On December 27, 2005, the Burkhan Bakshin Altan Sume ("The Golden Abode of the Buddha Shakyamuni") was opened in Elista

Elista

-Twin towns/sister cities:Elista is twinned with the following sister cities. Howell, New Jersey, United States Lhasa, Tibet, China. Ulan-Ude, Buryat Republic, Russia-See also:*Geden Sheddup Choikorling Monastery*Burkhan Bakshin Altan Sume-External links:...

, the capital of the Republic of Kalmykia, a federal subject of the Russian Federation. More than 5,000 people attended the opening ceremony, including representatives of Tibetan Buddhist communities from Moscow, Volgograd and Saratov.

The 14th Dalai Lama blessed the site of the future temple just before he left Elista during his November 2004 visit to the Republic and gave it its name on March 11, 2006.

During the opening ceremony, the Republic of Kalmykia President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov

Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov is a Kalmyk multi-millionaire businessman and politician. He was the President of the Republic of Kalmykia in the Russian Federation from 1993 to 2010, and he has been the President of FIDE , the world's pre-eminent international chess organization, since 1995...

dedicated the temple to Kalmyks who died during and after their sudden and forced exile to Siberia after December 27, 1943.