Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov

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Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov
Этигэлэй Дашадоржо
12th Pandito Khambo Lama
In office
1911–1917
Preceded byChoinzon Dorjo Iroltyn [ru]
Succeeded byTsybikzhap-Namzhil Laydanov [ru]
Personal
Born(1852-05-13)13 May 1852
Ulzy Dobo, Russian Empire (now Buryatia, Russia)[1]
Died15 June 1927(1927-06-15) (aged 75)
ReligionTibetan Buddhism
SchoolGelug
Organization
TempleYangazhin Datsan

Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov[a] also transcribed at Etigelov or Itigelov (13 May 1852 – 15 June 1927)[2] was a Buryat Buddhist lama, the 12th Pandito Khambo Lama, of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.[3]

Born in the countryside of Buryatia in 1852, Itigilov lost his parents at an early age. When he was 15, Itigilov joined the Anninsky Monastery, where he learned to read Tibetan and Sanskrit, enabling him to read Buddhist texts and serve in the Buddhist community. He later studied medicine at the Tamchinsky Datsan.[4] In 1898, Itigilov began teaching philosophy at the Yangazhinsky datsan, where he became the Shireete Lama, an abbot of the monastery.[5] Itigilov was elected to serve as the 12th Pandito Khambo Lama in 1911 and maintained this position until September 1917. As religious leader of Siberian Buddhists, Itigilov raised money to provide food, clothing, and medical care to the soldiers of the Russo-Japanese War and World War I, among other philanthropic acts.[6] In 1927, he died while in a lotus position and chanting a prayer for the dead.[6] After he was buried in a pine box in the Khukhe-Zurkhen region in Buryatia, Itigilov was exhumed and reburied in 1955 and again in 1972, showing an intact body.[6] In 2002, Itigilov was exhumed for a final time, receiving scientific and media attention for the preserved state of his body.[7] Itigilov’s body is currently kept in a glass case in a temple at the Ivolginsky Datsan in Buryatia, 23 km from Ulan-Ude, where Itigilov’s “incorruptible” body has become a notable place of pilgrimage.

Early Life and Education:[edit]

Itigilov was born on May 13, 1852 near the village of Orongoi in Buryatia, Russia and orphaned at a young age.[8] Despite these hardships, due to his intellectual promise, he received enrollment in the Anninsky datsan, where he began his education and studied to pass Buddhist academic exams; here he studied for almost twenty years.[4] In 1895, Itigilov moved to the Tamchinsky datsan, where he received medical training.[4] Then, in 1898, Itigilov began teaching philosophy at the Yangazhinsky datsan, where he became the Shireete Lama (the leading monastery abbot) in 1903.[5]

Russo-Japanese War & WWI:[edit]

Because of his Cossack heritage, Itigilov was supposed to go into a term of military service, but through the request of the leader of the Anninsky datsan, where Itigilov was conducting his work and studies, he was excused from military service by the indemnities paid by four villages over the course of twenty years.[9] However, when the Russo-Japanese War began in 1904, Itigilov felt motivated to provide his own abilities to aid in the war effort—performing Buddhist rites for deceased soldiers and soldiers deploying to the front.[10]

In 1915, during World War I, Pandito Khambo Lama Itigilov and Damby Heshektuev traveled to various datsans in Siberia, collecting funds to contribute to the war.[11] They were able to buy clothing, towels, tobacco products, berries, sugar and other necessary products to send to the front line and hospitals in need.[5] Itigilov also encouraged Buddhist monks with medical knowledge to volunteer to serve in hospitals for the Russian army; it is said that Itigilov donated much of his own funds in support of providing goods and medical help to those in need, around 5000 rubles.[10] Because of his dedicated efforts in fundraising and aiding the wounded of the war, Emperor Nicholas II bestowed Itigilov with the award of the Order of St. Anna, II degree.[5]

Religious leadership[edit]

In 1911, Itigilov was elected Pandito Khambo Lama of Siberian Buddhists (Quijada 35).[12] Since 1764, the Pandito Khambo Lama was recognized by the state as the leader of Eastern Siberian (predominantly Buryat and Evenki) Buddhists.[13] This title originates from the Gelug Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.[13] The first Pandito Khambo Lama, Zaiaev (1711–76), was chosen for this role in 1764, after Buddhism was recognized as an official religion of the Russian Empire by Elizabeth of Russia in 174.[3] According to Buryat Buddhist teachings, as Itigilov was chosen to be the twelfth Pandito Khambo Lama, he was recognized to be the reincarnation of the first Pandito Khambo Lama Zaiaev.[3] At this time, Itigilov was also proclaimed to be a tulku (Bur.—khutukhtu or khubilgan), a deeply enlightened individual who has the power to choose when and where he will reincarnate.[14]

During the Tsarist period of Buryat Buddhism, the Khambo Lambo was not just a religious leader, but also performed official political and state duties.[4] (Amogolonova, “A Symbolic Person…” 226) In 1913 Itigilov was invited to join a delegation of Buryats who would represent the Buryat nation at the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov Dynasty in Saint Peterburg. While in St. Petersburg, Itigilov conducted the inaugural khural prayer at the St. Petersburg datsan (Quijiada 45).[14] As Khambo Lama, Itigilov believed strongly in the  prohibition of accepting donations for any reasons other than to benefit monasteries and Buddhist educational initiatives and encouraged his fellow monks to reject unnecessary luxury.[15]

In regards to his political role in Buryatia, Itigilov was selected to be the chairman of the 2nd All-Buryat congress held in Chita, Buryatia in July of 1917 in the Tamchinsky datsan.[15] As the spiritual leader of Siberian Buddhists, Itigilov also sought to regulate and modernize the role of Buryat Buddhism, promoting the study of Buryat language and minimizing outside influences on local Buddhist practices.[16]

For example, in a letter to the governor of Irkutsk, Itigilov wrote the following:

Bandido Khambo, February 6, 1913. No 8.

To the Irkutsk governor-general.

Every year, subjects of China, Tibet, and Mongolia visit Transbaikal and give themselves the title of khubilgans , i. e. divine reincarnations, supplied with permits granted by our diplomatic representatives within the aforementioned countries and often with additional documents from border commissars indicating that they are of high religious rank and their titles have a long historical lineage and so forth; […] In my opinion, foreign lamas caught in the act of attending to religious needs among the populace without written permission of the Bandido Khambo should be immediately escorted back abroad in the custody of local police. I humbly ask that you honor me by following up on this matter.

Bandido Khambo, signed by Itigelov ( Perepiska 1912: pp 1-3)[16]

In September of 1917, Itigilov stepped down as Pandito Khambo Lama for unknown reasons but continued to play a role in the leadership of the Yangazhinsky datsan and the education of students at the monastery.[15]

In 2002, a young lama named Bimba Dorzhiyev became curious about the burial and remains of Itigilov. An 88 year-old worshiper, whose father-in-law had been present when the coffin was opened in 1957, informed the lama of the grave's location. On 11 September 2002, the grave was opened and the body was exhumed in the presence of a photographer, two forensic experts, and a dozen witnesses, where is was found to be preserved. It was then brought to Ivolginsk Datsan and placed on the second floor of one of the monastery's temples, behind curtains and a locked door.[6]

The exhumed body of Itigilov

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Buryat: Этигэлэй Дашадоржо, romanized: Etigelei Dashadorjo; Russian: Даши-Доржо Итигэлов

References[edit]

  1. ^ Fedorovich, Nastya (9 November 2023). "Говорят, что мертвые не потеют. Почему Хамбо Лама, который умер в 1927 году, выглядит лучше, чем многие из нас по утрам?" [They say the dead aren't sweating: Why does the Khambo Lama, who died in 1927, look better than so many of us in the morning?]. TechInsider (in Russian). Retrieved 10 February 2024.
  2. ^ "В главном Буддийском храме России в Бурятии пройдёт праздник Хамбо ламы Этигэлова" [Khambo Lama Itigilov celebration to be held in Russia's main Buddhist temple]. Eastern TeleInform (in Russian). 13 September 2018. Retrieved 10 February 2024.
  3. ^ a b c Quijiada, Justine Buck (2019). "'An Inauguration for Etigelov: Multiple Genres of History in Buryatia', Buddhists, Shamans, and Soviets: Rituals of History in Post-Soviet Buryatia". online edn, Oxford Academic: 34–42.
  4. ^ a b c d Amogolonova, Darima (2015). "A Symbolic Person of Buddhist Revival in Buryatia: 'Our Hambo' Damba Ayusheev". Inner Asia. 17 (2): 226–236. ISSN 1464-8172.
  5. ^ a b c d "Биография [Biography]". The Insititute of the Hambo Lama Itigelov etegelov.ru.
  6. ^ a b c d Myers, Steven Lee (2002-10-01). "Ivolginsk Journal; A Russian Lama's Body, and His Faith, Defy Time". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-06.
  7. ^ Bernstein, Anya (2011). "The Post-Soviet Treasure Hunt: Time, Space, and Necropolitics in Siberian Buddhism". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 53 (3): 632. ISSN 0010-4175.
  8. ^ Quijada, Justine Buck (2019-03-15), "An Inauguration for Etigelov", Buddhists, Shamans, and Soviets, Oxford University Press, p. 45, doi:10.1093/oso/9780190916794.003.0002, ISBN 0-19-091679-6
  9. ^ Намсараева, Алла (2011-10-27). "Казаки и буддизм. 2.0 [Cossacks and Buddhism 2.0]". Радио Свобода (in Russian).
  10. ^ a b Syrtypova, Surun-Khanda (2023). "О состоянии и внешних связях буддийских монастырей Российского Забайкалья на рубеже XIX–XX вв. (на примере Эгитуйского дацана и истории Зандан Жуу) [On the state and external relations of Buddhist monasteries of the Russian Transbaikalia at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries (on the example of the Egitui datsan and the history of Zandan Zhuu).]". vestnik.ivran.ru (in Russian). p. 145.
  11. ^ Sablin, Ivan (2018-11-26). "Official Buddhism in Russia's Politics and Education - Religion, Indigeneity, and Patriotism in Buryatia". Entangled Religions. 5: 217–220. doi:10.13154/er.v5.2018.210-249. ISSN 2363-6696.
  12. ^ Quijada, Justine Buck (2019-03-15), "An Inauguration for Etigelov", Buddhists, Shamans, and Soviets, Oxford University Press, p. 35, doi:10.1093/oso/9780190916794.003.0002, ISBN 0-19-091679-6
  13. ^ a b Sablin, Ivan (2018-11-26). "Official Buddhism in Russia's Politics and Education - Religion, Indigeneity, and Patriotism in Buryatia". Entangled Religions. 5: 217. doi:10.13154/er.v5.2018.210-249. ISSN 2363-6696.
  14. ^ a b Quijada, Justine Buck (2019-03-15), "An Inauguration for Etigelov", Buddhists, Shamans, and Soviets, Oxford University Press, p. 45, doi:10.1093/oso/9780190916794.003.0002, ISBN 0-19-091679-6
  15. ^ a b c Amogolonova, Darima (2015). "A Symbolic Person of Buddhist Revival in Buryatia: 'Our Hambo' Damba Ayusheev". Inner Asia. 17 (2): 238. ISSN 1464-8172.
  16. ^ a b Tsyrempilov, Nikolay (2021-05-25). Under the Shadow of White Tara. Brill | Schöningh. p. 151. ISBN 978-3-506-76048-7.
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