Tuva.Asia / The New Research of Tuva

The territory of today’s Tuva has survived many bright historical epochs, many changes of civilizations. In the present day traditional understanding, Tuva is a country of nomads. However, it has not always been inhabited by nomadic tribes. A long time ago, a settled, and by all appearances quite well developed civilization thrived here. This civilization left an inheritance to the descendants – a grandiose system of irrigation canals, which covers the entire Tuva with the network of its veins. Millennia ago, people who lived here were settled agriculturalists.  The scale of the work and the skill with which these canals were constructed inspired Tuvan geologist Tatiana Prudnikova to undertake the study of this magnificent phenomenon.

“God of fire, give us happiness, please, fire, give us happiness and prosperity in the yurt…” – the rhythmically bewitching voice of a St. Petersburg actress sounds throughout the conference auditorium of the National Museum. On the screen is a photograph of the shamaness in ecstasy of the “kamlanie”. When on the background of the sound of her drumming, an image of Tuvan steppe materializes through the flames of the fire, it seem that you, the spectator, are also departing on a journey about which the intermediary is chanting:  We will swim over the river that is forbidden to cross, we will force the pass which it is forbidden to ascend”. This is the first time that the algyshes of Tuvan shamans sound in Russian language in this hall. The first time that a photograph, thanks to elegant montage is transformed into a video film, which starts with the text: “In our huge Russia, there is an extremely mysterious and beautiful country. Its mighty mountain ridges with eternal snow touch the heavens. Between the ice and the deserts tower the mountains, covered in virginal forests.”