ) - about the Buddhist collection of E. E. Ukhtomsky; V. V. Demenov (Ural Federal University named after B. N. Yeltsin) - about the collections of Buddhist art in the Urals; S. B. Bardaleev (Museum of the History of Buryatia named after M. N. Khangalov) - about the museum collections of Ganjurva gegen D. Norboeva; N. A. Subangulova (Ural Federal University named after B. N. Yeltsin) - on the role of Zen Buddhist arts in the spiritual development of an adept; N. D. Bolsokhoeva (IMBT SB RAS) - on illustrations in medical treatises of the Atsagat datsan; B. Ts Batomunkin (Aginsky Department of the Trans-Baikal Branch of the Russian Geographical Society Sarangerel (Central University of Nationalities, Beijing) - on the oral history of the Shenehen Buryats living in the Hulun-Buir region of China, north of the Shenehen-gol River, where they moved after 1917.

Of particular interest were reports on specific people, whether they are scientists, travelers, or public figures, whose lives are connected with Buddhism. These are reports by: T. V. Ermakova (IVR RAS), co-authored with V. N. Mazurina (State Museum of the History of Religion) on N. I. Vorobyov, a collector of Buddhist objects in Siam; V. Yu. Zhukov (Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering), together with I. V. Kulganek , on letters to to his son, S. A. Kondratyev, a Mongolian scholar, folklorist and archaeologist, and to Mongolia, an astronomer of the Pulkovo Observatory A. A. Kondratyev; E. Y. Kharkova - about Muge Samten Gyatso, an outstanding Tibetan scientist and educator of the XX century; E. E. Badmaeva (director of the Agin Medical College) - about the role of teachers of Tibetan medicine in the educational process of the Agin College.

Philosophical problems of Buddhism, to which the final session was devoted, were convincingly presented. It was attended by L. L. Abayeva (IMBT SB RAS) with the report "Axiological dominants of the renewal movement of the Buddhist clergy in the context of the activities of Agvan Dorzhiev: modern interpretations"; N. V. Pupysheva (IMBT SB RAS) with the report "Basic differences between Buddhism and modern Western Sciences"; A.V. Shcherbina (St. Petersburg State University). V. I. Ulyanov (Lenin) Electrotechnical University "LETI") with the report "B. D. Dandaron: the experience of Buddhist criticism of the modern scientific worldview";

D. D. Amagolonova (IMBT SB RAS) with the report "Religion in the space of interethnic interaction".

During the conference, participants visited three Buddhist monasteries or datsans (Egitui, Atsagat and Shulut), the Agvan Dorjiev stupa and the Khara-Shibir Museum of Agvan Dorjiev.

The museum of Agvan Dorzhiev was opened in the present-day settlement "Pervomaiskoe" of the Zaigraevsky district of Buryatia, in the place where he was born and studied. Director of the museum Kh. Ch. Tsydypdorzhisva conducted a tour of the museum, introduced guests to ethnographic and cultural exhibits related to the life of the Buryat people. Then the audience paid tribute to the memory of Aghvan Dorzhiev by walking around the stupa dedicated to him, built in 1994.

On the first day of the conference, participants visited the Egitui Monastery, located 300 km from Ulan-Ude on the western bank of the Marakta River between two hills in the Khara-Shibir area of the Yeravninsky district. The datsan houses the Buddhist shrine of the Buddha statue made of sandalwood 2 m 18 cm high, the so-called Zandan Zhu, which is, according to legend, the only lifetime sculpture of Shakyamuni Buddha. In the 19th century, the monastery was a major center of Buddhism, where the Tsam mysteries were held-solemn religious services performed annually in the open air in Buddhist monasteries, which, according to some scholars, go back to ancient shamanic practices.

From the Steppe Nomad ethnocomplex, the conference participants made hiking trips to the Shulut and Atsagat datsans. The Atsagat datsan, founded in the 19th century, became famous for its highly educated philosophers, astrologers and doctors who contributed to the development of Buddhism and the culture of the Buryat people. The history of this monastery is connected with the arrival of Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich in Buryatia in 1891. To commemorate this event, a Triumphal Arch was built, and later, in memory of his stay in the datsan, the Sagaan Dara ehe (White Goddess) temple was built. During the Soviet era, the datsan was destroyed. In 1991, Atsagat visited the Dalai Lama XIV and consecrated the site of the future construction of the datsan. The new building was built on a different site, on the slope of Tamkhityn Daba Mountain. The house-museum of Aghvan Dorzhiev was opened at the datsan in 1999. The old log house in which Aghvan Dorzhiev lived was moved from the village of Khara-Shibir. Here you can find photos of the datsan buildings, copies of the arrest and interrogation protocols of Aghvan Dorzhiev. At the northern wall of the museum there is a wax museum of Buddhist hierarchs: Agvan Dorzhiev himself, the owner of this house, the Dalai Lama XIV, the Dalai Lama XIII (a disciple of A. A. Dorzhiev). Dorzhiev), Khambo Lama Ireltuev (a close friend of A. Dorzhiev). The Shulut datsan is located on the site of the former Atsagat datsan. A temple is currently being built here for daily traditional Buddhist services.

The sixth Dorzhiev Readings "Buddhism and the Modern World" were held at a high scientific level: the conference topic expanded and the number of participants increased. Experts from China and Poland were added, which confirms the unflagging interest in the world in topics related to Buddhism, and to the personality of a prominent Buryat Buddhist and public figure Agvan Lobsan Dorzhiev.

It seems that such conferences exploring the religion, philosophy, history, literature and art of traditional Buddhist regions of Russia and the world are necessary, since our country is home to nationalities that profess Buddhism, and Buddhist traditions still remain strong. There is an urgent need to take into account the religious Buddhist aspect of interethnic contacts in the regions where Buryats and Kalmyks live compactly, and to take this factor into account at all levels of interaction with the Mongolian peoples.

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