Nadezhda Tarancheeva, About My Clan and the Lapin Temple

Nadezhda says the following: I was born in Iki-Derbet. I am from the Akhnud clan. I finished three classes in my village. My father, Pyurvenov Nyamin Erdniyevich, was a shepherd in a collective farm.Zaisang Lapin was an aristocrat in Bashanta. He built a temple in my village of Akhnud. The local history museum keeps files about that temple which was collected by Chultsumov Kozma Lavganovich in the 1970s.Before the deportation of the Kalmyks, Buddhist celebrations were held at that temple. During Urs Sar, according to my older brother, the monks used to take out Gandzhur texts from inside the temple and carry them outside. The temple was near a pond called ‘Zangta khurla khudg’. Afterwards, the temple was turned into a school. When we returned from exile, the building was converted into a brick factory. My cousin, Badma, a tractor driver, used to dig the ground around that temple. One day he began to drive in circles, and nobody could stop him. After he was finally stopped by my older