Buddhist Cult in Buryatia. Five photos.

N.p., ca 1910-early 1920s?.
5 photos, 12mo, oblong 12mo (2 photos), 32mo (2 photos).

In good condition, light wear to edges. Photos are singed to verso. Later print.

This collection comprises rare photographs of Tamchinsky Datsan, often regarded as 'the center of Buddhism in eastern Siberia' (closed in January 1938 and reopened only in 1990). Among these images are photographs of monks wearing Cham dance masks, a seated Tara statue, the statue of the Buryat lama (shiretui) Ganzhirva Gegen of Tsugol Datsan (which was closed and ransacked in 1933), and monks (samaneras) engaged in the printing of religious texts.
The original photographs of Tamchinsky Datsan and monks in masks were captured by Nikolay Charushin (1852-1937), a writer and the first photographer of Buryatia, during his exile between 1878 and 1895.