Letters Home: Naj Wikoff in Ulan Ude, Russia
Building the stupa
The 12th Khambo Lama of Russia
(02/06/06) Naj Wikoff from Keene Valley is spending a year in Ulan Udea, in Russia's Lake Baikal region, developing arts programs at a government hospital. He's has been keeping an on-line journal on NCPR's website and sending occasional audio diaries. This week, Naj describes a village's effort to rebuild a sacred Buddhist shrine, called a stupa, in a small village on the edge of Siberia. Buddhists were persecuted during by the communist regime, especially during the Stalin era in the 1950s. But over the last decade, the religion has experienced a renaissance. The new stupa will serve as a place of worship and pilgrimage to honor the 12th reincarnation of the Khambo Lama.
Naj Wikoff of Keene Valley is on a six-month Fulbright Scholarship to Russia, working out of Ulan Ude, near Lake Baikal. He will teach arts management at the East Siberian Academy of Culture, help develop arts programs in area hospitals, work with local government on arts & culture planning, and work with Institute of Pandito Khambo Lama Itigeliv, the 12th Khambo Lama in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Naj's visit is a follow-up to the Siberian-Adirondack exchanges sponsored by the Totem Peoples project, directed by Dan Plumley of Keene.
Naj, a 7th generation Adirondacker, has served the past five years as the president of the