Rechnoye

The settlement later called Rechnoye was a seat of the Khoshut Kalmyk ulus on the lower Volga. By the early nineteenth century it was known as Tyumenevka, after its princely house. Here Prince Serebdzhab Tyumen, commander of a Kalmyk regiment, initiated a Buddhist temple to commemorate the Kalmyks who served in the war against Napoleon and the subsequent campaigns abroad.

Built between 1814 and 1818, the Khosheutovsky khurul replaced an older wooden temple. Its stone architecture drew on Russian classical forms as well as the Buddhist traditions of its patrons. Batur-Ubushi, the prince's brother, and the monk Gavan Jimbe contributed to its design. The temple gave a permanent home to a religious community whose earlier life had followed the movements of the steppe.