Maria says that a temple that stood in Tsagan-Aman in the past was built by a Kalmyk lama who had bought the land from a Russian man with the purpose of building a Buddhist temple there. When he died, the lama was buried in Tsagan-Aman. The temple, however, was destroyed before World War Two and only part of its foundation survived. Local people always went to the ruins to pray. Both Maria’s mother and grandmother went there. Maria recalls that she went to the ruins with her grandmother. Maria’s mother always wore a Kalmyk hat before going to those sacred ruins.
