Exoticism at large of Russia

Nozhy Lake is a local attraction. Steppes and alkali soils around the lake are rich in various herbs and plants such as Ural licorice, bladder fern. There are also plants that don’t grow anywhere else in the world. Watered by first summer rains alkali soils speckle in colours of oxytrope of Stukov and Varlakov. You are unlikely familiar to these plants, but their peculiarity and beauty will stick in memory for long.

Cuspate sandy banks of the lake will make you feel yourself an archeologist because there are a lot of things of nomads’ times: remains of stony tools, clay ornamental fragments and chalcedonic arrow heads. Such common findings prove that Lake Nozhy has been attracting people for thousands of years already.

The region is rich not only in watery but also in forestry resources, and numerous monuments of Buddhist culture. Many of them are situated near a village Alkhanay. There are about 12 cultic monuments to which paths full of twists and turns run. For instance, suburgan that was put up in honour of Dalai Lama XIV arrival, is 13 km away from Alkhanay village. It is the place where Dalai Lama XIV stepped out of a helicopter on the 22^nd of July. 1991. The main obo of Alkhanai is situated 14 km north-west from Alkhanay village.

A complex of cultic constructions was erected in 1891 and consists of 53 stony objects of two types. The first one is obo or munkhan (“chapel” in Buryat). This is stony oval piles built up from bound calk and stones covered in lime wash. They are of various size. The second type is baipury located around munkhans.

These stony constructions were used for cultic fires. Munkhans are located in a group in the area of 120 square kilometers. There is a big munkhan in the centre, a symbol of “world’s group”. Khural ceremony is performed there annually on the 13^th day of the second summer month during lunar calendar of Aginsky datsan lama. The ceremony is aimed at gathering majority of local spirits. The prayers circuit the obo several times, praying for wellbeing of their families and all people of Aginsky steeps.

Traditionally, folks’ festival and fighters’ contests are held after the ceremony. Another sanctuary maanin-shuluun is located 1 km away from the obo. This is a bleached-out stella with carved mantra words. A research station of Aginsky Buddhist University is located in Alkhanay Mountain. A tibetologist works there. He performs massage and sphygmic diagnosis services, advise on herbs and plants as medical treatment. Black shamans’ burials are located 800 km away from the station. This monument of nature represents a stony wall behind which spirits of the shamans are supposed to be.

A valley of Sukhy-Ubzhogoe arshan (spring) is very picturesque. Believers assume that arshans are healing and remedial. There are green-houses, places for rest and walking in the valley. There is a holy stony where Glaznoy brook starts. The brook heals various eye diseases. You can have a night-stay in a yurt or tent camp there. There are two paths running to cultic places of Alkhanay in the valley of the arshan.

Alkhanay is mountains, caves covered in legends and a place of spirits and gods’ hosts. Alkhanay Mountain is one of the five holy peaks of northern Buddhism. A temple of Great Wealth stands at its foot. A natural grotto with a split, where water is weeping and is thought to be remedial, is the most interesting attraction there. Believers drink the water and bring offerings. Two kilometers up and you will reach Sandama cliff. It represents Buddhism and Yin.

Temple Gate cliff is a pearl of Alkhanay. It stands 1100 meters a.s.l. This is a natural arch formed by weathering process. Its internal radius is 6 meters. There is suburgan in the arch. The place is wonderful, when you enter the natural arch as if a window – this is magnificent! No wonder that this place is cultic and probably even pre-Buddhism. Another cultic place is 200 meter away from the arch. This is Dorzhi-Pagman (Diamond Princess) – a relic of 12 meters high. There is a natural bowl in the south; believers treat it as an altar. A rocky ridge is a bit further up; a scissure of Sinners is at the foot of the ridge. This is a natural rocky pile up.

You will remember this wonderful journey to a strange world of legends and cultic ceremonies for long.

Aginsky datsan is another cultural centre that attracts tourists. A printing-office, where theology books and didactic materials in old-Mongolian and Tibetian were printed, was established there. Unfortunately, there have remained just 4 out of 47 datsans.

Buddhism was spread among the Buryats in the 18^th century. When “Russian-Chinese boundary agreement” was signed in Khyakta in 1727, the Buryats became a part of the Russian state. Elisabeth Petrovana adopted a decree in 1741, according to which “Lamaism” and 11 datsans with 150 lamas were acknowledged.

Due to Lamaism, Mongolian traditional vertical writing was spread among the Buryats, what became Buryats’ national writing later and was used till 1936-37.

The datsans were closed in the late 1930s like all churches in the country . Lamas were sent to GULAG (correctional labour camp and colony). Two datsans: Ivolgynsky and Aginsky – were established in Transbaikalia in 1946.

Buddhism was revived in the 1990s. About 20 datsans were restored. Nowadays, there are 6 great khurals, Buddhism holidays: Saagalgan (New Year in Tibetian calendar), Duynkhor (the first Adittapariyaya-sutta), Gandan-Shunsarma (birth, enlightenment and nirvana of the Buddha), Maydari (a day of joy to future Buddha - Maytree), Lkhabab-Duysan (conception of the Buddha coming from Tushina heaven to the bossom of Maya mother), Zula (a memorial day of Tsonkapa).

If you are looking for exoticism at large of Russia, then Aginsk Buryat autonomous district is the right place for you to spend holidays. Journey to a thrilling world of shamans and magnificent beauty of nature!