{"id":4177,"date":"2006-11-03T15:46:42","date_gmt":"2006-11-03T14:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/?p=4177"},"modified":"2023-09-02T19:16:22","modified_gmt":"2023-09-02T17:16:22","slug":"the-kalmyk-of-belgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/the-kalmyk-of-belgrade\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kalmyk of Belgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whilst looking for a Buddhist centre in Belgrade, I came across the sad story of the Kalymks and their gift to Belgrade – a Buddhist temple.<\/p>\n

Apparently there is a little country in the Russian Federation called Republic of Kalmykia<\/a>. It is Europe’s only Buddhist country.\u00a0The Kalmyks are decendend from\u00a0the Mongols and have a very troubled history which involved two<\/strong> diasporas and ethnic cleansing at the hands of Joseph Stalin. They appear to have a\u00a0tendency towards \u00a0backing the loser (White Russians during the Russian revolution and the Nazis in WW2).<\/p>\n

Here is the Belgrade connection:<\/p>\n

During the first Diaspora a large group of Kalmyks fled from Russia with the remnants of General Denikin’s White Army to Turkey. The majority chose to resettle in Belgrade, Serbia.<\/p>\n

…The Kalmyk political refugees in Belgrade built a Buddhist temple there in 1929. [Source: Wikipedia<\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unfortunately, the temple they built was eventually destroyed and their colony disintegrated at the end of WW2.<\/p>\n

The first Kalmyk refugees arrived in Serbia at the end of March and the beginning of April 1920 and settled mainly i\"\"n the eastern part of the country. The second and the largest group (some 300 people) arrived towards the end of 1920 and settled at the outskirts of\u00a0 Belgrade. This was the largest Kalmyk colony in Europe. Since most of them were lacking necessary skills for a good job, they used to be engaged in physical labor: as workers at brick plants, or construction workers, or as porters, hired coachmen etc.,\u00a0 while the women ‘sewed for the army’, and made the slippers. They used to be poorly paid.<\/p>\n

In the first five or six years the Kalmyk did not form any sort of organization in Serbia. The Kalmyk Association came into being in 1928 and it immediately took the steps to build a home for social gathering and the place of worship. They finished them in December 1929.<\/p>\n

The Kalmyk colony in Belgrade disintegrated at the end of WW II when all of them retreated to Germany and later on either to the USA or Western Europe.<\/p>\n

A deserted temple was heavily damaged during the battle for Belgrade (October 1944) when the upper part of the roof (“the tower”) was burned down. A few years later, the whole building was demolished and a new building was erected on temple’s\u00a0 [Source: Kalmyk Buddhist Temple Online Exhibition<\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They are a tragic people. I hope things turned out well for them wherever they ended up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whilst looking for a Buddhist centre in Belgrade, I came across the sad story of the Kalymks and their gift to Belgrade – a Buddhist temple. Apparently there is a little country in the Russian Federation called Republic of Kalmykia. It is Europe’s only Buddhist country.\u00a0The Kalmyks are decendend from\u00a0the Mongols and have a very … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30,12],"tags":[296],"class_list":["post-4177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-belgrade","category-news","tag-published"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prY0k-15n","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15742,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/the-most-ridiculous-yugoslav-era-album-covers\/","url_meta":{"origin":4177,"position":0},"title":"The most ridiculous yugoslav era album covers","author":"Limbic","date":"November 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"From\u00a0http:\/\/justsomething.co\/the-21-most-ridiculous-yugoslav-album-covers-ever Also see my personal collection of ludicrous album covers I scanned in Belgrade: https:\/\/secure.flickr.com\/photos\/limbic\/sets\/72157625119090416\/","rel":"","context":"In "Belgrade & Serbia"","block_context":{"text":"Belgrade & Serbia","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/miscellaneous\/belgrade\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/yugoslav-album-covers.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/yugoslav-album-covers.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/yugoslav-album-covers.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/yugoslav-album-covers.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37349,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/historical-belgrade\/","url_meta":{"origin":4177,"position":1},"title":"Historical Belgrade","author":"Limbic","date":"October 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"BIGZ, first Serbian printing house,\u00a0\u00a0Dragi\u0161a Bra\u0161ovan,\u00a01970s Fantatsic series of historical (20th century) pictures of Belgrade featuring some of my all time favorites, BIGZ, Eastern Gate, Sava Center, Museum of Contemporary Art and of course Genex Tower (West Gate). Time Travel: A Photographic Journey through the Yugoslav Capital Belgrade | bellegrade\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Miscellaneous"","block_context":{"text":"Miscellaneous","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/miscellaneous\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/dragistabasovan70sBIGZ-667x652-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/dragistabasovan70sBIGZ-667x652-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/dragistabasovan70sBIGZ-667x652-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":25339,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/guide-to-modern-yugoslav-architecture\/","url_meta":{"origin":4177,"position":2},"title":"Guide to Modern Yugoslav Architecture","author":"Limbic","date":"June 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"An interesting look at Belgrade's Yugoslav architectural legacy.","rel":"","context":"In "Belgrade & Serbia"","block_context":{"text":"Belgrade & Serbia","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/miscellaneous\/belgrade\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8384,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/debt-and-the-story-of-civilisation-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":4177,"position":3},"title":"Debt and the story of civilisation","author":"Limbic","date":"March 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Last Autumn, whilst rumbling across Belgrade on one of the city's ancient trams, I listened to an interview on Tech Nation\u00a0 with Anthropologist David Graeber , about his book \"Debt: The First 5,000 Years\". 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