The history of the construction of the Buddhist women’s datsan “Zungon Darzhaling” is associated with the name of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, who in 1992, during a visit to Buryatia, advised to open a Buddhist women’s datsan in order to preserve peace and harmony between the peoples of Buryatia.
The initiative to build the datsan belonged to the spouses – Darima Sambuevna Tsyngueva and Dalai Anpilovich Budaev, who invested their own funds in the construction. In 1995, a place for a datsan was allocated, a project was prepared and construction began. In the same year, lamas from the Lamrim and Dharma Buddhist communities consecrated the site and laid the sacred vessel “Bamba”. Financial assistance was also provided by the Government of the Republic of Buryatia and some organizations.
In 1998, the first dugan (a small house for holding prayers) was built. In 1999, several Buryat girls and women received genim vows from the Venerable Yeshe Loda Rinpoche. The name given to the datsan under construction was “Zungon Darzhaling” (translated from Tibetan as “Noble, Prosperous Monastery”). From this period, daily khurals began to be held in Dugan – prayers for the well-being of all living and the prosperity of the native land. At the same time, astrologers and emchi lamas from Mongolia began to be invited.
The official opening of the main building of the datsan took place on Ulan-Ude City Day, July 1, 2000. A large number of believers took part in this event and actively helped in completing the construction. In 2001, a large statue of Shakyamuni Buddha, delivered to the datsan from St. Petersburg, was consecrated. The history of this statue is connected with the name of Agvan Dorzhiev, who brought it in 1913 from Tibet. The statue was restored, 45 thousand sheets with 27 different mantras, 65 kilograms of incense, grain and 9 different erdeni jewelry were placed in it. The dedication ceremony of the statue was performed by Venerable Yeshe Loda Rinpoche.