New National Anthem of Tuva discussed on radio "Svoboda"

Irina Lachugina: on 11 August of this year, the Supreme khural of Republic Tuva adopted a new national anthem of the republic. Its name is "I am a Tuvan".  The translation is: "I am a Tuvan, Son of eternally white mountaintops, I am a Tuvan,, Daughter of the land of silver rivers." And on Monday, the mayor of Kyzyl refused to hold a meeting of protest against this anthem. Tuvan intellectuals believe that the anthem not only has nationalistic hues, but that it was adopted illegally as well. On top of that, it is an ordinary song of Tuvans of Mongolia, was not composed on Tuvan territory, and as such it does not qualify as an official anthem of the republic,  in the opinion of the organizers of the meeting. We continue our series of discussions "Ethnic map of Russia". Today the topic is Tuvans. The participants in the discussion are head of  Caucasus department of RAN institute of ethnology, professor Sergei Arutyunov and Doctor of historical sciences, chief scientific worker of Tuvan Institute of Humanitarian Research, Marina Mongush.

The discussion is led by Igor Yakovenko.

Igor Yakovenko:  Sergei Alexandrovich, what does the ethnonym "Tuvan" mean?

Sergei Arutyunov: as far as I understand, it is self-reference.

Igor Yakovenko: And what does it mean, what is the etymology of the word?

Sergei Arutyunov: You will have to ask Marina Vasilyevna.

Igor Yakovenko: Marina Vasilyevna, help us.

Marina Mongush: The matter is that it is the Tuvans' self-reference, and there is no translation. But it is documented in sources from 17^th century.

Igor Yakovenko: Marina Vasilyevna, it is known that among Tuvans, both Buddhism and Shamanism are widespread. And recently shamanism seems to be getting a second breath, and in the cities, shamanic kamlanie are held de facto as official events. To what extent does religion play a significant role in Tuvan consciousness, and which is dominant in this consciousness - Buddhism or Shamanism?

Marina Mongush: Allow me to present the following statistic, which speaks for itself.  According to the most recent data of Ministry of justice, on the territory of the republic, there are currently 47 official active religious organizations, out of those 27 are in Kyzyl, where there is the most active cultural-religious life. In percentage,  53% are Buddhist, 29% Shamanist, then 16% protestants, only 2% Orthodox, and 0.8% Old Believers. That means Buddhism is obviously predominant. As far as Shamanism is concerned, things are not that simple. A proportion of Tuvans views Shamanism as the original intrinsic Tuvan world-view, which helps them to live and survive in extreme conditions, and in this capacity it is a factor which stimulates the spiritual rebirth and ethnic integration of the people. But there is another section of Tuvans , who have an extremely negative attitude towards Shamanism as an ethno-integrative force and a mechanism of regeneration and progress of the peole. And they use the following arguments as proof.  Shamanism does not have a clear-cut organizational structure, it flares up spontaneously and  non-systematically , in the framework of one family or several families, which narrows its function. It often comes into conflict with the interests and norms of other confessions, in particular, with Buddhism. They also believe that there are no really strong shamans, and their places are taken by quacks and impostors. However, specialists in religion believe that shamanism in Tuva can't compete with Buddhism or other confessions because of the specifics of the shaman.  But at the same time they admit that shamanism always took up and always will take up its niche  in the general system of spiritual culture of Tuvans, at the same time keeping its own group of followers.

Igor Yakovenko: Sergei Alexandrovich, to one extent or another, the nations' culture is a prerequisite  of their economic and social development. Great research of Lawrence Harrison under the general name "Culture has meaning" shows that culture definitely influences one or another success in economics or in the social sphere. Tuvans as a whole can't be considered one of the most prosperous nations in Russia; that means in life-span, men live on average some 50+ years, which is substantially less than the average in Russia, and the state of health is not great, and so on.

Sergei Arutyunov: The question is as to how the traditional culture of this nation interfaces with that globalized generalized world culture, in which all of us, even in the mountains of New Guinea, not even speaking of Tuva, Chukotka and Central Russia, are expected to live one way or another. In this sense, the matter is not in  traditional culture or ethnic culture of a nation, but in that socio-political condition of each concrete country, which facilitates a more or less harmonic contact between its specific native culture with the global culture, or, the other way around, creates conflicts between these cultures. Fort his contact to be more or less prosperous,, to put it simply, first of all, the politics of positive activities are necessary. That means state and social support of traditional culture,  inculcating respect for it, education people to understand that it is not something backward and retarded, that one should get rid of, but, on the contrary, Tuvans themselves and the surrounding neighboring nations, first and foremost Russians, need to be educated  in the consciousness that it is a culture deserving respect, with value of itself, which needs caring attitude, preservation, support etc.

But, unfortunately, here in Russia are simply people who rule, make decisions, I don't want to say anything bad, their intentions are often very good, but they simply cannot imagine what the politics of positive action is. In America they do, but it is very recent, they have been aware of its importance only since the '70's. so this way the answer to your question is: it is not the culture per se, it has to do with the societal, political, and governmental attitude to this culture.

Igor Yakovenko: Sergei Alexandrovich, the heads of Tuva, for example, show a lot of support for their national traditional culture.

Sergei Arutyunov: That is correct, the government supports it. It is important that this support should also get support on the federal level, and the central level. Let's say that budget means for publication of literature in Tuvan language, development of radio broadcasts in Tuvan, educating towards greater respect to Tuvan language and Tuvan traditional culture, should be specifically listed in the budget allotments sent from the federal budget to Tuva.

Igor Yakovenko: Marina Vasilyevna,  in the '90's practically all experts considered Tuva a zone of ethnic conflicts, which, in the sped of disappearance of Russian language and numbers of Russians in the population was de facto comparable to the  republics of the Caucasus.

Really, if you look at the numbers, during this period, the proportion of Tuvans increased from 64% to 77%, and correspondingly the proportion of Russians went down from 32% to 20%. About 20 thousand Russians left the republic.  What do you think,  to what extent were the evaluations back then justified, and  how widespread are inter-ethnic tensions among Tuvans and surrounding nations today?

Marina Mongush: Again, according to data of the 2002 census, the population of Tuva is about 244 thousand people, of which Tuvans constitute about 70%. As far as rural population is concerned, it is predominantly mono-ethnic.  But in cities, especially in the capital, Russo-Tuvan bilingualism is well developed. And now let's return to the events of the '90's. during those years I lived and worked in Tuva, and I personally witnessed what went on. Yes, really, much was written about Tuva in all the media, and the information was only of the negative type. I even remember TV news broadcasts, where they showed broken windows of students' dormitory, and the commentary sounded approximately like this: this is how Tuvans break the windows of  Russian citizens and force them to escape from Tuva. But in reality there was nothing like this. This was real informational aggression against Tuva at that time. But provocation had done its job. But, glory to God, healthy common sense won out both in Russians and Tuvans, the situation did not continue to develop, and there was no bloodshed. And the Russians left Tuva not because any ethnic conflict, but because living in Tuva became difficult in general. They left to look for better life in other places, but several years later half of the Russians who left returned to Tuva. The Russians  who live in Tuva permanently are called Tuvinized Russians, that means, ours. Even by mentality they are really close to Tuvans, that means that there can be no talk of nationalism.

Igor Yakovenko: Marina Vasilyevna,  which language do Tuvans normally use among themselves, in their daily life - Tuvan or Russian? Or an intimate question: in which language do Tuvans, as a rule, think?

Marina Mongush: This is what the situation looks like: rural people in daily life speak only Tuvan, and city people in Tuvan and Russian. You can judge the condition of Tuvan language by statistics. There are 167 schools in the republic, out of which 134 are Tuvan, 7 Russian schools, and 26 mixed ones. And another statistic: currently there are 10 newspapers published in Tuvan language, and 4 in Russian. That means that Tuvan language has the priority. I can say that we managed to avoid the sad experience of some neighboring nations, for example Buryats, among whom there are not all that many speakers of the Buryat language. And in which language they think? Contemporary young people may think in both Russian and Tuvan, I, for example, may think in Russian without any problems.

Igor Yakovenko: I would like, Natalia Vasilyevna, defend your neighbors, the Buryats, possibly they do not know their language very well, but they have the largest proportion among the Siberian nations of  people with higher education.  So why speak of sad experience…Every nation has its own fate, it cultural journey. And, of course, speaking of the Tuvans, it is totally impossible to ignore such an international cultural heritage as throat-singing.

Marina Mongush: Throat singing is developed in a relatively small number of  nations living in the Sayan-Altai region. Tuvans, Khakass, Altai people, and Mongols. But according to specialists, it is precisely Tuvans that preserved this tradition in the fullest extent, with the entire variety and richness of the styles. In contrast to other nations who have only one or two styles of throat singing, Tuvans use, for example 8 styles - that is already a maximum. Throat singing attracts attention first of all by its uniqueness, the inimitability of the sound. For example, performers produce two different sounds at the same time, one of which an unprepared listener may interpret as a sound of some musical instrument. Traditionally it is considered masculine singing, symbolic of masculine bravery, inspiration for a good man, and in the past it has a practical significance. For example, a hunter could lure any animal by throat-singing, and a herder could find a lost animal. But later it became  one of types of worldly art and that is what it is now. And another transformation is that from a traditional masculine singing it unexpectedly obtained a female face. This happened at the end of the '90's, the first women's throat-singing ensemble was founded in '98. It is an original transformation of this tradition, it is being reborn like an original brand of Tuva.

Igor Yakovenko: Marina Vasilyevna, say something in Tuvan.

Marina Mongush: (speaks in Tuvan). Thank you for this pleasant discussion.