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datsan

{{Short description|Term used for Gelug Tibetan Buddhist university monasteries}}

{{ref improve|date=January 2014}}

Image:Ivolga monastery.jpg]]

File:Ust-Burgaltai datsan, Buryatia, Russia.jpg, Buryatia, Russia]]

Datsan ({{langx|mn|Дацан}}, {{langx|ru|Дацан}}, {{langx|bua|Дасан}}; derived from {{langx|bo|གྲྭ་ཚང།|translit=grwa.tshang}}) is the term used for Buddhist university monasteries in the Tibetan tradition of Gelukpa located throughout Mongolia, Tibet and Siberia. As a rule, in a datsan there are two departments—philosophical and medical. Sometimes a department of tantric practices is added to them where the monks study only after finishing education in the philosophical department.

In pre-revolutionary Russia, datsans traditionally existed only in the Buryat territories, most of those now included in Buryatia and Transbaikalia (a number of datsans there have been reconstructed or newly established since the early 1990s).{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}} There was a difference with Tibetan administrative idea: in Tibet, several datsans were education-centered parts of larger organizations,Rinchen, B.; Maidar, D., ed. (1979). Mongol ard ulsiin ugsaatnii sudlal, khelnii shinjleliin atlas [Ethnographic and Linguistic Atlas of the Mongolian People’s Republic]. Ulaanbaatar. according to {{cite web |last1= Majer |first1= Zsuzsa |last2= Teleki |first2= Krisztina |url=http://www.mongoliantemples.net/images/pdfs/OLDUBWEB%202008.pdf |title= Monasteries and Temples of Bogdiin Khьree, Ikh Khьree or Urga, the Old Capital City of Mongolia in the First Part of the Twentieth Century |date=2006 |location= Budapest | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227184244/http://www.mongoliantemples.net/images/pdfs/OLDUBWEB%202008.pdf |archivedate=2009-02-27}} as Drepung, Ganden, and Sera Monastery in Gelukpa tradition.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}} In Russia, datsans were not parts of a larger entity, but rather independent educational and religious centers. In Buryat Buddhism, the terms "Buddhist monastery" and "Datsan" are interchangeable,{{cite thesis |last= Барданова |first= Туяна Иннокентьевна |year= 2006|script-title=ru:Декор в архитектуре бурятских буддийских храмов |location= Улан-Удэ |publisher=Типография Буддийского университета «Даши Чойнхорлин» |language=ru |trans-title=Decor in the architecture of Buryat Buddhist temples|url=https://cheloveknauka.com/dekor-v-arhitekture-buryatskih-buddiyskih-hramov|pages=|access-date=2023-03-11}} as other monastery organization forms found in Tibetan Buddhism elsewhere, were not present.

List of datsans in Mongolia

  • Manba Datsan (also "Mamba Datsan"){{Cite web |url=http://www.manbadatsan.mn/index_en.php-menuid=2.htm |title=Homepage of the Manba Datsan |access-date=2013-11-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130705054258/http://www.manbadatsan.mn/index_en.php-menuid=2.htm |archive-date=2013-07-05 |url-status=dead }}

List of datsans in Russia

{{main|{{ill|List of Buddhist temples and monasteries in Russia|ru|Буддийские храмы и монастыри России}}}}

Datsans were officially acknowledged in Imperial Russia in 1741.{{cite web |url=https://dazanspb.ru/arb/sangha-rossii/ |title=Буддийская эклектика: история дацанов в России |accessdate=2023-09-17 |archive-url= |archive-date= |publisher=Дацан Гунзэчойнэй |website=dazanspb.ru}} By statute of 1853 there were two recognized datsans in the Irkutsk government and others in the Zabaykalsky government. The first datsan in Europe was Datsan Gunzechoinei in St. Petersburg.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

Before the Communist Revolution in 1917, there were 40 datsans (not counting smaller temples — sume). After the revolution, the number went up to 48, but between 1927 and 1938 all datsans that existed in Buryatia and Transbaikalia were closed or destroyed. The Second World War, that followed shortly after, became another turning point for the Buddhists in Buryatia: despite the suppression by the communist government, the Buryat Buddhist community came together in 1944 and collected financial aids to support the communist state and the Red Army in their struggles against Nazi Germany. The communist government expressed their gratitude for the donations by giving them permission to open a Buddhist datsan in Buryatia. In 1946, the Ivolginsky datsan and the Aginsky datsan resumed operations.{{cite book|chapter=Buddhism in Contemporary Kalmykia. 'Pure' Monasticism versus Challenges of Post-Soviet Modernity |last=Gazizova |first=Valeriya |title=Buddhist Modernities: Re-inventing Tradition in the Globalizing Modern World. Part 2: Revivals and Neo-Traditionalist Inventions |editor-last1=Havnevik |editor-first1=Hanna |editor-last2=Hüsken |editor-first2=Ute |editor-last3=Teeuwen |editor-first3=Mark |editor-last4=Tikhonov |editor-first4=Vladimir |editor-last5=Wellens |editor-first5=Koen |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FCglDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA89 |publisher= Routledge |series= Routledge studies in religion |location= New York and London |date=2017 |isbn=9781315542140 |access-date=2023-09-17 |page=94 }} The following datsans were not opened until 1991.

File:The Buddhistic Temple in St. Petersburg.jpg]]

See also

References

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External links

  • {{cite web |publisher=Iwolginsky datsan |script-title=ru:Дацаны на территории Бурятии, Читинской и Иркутской областей |website=иволгинский.рф |url=http://xn--b1acncagffug1b.xn--p1ai/doc/008_ls.shtml |date=2012 |access-date=2013-11-20 |language=ru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306012423/http://xn--b1acncagffug1b.xn--p1ai/doc/008_ls.shtml |archive-date=2016-03-06 |url-status=dead }} (List of datsans in Buryatia, Chita and Irkutsk Oblasts)
  • {{in lang|ru}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20061207162314/http://dazan.spb.ru/main/ Official site of the Gunzechoyney datsan]
  • {{cite web |publisher=www.baikal.ru |script-title=ru:Религия|url=http://www.baikal.ru/bc/m2_core.html |access-date=2013-11-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001023229/http://www.baikal.ru/bc/m2_core.html |archive-date=2007-10-01 |language=ru}} (datsans)

Category:Tibetan Buddhism in Siberia

Category:Buddhist monasteries in Russia

Category:Buddhist education