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Russian has lots of long words, and the syllables get hard to keep track of. I remember I had to learn the word достопримечательность only a few months into taking Russian. It means “point of interest,” which I couldn’t ever fathom needing.

I spent the next five years in and out of Russia and in Russian classes waiting for this word to come up. It never did.

Then I was walking down the street one day and this short wide бабушка (babushka) in front of me is remarking to this other short wide бабушка that just down the street there was a nice достопримечательность. She said every single syllable perfectly! I felt as though the sun had suddenly come out on that gray winter day.

Достопримечательность is good for talking about travel, however.

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There are two primary достопримечательности in Ulan Ude, a city on the East side of Lake Baikal in Siberia. They boast the biggest Lenin head in the world on their town square. They are also home to the only Buddhist monastery in Russia. About half the population of Ulan Ude is Buryat, an ethnic group related to the Mongolians and, some say, distantly to Native Americans. They’re Buddhist and Shamanistic.

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The Buddhist Temple to the left is called a дацан in Russian. This building is in a walled compound that has a school and living quarters for monks, prayer wheels, and several other buildings. We spent 45 minutes walking around spinning all the wheels. Some local people explained that the prayer won’t be read without motion. I got an image that there’s a little spirit in each wheel, but they can’t turn their heads, so you have to move the script so they can read it. I like this picture of language, that is must be performed by someone or something to have affect, and the performance can be shared.

Ulan Ude is a wonderful place to visit because it has a very relaxed atmosphere of multiculturalism, something you won’t find in Irkutsk, just on the other side of the lake.

Unfortunately, it is very far away.

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