By Galina Stolyarova
STAFF WRITER
Ole Nydahl looks more like an extreme-sports enthusiast than a Buddhist monk. Yet the tanned, hefty Dane is Europe’s first lama.
Nydahl, who was responsible for bringing Tibetan Buddhism to St. Petersburg in the early 1990s, when he set up the city’s first Buddhist center, was in town on Friday to launch the buddhism.ru festival, which will run from July 4 through July 8 and include exhibitions of photographs, books and traditional Buddhist objets d’art, as well as meditation sessions.
Nydahl became involved in Buddhism in 1969, when he went to the Himalayas on his honeymoon with his wife, Hannah. The couple ended up staying for three years to study the religion and, on returning home to Copenhagen, undertook missionary work, at first in Western Europe and, subsequently, in Russia.
During the festival in July, Nydahl will give a lecture on various issues connected with practicing Buddhism.
“The nature of my mission is to make the deep wisdom of Tibet accessible to our part of the world, and to open the minds of the extroverted West to things as unfamiliar as mantras and meditation,” he said.
According to Grigory Serebrany, vice president of Russia’s Karma Kagyu Buddhist Association, the festival’s program will include special excursions around the State Hermitage Museum, the Kunstkamera and the Museum of the History of Religion. “These museums have so many Buddhist items in their collections, and we are going to arrange for our own experts to give people guided tours during the festival,” he said.
Karma Kagyu is one of the major Buddhist schools of Tibet. Its methods were taught by the historical Buddha Shakyamuni to his closest students. In Russia, the Karma Kagyu Buddhist Association includes over 50 centers and meditation groups. Serebryany said there are several thousand Buddhists in St. Petersburg, of whom at least 400 are regular practictioners.
Nydahl first visited St. Petersburg in September 1988, when the religion was still banned in what was then the Soviet Union. He saw a need for understandable teaching closely related to everyday life. During the visit, he founded the city’s Buddhist center, Karma Legshay Ling (“Place of Good Fortune”). The center, at 145 Naberezhnaya Reki Fontanki, remained secret until February 1991, when it was acknowledged as a religious center by the Russian government.
According to Nydahl, the center is now overcrowded, meaning he has little time for sightseeing on his visits to the city. “It used to be that I would go to the Hermitage, or just wander around the town,” he said. “But, now, we spend time just planning and plotting. For instance, we need to expand our premises.”
Nydahl said he does not see himself as a missionary but, rather, as a travelling professor. “Hopefully, my audiences don’t find me dusty and boring,” he said. “I simply explain what Buddhism is about – it is a logical, clear religion, providing a peaceful transfer from personal matters to global, abstract issues.”
Serebryany said that buddhism.ru aims to be as broadly attractive as possible. “This festival is targeted not only religious people,” he said. “Buddhists are very tolerant to other religions, and we would be happy if people who come to the festival accept just some of the ideas of Buddhism.”
Nydahl added that Buddhism suits people who are proactive about changing their lives. “Buddhists don’t belive in fate,” he said. “Karma doesn’t mean fate; karma is about the cause and the consequences. In short, you can change anything before it happens.”
