Nestled among the reed beds of Northern Ireland’s Lough Erne, the forested island of Inish Rath has been home to a Hare Krishna temple since the 1980s.
But since February’s Russian invasion of Ukraine, it has also become a haven for supporters fleeing the city of Mariupol, which was captured by Russian troops after a brutal siege in May.
“We left Mariupol because it burned down completely,” Ruskin Khabibullin, a senior member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Ukraine, told AFP.
“They bombed the buildings, bombed our home and office,” he added.
Since April, the temple of Inish Rath, housed in a 19th-century hunting lodge accessible only by boat, has been home to Khabibullin, 48, his wife Tatiana and their 14-year-old son Nikita.
In the quiet of the island, where deer and peacocks roam, Khabibullin said the family was beginning to recover from the horrors of the devastated port city.
“It was difficult. Even (after we left) when we saw planes or helicopters, we immediately remembered the war,” he said.
“But the care of devotees, the care of people nearby, the atmosphere in the temple… gives spiritual protection,” he added.
– Taken to homes –
While Khabibullin and his family are living in the temple, other Ukrainian Hare Krishna refugees have been taken into homes in the area.
Narayan Das, 22, and his wife Valeria were crammed into a Mariupol basement with 50 other Hare Krishna devotees to escape the bombing.
“We cooked, fetched water, found food supplies and everything. When you’re in a surrounded city, it’s very difficult to obtain,” he said.
Three months of bitter fighting for the besieged city on the Sea of Azov resulted in hundreds of thousands of residents fleeing for their lives and, according to Kiev estimates, at least 22,000 people died.
Narayan left Mariupol in mid-March and used the international Hare Krishna network to reach Ireland via Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
– ‘No Place to Return’ –
With 90 percent of his hometown now in ruins, “I’m thinking about settling here,” said Narayan, who now lives in Ballinamore, half an hour’s drive across the border in the Republic of Ireland.
“There’s really no place to go back to.”
On Sundays, Das helps prepare food for visitors to the temple and attends the devotional services.
ISKCON, commonly known as the Hare Krishna movement, was founded in the 1960s and is an offshoot of a historical lineage of Hinduism.
The movement, which claims to have a million members worldwide, quickly expanded into Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The purchase of the island in 1982 was inspired in part by the tradition of Irish Catholic monks retreating to islands and other hermitages for spiritual reflection.
Tulasi Priyal, a 67-year-old member originally from Dublin, said the island temple has become a “focal point” for Hare Krishna devotees and other Hindus across Ireland.
Though the future is uncertain, Khabibullin said his faith will remain constant.
“It is impossible to predict whether we will return or not because it is not known what will happen to Ukraine when the war is over,” he said.
“We will definitely stay with Devotees and continue to practice, whether it be in Ireland, in Ukraine or anywhere else in the world.”
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