National Park Alkhanay DULDURGA REGION Student: Marina Zhamsaranova The 11 th grade Secondary school Village Duldurga Zabaikalski Krai Teacher: Elena Kosyakova

The National park "Alkhanay" is the sacred place of Northern Buddhists in Russia. It's an unique complex of natural and cult monuments. Dalai-Lama XIV Dzhanzan Zhamzo has visited and blessed this place by his presence on July 22, 1991.

Alkhanay is one of few places in Russia where unique natural and sacral objects have harmoniously settled down. Here there was historically a system of natural cult monuments of Buddhist religion which by right are a treasury of material and spiritual culture of the Buryat people.

Khram-Vorota. It is the rocky remainder. There is the Buddhist Suburgan (mortar – ступа) under it. Then you can see the Hole of a sinner. It is the ridge of rocks, which form the hole, 3 metres the length. People believe that someone who goes through the hole, purified from the sins.

Alkhanay- a Buddhism relic Temple-Gate Rock Stone mortar

Sacred places The national park Alkhanay includes 12 Buddhists places. Dimchik Sume is a rock of the Master and of the Keeper Mount Alkhanay. The water which people take from this rock is considered to be curative and it preserves fresh for many years. Tourists rise up to the rock to ask for health and prosperity

Arshan –is a holy water

School expedition

The fauna The fauna is particularly diverse in Mount Alkhanay, which is a habitat for such animals as the deer, the musk deer, the wild goat, the wild boar, the grey bear, the fox, the wolf, the lynx, the sable, the squirrel and the chipmunk.

The flora The flora of the park is rich and diverse. It numbers over 340 plants species, some of them are medicinal kind. There is a whole variety of coniferous trees: the larch, the Siberian pine, the silver fin, and other trees such as the birch, the aspen, the poplar. The shrubs are represented by Rhododentron Daurian, the dogrose, the alder, the willow and the buch- birch.