The book was a result of sixteen years of life and missionary work of Archbishop Niel in the region of Transbaikalia, among Buryats who practiced Buddhism. Since 1838, he has staid at the Irkutsk Eparchy and has made many travels in Eastern Siberia. According his own words, he “noted that Buddhism, occasionally appeared in the far regions of our country and established itself smartly, built idols and places of sacrifices, completed itself with a legion of priests, and more than a hundred years it dominates from Amur to Lena Rivers”.

The aim of the book was to study Buddhism, its ‘theory and practice, its inner and outer character”. The task of the author was to provide Orthodox missionary priests with a kind of manual for their service among the peoples of Transbaikalia. The book was published in St. Petersbrug in 1858; and it was the first Russian text on Buddhism written by an Orthodox missionary. Its advantages and disadvantages came from that fact. Among the advantages were the following: they author gathered information about Buddhism directly from Christianized Buryats who told him about their former practices. But the serious disadvantages of the book were in its descriptive character, the absence of a scholarly approach to Buddhism which was interpreted by the author as ‘a false teaching’; and fragmentary type of description on the base of a limited circle of sources.

Archbishop Niel (Isakovich N.F.). Buddhism, Considered in the Relation to Its Followers Living in Siberia. St. Petersburg, 1858. (in Rus.)