by Laurence Peter

ULAN UDE, Russia, Aug 19 (AFP) - At Russia's largest Buddhist monastery near Ulan Ude in eastern Siberia an elderly Russian woman wearing a peasant headscarf drops a donation into a collection box next to a giant photograph of the Dalai Lama.

She is one of many ethnic Russian visitors to the Ivolginsk monastery, which symbolises the revival of Buddhist traditions in the autonomous republic of Buryatia after decades of Communist repression and neglect.

The bright yellow roofs of the monastery's buildings can be seen from afar, dominating the steppes around the Buryat capital Ulan Ude. The interior is a riot of colour, dazzling the eye with dozens of Buddha images and tangkas, or icon-tapestries.

Fourteen Tibetan lamas (monks) teach Buddhism in Buryatia, and at Ivolginsk all instruction and prayers are conducted in Tibetan, Sidip Dulumayev, a priest at the monastery, told AFP.

The monastery's school has more than 100 permanent students and 35 Buryats are studying for the priesthood with Tibetan lamas in Dharamsala, India, he said.

Since former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev lifted restrictions on worship in Russia, Buddhism has been going from strength to strength in Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva the three autonomous republics in the federation which have rich Buddhist traditions pre-dating the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.

The 14th Dalai Lama got a tumultuous welcome on his first visit to Buryatia, and in recent years he has paid three more visits to the republic bordering on Mongolia. Ethnic Buryats, numbering some 250,000, form 24 percent of the autonomous republic's population. The Buddhist revival is a far cry from the Stalinist terror of the 1930s, when thousands of lamas and their followers were exiled to prison camps. Stalin destroyed nearly all of Buryatia's Buddhist temples and lamas were forced to study Marxism-Leninism.

Stalin only allowed the Ivolginsk monastery and one other to be rebuilt after World War II, but since Gorbachev's perestroika many more have been reopened and this year a major new Buddhist complex is due to be completed in a suburb of Ulan Ude. The complex, housing two temples and centres for Buddhist study, art and eastern medicine, is being funded by private donations. "Buddhism is developing very well now in Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva," said Geshe Jampa Thingley, the Dalai Lama's spiritual representative in Russia.

Thingley, 34, arrived in Moscow in 1993 on the Dalai Lama's instructions to help revive Buddhist traditions in Russia. He travels extensively in the federation, teaching not only in the traditionally Buddhist republics but also in Moscow, Omsk and Novosibirsk. A Buddhist study centre was opened in Moscow this year, and three Tibetan lamas teach in the Russian capital.

Interest in Buddhism is growing among ethnic Russians, despite strong Orthodox Christian traditions, Thingley told AFP. "Initially many Russians were just interested in Buddhist mysticism, but now increasingly they want to find out about Buddhist philosophy," he said. Thingley organises regular three-day meditation "retreats" in the Russian countryside. "Recently about 160 (ethnic) Russians attended a retreat.

Our groups are very mixed there are engineers, teachers, doctors and unemployed," he said. Thingley stressed that his teaching was "not missionary work" and he only gave public talks in Russian cities if invited by the local authorities.

The Buddhist revival is hampered by shortages of funds and intense competition from rival religious groups, which have proliferated in Russia since the collapse of Communism. In neighbouring Mongolia, whose people are ethnic brethren of the Buryats, "Christian missionaries are very active," Thingley said. Seven Buddhist books have been published in Russian, and American movie star Richard Gere has pledged 20,000 dollars for a Russian translation of The World Of Tibetan Buddhism, by the Dalai Lama, Thingley said.

Thingley, who grew up as a refugee in India, said he only discussed Tibetan politics with Russians if they raised the subject with him.

The London-based Tibet Information Network reported Friday that the Chinese authorities had forced more than 1,000 Tibetan monks to sign declarations of political allegiance.

The pro-Beijing Tibetan authorities admitted that an "education campaign" was underway in monasteries in the Himalayan region.