The biggest statue of Buddha in Europe to be erected in Kalmykiya

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The biggest statue of Buddha in Europe will be made in the town of Volgodonsk (Rostov Region) and erected in Elista (Kalmykia). As “Nezavisimaya gazeta” reports, the decision was taken by the republican working group to construct a Buddhist religious complex in Elista.

The sculpture will be of nine meters high, made of metalware and covered by tinsel will occupy the central place in the European Buddhism Center that in several months will opened in Elista.

Manufacturing of the biggest sculpture of Buddha will take about a month and a half. A plaster model of the statue has been already made by a group of Kalmyk sculptors led by Vladimir Vaskin, who in mid-1990s created the first statue of Buddha in Kalmykia.

According to Vaskin, the new Kalmyk Buddha statue has no equal not only in Russia, but also in Europe on the whole. The highest statue of Buddha (7 m) is located in Buryatia (Russia). Only the 30-meter high statue of Buddha in Thailand and statues of Buddha Shakyamuni already broken by the Talibs are higher than the Kalmyk sculpture.

Vladimir Vaskin stressed that the sculpture image of Buddha was created taking into account the religious canons. To create sculptures of 17 arhats – the tutors – who will surround the new religious complex in Elista, religious sculptors from India and Nepal were invited. All the 17 sculptors of arhats should be ready by December 2005. According to the Buddhism canons they should be made of copper. However, there was a proposal to use bronze as the most durable metal.

The Buddhism Center will be opened on December 26, dating to the Kalmyk New Year holiday Zul and an anniversary of the Kalmyk deportation (December 28).

Most probably, Dalai Lama would not participate in the opening as it was stated before. A source in the Kalmyk presidential circle said that the Buddhist leader would come to Kalmykia and consecrate the religious complex only next spring when all the decorating works will be finished.