The Rock Star and the Šajin Lama

The Finals of the Candidates Matches for the 2007 World Chess Championship Tournament took place in Elista, Russia, from June 6th to June 14, 2007. Eight candidates advanced from the first stage and played six-game matches to fill four places in the 2007 World Championship in Mexico City.

Rock Concert in the Park

On the evening of the last round of the Candidates Finals in Elista we were taken to a rock concert in the central park, and then to a gala dinner, which is shown in the second part of this report.

Elista, like all of Russia, has fairly strict security controls. We were able to enter the park expediently because of our chess event badges, but my camera bag was checked by the guards at the entrance, like the bag of the lady in the above picture.

Some VIPs could drive right into the park in a Cadillac 5.7 Litre V8 convertible

The concert on an elevated stage with thousands of people attending

The band with guitars, keyboards, a violin and a sax

A fan trying to get a better view – in Elista with a telescope!

Rock star Boris Grebenshchikov, with a Sanskrit inscription on his guitar reading
"OM Namah Shivaaya" ("I bow to Lord Shiva"), a popular Yoga chant.

Boris Grebenshchikov, 54, is considered one of the "founding fathers" of Russian rock music and, together with his band Åquarium, a household name in Russia. As a school boy he was enamored with the Beatles, and then moved on to a deep appreciation of Bob Dylan, whose influence could be felt in the rock concert we visited in Elista. His style is hard to define: "rock" is too crude and noisy, "folk" too bland, "electric blues" comes closer. At the gala dinner (see below) I asked him, and he replied with a wry smile: "Why don't we just call it jazz?"

Our group, with Jorge Saggiante (second from left) entranced by the music

Jorge is the organiser and main sponsor of the September World Championship in Mexico City. He said, and later told Boris Grebenshchikov, that this music was about the most beautiful he had ever heard. Here's a sample – see if you concur.

Lyrics translated by Alexander Shaumyan. Listen to the song here.

A Russian Kalmykian fan enjoying the concert

And some local boys doing the same

Boris Grebenshchikov's fans come in young and old

Some who are apparently skeptical about his cult status (or my camera lens?)

Our translators and guides Olja and Kema, both 21-year-old language students

Gala Dinner

After the concert we were taking to a gala dinner in a very luxurious restaurant on the outskirts of Elista. We were greeted by a bevy (a clutch?) of waitresses dressed in colorful Kalmykian costumes.

Buddhist monks and nuns looked after us and conversed cheerfully with the guests

Boris Grebenshchikov and our host, the Šajin Lama Telo Rinpoche

Telo Tulku Rinpoche, on the left in the above picture, was born Erdne Ombadykow, to Kalmykian parents, in 1972 in Philadelphia, USA. When he was seven he was sent to a monastery in India to be trained as a Buddhist monk. Why him? Well, his family wanted one of the sons to become a monk, he told me, and he had shown the greatest interest.

In India the Dalai Lama recognized Erdne as the current reincarnation of a Buddhist saint, Telo Rinpoche, who had lived many centuries earlier. In 1991, under his new name, he joined the Dalai Lama on his first visit to Kalmykia, and became the country's spiritual leader, the Šajin Lama (Supreme Lama). At the time, he did not speak the Kalmyk language, nor was he familiar with the nation's culture. Frustrated, he left Kalmykia and the monkhood. He had met his future wife, an ethnic Tibetan, in 1990 in India. They married in 1995 and moved to the United States.

He then decided to resume serving as Kalmykia's spiritual head ("I renounced my monkhood but retained my title of Šajin Lama," he told me cheerfully. "They can't take that away from you."). Since then Telo has overseen the construction of several Buddhist temples and sent several students to India to be trained as monks. His wife and son continue to live in the US, where he periodically visits them.

Boris the Rockstar receives gifts from Erdne, the Šajin Lama

After Boris Grebenshchikov and his entourage had left Erdne and his Tibetan advisor (on the left in the picture above) waved me over to their table, and I spent a very interesting hour discussing their backgrounds, beliefs, rituals and religion in general. The great thing about Buddhists is that they are cheerfully open to skeptical discourse. Nothing is blasphemous, as I discovered at this memorable dinner with the top Lama. He even told me which of his hundreds of priestly vows he had broken. The only thing slightly weird was his explanation that the planet Venus, shining brighter in the dark Kalmyk skies than I have ever seen it do elsewhere, was "made by human beings." The thing is over four billion years old, Erdne. Maybe I did not understand his point on this matter.

Jorge Saggiante with Telo Tulku Rinpoche – perhaps one could invite him to the world championship?!

A final group photo at the end of gala dinner

His holiness the Šajin Lama of Kalmykia, Telo Tulku Rinpoche, imitating the rock star

Links

• Trials of Telo Rinpoche – a White Crane film
• Official Candidates Matches web site
• All ChessBase articles on the Candidates