Catherine II as an Incarnation of White Tara: Did Buriats Deify the Romanovs?

Abstract

Introduction. The tradition of worshipping the Russian Empress Catherine II by Buryat Buddhists as an earthly incarnation of the enlightened Buddhist deity White Tara is regarded as an established historical fact by researchers (and officials of Russia’s largest Buddhist organization ‘Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia’), and has never been questioned. Yet a careful analysis of Buryat written sources and Russian historical documents makes the statement somewhat problematic. Goals. The article attempts a comparative insight into a range of documentary, narrative and folklore sources in Buryat, Russian and Tibetan to clarify the issue of actual relationships between Buryat Buddhists and Catherine the Great. Results. The paper establishes that the statement insisting the title of Bandido Khambo Lama was recognized by Catherine II in 1767 goes back only to Buryat written sources — and is not corroborated by Russian historical documents. Our analysis of Russian-language sources, including letters and writings by Catherine II, makes it possible to surmise that the Empress’s attitude towards her ‘Lamaist’ subjects was dictated by her foreign policy plans in Asia and the Renaissance disregard for archaic cultures of ‘Siberian idolaters’ believed by eighteenth-century scholars to comprise Buryat Buddhists too. Insights into the surviving Buryat sources, including historical chronicles and biographies, also do not confirm the existence of a developed cult of venerating Catherine II as incarnate goddess White Tara. Nevertheless, such evidence has been preserved in Buryat song folklore and religious poetry but it should be borne in mind that, apparently, those are modern narratives dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is the latter period that was characterized by the wide dissemination of the idea of the sanctity of the Romanov Dynasty in the eyes of Buddhists, which may have been backed by prominent opinion leaders of the Russian political establishment to further promote the concept of Russia’s expansion deep into Buddhist Asia.

Keywords

• buryat buddhism
• russian empire
• catherine ii
• white tara
• bandido khambo lama
• deification