Who'd of thunk it? The Republic of Kalmykia is a Tibetan Buddhist country in southern Russia. Just a smidgen above Chechnya. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I've never even heard of them before. According to wiki it is the only state in Europe where the dominant religion is Buddhism. It has also become well-known as an international chess mecca, due to the fact that its President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, is the head of the International Chess Federation (FIDE). Anyway, I thought that was interesting Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
It also seems like the Russians living there, even though they come from a different cultural background altogether, are integrated and living well side by side with the rest of Russian Citizens. That's pretty interesting to me, given all the violence perpetuated by Chechen Citizens against the State. I wonder if these people were Muslims, if things would be very very different. I wish we could run an experiment and see if these very same people, if they were Muslim, just how peaceful they'd be.
