Zone time: +5 from Moscow one.

Population: about 371 thous.

Average temperatures: January -27, April +1, July +19,
October -1.

The distance from Ulan-Ude to Moscow: 5641 km

Ulan-Ude is the capital of the Buryat Autonomous Republic. This area was part of Mongolian empire from 13th to the 17th century. The Buryats were originally nomadic herders, with cultural and language similarities to the Mongolians and religious similarities to Tibetan Buddhists.

In the 18th century, empress Ekaterina officially recognized Buddhism as a religion in Russia. In the beginning of 20th century there were about 30 Datsans or Buddhist School. Unfortunately, religion was prohibited in the Soviet time. Buddist temple were razed or put to other uses, monks were killed.

Ulan-Ude was founded as a Cossack winter camp that was called Udinsk. Ulan-Ude became a fortress in 1689 and a city in 1775. Due to its geographical position the city grew rapidly and became a large trade center that connected Russia with China and Mongolia.

Nowadays, Ulan-Ude is a major transport hub, a junction on the Trans-Siberian railway and the starting point of a railway to Ulaanbaator (Mongolia) and Beijing (China).

What to see

The museum of history

Open from 10.00 a.m. to 06.00 p.m. Closed on Monday.

The museum was opened in 1923 as "anti-religious" museum. In the 90's the museum was named "Museum of history". At present it holds an interesting collection of Ortodox icons, an unique Buddhist collection that includes wooden and bronze sculpture of Buddhas , a beautiful copy of Tibetan atlases. Some sculptures were made by famous Mongolian sculptor of the 17th century Dzanabadzar.

Open-air Ethnographic Museum

Open from 10.00 a.m. to 06.00 p.m. Closed on Monday.

The museum is situated in 15 minutes bus ride or 1 km walking from Ulan-Ude.

The museum holds the picturesque exposition of the Evenki camp (indigenous population of Siberia), the Shaman yurt, the famous Buryat yurt, the Russian village (poor and rich peasant houses).

Ivolginsky Datsan

The Datsan or Buddhist school is located in the hills a few kilometers from Ulan-Ude. It includes a brightly decorative temple with big sculpture of Bouddha, a library a Scool for monks and the monastery hotel for visitors. The temple is opened for visitors every morning from 9 a.m.

How to get: there is bus that goes from the bus station in Ulan-Ude to the entrance of the monastery. It will take you about 40 minutes to get the monastery.