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The Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Part II – 11. The Shambhala Myth and the west
© Victor & Victoria Trimondi
11. THE SHAMBHALA MYTH AND THE WEST
The spread of the Shambhala myth and the Kalachakra Tantra in the West has a history of its own. It
does definitely not first begin with the expulsion of the lamas from Tibet (in 1959) and their diaspora
across the whole world, but rather commences at the beginning of the twentieth century in Russia
with the religious political activity of an ethnic Buriat by the name of Agvan Dorjiev.
The Shambhala missionary Agvan Dorjiev
Even in his youth, Agvan Dorjiev (1854–1938), who trained as a monk in Tibet, was already a very
promising individual. For this reason he was as a young man entrusted with caring for the Thirteenth
Dalai Lama. The duties of the Buriat included among other things the ritual cleansing of the body and
bedroom of the god-king, which implies quite an intimate degree of contact. Later he was to be at
times the closest political adviser of His Holiness.
Dorjiev was convinced that the union of Tibet with Russia would provide the Highlands with an
extremely favorable future, and was likewise able to convince the hierarch upon the Lion Throne of
the merits of his political vision for a number of years. He thus advanced to the post of Tibetan envoy
in St. Petersburg and at the Russian court. His work in the capital was extremely active and varied. In
1898 he had his first audience with Tsar Nicholas II, which was supposed to be followed by others.
The Russian government was opening up with greater tolerance towards the Asian minorities among
whom the Buriats were also to be counted, and was attempting to integrate them more into the Empire
whilst still respecting their religious and cultural autonomy, instead of missionizing them as they had
still done at the outset of the 19th century.
Even as a boy, Nicholas II had been fascinated by Tibet and the “yellow pontiff” from Lhasa. The
famous explorer, Nikolai Przhevalsky, introduced the 13-year-old Tsarevitch to the history and
geopolitics of Central Asia. Przhevalsky described the Dalai Lama as a „powerful Oriental pope with
dominion over some 250 million Asiatic souls” and believed that a Russian influence in Tibet would
lead to control of the entire continent and that this must be the first goal of Tsarist foreign policy
(Schimmelpennink, 1994, p. 16). Prince Esper Esperovich Ukhtomsky, influential at court and deeply
impressed by the Buddhist teachings, also dreamed of a greater Asian Empire under the leadership of
the “White Tsars”.
Since the end of the 19th century Buddhism had become a real fashion among the Russian high
society, comparable only to what is currently happening in Hollywood, where more and more stars
profess to the doctrine of the Dalai Lama. It was considered stylish to appeal to Russia’s Asiatic
inheritance and to invoke the Mongolian blood which flowed in the veins of every Russian with
emotional phrases. The poet, Vladimir Solovjov declaimed, “Pan-Mongolism — this word: barbaric,
yes! Yet a sweet sound” (Block, n.d., p. 247).