So Long, Kalmykia; Next stop, Siberia.

After just under a month in Elista, I will say goodbye to Kalmykia tomorrow and return to Volgograd. The last couple of days in Kalmykia were exciting and very productive. On Friday night (the 5th), I attended the 50th birthday party of one of Valeriy’s friends, Dorzhi. Dorzhi is a martial artist and runs an industrial complex in Elista, the one that had the karaoke set-up in the sauna. This was unlike any birthday party I’d ever been to. Dorzhi’s high school classmates were there, as well as guests from his home village (his zemlaki). This was a parade of well-wishers who sang songs, read poems, danced the Kalmyk national dance, or simply gave a toast in honor of Dorzhi. As the guest from America, I gave a toast (in Russian) and then predictably warbled ‘Happy Birthday’ in my signature off-key style. I was also dragged out on the dance-floor to dance the Kalmyk national dance, which, according to Valeriy, I did very well. Alas, I have no pictures, as I conveniently forgot my camera. When I return in the summer or fall, wedding season here in Kalmykia, Valeriy is going to show what a real Kalmyk party is all about.

On Saturday, we made a final trip to the sauna, another Kalmyk/Russian tradition to recognize those who have achieved (or will achieve in the future) great things, like the defense of a dissertation. I was presented with a sauna hat as a going-away present. It reads: ‘I sweat like a king’.

I have been accomplishing some of my research goals here, too. This weekend, I held two more focus groups, building off of the first two that I previously discussed in the blog. The first was with Kalmyks who actively practice Buddhism, and was held in the khurul’s library. The second was with students, again, to serve as a sort of comparison with the first focus group we conducted last week; in particular, I wanted to see if I myself could conduct the group, as I’m unsure if I’ll have the type of consistent support in Tuva and Buryatia that I’ve had here. The real benefit of these groups is that they’ve allowed me to identify a couple of the central questions/thoughts that I want to ask about further in the survey: whether there is such a thing as Kalmyk Buddhism, or there is only Buddhism as a world religion; the role of the Dalai Lama and the import of his presence in Kalmykia for Buddhists; and the ‘hidden’ nature of Buddhist practice during the Soviet period, among other topics.