Agvan Dorjev (1853-1938) is a trannit Hambo-lama, a Buddhist scientist, diplomat, a politician and a public figure of Russia, Tibet and Mongolia. He got his theological education in Ugra and in Goman-datsan at Tibetan monastery Drepung (one of three main Lhasa monasteries), earned a higher academic degree of lharamba in philosophy. He was one of seven higher educated lamas who were the tutors of the 13th Dalai Lama and used to teach him Buddhist philosophy and literature. In 1898 Agvan Dorjiev was sent to China, Russia and France to explore the state structure and everyday life. On his return to Tibet he was elevated to the rank of the senior khenpo with the voting right in all aspects of politics and religion.
Dorjiev was an initiator of Tibet and Russia’s contingence. He used to travel around these countries as well as to Mongolia and China, completing diplomatic errands. He visited India, Ceylon, Japan, Germany, Italy, and Great Britain. He held the first Buddhist service in France at The Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts. Innokenty Annensky, who later wrote a poem which was included in his book “Cypress box”, attended the service. Another Russian poet Maximilian Voloshin was Dorjiev’s guide in Paris.
Being practically the first minister of the 12th Dalai Lama’s court, Dorjiev used to accompany him everywhere, hold the services and be in charge of the country’s finance. Apart from that he had founded a few datsans and schools in Kalmykia and Buryatia, founded a publishing house ‘Naran’ in Saint Petersburg and a printing office at Atsagat.
In Buryatia Dorjiev is well-known as a reformer of the vertical Mongolian writing designed for Buryat language and an author of the Buryat writing Vaghintara, most accurately transforming the Russian words’ transcription (was in circulation in 1905-1910).
In 1909, having met the Emperor Nicolas II, Agvan Dorjiev got the imperial consent for building the first Buddhist temple in Europe, the Kalachakra temple in Saint Petersburg. In 1913 the first service dedicated to the 300th anniversary of Romanov dynasty was kept at the temple. The temple’s consecration took place in 1915, the government representatives of Nicolas II, 13th Dalai Lama, Siamese king Rama IV and Mongolian Bogdo Khan were present there.
