Kritik am Buch „The Shadow Of The Dalai Lama ... - Neues von Shi De

Agvan Dorjiev
The mysto-political influences upon the court of the Tsar of the naïve demonic village magician,
Rasputin, are common knowledge. Yet the power-political intrigues of an intelligent Asian doctor by
the name of Peter Badmajev ought to have been of far greater consequence. Like Dorjiev, whom he
knew well, he was a Buriat and originally a Buddhist, but he had then converted to Russian Orthodox.
His change of faith was never really bought by those around him, who frequented him above all as a
mighty shaman that was “supposed to be initiated into all the secrets of Asia” (Golowin, 1977, p. 219).
Badmajev was head of the most famous private hospital in St. Petersburg. There the cabinet lists for
the respective members of government were put together under his direction. R. Fülöp-Miller has
vividly described the doctor’s power-political activities: “In the course of time medicine and politics,
ministerial appointments and 'lotus essences' became more and more mingled, and a fantastic political
magic character arose, which emanated from Badmajev’s sanatorium and determined the fate of all
Russia. The miracle-working doctor owed this influence especially to his successful medical-political
treatment of the Tsar. ... Badmajev’s mixtures, potions, and powders brewed from mysterious herbs
from the steppes served not just to remedy patient’s metabolic disturbances; anyone who took these
medicaments ensured himself an important office in the state at the same time” (Fülöp-Miller, 1927,
pp. 112, 148). For this “wise and crafty Asian” too, the guiding idea was the establishment of an
Asian empire with the “White Tsar” at its helm.
In this overheated pro-Asian climate, Dorjiev believed, probably somewhat rashly, that the Tsar had a
genuine personal interest in being initiated into the secrets of Buddhism. The Buriat’s goal was to
establish a mchod-yon relationship between Nicholas II and the god-king from Lhasa, that is, Russian
state patronage of Lamaism. Hence a trip to Russia by the Dalai Lama was prepared which, however,