FOREIGN POLICY FACTORS INFLUENCING THE RECEPTION OF BUDDHIST IDEAS IN RUSSIA IN THE END OF THE XIX - THE BEGINNING OF XX CENTURY

• Main Author: T. V. Bernyukevich
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MGIMO University Press 2017-06-01
• Series: Концепт: философия, религия, культура
• Subjects: reception of buddhism; factors of foreign policy; buddhist ideas; russian buddhists; buddhology; buddhist leaders
• Online Access: https://concept.mgimo.ru/jour/article/view/106

Key foreign policy factors and the conditions of the reception of Buddhism by the Russian culture in the 19th - 20th centuries are analyzed in the article. It is noticed that the unification of Russia's and England's interests to India and Tibet in the frame of so-called "big game" was one of the important features of the geopolitical situation in the 19th - the beginning of 20th century. The script of the "big game" was caused by the fact that the Buddhists composed the population of the Russian Empire; their communities were in continual contacts with Dalai Lama and sought to make a pilgrimage to Tibet. To strengthen power in Siberia and the Trans-Baikal region and to consolidate influence in neighboring Mongolia, the government of the Russian Empire was to demonstrate care of the Russian Buddhists. Buddhist leaders and public figures, scientists, writers and artists supporting Buddhism played a key role in that case. One of the most important figures of that time was Agvan Dorjiev, Envoy Extraordinary and confidant of Dalai Lama, the head of Tibetan mission in Russia in 1898, 1900 and 1901. The activity of I. P. Minaev and F. I. Stcherbatsky was of great importance in the development of the Eastern vector of Russian science and strengthening ties with the Buddhist world. Themes of India, Tibet, and Buddhism are reflected in literary works of this period. The study of foreign policy factors influencing the reception of Buddhism in Russia in the XIX - XX centuries contributed to the identification of this reception's content, its focus and specificity, caused by the global socio-political context. The process of the reception of foreign culture and "foreign" cultural features is defined in the article as a broad act of the reflection of other cultures phenomena and values in different cultural spheres of the accepting culture, expressing the intentions of its dynamics and being determined by specific historical and cultural context.