Andrei Znamenski (The University of Memphis) discusses a little-known case of the advancement of Tibetan Buddhism into southern Siberia (Mountain Altai) from the 1890s to 1920s. Znamenski points out that Tibetan Buddhism was gradually channeled to Altai through a local movement of spiritual resistance called Ak-Jang ("White Faith"); in scholarly literature it is also known as Burkhanism (after "Burkhan" or God). He argues that this movement represented an attempt of “self-conversion” to Buddhism. Having emerged in opposition to both Russian cultural/economic advances and local shamanism ("Black Faith"), Ak-Jang heavily borrowed from Mongolian Buddhism. This spiritual movement was focused on the prophecy about prince Oirot, a legendary character that was expected to come from Mongolia and save the Altaians from Russian land encroachment. For political reasons, earlier scholarship downplayed its links with the Mongol-Tibetan world. In contrast, Znamenski suggests that, culturally and spiritually, the Altai indigenous nomadic population was coming under the heavy influence of Mongol Buddhism, moving toward the adoption of Tibetan Buddhism – a process that was terminated by the advance of the powerful secular Communist prophecy that arrested this process in 1929. The paper has been presented at the 17th Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, the University of Vienna, Austria, August 22, 2014.

• published: 17 Sep 2014
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