The State Museum of the History of Religion in St. Petersburg is quite an interesting place. Here visitors have the chance to learn the foundations and teachings of many religions by seeing and reading about the various cult objects, icons, paintings and sculptures on display. They can also acquaint themselves with age-old traditions and symbols that have played an important founding role in the development of world cultures. One of the museum’s permanent exhibits, “Religions of the East,” boasts more than 1,000 relics, helping people to not simply learn about one of the oldest world religions, Buddhism, but to understand more about the national religions of China, Japan and India – Shinto, Confucianism, Taoism and Hinduism. The true gem of the exhibit is the model of “Sukhavati – the Pure Land of Buddha Amitabha,” also known as “Buddhist Paradise.” The model was made in 1905 by monks at the Gusinoozersky and Gegetuevsky Datsans, Buddhist monasteries in The Republic of Buryatia. RTG TV host Igor Maximenko visited the museum where he learned about the histories, religions, traditions and cultures of different countries from all over Southern, Central and Eastern Asia. He also got to see some of the most interesting finds from archeological digs in what was once the ancient Kushan Empire.