Philadelphia Freedom

So behind, and things are moving so fast, that I feel like telling you about my visit with Lama Baasan and Lama Kuntu Zangpo to Philly is, like, ancient history, when in fact it was only about a week ago.

(I’m having animal crackers for breakfast. Is that wrong? Anyone who isn’t my mother is free to answer.)

I have mixed memories of Philadelphia. When I was growing up in New Jersey, it was known as Filth-adelphia but I can’t really remember whether the name was deserved or not, or we were just being obnoxious. I remember visiting my sister who went to nursing school there and thinking it was a little broken down. I also remember the obligatory school trip to see all the American independence stuff, the Franklin Mint and the science museum. I also remember one of the greatest ad campaigns of all time, for the Philadelphia Zoo. It had a shot of a chimpanzee thrusting his lips way, way out and the overdub made it seem like he was saying, “The zooooooooo!” Every kid who ever saw that tormented their parents for months by thrusting their lips out and saying, “The zooooooooo!” until they got to go. And, I swear, at the ripe old age of 40, whenever I see any ad for any zoo anywhere, I reflexively thrust my lips out and say, “The zooooooooo!” Others of a certain age who grew up near me will laugh and do it too; the rest suddenly discover they’re late for an appointment.

My most powerful memory of Philadelphia is going there in 1990 to hear the Dalai Lama for the first time. I wrote about it here.

Anyway, I’m delighted to report that the city is utterly charming, especially the older sections in the center of town, a refreshing alternative to the Big Manhattan Mall of America.

We traveled there last Monday at the invitation of the grandly named Kalmyk Brotherhood Society at the Temple of Saint Zonkava (sounds like you have to perfect a secret handshake to get in, doesn’t it?) to participate in their celebrations on the eve of Losar. This is known as Tibetan New Year but it’s the time of the first waxing moon of the yearly lunar cycle marked by all Vajrayana Buddhists as a time of unique spiritual potency.

Now, you guys probably know all about Kalmykia, but I didn’t. The Kalmyks are a people originally known as Oirat who occupied what is now western Mongolia. As these things always go, they were either allied or in conflict with other Mongol tribes over the centuries, and internally they were sometimes united, sometimes fragmented. In the late 16th and early 17th c., large fragments migrated to the northwest, booting out the Nogai Horde who were sitting on the choice pasture land of the lower Volga River, and built a pretty major khanate. They converted wholesale, along with their Dzungarian brothers to the east, to the Gelugpa form of Tibetan Buddhism (“Zonkava” in the Philly temple name is of course the Gelugpa founder Je Tsongkhapa). Retaining this heritage, Kalmykia is the only territory in Europe that is officially Buddhist.

The name “Kalmyk” is of Turkic origin, meaning “remnant” or “to remain.” It seems that no one has been able to fix the reason for the Turks applying this name to the Oirat people, traces of it being found in written records back to the 14th c., but it stuck:

“Many attempts have been made to trace the etymology of the name, from the legendary Orientalist, P.S. Pallas, to present day scholars. Some have speculated that the name was given to the Oirats in an earlier period when they chose to remain in the Altai region while their Turkic neighbors migrated westward. Others believe the name may reflect the fact that the Kalmyks were the only Buddhists living in a predominately Muslim region. Still others contend the name was given to those groups that did not return to their ancient homeland in 1771. In any case, all arguments have proven to be confusing, contradictory and inclusive.”

The year 1771 is significant because, after a decade of nasty relations with Catherine the Great of Russia, she abolished their self-rule, and the fed-up Kalmyk Khan led about 200,000 of his people back to Dzungaria. But many “remained”.

They fared pretty well until fatefully allying with the Czarist White Army against the ultimately successful incursion of the Bolsheviks in the years following the 1917 Communist Revolution. The Bolsheviks punished about 10,000 Kalmyks with beheading but this was to prove a picnic compared with their encounter with Stalin as he rose to power. Stalin imposed forced collectivization on the herders, looted and closed the monasteries, burned the libraries, and shipped off anyone who owned more than 500 sheep to Siberia. The resultant mass famine in Kalmykia in ’32 and ‘33 killed about 60,000.

But the worst was yet to come. During WWII, the German army penetrated into Kalmykia and was welcomed as liberating Kalmyks from Stalin. The Nazis dismantled the collectives and let the Kalmyks practice Buddhism again, which they did in hastily built temples with hidden texts they unearthed. But in the winter of ’42, the Red Army retook Kalmyk territory, demolished all that was built, and shoved aside any pretense of Kalmyk autonomy, putting the territory under direct control of Moscow. Never one for half measures, in 1943 Stalin ordered the entire Kalmyk nation shipped to Siberia in mid-winter. Half of them died along the way. The ones who escaped fought with the Nazi army against the Russians.

It wasn’t until Krushchev relaxed things a bit in 1957 that the widely scattered Kalmyks who managed to survive were permitted to return under nominal autonomy, subsequently suffering, as the Mongols had, under ill-considered central economic planning. Also as with Mongolia, there was a very difficult transition following the collapse of the Soviet Union, but greater independence; Kalmykia is now an autonomous republic within the Russian federation. Their capital is Elista, where they’re currently building what will be the largest Buddhist temple in Europe, including Russia.

(This condensed history shamelessly cribbed from here and here.)

Many Kalmyks had sought refuge in Western Europe during the turmoil of the 20th c. up to the cataclysm of WWII. And in 1951-2 the efforts of Kalmyks and some American friends paid off in persuading the U.S. Congress to pass a law allowing Kalmyks to immigrate as Europeans. At that time 571 did so, settling mostly in northern New Jersey and the Philadelphia area. Today there are still only about 1000 in very tight-knit communities.

And we got to party with them. There was singing…

…and music…

…and fancy costumes:

Well, what did you expect? Anyway, it was great to make the connections, as these communities will form a useful network for future tours of the Mongol lamas.

The next day was for sightseeing, hooking up with Lynne Heckert, the aforementioned loaner of the incomparable yak-hair Buddha currently on display in Atlanta, and her wonderful son George.

It was too cold to go to the zooooooo, so we started with American heritage stops, which of course meant the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Now here is a visceral example of our post-9/11 – judiciousness? paranoia? – as one had to go through elaborate security checks before gaining admittance. No big deal, really, and I was happy to see a pretty great exhibit had been mounted taking you through the history and symbolic import of the Liberty Bell before actually seeing it. Naturally, a photo was snapped…

…but the coolest one is this, of the lamas in front of a photo of the Dalai Lama with the Liberty Bell:

Now, this is not the greatest pic in terms of aesthetics, but it has real significance. Here is Baasan Lama, the one Buddhist lama who publicly struggled for democratic reforms in Mongolia and who signed and kept safe their Declaration of Independence, in front of Independence Hall, where America’s Declaration was signed and in front of which the text was first read aloud to the assembled Philadelphians:

The morning ended, at Lynne’s suggestion, in a most intriguing locale but one which was an unlikely choice for stoking one’s appetite for lunch. I speak of the Mütter Museum at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Lynne claimed that this museum separated the real Buddhists from the mere pretenders and, well, who can resist a challenge like that? And I have to admit, after perusing the thousands of preserved specimens, lavishly illustrated history of disease displays, and medical arcana (George, pulling out one of a cabinet of drawers: “Look! These are all objects that doctors pulled out of people’s throats!”) arrayed between the initial exhibit on conjoined twins and everyone’s favorite, the impossibly enormous colon extracted from a man whose constipation ultimately killed him, that not only was Lynne right (of course we all loved it in that squeal-with-fascinated-disgust-and-peer-through-your-fingers sort of way) but it really lived up to its exquisite moniker: “Disturbingly Informative”.

Our appetites undampened - proving ourselves to be authentic followers of the Way - we proceeded to happily stuff ourselves at a marvelous Cuban restaurant, Cuba Libre. The black bean soup was so extraordinarily scrumptious I felt that I could have exclusively lived on it for the rest of my life. On the other hand, I’m not sure I want to end up as a future exhibit at the Mütter.

Comments

[Mongol dude]

Great photos! - and a pleasure to read, as always. Interestingly, my mom and I went to our temple near Lausanne www.rabten.ch for Losar and we met there four Kalmyks! from Lyon.

It was the first time in my life I saw Kalmyks and obviously I was pretty curious. So, we started talking. They were the fourth generation living in France and didn't actually speak Kalmyk (a Mongol dialect I gather). We spoke French and it was pretty weird since they looked pretty much the same as us. Very friendly and nice folk.

I find it heartening that we have this chance now to communicate with each other - all the different Mongol peoples scattered about the world (China opening up should complete the process). Most of these groups have experienced healthy doses of ethnic/cultural repression/eradication in Russia and China under the two geniuses (Stalin and Mao), so this sort of communication might be beneficial in terms of trying to pick up the remaining bits and pieces here and there and trying to put them together, hoping for as little overlap as possible.

Obviously, Buddhism is a common thread here, and a pretty enduring one it seems to me. Pretty cool.

[Lee Ann]

Uh...I eat animal crackers for breakfast. The only wrong thing is that I feed my seven year old something different and I hide the crackers from her.

You won't get any criticism from me ;-)

By the way, is there any reason why a blanket with cats on it would be a bad idea for Dulaan? Inquiring future blanket makers want to know...

[Konchog]

Lee Ann, the only downside I can see is that cats get very unhappy when you try to pack them in shipping crates and they might get quarantined at Mongolian customs!

Seriously, I don't think it would be a problem, per se, but ponies might get a better reception.

[Vedran]

Very nice to read about Kalmyks, always! Did you know that some Kalmyk refugees fleeing from communism
end up in Belgrade in the begining of 1920.-s? At the time Belgrade was capital of monarchy Yugoslavia. They built temple in Belgrade and lived there until Red army and serbian partisans liberated Belgrade from Germans in 1944. Kalmyks had to escape because new communist leader Tito was very friendly with Stalin at the time so temple was destroyed. It was small comunnity abut 300 people but the built first buddhist temple in Europe western from St. Petersburg.