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As a result of hopeful planning, strenuous effort and devotion the temple was erected. In December 1929, the Kalmyks solemnly dedicated their Buddhist temple in Belgrade, the first and only of its kind in Europe. The consecration ceremony was headed by Baksha Namjal Nimbushev who came from Paris for the occasion. |
 
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The significance of Belgrade
Temple for Kalmyk people can easily be understood if one bears in mind
that
"the atrocities of the Communists in the Don Cossack region was so intense that by 1925 there were no longer either monasteries or Buddhist clergy. As a matter of fact, most of the temples were burn out or razed to the ground as far as in 1918- 1920". (1) By death of Menke Bormanshinov
in 1919, the spiritual head of the Don Kalmyks, the Buddhist faith experienced
its final death throes.
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| (1) Arash
Bormanshinov: "The Kalmyks: their ethic, historical,
religious and cultural background",
(Howell, Kalmyk American Cultural Association, 1990, p.13.)
On historical, religious and cultural background of the Kalmyk people
see
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