Lubsan Samdan Tsydenov

Lubsan Samdan Tsydenov was a charismatic Buddhist master and visionary from Buryatia in Siberia. He was born at a time when Buddhism was flourishing in the region. However, as he had foreseen challenging times ahead, he did not let the favourable circumstances blind him. When the Russian civil war broke out, Tsydenov’s decision to establish a Buddhist theocracy in the Kizhinga (Kudun) Valley and to declare himself as the Dharma King protected tens of thousands of men, women, and children.

Although the move was ultimately unsuccessful and Tsydenov was imprisoned multiple times, he is still remembered today by the people of Buryatia as a true Dharma King and a national hero.

Early Life

Tsydenov’s early life is shrouded in mystery. Although it is generally accepted that he was born in 1841 near Lake Baikal in Southern Buryatia, some scholars believe that the year could be 1850. During this period, several Buryat Mongol tribes that lived in the Lake Baikal area adopted Tibetan Buddhism.

The beautiful Lake Baikal. It is generally believed that Tsydenov was born near Lake Baikal.

Even as a child, Tsydenov was known for his sharp intelligence and perseverance in achieving his goals. One day, Tsydenov joined his friends in a stone-throwing competition. The boy whose stone landed the furthest would be the winner. Tsydenov did not win and it drove him to practise until evening, long after his friends had gone home. When his mother found him, a lake had formed from all the stones that Tsydenov had thrown. The lake is known today as Samdan Lake.

When he turned ten, Tsydenov’s family sent him to Kizhinga Datsan (Kudun Monastery), a Gelugpa monastery in the region. Tsydenov proved to be a talented boy and diligent in his studies. He had an insatiable thirst for knowledge; when he could not find sufficient resources at the monastery, he sought out teachings from travelling lamas.

Kizhinga in Buryatia

The Dzarun Hashor Stupa. The original stupa was built in 1919 in the Kizhinga (Kudun) Datsan complex. However, the monastery and the stupa were destroyed in 1937. The Dzarun Hashor Stupa was rebuilt in 2001.

Meeting His Root Teacher

Tsydenov met his root teacher, the 13^th Jayagsy Gegen Tulku, Throne Holder of Kumbum Monastery in Tibet, when Jayagsy Gegen was visiting Kudun Monastery. When Jayagsy Gegen arrived, all the monks except for Tsydenov lined up to pay homage to him. Only on the third day did Tsydenov go to see the master.

Jayagsy Gegen Tulku was the 13th Throne Holder of Kumbum Monastery in Amdo, Tibet.

When Tsydenov met with Jayagsy Gegen, the two men bowed to each other. In their conversation, Tsydenov expressed his belief that the 20^th century would bring momentous shifts. He spoke of Buddhist reforms and proposed two changes. The first was to establish a Buddhist Sangha in Buryatia to preserve and spread Buddhism in the new world order. The second was a revival of certain old Tantric practices. Tsydenov then made a courageous prediction about the upcoming political turmoil and the need for the spreading of Tantric practice.

Jayagsy Gegen bestowed Yamantaka practice on Tsydenov at his request. Click to enlarge or click here for more high resolution Buddha images.

Tsydenov was known for his intense concentration and meditation practice. One day, the abbot instructed him to go to a distant pasture to search for a mare and bring it back. However, Tsydenov was so engrossed in his contemplation on the nature of suffering that he walked past the animal without even seeing it. When he returned to the monastery empty-handed, Tsydenov said to the abbot: “I went to the pasture, as you told me, but there was no horse.” [Source: tricycle.org] Those who heard this answer recognised it as either an echo of emptiness (shunyata) or a reflection of self-discipline.

Respect for Tsydenov among the lay devotees in the region grew. He continued his studies at the residence of Pandito Khambo Lama, the designated spiritual leader of the Buryat Buddhists. When he was 35 years old, Tsydenov passed his Geshe examinations, the equivalent of a Doctorate in Philosophy. Jayagsy Gegen bestowed the Yamantaka tantric practice on Tsydenov at his request.

The Unconventional Geshe

Tsydenov was known to be charismatic, proud, independent, and decisive. He preferred his privacy and did not like idle chatter or luxury. He was also known for his unconventional approach to the practice of Buddhism.

A thangka of Guru Rinpoche surrounded by Vajrakilaya, Samantabhadra, Rahula, Ekajati, Dorje Legpa and Dorje Shugden. Click to enlarge or click here for more high resolution Buddha images.

On one occasion, an old layman devotee invited Tsydenov to his house to perform an offering ritual to the Dharma Protector Dorje Legpa. The old man had placed ritual cakes (tormas) in front of a thangka of Dorje Legpa. When Tsydenov arrived, he broke the tormas into pieces and tossed them out. He also rolled up the protector thangka and put it inside a bag. Tsydenov then declared: “Surely, this is more than enough for an ordinary blacksmith.” [Source: tricycle.org] His followers interpreted Tsydenov’s actions as a teaching that “the world of deities and the world of human beings were not so very separate.” [Source: tricycle.org]

Even though Tsydenov had become an erudite Buddhist scholar, he maintained an interest in Western Philosophy. In August 1893, Tsydenov met with a Russian ethnographer, Moisey Krol, who was exploring the Transbaikal region. The two men discussed the European worldview and Western philosophy. Krol wrote about this encounter in 1893:

“Who knows how many years he harboured all these questions in his soul which he vented on me? I do not know whether I have managed to satisfy his hunger for knowledge but he learnt from me the worldview about which he had no idea before we have met…”

Source: chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com

Regardless of his unorthodox approach and interests, or perhaps because of them, Tsydenov was popular among lay devotees. This popularity made him a contender for the position of Abbot of Kudun Monastery. However, the position went to a monk who had the support of Pandito Khambo Lama.

Despite the lost opportunity, Tsydenov won the support of both Pandito Khambo Lama and the aristocratic clan to be included in the Buryat delegation which would attend the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II in May 1896. Orientalists in the capital were always eager to broach the subjects of religion and philosophy, and Tsydenov was selected for his intellectual abilities and advanced knowledge of Buddhism.

Encounter with the Tsar

In March 1896, the Buryatia delegates commenced their journey to Moscow to attend the coronation at Uspensky Cathedral and the subsequent celebrations that would take place in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

After the ceremony, the Buryatia delegates were given an audience with the newly enthroned Tsar at the Tsarskoye Selo Imperial Palace in St. Petersburg. When the Tsar entered the room, everyone except Tsydenov bowed. Instead, Tsydenov looked at the Tsar and nodded respectfully. His behaviour broke the norms of protocol and the Ministry of Domestic Affairs launched an investigation into the incident.

The magnificent Tsarskoye Selo Palace in St. Petersburg.

Tsydenov explained later that his behaviour was motivated by the monastic code, which dictated that an ordained sangha member should not bow to a secular ruler. This justification was also a rebuke to other ordained members of the delegation, including Pandito Khambo Lama, who bowed to Tsar Nicholas II. However, the leader of the Buryatia delegation, Chief Taisha Ayushiev, told a different story to the Russian authorities. He said that Tsydenov had been so overwhelmed by the sight of the Tsar that he was unaware of what he was doing. The apology from the head of the delegation was accepted but Tsydenov was not pleased that Ayushiev did not reveal the true reason for his behaviour.

VIDEO: Coronation of Tsar Nicholas II

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In Moscow and St. Petersburg, Tsydenov had the opportunity to discuss religion and philosophy with some of the most learned people in the country. He also obtained books on politics and western philosophy.

In the summer of 1896, Tsydenov wrote a poem for the Tsar. In this poem, Tsydenov described him as an enlightened ruler (chakravartin) who spreads wisdom and peace with the help of his attendants and Tsarina Alexandra, his divine consort:

“Like the full moon amid stars,
The Czar Nicholas, the radiant Lord, blesses the minds
of all his subjects.
As he emerges in the sky with his radiant consort,
He embodies the fulfilment of all the world’s longings.

I look up and the sky opens,
And just as the still expanse of the sea
Is suddenly ornamented with shining ripples,
It seems my body is wrapped in golden cloth.
The hair on my skin rises and shivers.

For a long time, I cannot move.
Then I make three prostrations.
I offer the symbols for an enduring life:
A white silk scarf, a jewelled mandala, a statue of
Amitayus, Embodiment of Life and Light.

I pray:
May this ruler forever entrance our minds,
Forever dispel the darkness of disorder and chaos.
May he sit in splendour on his diamond throne.

May the pure land of imperial rule
Pervade all time.
Without a holy ruler,
How can humankind know peace?
Please protect us from the madness of the world.

May this song, written down under the light of two
electric bulbs, bring all-pervasive purity and perfect
bliss to every sentient being.”

Source: chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com

One can only wonder why Tsydenov wrote such a glorious poem to Tsar Nicholas II, whose reign was far from glorious. In 1905, Russia suffered a terrible defeat in the Russo-Japanese war, which marked the first time an Asian country defeated a Western country. When Russia became involved in the First World War (1914–1918), the general situation became worse, and resentment against the crown grew. The dissatisfaction culminated in the Russian Revolution in 1917, and the shooting of Tsar Nicholas II and his family in 1918. It is possible that the poem reflected Tsydenov’s idea of a sacred monarchy, which he would implement in the future after the Russian Revolution.

Tsar Nicholas II and his family in 1913.

The coronation of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra (click to enlarge)

VIDEO: In Search of History – The Romanovs

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The Abbot of Kudun Monastery

After Tsydenov returned from the coronation, he only stayed briefly at Kudun Monastery. His journey had brought him to the realisation that “a monastery is also samsara.” [Source: tricycle.org] He left with several of his close students and went into retreat in the remote Soorkhoi Village for several years. Tsydenov and his students concentrated on the practice of Yamantaka, a wrathful form of Manjushri. His anti-monastic views and spiritual determination brought much admiration from his devotees and his fame spread beyond the Kudun Valley.

The location of Kizhinga (Kudun) Datsan in Buryatia (click to enlarge)

In 1906, Tsydenov declared himself a practitioner of the Nyingma tradition and started to accept more students. His main student was Dorje Gabzhi Badmaev, who also served as his assistant.

Tsydenov in Tantric ritual dress and his main student, Dorje Gabzhi Badmaev (click to enlarge)

The following year, Tsydenov was asked to serve as the Abbot of Kudun Monastery, the very position that had been denied to him 13 years earlier. Tsydenov accepted but he remained in Soorkhoi and arranged for his students to manage the daily affairs of the monastery.

In 1910, during Jayagsy Gegen’s last visit to Buryatia, the locals requested him to take his next rebirth in Buryatia, and they carried him three times around the monastery. Upon receiving this request, Jayagsy Gegen predicted that his next rebirth would indeed be in Buryatia. He also said that, in his next life, Tsydenov would be his teacher and that he would die in prison. Three years after he made this prediction, Jayagsy Gegen passed away during a journey to Kumbum Monastery.

Pandito Khambo Lama Itgilov

On 28^th December 1914, one year after Jayagsy Gegen’s passing, Tsydenov’s assistant named Dorje Gabzhi Badmaev had a son. The boy was named Bidia Dandarovitch Dandaron (1914-1974) and was later recognised as the reincarnation of Jayagsy Gegen.

When a delegation from Tibet’s Kumbum Monastery came to take the boy, Tsydenov refused to let him go. He insisted that he would educate him personally because the Buryats needed their own religious leader. The Tibetan delegation returned and enthroned another local boy as Jayagsy Rinpoche. This Tibetan Jayagsy Rinpoche would later become the sutra teacher to His Holiness the 10^th Panchen Lama.

In 1916, Pandito Khambo Lama Itgilov used Tsydenov’s absence as a reason to remove him from the position of abbot. Tsydenov was unaffected, as is clear from his petition to the Russian Minister of Domestic Affairs in March 1917.

“I do not need the abbot’s position itself, I had agreed to take it only due to the insistence of the people, i.e., parishioners of the datsan. I am not craving it. In this circumstance I solely want the rules of the religion that are broken by groundless caprice to be rightly observed. That is why I am applying to Your Excellency with this petition for the sake of the restoration of the broken justice.”

Source: chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com

The Impact of the Russian Revolution on the Buryat People

While Tsydenov and his students continued with their spiritual practice, the world around them was in chaos. The living conditions of the ordinary people were not good and Russia’s participation in the First World War made them resent the Tsar even more. In 1917, Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate and civil war ensued.

The leader of the Cossack White Army, Grigory Semyonov.

Grigory Semyonov, the leader of the Cossack White Army who had initiated the anti-Soviet rebellion consolidated his power in Transbaikal and moved his troops to Buryatia. This created a lot of problems for the local Buryat community. The ill-disciplined soldiers stole from merchants, peasants, herdsmen and farmers. The army was also responsible for heinous crimes like murder and rape. Eventually, Semyonov started to tame his troops and established order in the region.

In a strategic move, he formed an alliance with the Japanese troops near Manchuria and took control of the local governments of Siberia, Mongolia and Manchuria through their local assemblies (dumas). In autumn 1918, Semyonov started to recruit Buryat men into his army. The decision was unpopular and many avoided the draft by becoming lama-ascetics.

The Khori Buryat aristocrats who had lost power in the new government order exploited the people’s discontent over Semyonov’s recruitment of Buryat men. Thus, they encouraged the community to defy the orders.

News of Tsar Nicholas II’s abdication and the chaos that followed (click to enlarge)

Another news of Tsar Nicholas II’s abdication and the chaos that followed. (click to enlarge)

Members of the Cossack White Army

VIDEO: The White Army

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Creating a Buddhist Theocracy

In the midst of the political turmoil, Tsydenov mulled over the idea of a Buddhist theocracy. He was inspired by the Dalai Lama in Tibet and Jetsun Dampa Khutuktu who had done the same in Outer Mongolia. Tsydenov took advantage of the fact that the Red Army was having difficulties in moving eastward. He presented his idea to the Kizhinga authority, the administrative centre in Buryatia.

An illustration of the Russian Civil War

Tsydenov’s idea of a Buddhist theocracy was well received. In February 1919, approximately 13,000 members of Buryat’s Khori clan requested that he become a Dharma King (chakravartin) with the official titles of “Yogachari Nomun Khan” and “Tsog Tuguldur Darmaranza.” In the spring of 1919, Tsydenov proclaimed a state in accordance with Buddhist law and the principles of Western democracy. The state would later be known as Kudunai Erketei Balgasan. The Buddhist theocracy was established under the authority of Semyonov.

In his declaration, Tsydenov stated:

“He who does not wish to fight, since fighting is contrary to the Buddha’s law, let him come to me and be a subject in this kingdom.”

Source: chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com

The Buddhist state governed an area consisting of 400 farmsteads in the Kudun Valley. The citizens of this kingdom were called Balagats. Tsydenov’s followers also worked to include the populations of other regions (khoshuuns) in the newly established state.

The declaration of the Buddhist state also marked the separation of Tsydenov and his followers from the official Buddhist Church under the authority of Pandito Khambo Lama. Since the Russian government had never supported the idea of incarnation, Tsydenov decided that succession to the position of Dharma King would be by appointment instead. He named his closest student, Badmaev, as his successor.

Men from the Khori Buryat tribe in the late 1800s.

Tsydenov ordered a commission to be set up to form a government and institutions for the newly-formed theocracy. All official state positions, except that of the Dhamaraja, would be elected by secret ballot. In line with their principles of non-violence (ahimsa), the commission did not establish an army.

Tsydenov also set up a commission to draft the constitution, which would be subject to his approval. The draft of the constitution of the Kudun Theocracy, comprising 36 articles, was completed on 4^th May 1919. The constitution included the structure of the Sovereign State of the Balagats (Erkhete Balgasan Ulus), the secular administrative bodies of the Kudun Theocracy. Each Balagat consists of several Toskhons. A Toskhon is an administrative region smaller than the Balagat.

VIDEO: Beautiful Kizhinga

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The Structure of the Buddhist Theocratic State

The constitution placed the Congress of Deputies (Suglans) under the Dharmaraja. The citizens elected Suglans over 16 years of age for a two-year term. Every 100 voters of the Kudun Theocracy were represented by one Suglan. On 14^th May 1919, 102 Suglans were elected. They were given the responsibility of electing the Theocracy’s executive members (i.e., President, Vice-President, and the Ministers) and determining the budget and salaries of government officials. All these decisions were subject to approval by Tsydenov as the Dhamaraja. However, the President could make day-to-day operational decisions.

At least two-thirds of the voters had to be present to elect the head of a Balagat administration. The voters also elected the Dargas or the head of a Toskhon for a one-year term.

The Balagat Court represented the judicial body of the Kudun Theocracy. It was led by the Balagat’s Head of Administration and two judges (siülengge). The security and internal order of the Kudun Theocracy was the responsibility of the Supervisor (čaγdaγači), his assistants, and the Balagat Guard.

Tsydenov, the Dharma King

The banner of the 1st Nerchinskoye Regiment of the Trans-Baikal Cossack Troops.

One week after the establishment of the Kudun Theocracy, Semyonov arrested Tsydenov and nine of his ministers on a charge of initiating a separatist movement.

They were released within a month after they agreed to cooperate with Semyonov. Three such arrests followed in the space of a year but Tsydenov was always released within a month, on average. His followers regarded this as evidence of his spiritual powers.

In December 1919, Badmaev, Tsydenov’s closest disciple and assistant, contracted typhus and passed away. Tsydenov allowed his remains to lie in state for several days so the public could pay homage. Then, part of his body was used to make special pills for distribution among devotees while the other remains were enshrined in a stupa.

Convicts’ sleeping quarters in a Siberian prison camp.

The people’s faith in Tsydenov was so strong that even the demise of Badmaev, Tsydenov’s student and appointed successor, did not affect the running of the state.

Meanwhile, responding to the accusations levelled against him, Tsydenov revealed his motives to the political court of the Baikal region:

“I really am a King of Dharma (Dharmaraja) of [the] Three Worlds. This authority was conferred on me by a deity. Since for my subjects I was a saviour, during meetings with me they worshipped me and performed the rituals for my well-being with offerings [and] gifts. I will put forth an example to explain of what degree should have been their offerings to gain merits. In ancient times there was a Khan-Cakravartin who subjugated four continents. With the power of the Cintamani Wish-fulfilling Gem he had poured down the rain of treasures until he filled all the continents and offered to the Buddhist religion his united kingdom. To conceive the measure of these offerings one should understand them as equal to those ones. To understand it as a desire for profit is a deep mistake. The religion I am a head of is contained in the ocean of Tantra teaching that reached the boundaries of all good instructions of Buddha. Since the source of this teaching is the Great Buddha Vajradhara, a holder of [the] ten directions and [the] three times I would not say much about it. We have a theocracy and most of my followers are adepts, and so they must have attributes, symbols, to behave properly. They are bound by the vow of non-violence and other vows of purity. According to them it is prohibited to serve in the army. Establishing the theocratic state I followed the principle of combining the religious and secular principles of government. It does not imply partition of the government into religious and civil bodies. The reason is that the authority is a union of religion and state. Since a theocratic policy is related to religion it considers the religion and politics in close contact. Therefore, the acts of a “lama-despot” are of a religious nature, and cannot be considered as crimes.”

Source: chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com

However, the worsening political situation threatened the survival of the Kudun Theocracy. The Red Army under the leadership of General Tukhachev started to gain momentum against the White armies. In May 1920, Semyonov’s agents arrested Tsydenov again and imprisoned him in Verkhneudinsk. In October 1920, Semyonov was driven out of the Transbaikal region, and the Red Army conquered the Kudun Valley. Tsydenov was still in prison and he became a captive of the Soviets.

General Mikhail Tukhachev

While Tsydenov was imprisoned, his supporters continued to work to revive the Kudun Theocracy through the Balagat movement. The movement was gaining momentum with the support of the Police Chief A. Uvarov and officials in the neighbouring Baikal Region. They decided to shift their allegiance from the Buriat-Mongol Autonomous Region to the Baikal Region and restored the Balagat state administrative model. The supporters of the Balagat State refused to pay taxes to the Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Region and established their own police force. They even won support from some local leaders.

In the summer of 1921, Tsydenov wrote a letter to appoint the then seven-year-old Dandaron to be his successor as the Dhamaraja. In addition, he requested the supporters of the Theocracy like N. Sampilov, Sh. Tsybikov, Ts. Bazarov and G. Tsyrempilov to celebrate the Theocracy’s revival in the new monastery (datsan) in Chuluta. The celebration lasted three days and featured prayers, wrestling and horse-racing.

Imprisonment and Death

In the meantime, the government of the Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Region (BMAR) accused the members of the Balagat movement of avoiding their tax and military service obligations. In February 1922, the BMAR presented its case to the Far Eastern Republic authority. The Far Eastern Republic was an independent state controlled by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). By March 1922, the leading members of the Balagat State were subject to arrest. The Balagat State authority’s force of 150 armed men were unable to free their associates.

The map of the Far Eastern Republic in 1922 (click to enlarge)

The failed armed resistance led to the arrest of Tsydenov’s supporters and a call for Tsydenov to be exiled. There are three versions of what happened next.

One version says that the Soviet secret police (Cheka) moved him from Verkhneudinsk to Novosibirsk and deprived him of all external contact. In May 1922, Tsydenov passed away in a hospital in Novosibirsk after suffering from pleurisy that affected the left side of his body.

Another account says that Tsydenov was moved to a labour camp in the north.

The third version comes from a man named Tsygan. He informed Vladimir Montlevich, a student of Dandaron, that he saw Tsydenov in 1924. According to Tsygan, Tsydenov was dressed in an elegant European suit. When Tsygan greeted him, Tsydenov shook Tsygan’s hand and told him that he was “going to Italy.”

The Theocracy ended with Tsydenov’s demise. After his passing, the Far Eastern Republic and the RSFSR continued to pursue and persecute the remaining members of the Balagat Movement. They were put on trial, imprisoned and executed. The last trial was held in the village of Aninsk in June 1929, when one person was condemned to be executed by firing squad and others were given prison sentences of between five and ten years.

Considering the chaos and the instability of the political situation at the time, it is incredible that the Buddhist State managed to survive for so long. The Kudun Theocracy protected thousands of men, women and children by complying with the principles of non-violence, guided by the faith and determination of Lubsan Samdan Tsydenov.

A painting that depicts the devastating effect of the Russian Civil War.

Aftermath

The 1930s were a dark time for Buddhism in Buryatia. All 44 Buddhist monasteries in the region were either destroyed or closed down. Approximately 15,000 to 17,000 monks were either imprisoned or murdered. 45,000 Buryats were labelled rebels, pursued and killed. Simply possessing Tsydenov’s picture was considered a crime and subject to imprisonment.

Bidia Dandaron in tantric ritual dress

Dandaron, Tsydenov’s anointed successor, studied at the Aircraft Device Construction Institute in Leningrad and later attended the Eastern Faculty of Leningrad State University as an auditor. He also studied the Tibetan language. Due to his status as a Buddhist lama and his association with Tsydenov, Dandaron was tried in court three times and spent over 15 years in prison.

Dandaron did not abandon his religious work despite the difficult situation. He continued his Tibetan studies and translated various historical and religious texts from Tibetan into Russian. He also published over 30 articles and other works, a remarkable achievement considering the enormous challenges that he faced. Dandaron was imprisoned for the last time in 1972. As his previous incarnation, Jayagsy Gegen had predicted, Dandaron passed away in 1974 while serving a five-year sentence in a labour camp in Vydrino.

Although association with Tsydenov resulted in terrible consequences for many people of his time, they did not lose faith and hope in their Dharmaraja. Tsydenov’s legacy remains alive today because storytellers, braving incredible adversity, continue to recount his story as a true Dharma King and protector.

Damaged deity statue outside Khuzhirtayevsky Datsan.

Another picture of a damaged datsan in Buryatia.

Bidia Dandaron

Lubsan Samdan Tsydenov: A Vanished Buddhist King

By Douglas Penick | SUMMER 2018

Lubsan Samdan Tsydenov with one of his students, Dorje Gabzhi Badmaev.

“Life, the great destroyer, is the source of all.
Compassion, rejecting nothing, has never known fear;
Here is Yamantaka, the Conqueror of Death,
Dwelling inseparably in the center of the gold cloud-palace of the senses:
This is the supreme protection.”

Like a worn and towering sandstone sculpture that a traveler in the remote steppes might come upon, the life story of Lubsan Samdan Tsydenov is strangely imposing, even monumental. Its sources are difficult to access and not easy to verify. He emerges from a confused and violent past, and he seems more a heroic figure in a folktale — like an emanation of the epic king Gesar, say — than an actual historical person. But it is undisputed that he was destined to be a monk, that he lived as a Buddhist teacher, that he became a king, and that, finally, he disappeared into the brutal chaos of the early 20^th century.

To begin, scholars agree that Tsydenov was born in 1850 in southern Buryatia near Lake Baikal. Buryatia is a South Central Siberian territory bordered by Russia to the north, Mongolia to the south, and Lake Baikal to the west. It is the homeland of several Buryat Mongol tribes, and has, since the 18^th century, been the northernmost territory to adopt Tibetan Buddhist practices.

Even as a small boy, Tsydenov had a reputation for stubbornness. People still tell the story about his determination. One spring morning he joined a group of children competing to see how far they could throw stones into a broad stream. He was not the best, but long after the others had gone home Tsydenov remained, pitching one stone after another as far as he could. He continued through the rest of the day and well into the evening. By the time his mother came to find him, the stream was dammed and a small lake had begun to form. The lake remains today and, even if the man himself has been forgotten, is still called Samdan Lake.

When he was 10, his parents sent him to Kudun Datsan, the nearby Gelugpa monastery, where, it is said, his concentration in study and in meditation practice was more singleminded than anyone had ever seen. Once the abbot sent him to bring a mare back from a distant pasture. He was preoccupied with reflecting on the nature of suffering and returned hours later, empty-handed. A farmer had seen Tsydenov walk right past the animal, but when the abbot asked Tsydenov what had happened, Tsydenov replied: “I went to the pasture, as you told me, but there is no horse.” Some thought that this reply was evidence of his strict discipline, while others found in it an echo of shunyata, or emptiness.

Throughout the following years, Tsydenov’s meditation practice was unwavering, and he remained an omnivorous scholar. Many accounts assert that he studied Western philosophy when he could find texts, and he sought out traveling Nyingma lamas, followers of the earliest Buddhist teaching in Tibet, for teachings. In this period, Tsydenov also became a disciple of the 13^th Jayagsy Gegen Tulku, abbot of the great Kumbum Monastery in Tibet. Tsydenov was 35 when, after years of study, he passed the rigorous tests for the title of geshe, the equivalent of a philosophy doctorate. At that point he became an official part of the Buddhist hierarchy in Buryatia.

Jayagsy Tulku made several visits to Buryatia and gave Tsydenov special oral instructions on the practice of Yamantaka, conqueror of the Lord of Death. The two also discussed at great length the future of Buddhist institutions. According to notebooks of people who had spoken with him, Tsydenov believed that the 20^th century would bring unparalleled upheavals and that the monastic way of life would no longer be able to ensure the continuity of the Buddha’s teachings. He proposed instead to establish a community of lay practitioners who would focus on older forms of tantric practice. This was the only way, as he later wrote, that the Buddhadharma could survive and even expand to the West. Despite what many have characterized as Tsydenov’s aloof manner, his clarity of mind and absolute devotion earned the admiration and trust of the Buddhist community.

It is true, however, that they sometimes found their new geshe alarming. Once, a wealthy layman requested Tsydenov to perform an offering to Dorje Legpa, a powerful protector, particularly of manufacturers and merchants, frequently shown riding on a goat, wearing a gold helmet and holding a hammer and bellows. The layman had unfurled a thangka [scroll painting] of the deity above the shrine and set out rows of ritual offering cakes before it. When Tsydenov arrived, he took down the thangka and rolled it up, then shredded the offerings and scattered them, saying, “Surely, this is more than enough for an ordinary blacksmith.” From this, people saw that for Tsydenov, the world of deities and the world of human beings were not so very separate.

When the abbot of Kudun died, many wanted Tsydenov to be appointed to the position. A clique who resented Tsydenov’s gifts and reputation prevented this. He was, however, invited to be one of a party of Buryat nobles and priests invited to visit Moscow to attend the coronation of Nicholas II in May 1896. From scattered accounts, it is possible to infer what followed. The Buryat delegation attended the coronation at the cathedral of the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow. A later audience took place near St. Petersburg in the long gilded hall of the imperial palace at Tsarskoye Selo. The guests felt engulfed in the glow of gold plasterwork. Nothing in the way they lived prepared them for the brilliance of the churches and the palaces. They were dazzled amid mirrors blazing as if lit from within. It was like being in the center of a sun. The visitors from the remote Siberian steppes had never imagined such splendor and on such a scale.

A court functionary in black banged his ivory staff. Guards in silver breastplates snapped to attention, and Nicholas, in a uniform of deep red with gold braid, entered quickly and sat on his silver throne. Everyone was overcome with awe. As instructed, they all bowed low. Tsydenov, however, did not. He stood, stared at the czar and nodded respectfully. Courtiers and visitors were equally aghast. Tsydenov later maintained that his vows and the Vinaya, the Buddhist monastic code, did not permit a monk to bow to a secular ruler. The head of the delegation made anxious excuses to court functionaries, saying that Tsydenov had been stunned by the sight of the czar and did not know what he was doing. The apology was accepted.

While he was in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Tsydenov met also with Western intellectuals and orientalists, from whom he obtained books on Western philosophy and political theory. But when he returned from St. Petersburg, he did not stay long at Kunbum Monastery. “A monastery is also samsara,” he said. Accompanied by a few students, he withdrew to the remote village of Soorkhoi and remained there on retreat for more than 20 years.

(L-R): St. Basil Cathedral, Moscow, Russia, 1926; Lubsan Samdan Tsydenov, location and year unknown; Czar Nicholas II, 1909.

After the coronation in the early summer of 1896, most surprisingly, Tsydenov sent a poem, written in Tibetan, to the czar. It was a long dream-vision of a transcendent ruler in a celestial realm of unimaginable opulence and beauty. Here Nicholas II was seen both as an enlightened monarch, or chakravartin, and an emanation of the deity White Tara, who spreads peace and wisdom just as a Buddha’s wisdom permeates his world. The czarina was presented in the poem as a divine consort, with attendants who lived to fulfill the czar’s mission in the world. And so, even if Tsydenov had not bowed to the czar, now we find him writing of Russian cities as if they were filled with the magical beauties of a pure land, and of Nicholas II and his court as worldly deities. Perhaps he sensed how much the world would change, and how the imperial order embodied virtues that would be swept away.

Here is a part of this ode:

“Like the full moon amid stars,
The Czar Nicholas, the radiant Lord, blesses the minds
of all his subjects.
As he emerges in the sky with his radiant consort,
He embodies the fulfillment of all the world’s longings.

I look up and the sky opens,
And just as the still expanse of the sea
Is suddenly ornamented with shining ripples,
It seems my body is wrapped in golden cloth.
The hair on my skin rises and shivers.
For a long time, I cannot move.
Then I make three prostrations.
I offer the symbols for an enduring life:
A white silk scarf, a jeweled mandala, a statue of
Amitayus, Embodiment of Life and Light.
I pray:

May this ruler forever entrance our minds,
Forever dispel the darkness of disorder and chaos.
May he sit in splendor on his diamond throne.

May the pure land of imperial rule
Pervade all time.
Without a holy ruler,
How can humankind know peace?
Please protect us from the madness of the world

May this song, written down under the light of two
electric bulbs, bring all-pervasive purity and perfect
bliss to every sentient being.”

Tsydenov and his followers remained in determined seclusion, but from the beginning of the new century, the rest of the world careened into chaos. All across Russia, in the first decade of the 20^th century, people rose up against the crown. At the beginning of the second decade, thousands of years of imperial rule ended in China. In the midst of encroaching turmoil, Tsydenov began to study the most ancient tantras, and though still on retreat, he was asked to serve as abbot of Kudun Datsan. He accepted the responsibility but stayed in Soorkhoi, while his students looked after the day-to-day management of the monastery. He was more than happy to surrender both title and work some years later when the Buddhist hierarchy demanded it. Everyone had heard that the provisional government in St. Petersburg was failing and that hundreds of thousands of Russians were being killed on the battlefields of Europe. While the Red armies campaigned in western Russia, the White armies crisscrossed Central Asia. Tsydenov was committed to training practitioners who could endure life in such a world.

Foremost among his students were Dorje Gabzhi Badmaev, Tsydenov’s main disciple and assistant for many years, and his stepson, Bidia Dandarovitch Dandaron. Born on December 28, 1914, Dandaron was 3 years old when the czar was forced to abdicate in 1917. His education had begun when he was very young, and there is no doubt that he was aware of the collapsing world around him as the Cossack army of Ataman Grigory Semyonov moved into Buryatia. Semyonov’s troops, like all the armies of the time, lived by stealing from farmers, herdsmen, merchants, and peasants. This army was worse: they were murderers, rapists, and thieves. Semyonov finally began to tame them, allied himself with Japanese troops near Manchuria, and took control of local governments through their preexisting assemblies (dumas).

Under his rule, Mongolia, Siberia, and Buryatia established semi-autonomous domains. Nonetheless, in 1918 the Czech Legion was on the verge of taking control of the Trans-Siberian Railway, while Baron Sternberg von Ungarn’s army was moving to establish a Pan-Mongolian Empire. In the autumn, Semyonov decided to expand his forces by drafting young Buryat men.

It was at this point that Lubsan Samden Tsydenov did something for which, if he is known at all, he is still remembered. All around him, the world was collapsing into war as armies sought territory, wealth, and power. In the midst of this spreading violence and horror, he took advantage of both the Soviet proclamation of land reform and the inability of the Red Army to move east.

Then, at the request of the Khori clan of the Buryats — some 13,000 families — Tsydenov assumed the role and title of chakravartin, a dharma king, and proclaimed the establishment of a Buddhist kingdom, a realm that would exist entirely in accord with the Buddhist teachings. He said: “He who does not wish to fight, since fighting is contrary to the Buddha’s law, let him come to me and be a subject in this kingdom.”

He wrote some years after his creation of this kingdom:

“I really am a king of dharma of past, present, and future. This authority has been conferred on me by the spontaneous wisdom of the awakened state. It is my responsibility to save my subjects. We are bound together by the vow of nonviolence and by other vows to uphold the purity of life itself. Accordingly, no one may kill or serve in the army. There will be no army. Establishing this Buddhist state, I follow the principle of combining the religious and secular principles of government where authority is a union of those two. To rule is to accept the reality of life and death.”

Tsydenov created a state modeled on both the rule of the Dalai Lama in Tibet and on Western principles of elective democracy. All government positions other than that of the chakravartin ruler were elected by secret ballot from among those who had been elected to the constituent assembly. He ordered a commission to create the government and other institutions of the new state and appointed Badmaev as his successor. This government functioned simultaneously with the apparatus of Ataman Semyonov’s Russia Eastern Outskirts. The citizens were henceforth called balagats. Some, even after the fall of the kingdom, continued to live and practice tantra as lay people. All would be imprisoned or dead by 1935.

In early May 1919, a week after this Buddhist state was formally established, agents of Semyonov’s police arrested Tsydenov and nine members of his government. They were released in a month after Tsydenov formally agreed to cooperate with Semyonov’s government. This happened three more times in the same year. Each time, Tsydenov’s release was taken as a sign of his magical invulnerability. Throughout the year Tsydenov and his disciples taught, practiced, and administered his kingdom to the great contentment of his subjects. Even the death of his appointed successor, Badmaev, did not interrupt the progress of the kingdom.

“The ancestors have shown the unmistaken path.
Following them,
The Chakravartin’s heart has broken open in the
emptiness of space.

In the openness of the heart,
He dwells in the hidden expanse.”

It was quite miraculous that, in such a tumultuous, hopeless, and violent climate, Tsydenov’s Buddhist kingdom managed for a year to flourish and protect tens of thousands of women, children, and men adhering to principles of nonviolence. To create something like this, if only for a moment, was extraordinary. The Red Army under General Tukhachev began to overwhelm the various White armies. Regional Bolshevik groups began to establish local councils ruling on behalf of the supreme Soviet. In May of 1920, Tsdenov had again been arrested by Semyonov’s agents and jailed in Verkhneudinsk. Six months later, Semyonov was driven from all the Buryat lands by the Red Army. Bolshevik forces gradually conquered all of the Russian far east. So by the end of 1920, the Red Army controlled all the territory of what had been Tsydenov’s kingdom, and Tsydenov, still imprisoned in Verkhneudinsk, was now a captive of the Soviets. At this time, he wrote a letter proclaiming that the 7-year-old Dandaron would be his successor as chakravartin.

In 1922, the Cheka (Soviet secret police) moved Tsydenov from Verkhneudinsk to Novosibirsk. There he was isolated from contact with family, followers, and friends. He was not heard from again. According to an official statement, Tsydenov died in a military hospital in Novosibirsk on May 16, 1922. However, some said he was later taken to an unnamed labor camp farther north. In a third account, a man named Tsygan told V. Montlevich that in 1924 he had seen Tsydenov in the railway station in Verkhneudinsk. Tsydenov was dressed in an elegant European pin-striped suit. When Tsygan greeted him and asked what he was doing, Tsydenov shook his hand and said that he was “going to Italy.”

By the 1930s, all 44 Buddhist monasteries in Buryatia had been shut or destroyed. Their lamas — 15,000 to 17,000 of them — had been killed or imprisoned. Some 45,000 Buryats, considered to be rebels, had been murdered. Traditional Buryat culture was erased. Tsydenov’s heir, Bidye Dandaron, spent the rest of his life in and out of forced labor camps in the Gulag system. It is said that throughout his imprisonment he never stopped trying to find Tsydenov. He asked prisoners and prison guards if they had heard of him. Whether he knew his questions were in vain, no one can say, but clearly Dandaron did not think that even if the search was futile this was a reason to stop. But for the rest of the world, Tsydenov was a name written in some moldering files, a tale recounted by aging storytellers in a string of curious episodes, images in a few grainy photographs, the name of one who was momentarily a protector and, if fleetingly, a true dharma king.

Source: https://tricycle.org/magazine/lubsan-samdan-tsydenov/

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Recommended Reading (Free Download)

The Restoration of Buryat Buddhism: Some Notes about Monasteries (click to download PDF)

Imperial Russia: New Histories for the Empire (click to download PDF)

Mongolians after Socialism: Politics, Economy, Religion (click to download PDF)

The Constitutional Theocracy of Lubsan Samdan Tsydenov (click to download PDF)

A People’s Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution (click to download PDF)

The texts above were sourced from legitimate book-hosting services offering these texts for free download. They are made available here for purely educational, non-commercial purposes.

Sources:

• ‘Lubsan Sandan Tsydenov’, Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia, [website], http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php?title=Lubsan_Sandan_Tsydenov (accessed 1 November 2018).
• Penick, Douglas, ‘Lubsan Samdan Tsydenov: A Vanished Buddhist King’ tricycle, [website], https://tricycle.org/magazine/lubsan-samdan-tsydenov/ (accessed 1 November 2018).
• ‘Samdan Tsydenov And His Buddhist Theocratic Project In Siberia by Nikolay Tsyrempilov’, Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia, [website], http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/Samdan_Tsydenov_And_His_Buddhist_Theocratic_Project_In_Siberia_by_Nikolay_Tsyrempilov (accessed 1 November 2018).
• ‘Lubsan Samdan Tsydenov’, Wikipedia: L’encyclopedie, [website], https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubsan_Sandan_Tsydenov&prev=search (accessed 1 November 2018).
• Knauft, Bruce M. and Taupier, Richard, ‘Mongolians after Socialism: Politics, Economy, Religion’, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Admon Press, 2012.
• Vaartnou, Velo, ‘Lubas Samdan Tsydanov, Bidia Dandaron, and the Abbot of Kumbum.’ Estonian Nyingma.
• Tsyrempilov, Nikolay, ‘The Constitutional Theocracy of Lubsan- Samdan Tsydenov: An Attempt to Establish a Buddhist State in Transbaikalia (1918–22)’ Buryat State University, 2016.
• Tsyrempilov, Nikolay, ‘Samdan Tsydenov and His Buddhist Theocratic Project in Siberia’
• ‘Ступа Джарун-Хашор’, http://www.visitburyatia.ru/places/section-135/item-460/ (12 November 2018)

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