Kalmyk Buddhist Temple, also known as Kalmyk Home, was a Buddhist temple in Belgrade, capital of Serbia. It was built in 1929 as one of the first Buddhist temples in Europe, served for the religious purposes until 1944, and completely demolished in the mid-1960s.
Location
Pagoda was located in the neighborhood known today as Učiteljsko Naselje, in Zvezdara municipality. Učiteljsko Naselje is a section of the larger Konjarnik neighborhood. The street in which it was based was named Budistička (Buddhist) after the temple was built, and today is named Budvanska (Budva street).
Origin of the pagoda
After the October Revolution in 1917, a huge number of people from Russia, supporters of the White movement, emigrated to Yugoslavia, including Pyotr Wrangel, general of the White Army. Among them were hundreds of Kalmyks, Western Mongolian people of Buddhist faith, who inhabited the shores of the Caspian Sea. From April 1920 to late 1923, some 500 Kalmyks entered Serbia, and 400 of them settled in Belgrade, thus creating the largest Kalmyk colony in Europe.
They settled on the eastern outskirts of Belgrade: Karaburma, Bulbulder, Cvetkova Pijaca, Crveni Krst. However, the majority of them settled in Mali Mokri Lug, the suburban village of Belgrade at the time. Having several priests in their community, already in 1923 they rented rooms in the still existing house in the Vojislava Ilića street No 47 for religious service. In 1925 they moved it to Metohijska street No 51 and started an action for building a proper temple. The Kalmyks were headed by the former colonel of the Russian Imperial Army, Abusha Alekseyev (1886–1938) and the Buddhist elder Manchuda Borinov (1872-1928). They officially formed their Belgrade organization in April 1929, and Alekseyev was elected as the chief.
Many Kalkmyks worked in the brickworks owned by the industrialist Miloš Jaćimović (1858-1940) and soon he became a major benefactor of their community. In 1928 he donated the lot on which the temple was built and also provided the building materials, bricks and roof tiles. That same year, Kalmyks were granted permission to build the temple, given to them from both the political and Serbian Orthodox Church authorities. King Alexander I of Yugoslavia also helped them financially.
The temple was consecrated on 12 December 1929. The guests included members of the Kalmyk diaspora in Czechoslovakia and France, so as the representatives of the Russian organizations in Belgrade, including the atamans of the Don Cossacks and the Terek Cossacks, as the Kalmyks in Russian Empire mostly served in the army horse units. The temple soon became an attraction, being listed in tourist guides, and the street in which it was built was officially named "Buddhist" street. City government became a financial supporter of the temple, so it was reconstructed and expanded in 1935. The main wall was decorated with two painted deer. Being so far away from Buddhist countries, the temple lacked lots of artifacts needed for the religious service. Through the contacts with the Japanese envoy to Bucharest, in the neighboring Romania, a large bronze statue of Buddha arrived from Tokyo and was consecrated on 25 March 1934. With the Buddha statue, additional religious equipment arrived (drums, gongs, etc.), but the shipment was kept at the Customs Office, which asked for the huge amount of money to be paid by the Kalmyks. Ministry of Justice intervened and the Buddhist shipment was declared customs free.
Kalmyks in Belgrade
Within the temple, Kalmyks established a Buddhist Spiritual Council, which was a focal point of all local Kalmyks in Serbia but also made connections to Kalmyk communities from other parts of Europe. Torghut princess Nirjidma visited the temple on 20 September 1933. They also had a Buddhist religious school in the Center and classes of the Kalmyk language.
Due to their appearance, local population colloquially called them "Chinese". As there was a big discrepancy in the gender ratio of the emigrants, one woman to five men, their number in Belgrade never grew over 500. As a result of the cordial relations the two communities had, there were Kalmyk–Serbian marriages, where Kalmyk men would marry Serbian women. As witnesses from that period reported, children from those marriages had "white complexion inherited from us, and slanty eyes inherited from them". Pagoda had a beautiful rose garden and when the wind would blow, the wind chimes would make music. Kalmyks would often serve tea to the neighbors and during the religious holidays they would give presents to the children from the neighborhood.