Agvan Dorzhiev - The 'White Tsars' As Incarnations of White Tara.

The 'White Tsars' As Incarnations of White Tara.

Since the days of Catherine II - the 'Great' (1729–1796) the Romanov rulers had been considered by Russian lamaists as the incarnation of White Tara, a female bodhisattva typically associated with Buddhist tantric practice and considered an emanation of Chenresig (the bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas), and the protectress of the Tibetan people. 1913 saw the great celebrations for the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov. Dorzhiev made speeches thanking the Tsar for his essential support for the Buddhist community in Saint Petersburg. A lama named Ulyanov published a book that same year attempting to prove that the Romanovs were directly descended from Sucandra, a legendary king of Shambhala.

The Japanese monk Ekai Kawaguchi travelled in Tibet from July 4, 1900 to June 15, 1902. He reported in his Three Years in Tibet that Dorzhiev "circulated a pamphlet in which he argued that the Russian Tsar was about to fulfil the old Buddhist messianic myth of Shambhala by founding a great Buddhist empire." Alas, no second source for this story is known.