Alla relays her story of how she became a Buddhist and talks about the situation with Buddhism in Kalmykia. She says that she felt a telepathic connection with the head of Sakya school when he came to Elista: In the 1970s, bookstores did not sell books on religion at all. I developed an interest in Buddhism when I was a post-graduate student. I bought whatever books I could find on Buddhism. When the Dalai Lama visited Elista in 1991, I attended all his lectures. After that event, I also became interested in Kalmyk history and script (Todo Bichig). After learning the traditional script, I started to study Buddhism with Batyr Elistaev, who set up the Dharma Center and who was a disciple of Sanji lama. Batyr introduced us to his teacher, who at that time was already an old man. Our first teacher was Lovsan Tkhundup who came to Kalmykia to work at the Central Temple. We were a small group of students. We studied Tibetan and Lamrim with him at the 3rd micro-district in Elista for two years. When we saw him off, it was very sad to say goodbye to him. Afterwards, other teachers came to Kalmykia to give teachings, including Sakya Trizin, Ole Nydahl and others. With Sakya Trizin, we did a spiritual retreat for a month. Although these teachers came to Kalmykia for a short period of time, Telo Tulku Rinpoche, who was in Kalmykia more or less all the time, began to form a sangha and organized rituals, prayers and so on. People went to the Dharma Center to do practice. But those who wanted to conduct rituals usually went to the Central Temple. Chenrezi, Tilopa, and Nomin Tug centers appeared later. People who wished to practice Buddhism became united around these centers. When Sakya Trizin arrived in Elista, many people came out to meet him. When I met Sakya Trizin, I felt a subtle inner connection between us, and therefore I felt I did not have to talk to him. For me, he looked not like a man but a black Manjushri Buddha. I was told later that at that time he was indeed in an angry mood. Before coming to Elista, he had been to Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Riga. He was apparently unhappy because in those cities people had not received him at the level he had hoped for. At that time people knew little about Sakya school and were not very interested in it. Historically, Sakya had great teachers who often prevailed at Buddhist philosophical debates. In the eleventh century, the Mongols adopted Buddhism and Kublai Khan, the grandson of Chingis Khan, was a Buddhist himself. He kept around him monks of Sakya affiliation.