Scientific Article
UDC 231.73
DOI 10.3792/3033-6015-2025-3-78-86
GESHE WANGYAL’S SUTRA: ON THE EXPERIENCE OF USING RELICS
FOR STRENGTHENING SPIRITUAL AUTONOMY
Mikhalev Maxim Sergeevich – Doctor of Historical Sciences, Chief Researcher at the “State and Religion in Asia” Center of the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russia). ORCID: 0000-0001-5695-6915. E-mail: m.mikhalev@iccaras.ru.
The article attempts to analyze the fact of using relics to strengthen spiritual autonomy, which took place in the Okinsky District of the Republic of Buryatia. Turning to the legacy of the outstanding public and religious figure Agvan Dorzhiev, Lama Fedor Samaev, to confirm his claims of a connection with this legendary historical figure of the past, recalled the sacred objects that he allegedly passed on to him through his student Geshe Wangyal. It is concluded that relics cannot be considered in isolation from the social environment, as they acquire value and become actualized only in a certain historical, cultural, and political context, and their power is derived from their fictional or real biography and the perception of this biography by contemporaries.
Keywords: Tibetan Buddhism, relics, Agvan Dorzhiev, Geshe Wangyal, Fedor Samaev.
GESHE WANGYAL’S SUTRA: ON USING SACRED OBJECTS
FOR FOSTERING SPIRITUAL AUTONOMY
Mikhalev Maxim Sergeevich – Doctor of Economics, Chief Researcher of the “State and Religion in Asia” Research Center of the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russia). ORCID: 0000-0001-5695-6915. E-mail: m.mikhalev@iccaras.ru.
This paper introduces a little-known case of using sacred objects to build up and legitimate an autonomous Buddhist church in a remote corner of Siberia, in the Okinskiy District of the Russian Federation’s Republic of Buryatia. Presented here is the case of a Buddhist lama Fedor Samaev, who ventured into spiritual constructivism and used sacred objects for safeguarding his fragile religious autonomy. It concludes that sacred objects can not be separated from social environment as they may be appreciated and thus actualized only in a certain historical, cultural and political context. The power, and as such a value of any sacred object is a function of its real, or imagined “biography” and the level of appreciation by the contemporaries to the power of those who have had real, or imagined connection with it in the past.
Keywords: Tibetan Buddhism, artifacts, Agvan Dorzhiev, Geshe Wangyal, Fedor Samaev.
