The Most Interesting Sights at Ulan-Ude:

The main attractions in Ulan-Ude are the two museums (of history and of nature), Ivolginsky Buddhist Datsan, and open-air Ethnographic Museum. All these sights are really interesting, and are well worth hopping off the Trans-Siberian train, and spending 2 or 3 days in Ulan-Ude.

Buddhism in Russia:
Buddhism exists in the East of Russia since centuries. Though Buddhism
was officially recognized in Russia by the Empress ‘Ekaterina II’ in 1741, Buddhists were Christianized by force in the region of Ulan Ude. Still they continued to practice their religion and in the beginning of the 20th century, about 30 Datsans or Buddhist Schools were housing 10000 Monks. During Soviet times, religion was prohibited and monasteries were destroyed, monks were killed. In 1923, Religious Orthodox Icons, Buddhist sculptures and paintings started to be stored in an ‘anti-religious’ museum in Ulan Ude.
In 1991, educational institutes were opened teaching Buddhist Philosophy, Tantrism, Art.


Museum of History in Ulan Ude: In Soviet times, an ‘anti-religious’ Museum was opened to store all religious art. It was kept by very devoted people who stored the funds very carefully and in the 90s, when the ban on religion ended, the museum got rebaptised ‘Museum of History’. There are different floors displaying collections on different periods and themes: prehistoric times, Orthodox religion, and Buddhist art.
The Buddhist collection consists of wooden and bronze sculptures, medical treaties and their painted illustration.
It also has in display pages of a beautiful atlas illustrating the Tibetan knowledge on medicine.
It is a copy of Tibetan atlases made by Akvandazhiz (around 1920), a Buryat man who lived for ten years in Tibet, teaching Dalai Lama the 13th. He painted it with mineral pigments on Tanka, a fabric that can be roled like a parchment. In the 30s the atlas was hidden in the attic of a monk’s place and brought to the ‘anti-religious- museum, where it was preciously kept since then.
The first page of the atlas is a diagram of the Universe in the form of a Mandala. Bouddha is represented sitting in a lotus position, his body is blue, he’s holding a Mirobalan flower in the left hand, which represents treatment. He is the teacher of medecine. Smaller scale people surround him, then on another circle, plants are very precisely represented in the space where they grow, mountains or plains. The illustrations were used as reference to spread the knowledge of medicine. It is both a vulgarisation and a pictorial translation of the knowledge explained more in depth in the written treaties.
Another page shows the development of the embryo before birth. It’s like a comic strip. The first scenes show the soul of a person in the 49 days between death and life, it has the form of a six year old transparent child. He is there when a man and a woman make love and he tries to penetrate the man’s mouth. If all goes well, if there’s good karma, the woman becomes pregnant. She is then depicted with an embryo inside her stomach. It develops in three phases: fish, tortus and pig. Some sentences accompany the schemes telling for example that the inner organs of the child are given by the mother and that the squeletton comes from the father.
The museum also features sculptures of Buddhas and Boddhisatvas. Some were made by the famous mongolian sculptor Dzanabadzar who lived in the end of 17th century. He was sculpting physical beauty to show inner beauty.
Before visiting the museum, you can book a guided tour in English or in Russian. The lady who makes tours is passionate about her job, she’s open to questions, and can adapt the tour to your particular interests.
Open Hours & Admissioin: Open Tu-Su 10 AM –18 PM. Prices for Entry/ or Entry with Excursion for: Students (5/40Rb), Adults (15/80 Rb), Foreigners (70/100Rb).
Museum Guided Tours: we recommend you to contact Ayuna Turueva (she speaks fluent English). Buryatia, Ulan-Ude, 670009, Nesterova st., 30A. Mother: (3012) 37-18-38, Mobil: (3012) 64-80-28.
Address of the museum: Profsoyuznaya ulitsa (beginning), marked with *1 on the map.


Ivolginsky Datsan: The Datsan, or Buddhist school located in the hills a few Kilometers from Ulan Ude, is a big center of Buddhist culture, housing temples, a library, a School for monks, and accomodation for visitors. There is a ceremony open to visitors every morning around 9 AM, in a richly ornated temple, with big Bouddha sculptures, colorful mandalas and a special seat for the Dalai Lama, when he comes. Young monk students, dressed with long dark red robes can explain you round. Most of them speak different languages, they study Philosophy, or Tantrism, or Buddhist art and Tibetan language. In the library there are scripts with the words of Buddha and comments on his words: those texts are called Anjur and Ganjur. Prayer drums circle the territory of the Datsan, one should walk in a circle, in the same direction as the sun and stop at every drum to make it spinn. In a shrine is a big leafy tree, it’s a ‘ficus religios’ the same tree under which the Buddha reached enlightenment. The Datsan is sited in a vast green place at the foot of the hills surrounding Baikal lake. The roofs of the temples and the colorful stuppas make the place look feerical.
Entrance is 2 US$ and you can take a tour in English for $3. The monastery hotel is a simple building with water and toilets in the street costs 3 US$ per night.
To get there: from the bus station in Ulan-Ude there are buses at 10.00, 12.00, 17.40. It will take you about 40 minutes to get there and will cost 2 US$.
To get back: shuttles leave at 8.00 from the entrance to the monastery. Bus pass at 9.00 and there are shuttles every hour till the evening.


Musei Prirody - Museum of Nature: The Museum of Nature in Ulan Ude is a nice place to visit to have an idea of Baikal’s Fauna and Flaura. All the species who live in Baikal are shown here. Stuffed animals stand in a scenery ressembling their natural environment. One room features a miniature model of Baikal Lake, it’s islands and the surrounding mountains. It shows the depth of the lake and gives a clear image of the geology of the area. Many species are endemic (e.g. they grow or live only in Baikal) such as clear water seals, who like to lie on rocks close to Olkhon Island. It also shows how species adapt to the cold winter in Baikal region, there are wolfs, rabbits and the rare hermina with white winter fur. It’s a charming visit, because the decoration, and the display made in the 70-80s are a bit dusty and dated. Some photos show local Buryat and Russian scientists working together in Soviet times. Both people seem to be passionate about their work with Nature, maybe this love of Baikal Nature helped such a peaceful cohabitation of the two people.
Entrance: 10 roubles ($0.3), Open hours: 10.00-18.00 (closed on mon and tue), Address: Lenina, 46 (the main street)


Open-Air Ethnographic Museum: The ethnographic museum is a 15 minutes bus ride out of Ulan Ude. It’s a large settlement of local architecture from Prehistoric times to nowadays. At the entrance gate, you’ll find a map of the different areas of the outdoors museum. You can walk through the areas, under the trees, or in a large grassy field, and discover

Inside a tranditional yurt

the types of architecture people constructed to live in, through the centurys, at scale one.
For example there is an Evenk camp. Evenks were nomad people traveling through Siberia with deers and skiis.They settled for a season then moved further. They made tipi tents with branches and bark of trees. You can walk through the camp, look inside the tipis, discover all kind of wooden utensils, tools, water baskets made out of animal skin. It’s very useful to get survival ideas if you plan to go and live wild in Baikal area. There’s also the tent of a Shaman, with sculptures of animals, different pelts worn on ceremonys. Unfortunately many pelt or wooden objects are exposed in the strong sun and rain and deteriorate.
Another area of the ethnographic museum is consacrated to a later kind of housing: the famous Yurt houses. You can visit a Summer Yurt house. Its’ six walls are made out of tree trunks and covered with mud, it forms a large inside hexagonal space. The roof is covered with grass and there’s a top window to let light in and fire smoke out. The winter Yurts had the same form, except that the walls were covered with snow, to keep warm. On the shore of Baikal, people still built Yurt camps, mainly to accommodate tourists (Olkhon, Snake Bay).
Another part of the museum is consacrated to more modern times housing. You can visit the home of poor or noble villagers from 8th century or 19th century, it’s interesting to see how people lived. The houses are furnished like in old times, in the rooms are all the objects that show how people lived, authentic pieces of embroideries, wooden objects...
Open hours: 8.30-21.30, closed on Mondays, English-language tours ($5),
Entrance - 45 roubles ($1.5), Making photos – 15 roubles, or 70 for good cams
To get there: Shuttle #8 for 6 roubles (from Baikal hotel) then 1 km walking