Dalai Lama gave the St. Petersburg datsan a statue of Buddha, which is a shrine for a Buddhist temple. Such statues were presented to other monasteries of the Russian Buddhist regions. In the north-west, only one datsan, he is in St. Petersburg. Petersburg datsan "Gunzechoyney" until recently was the northernmost in the world. It was founded at the request of the Tibetan Dalai Lama in 1909.