Window on Eurasia

Buddhists Defeat Buryat Government in Court

Paul Goble

Vienna, July 26, 2006 – For the first time anyone can remember, the
Buddhist community of Buryatia has won a case in court against the authorities
there, a measure of the growing confidence of that religious group in
its power and its increasing willingness to rely on the Russian
Federation’s legal system.

Buryatia’s Arbitrage Court this week rejected an appeal by republic
officials of a May 2006 finding by a lower court in favor of the
Buddhist Traditional Sangkha, thus apparently bringing to an end this
unusual case, Baikal Media news reported today
[http://baikal-media.com/2006/07/26/pravitelstvo-buryatii-proigralo-sud-buddistam].

What makes this case so interesting – and the Baikal news service
openly states that it is unprecedented – is that Buryat government
officials, both in Soviet times and since then, have been used to
getting their own way in negotiations with Buddhist leaders behind
closed doors rather than in open court.

The current legal case has its roots in a decision taken by the Buryat
ASSR authorities in the last days of the existence of the USSR in
December 1991 to give what was then the Central Spiritual Directorate
of Muslims of the USSR five hectars of land on the shore of Lake Baikal
for the construction of a religious center.

Shortly after that decision was taken, the Soviet Union fell apart; the
Buddhist group was renamed several times, finally becoming the Buddhist
Traditional Sangkha of the Russian Federation; and the property in
question which had had little value in 1991 shot up in price with the
announcement of plans to create a special economic zone there.

Because the Buddhists had been unable to raise the funds needed to
build their religious center there and because the local authorities believed
that the various changes in name of the Buddhist organization might
have vitiated the earlier grant, the Buryat government went to court seeking
to overturn the earlier grant.

In May of this year, the court of the first instance ruled against the
government, holding that the initial transfer of property to the
Buddhists remained legal. The Buryat government then appealed and now
has lost the case, suggesting, Baikal Media said, that the republic’s
“karma” was less than officials had hoped.

Now, the Buddhists plan to go ahead with construction, but not of a
place of worship and training as originally planned but rather of a
medical facility that will provide services to the increasing number of
visitors to the shores of Lake Baikal and thus earn money for other
Buddhist efforts in the Russian Federation.

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