The book by the famous orientalist and sociologist, Professor of the Department of Theory and History of Sociology of St. Petersburg State University E. A. Ostrovskaya is devoted to the Buddhist communities of St. Petersburg in the period of their origin and formation in the 1990s. It presents the results of a sociological and socio-anthropological study of three major Buddhist communities in St. Petersburg: the Karma Kagyupa community, the Remei group, and the Dzogchen community. The relevance and necessity of this kind of research becomes obvious if we consider it in the context of studying religion in the post-Soviet space as a whole.
One of the consequences of the collapse of the socialist camp was an avalanche-like WHO-
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the birth of religions and the emergence of foreign missionaries. Buddhism is no exception. Although there were both official Buddhist communities in the USSR (for example, the Central Spiritual Administration of Buddhists) and unofficial ones (the Dandaron Sangha), the total number of believers was, for obvious reasons, small. However, since the late 1980s, there has been rapid growth associated with the proclamation of religious freedom, and numerous Buddhist communities have been founded. The process of the revival of Buddhism in Russia attracted the attention of scientists. However, the main attention of researchers was focused on obtaining and understanding primary information: statistics, analysis of state policy in the field of religion, study of the processes of restoration of religious institutions and the education system. This is natural - first of all, it was necessary to fix formal and fairly easy-to-install things. But if the next step was taken in the field of studying Christianity and Islam (to a lesser extent)-researchers moved on to studying the life of believers, their ideas and practices, then the life of lay Buddhists was left without proper attention. There are some reasons for this: after all, Buddhism is not the main religion in Russia in terms of the number of believers, and there are not so many Buddhologists who specialize in field research. Meanwhile, knowing and understanding how believers themselves describe and explain their religious life is no less important than understanding the organizational structure and functioning of religious institutions. Moreover, the community of Buddhist poets is a global phenomenon.
In this sense, the monograph of E. A. Ostrovskaya is an important step in the formation of the national anthropology of Buddhism.
The book consists of a preface, which briefly describes the globalization of Buddhism and the phenomenon of conversion; an introduction, which deals with Buddhism in Russia and specifically in St. Petersburg, four chapters and a conclusion. In the introduction, the author writes about the beginning of the "Buddhist renaissance" in Russia in 1988, the emergence and registration of the first Buddhist communities, and the emergence of a new type of organization for Russian Buddhism - communities of Buddhist converts. The latter immediately declared "their autonomy from the historical and cultural heritage of Russian Buddhism" (p. 8). E. A. Ostrovskaya notes that the converts
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They were not taken seriously by the traditional Buddhist clergy of Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva, as well as by the authorities. Such communities were treated as clubs of interests, although, as the author rightly notes, they were not an absolutely new phenomenon for the country-it is enough to recall the phenomenon of the community of the Buryat teacher B. D. Dandaron, which included Russians, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Latvians, etc. in addition to Buryats.
E. A. Ostrovskaya's observation that the idea of reviving traditional religions resulted in a number of problems for Russian Buddhists caused by the lack of resources and the practical impossibility of reviving the model that was formed during the imperial period and was not viable in a democratic secular state is interesting. This is what largely determined the appeal to the experience of the existence of Tibetan Buddhism in the modern world. At the same time, Buddhism in Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva has become an important factor in the formation of national identity, thus giving rise to sharp discussions about the ways of further development of Buddhism, about which elements should prevail - global, related to the Tibetan community, or local, ethnocentric.
However, the problems of Buryat, Kalmyk, and Tuvan co-religionists were not relevant for the neophyte Buddhists of St. Petersburg. These groups themselves were, if not absolutely, but still a new phenomenon for post-Soviet Russia, which was in the process of formation, which made it difficult to study them. And here it is necessary to note the unqualified merit of E. A. Ostrovskaya, who actually formed and described this very object of research, singled out criteria for studying such communities. It identifies four criteria: beliefs shared by all members of the community; rituals as a practical expression of these beliefs; homogeneity, i.e. communities profess the same beliefs (Tibetan Buddhism); demonstrativeness of the principle of organization (p.31). The book describes in detail the research methods: observation, interviews, and document analysis.
The first chapter is of an overview nature and is devoted to the construction of a new, global form of functioning of Tibetan Buddhism in exile. It arose as a result of the secularization of monastic education, the destruction of the economic foundations of existence
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monasteries, the system of socio-religious statuses and the prestige of monasticism. Instead, a transnational network was formed, one of the most important components of which was the institute of lay people. The second, third, and fourth chapters are devoted to the three communities under study.
The undoubted advantage of the book is that its historical part is organically integrated into the narrative and contributes to the disclosure of research tasks. For example, after talking about namtars - biographies of the founders of the Karma Kagyu school, E. A. Ostrovskaya shows how Ole Nydahl's autobiography is embedded in this context. However, there is a certain element of normativity that is characteristic of many Russian religious scholars. E. A. Ostrovskaya, one of the best specialists in the country on the history of Buddhism in Tibet, takes the model of institutionalization and functioning of the Buddhist sangha in Tibet as a standard and compares St. Petersburg communities with it. She quite easily manages to identify not even gaps, but "holes" in the knowledge of Lama Ole's followers, contradictions in their words, ignorance of the history of the lineage and details of the biography of her mentor or the history of Tibetan Buddhism in principle. Such an approach marginalizes the object of research itself, exposing poets as "half-wits" who strive for " Eastern spirituality "and" secret methods " of enlightenment. By providing the reader with some information, he nevertheless steers away from the more important questions - what brought these people to Buddhism, what is the phenomenon of the popularity of Diamond Path Buddhism in the world and in Russia, how these "ignorant" people were able to become one of the most numerous and successful Buddhist communities in the country, conduct several conferences, etc. scientific conferences and exhibitions on Buddhism, etc.
Quite interesting is the description of the Remey group-a community built around one person, its leader, closed on him and dependent on him. This is an interesting example of a kind of "Buddhist self-activity," a guru offering "knowledge unencumbered by tradition."
Some of the author's statements in the chapter on the Dzogchen community are puzzling. For example, E. A. Ostrovskaya's statement that "until now there is no sufficient reason to say that there was something called Dzogchen teaching in the Nyinmap tradition" (p. 141), although before that she writes that there were such practices within the mentioned school.-
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Further, E. A. Ostrovskaya asserts that "the Dzogchen teaching professed by the St. Petersburg community of the same name belongs entirely to the authorship of N. Norbu, and it is hardly possible to speak with sufficient scientific validity about the existence of historical and cultural origins of this ideological doctrine in the culture of Tibet" (p.142). The author also writes that the term "Dzogchen community" is absent from the research of Tibetan Buddhism, and information about the life of N. Norbu and his formation as a Dzogchen mentor is contained in his own books and nowhere else. All this leads the reader to conclude that the whole history of Dzogchen as presented by N. Norbu and the global community he created is a "remake" that has no authentic origins in the Tibetan past. Indeed, N. Norbu himself and his followers reject any links with Buddhism, for them it is not a religion at all, but a separate unique tradition of spiritual practice...respondents 'statements that Dzogchen is" neither a religion nor Buddhism "go hand in hand with their religious identity as Buddhists" (p.167). Indeed, it is unlikely that we will find direct analogues of the Dzogchen community in Tibetan history. But the concept of "Dzogchen" and related texts and practices appear at least in the eighth century and are described in the Tibetan literature (Sam van Schaik, D. Germano). Norbu's claims that he is a tulku (rebirth) of famous Tibetan masters were not disputed by representatives of the Nyinmap and Kagyupa schools, and he was also recognized by the 14th Dalai Lama. Perhaps it makes sense to talk about rethinking the ideas and practices that existed in Tibet after they came to the West.
E. A. Ostrovskaya reveals various contradictions in the functioning of the community (the discrepancy between the Charter and specific activities, the discrepancy between the statements of the Nbu and the real situation, etc.). However, it is not always clear whether they are caused by the lack of proper understanding and experience among the members and leaders of the St. Petersburg community, or whether this is the original plan of N. Norbu?
E. A. Ostrovskaya's explanation of the basics of the Ganapuja ritual associated with eating meat and wine does not seem convincing. According to the author, the use of meat and wine by Buddhist Tantriks is caused by the desire to preserve the quality of life.
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a high degree of solidarity and resistance to Islam and Hinduism in India in the 8th-12th centuries. That is, this is an "inverse religious practice" that separated them from the Hindu society (p.182). How then can we explain similar rituals (such as panchamakara) in Hindu tantra?
In general, the book is based on a comparison of elements of "traditional Buddhism" with the main provisions of the teachings of Nydahl and Norbu. Such parameters as taking Refuge, sacred territory, calendar of sacred actions, etc. are compared. This approach allows us to identify how the teaching and religious system is changing in new conditions, what innovations arise when Buddhism enters the West, what role the personality of teachers plays, etc. At the same time, an approach based on comparing "what is" with "what should be", on idealizing "traditional" teaching. Buddhism " ignores the fact that Buddhism is quite a dynamic and changing system, where there can be no fixed pattern once and for all. In this sense, the discrepancy between the events of a particular St. Petersburg community and the traditional Buddhist calendar does not make this community any less Buddhist.
It is regrettable that the book ignores a rather large body of literature devoted to religious issues in the post-Soviet space, analyzing both theoretical problems and approaches (including the phenomenon of conversion) and specific cases.3
But despite this, the monograph by E. A. Ostrovskaya is certainly innovative and represents a valuable contribution to the study of Buddhism in modern Russia.
3. See, for example: Zhukovskaya N. L. (2009) Religion in the History and Culture of the Mongolian-speaking peoples of Russia. An anthology. Sost. N. L. Zhukovskaya, Moscow: 2009; Religion and globalization on the expanses of Eurasia (2005) / Ed.by A. Malashenko and S. Filatov; Moscow. Центр Карнеги. М., Неостром, 2005; Lewis, Todd (ed.) (2014) Buddhists: Understanding Buddhism Through the Lives of Practitioners. Wiley-Blackwell; Elverskog, J. (2006) "Two Buddhisms in Contemporary Mongolia", Contemporary Buddhism 7(1): 29-46; Hann, C. (2006) The Postsocialist Religious Question: Faith and Power in Central Asia and East- Central Europe. Halle Studies in the Anthropology of Eurasia; Luehrmann, Sonja (2011) Secularism Soviet Style: Teaching Atheism and Religion in a Volga Republic (New Anthropologies of Europe). Indiana University Press; Pelkmans, M. (ed.) Conversion after Socialism: Disruptions, Modernisms, and the Technologies of Faith. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
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