There are five major museums in Ulan-Ude that provide information on the history, geography and culture of Buryatia and its capital. By a fluke three of them are located on the town’s main street and remaining two are close to it.
The Museum of Buryatia History was founded in 1919. Here are collected the most interesting archaeology materials and things of religious cult (shamanism, Orthodoxy, Buddhism). The pride of the museum is a fund of rare books, which includes Buddhist literature in Tibetan and old Mongolian.
The museum has a rich ethnographic collection and a collection of decorative arts of the peoples inhabiting the Trans-Baikal region from the 18th century to the present.
The priceless rarity of the museum’s exhibits is the “Atlas of Tibetan Medicine”, a seventeenth century masterpiece that is the foundation of Tibetan medical education. It is a collection of illustrations to the main book of Tibetan medicine – treatise of XVII century “Tzhud-shi”.
In the Atlas there are descriptions of the basis of clinical medicine (acupuncture, paediatrics, gynaecology, and infectious diseases), methods of treatment and information about training of a genuine doctor. There are 3 such atlases in the world.
Opening hours: daily (except Monday) from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Address: Ulan-Ude, Profsoyuznaya Str., 29.
The City History Museum was founded in 1999. It is located in the house of the tea
merchant I. Goldobin in the historical part of the city.
The history of Ulan-Ude begins in 1666 when Udinsky ostrog (winter camp) was established between the Selenga and the Uda rivers. Later the ostrog got a rank of a city. The name Verkhneudinsk was approved in 1730, Ulan-Ude – in 1934. The museum shows the main development stages of the city – from an «ostrog» to a capital city.
Expositions shows the visitors cultural and economic aspects of the city life.
In the museum there is an individual permanent exposition dedicated to Pandito Hambo-Lama XII Dasha-Dorzho Itigelov, the Head of the Buddhists of East Siberia from 1911 to 1917, whose imperishable body is kept in Ivolginsky Datsan.
Opening hours: daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Address: Ulan-Ude, Lenina Str., 26.
The main mission of the museum is environmental education. The exhibition includes unique zoological, paleontological, geological and botanical collections. The museum was founded in 1983. The one-storey building was built by Austrian prisoners during World War I.
Opening hours: daily (except Monday) from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Address: Ulan-Ude, Lenina Str., 46.
The Sampilov Museum of Fine Arts is one of the leading museums of Eastern Siberia also known as East-Siberian «Hermitage» containing more than seven thousand works of fine art. It was open in 1944. The museum keeps the most complete collection of sculptures, paintings, graphics and jewels of Buryat authors. Folk handicraft items including wood painting and bone carving, horsehair tapestries are also represented in the museum. The exhibition combines works belonging to two schools – traditional and modern. The museum arranges regular exhibitions accompanied by concerts of folk singers and dancers.
Opening hours: daily (except Monday) from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Address: Ulan-Ude, Kuibyshevа Str., 29.
The Geological Museum was founded in 1960. It is located on the central city square and presents the richest collection of minerals and rocks of Transbaikalia.
The exhibition is divided into several halls:
– minerals, precious stones, gold ores and collection materials from many regions of the former Soviet Union and the world;
– mineral ore deposits of Buryatia;
– geological history (palaeontology).
Almost all known chemical elements can be found in Buryatia. Most frequent are gold, wolframite, asbestos, jade, graphite, limestone.
The exposition can be interesting for both specialists and everyone who wishes to get acquainted with the Earth treasury.
Opening hours: daily (except Saturday and Sunday) from 11.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.
Address: Ulan-Ude, Lenina Str., 59.
Check out the full list of the most interesting tours in Russian cities.
