Datsan Gunzechoinei

Datsan Gunzechoinei is a Buddhist temple in Saint Petersburg, one of the northernmost Buddhist monasteries in the world, located in the city's Primorsky District, on what was once the outskirts of Staraya Derevnya. Its name translates from Tibetan as "the source of the holy teaching of the All-Compassionate Sovereign." The temple belongs to the Gelug school and is part of the Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia.

Permission to build the temple was obtained in 1900 by Agvan Dorzhiev, the representative of the 13th Dalai Lama in Russia, who invoked Emperor Nicholas II's words that the Buddhists of Russia stood under the protection of the double-headed eagle. A committee of orientalists was formed to provide scholarly guidance for the project, including the noted scholars Sergei Oldenburg and Fyodor Shcherbatskoy, as well as the artist Nicholas Roerich. The architectural design, following the canons of Tibetan architecture, was developed by student Nikolai Berezovsky and architect Gavriil Baranovsky, the designer of the Yeliseyev Emporium building on Nevsky Prospect. Construction proceeded from 1909 to 1915, funded by Dorzhiev himself, the 13th Dalai Lama, and donations from the faithful of Buryatia and Kalmykia; actual expenses far exceeded the original estimate.

The datsan became one of the most expensive Buddhist temples ever built in Europe: unlike the wooden and brick structures typical of Buryat monasteries, the building in the imperial capital was constructed of split granite with rich gilding and vivid polychrome decoration. Of particular value are the stained-glass windows depicting the eight auspicious Buddhist symbols, designed after sketches by Nicholas Roerich. The first service in the still-unfinished temple was held in 1913 to mark the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov, and the formal consecration took place in 1915; a statue of the Buddha for the temple was presented as a gift by King Rama VI of Siam.

The Soviet era proved a tragic period for the datsan: it was looted in 1919, in 1937 the NKVD arrested and repressed the monks and orientalist scholars living at the temple, and Dorzhiev himself died in a prison hospital in 1938. The building was used for purposes unrelated to its original function — it housed sports organizations, and during the Great Patriotic War and until the 1960s a military radio station operated there. Since 1968 the datsan has held the status of an architectural monument. The building was returned to the Buddhist community in 1990, and today Datsan Gunzechoinei once again functions as a monastery and as the spiritual and cultural center of Saint Petersburg's Buddhists.