The Russian Traditional Buddhist Sangha is a staunch supporter of Putin’s war. China Buddhist Association is helping it make inroads into international Buddhist organizations.
by Zhu Yaozu


Last week, a delegation from the Russian Traditional Buddhist Sangha visited the government-controlled China Buddhist Association at Guangji Temple in Beijing and traveled to other temples and monasteries in preparation of their participation in the World Buddhist Forum in Ningbo in October.
While the Forum will be another opportunity for Chinese “soft diplomacy” through Buddhism, the visit of the Russian Traditional Buddhist Sangha, led by its First Vice President Abbot Ochilov, who met with China Buddhist Association’s President Master Yanjue and other leaders of Chinese state-controlled Buddhism, was an opportunity to advertise the Buryat Buddhist apology for the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
Master Yanjue expressed his support for the Buddhist establishment of Buryatia, from where Abbot Ochilov came, and emphasized Chinese (government-controlled) Buddhists’ role in strengthening the cooperation between Moscow and Beijing.


The Russian Traditional Buddhist Sangha is the heir of institutions that existed in Czarist and Soviet times and allowed the government to control Buddhists in Buryatia. During the Stalin era, the Sangha was one of two Buddhist organizations allowed to exist in the Soviet Union, together with one also catering to ethnic Buryats in the Aginsky Buryat National District in Zabaykalsky Krai. Buddhist organizations in Kalmykia and Tuva were liquidated, and only in 1988 under Mikhail Gorbachev an Association of Buddhists of Kalmykia was again authorized.
The Sangha remains largely controlled by Buryats and is led by the XXIV Pandito Khambo Lama, Damba Ayusheev. The Khambo Lama’s role became strategically important with the war in Ukraine, as Buddhist Buryats are over-represented in the Russian Army there. The Khambo Lama has repeatedly supported Putin’s war and blessed the Buryats fighting in Ukraine.


As opposed to this, Telo Tulku Rinpoche (Erdne Ombadykow), the Supreme Lama of Kalmykia, condemned the war in Ukraine and went into exile, with the government replacing him with a pro-war Supreme Lama.
The Khambo Lama and the Russian Traditional Buddhist Sangha have also been active since the war in Ukraine started in intensifying the exchanges with the larger China Buddhist Association, hoping to make inroads through their Chinese friends into international Buddhist organizations and present there their apology for Putin’s war against Ukraine.