July 27, 2026

Buddhists Build Military Temple


Buddhists Build Military Temple
Not the temple in question, but Ivolginsky Datsan, the main Buddhist center in Russia. Vasiliy Tatarinov

Of the five precepts that all Buddhists are to follow, the first is "Avoid killing, or harming any living thing." Yet, like followers of all the major world faiths, Buddhists have not always lived up to their faith principles, actively engaging in violence and war.

And so it is that construction has begun on Russia's first Buddhist military temple. The new temple replaces a single felt yurt that was, for the last 13 years, the spiritual home for Buddhist believers in Buryatia who are serving in the Russian armed forces.

The military base where the dugan (temple) is being built not only approved the proposal, but enthusiastically supported it. Even non-Buddhist members expressed their encouragement. Andrey Nikitin, a Russian Orthodox soldier, offered to help build the temple. He is quoted as saying, “Faith is necessary; it helps.”

Even local entrepreneurs wanted in on the project – a businessman donated the concrete foundation. The project is entirely volunteer-run and donation-based, and a local TV channel ran a request for donations.

Buryats are heavily represented in the Russian Armed Forces, said Erdeni Davydov, the commander of a brigade stationed near Kyakhta: “There are a lot of Buddhists in the unit. Since we are in Buryatia, the majority here are Buryats… who, as we know, are Buddhists.”​

Almost 5,000 war fatalities have been confirmed among Buryat residents, while the Moscow district reported 3,600. Yet Moscow has a population over 13 times that of Buryatia, meaning the mortality rates of Buryat soldiers are proportionally far higher than in Moscow.

Bair Batomunkuev, the only lama military chaplain, and a member of the Russian Army, is overseeing the project. Only three months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Batomunkuev was on the front lines to support Buddhist and non-Buddhist Russian soldiers deployed in Ukraine. Several injured soldiers credit the lama with saving their lives and giving them a strong faith.

Now, Batomunkuev is called to work in Buryatia, a republic in Eastern Siberia along the massive lake Baikal and sharing an international border with Mongolia. Buryatia was home to the only Buddhist center in the Soviet Union, which has ties with Mongolian Buddhism. 

Renewed interest in encouraging followers of Buddhism to feel at home in the military is indicative of Russian attempts to strengthen links between the military and religion more broadly, albeit less spectacularly than the Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces.

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