Bidia Dandaron
| Bidia Dandarovich Dandaron | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
December 28, 1914 Kizhinga, Buryatia, Russian Empire |
| Died | October 26, 1974 (aged 59) Vydrino, Buryatia, RSFSR |
| Occupation | Dharmaraja, tibetologist |
| Language | Russian |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Ethnicity | Buryat |
| Alma mater | Aircraft Device Construction Institute, Leningrad |
| Subject | Tibetan Buddhism |
| Literary movement | Buddhist tantra of Gelug tradition, Buddhist review of Western history |
Bidia Dandaron (Vidyadhara, Russian: Бидия Дандарович Дандарон) (December 28, 1914, Soorkhoi, Kizhinga, Buryatia — October 26, 1974, Vydrino, Buryatia) was a major Buddhist author and teacher in the USSR. He also worked in academic Tibetology, contributed to the Tibetan-Russian Dictionary (1959) and made several translations from Tibetan into Russian. He is mostly remembered as a Buddhist teacher whose students in Russia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania continued both religious and scholarly work, and as an early Buddhist author who wrote on European philosophy, history, and science within a Buddhist framework. Among his students were Alexander Piatigorsky and Linnart Mäll.
Born to a Buryat Buddhist tantric practitioner named Dorji Badmaev, Bidia studied both secular and Buddhist subjects from an early age. Then, he was recognized as the tulku of Gyayag Rinpoche (Wilie: rGya yag rin po che), a Buddhist master of Gelug tradition from Kumbum Monastery, who visited Buryatia several times and died not long before Bidia was born. Gyayag Rinpoche's tulku lineage starts from Vimalakirti.
However the Buryat lamas under Tsydenov did not submit the boy to the Tibetan search party that had recognized Dandaron as a tulku, on the pretext of Buryat lamas being capable to educate, and being in need of, their own religious leader. Tibetans then returned to Kumbum and chose a local boy (Blo-bzang bstan-pa’i rgyal-mtshan, 1916–1990), who as Gyayag Rinpoche was later a sutra teacher of the 10th Panchen Lama, and the head of the search party for the 11th Panchen Lama, this search resulting in choosing Gyaincain Norbu as the Panchen Lama.
In 1921, Buryat religious and secular leader Lubsan-Sandan Tsydenov proclaimed Dandaron heir to his throne of Dharmaraja.
In 1934—1937 Dandaron studied in the Aircraft Device Construction Institute in Leningrad, and attended the Eastern Faculty of Leningrad State University as an auditor, studying Tibetan language with Andrey Vostrikov.
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