Ulan-Ude: the Buddhist temple and the world's largest…

Capital of Siberian Buryatia, Ulan-Udė preserves active Buddhist temples alongside the world's largest sculptured head of Lenin.

The center, with the Buddhist temple and the world's largest head of Lenin, can be comfortably visited on foot.

The Head of Lenin on the main square, over seven meters high and weighing forty-two tons, remains the world's largest sculpture depicting only the head of the Soviet leader.

A few minutes away, the Ivolginsk Datsan, main Buddhist center of Russia, houses the body of a lama believed to be miraculously incorrupt since 1927.

Continuing toward the historic center, you visit the Ethnographic Museum of Ulan-Udė, which displays traditional dwellings of Buryat and Siberian peoples.

Toward evening, local restaurants serve buuza, steamed dumplings typical of Buryat and Mongolian culinary tradition.

The body of lama Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov, who died in 1927, is considered by Buddhist devotees to be in a state of deep meditation rather than deceased, and remains preserved in conditions that scientists describe as remarkably well-conserved.

Buryatia, a Russian republic with a Buddhist majority near the Mongolian border, maintains a culture distinct from European Russia, with temples and religious festivals still actively practiced by the local population, many of which are visible to visitors.