Kachkanar corner of Buddhism
The heroine of the world-famous bestseller Elizabeth Gilbert “Eat, Pray, Love” in search of soothing and inner harmony went to India, where she studied Buddhist teaching and “finding” the divine. Residents of Kachkanar do not need to go so far, because the Buddhist "Stupa of Awakening" is in the city.
As you know, Kachkanar is surrounded by a beautiful chain of mountains, and if you look closely, on one of them you can see a small monastery in which people who profess Buddhism live.
To reach it, you need to overcome a long way – climb the mountain. The road to the temple lies through the Kachkanar Western quarry, which employs several hundred people daily mining ore. Before the immediate path to the monastery, lined with huge stones, there is a fork. Turning in the opposite direction from the monastery, you can reach the famous and amazing mountain Camel, so named because of the similarity with this animal. This mountain is unusually interesting for tourists, since other bizarre animals can be seen in the stone ramparts. And from the highest point, amazing beauty opens, from which breathtaking: endless green expanses, a mountain range, trees in an endless ribbon grow on the border of the city.
The monastery is called Shad Tchup Ling (translated from Tibetan – “place of practice and implementation”) and is located just eight kilometers from the city. This is the only Buddhist monastery in the Urals, its history dates back to May 1995. The founder of the monastery – Lama Sanye Tenzin Dokshit (Mikhail Sannikov) and members of the community professing Buddhism, build a temple with their own forces. The situation is complicated by the fact that its location is very remote from the territory of the city, besides the leadership of the KGOK claims to develop ore deposits, which are located near the construction site of the monastery.
Shad Tchup Ling Monastery is built in the rocks on the northeastern slope of Mount Kachkanar at an altitude of 843 meters. The construction is observed according to the ancient Tibetan and Mongolian canons of monastery architecture, which allows you to preserve the ecosystem of the area and harmoniously fit the complex of buildings into the picturesque landscape of the mountain. Traditional events, services, rituals, individual and collective practices are held on the territory of the monastery.
Of course, the inhabitants of the monastery “nothing human is alien”, so there are different pets around: goats, chickens, dogs. Inside the buildings there are various books on religious topics, unusual attributes related to Buddhism. All this looks quite cozy and at the same time unusual in comparison with the home environment to which we are all used. Tourists come to the mountain from different cities, not only nearby, but also quite far away: for the sake of “heavenly” beauty, in search of religion or just relax.
Ksenia Ryabukhina