Tuva.Asia / The New Research of Tuva

— Kherel-ool Dazhy-Namchalovich, how do you manage to combine two such different types of activity – mental and physical? — It is always necessary to combine mental load with physical. I have many exercise machines at home. Sport and mental work should always sensibly, methodically alternate, otherwise the person who does not exercise will not be able to work productively, and especially will not be any good at scientific and research activities. Mental work uses a tremendous number of nerve centers, but during physical work they rest. It is a purely physiological process. When a person exercises energetically, the blood circulates, purifies and oxygenates, then it goes to the brain and the brain also recuperates. As a result, the capacity for prolonged mental work and the quality of thinking improve.

Over the past several decades, the Asian part of the world has been taken over by a veritable Genghis-Khan-mania.  Especially residents of Central Asia are given to worshipping and honoring of the great military leader, who conquered half of the Earth’s globe. These areas felt an acute deficiency of real, not mythical historical heroes, after the Soviet idols had been dethroned. Some days ago, I noticed a curious announcement saying that thousands of well-to-do Kazakhs expressed a wish to undergo quite expensive DNA analysis, in order to find out whether, by chance, they might not be descendants of the founder of the Golden Horde. In Ulan-Bator, which I had the luck to visit recently, I did not notice any special fanaticism relating to the khan of all khans on the part of the Mongols.

Kungurtug is now a name of a small settlement located in south-east Tuva at the elevation of 1583 m above sea level. Photographs were presented to Pravda.ru by members of expedition “Por-Bazhyn 2007”.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama spent the last full day of his current visit to Atlanta by participating in three different events that symbolized his commitments as also his hope that the current generation will make this century a peaceful one.  In the morning he first addressed the participants of the International Tibetan Buddhist Conference in Emory University’s Conference Center before going to the Woodruff PE Center for an interactive session with students and faculty of Emory.  In the afternoon, he participated in a conversation with artists about the role of the arts in promoting a compassionate society. The program began with the chanting of an invocation by a group of Drepung Loseling monks.

Pravda.ru publishes photo-albums of travels, including those in Tuva. One of them is dedicated to Por-Bazhyn. Every photograph is accompanied by interesting commentary. In the south-west of Republic Tuva, high in the mountains, on an island in the middle of Tere-Khol lake, there are ruins of an ancient Uighur fortress, which was built in VIII century C.E. it is one of the most mysterious archeological monuments of the world.

 

The ancient Tuvan song 'Chyraa-Khoor,' explains Radik Tyulyush of the Tuvan band Huun Huur Tu, tells the story of a man riding his horse – a yellow trotter, as the title translates. "It's a very good horse for traveling, and he took it from the west of Tuva to the east of Tuva, traveling around and giving the names of everything – names of the mountains, names of the forests," he says over the phone from his home in Kyzyl, the capital of the Russian Federation republic that sits just north of Mongolia. Even if you don't know the words, the music paints a stirring picture. "That is a very old melody," says Tyulyush, the newest and, at 35, the youngest member of the group, who plays traditional flute and joins his bandmates in the signature Tuvan throat singing. "Very, very old – 13 or 14 centuries. Very old music."

He gets up every morning at 4 AM and sits down to work – he reads, he writes. Then he does his morning exercises, trains, and actively stretches his muscles. Afterwards he eats breakfast, packs up and goes to work.

As soon as he shows up in the building, everybody hears his thundering voice, and his boiling energy does not let anybody rest. Only for one hour during lunch can his subordinates take a free breath, because then this passionate workaholic removes himself to his home, needing to fortify himself with a short nap. But afterwards – back into action: to attentively observe the teaching process, to tutor students, to encourage instructors, and to bring up the pupils.

On October 14, a multi-media video-bridge Moscow – Kazan – Kiev took place, involving the theme: “Did the Tatar – Mongol yoke exist?” Historians from Kazan, Moscow and Kiev participated in this conference. The video-bridge was organized by IA Tatar-Inform and RIA Novosti. The Ukrainian participants were the first ones to speak. Historian Vladimir Belinskiy explained that Rus (old name of Russia) was a part of the Golden Horde. “And the Russian principalities were ruled by Genghisids. There was no yoke, the Russian principalities were an integral part of the Golden Horde,” – he said. Expert of the corporation of strategic consulting “Gardarika”, politologist Konstantin Matvienko offered information that Kievan Russian Orthodox episcops represented Batu-Khan in Byzantium.  “This does not look much like occupation, - he emphasized. – And Alexander Nevskiy fought against the Crusaders ion the side of the Golden Horde.  The Golden Horde was the precursor of Russian state.

15 October 2010 - On his last full day in Palo Alto, His Holiness  participated in the full day academic conference on “Scientific Explorations of Compassion and Altruism.” This conference brought together distinguished researchers under the auspices of the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) to examine issues such as, what are the key evolutionary and neurobiological underpinnings of compassion and altruism? What compels us to take risks at a cost to act on behalf of others? How does one potentiate such behavior? The Conference focused on new findings in psychology and the neurosciences, including the emerging field of neuroeconomics. It was divided into four sessions, two in the morning and two in the afternoon.

Dear Colleagues! The Russian State University for the Humanities is pleased to invite you to participate in the International Academic-Applied Conference «Russian/Soviet Studies in the United States, American Studies in Russia: Mutual Representations». Organizer: Russian State University for the Humanities (American Studies Program & Division of International Relations & Institute of Russian History & Department for Post-Soviet Near Abroad Studies & Department of World Politics and International Relations) in cooperation with the US Embassy in Moscow, the Fulbright Program in Russia, and the Kennan Institute.

In Kyzyl, the capital of Tuva, on the picturesque shore near the confluence of the Bii-Khem and Kaa-Khem rivers, which give the origin to the Great River Ulug-Khem, there stands a majestic obelisk: Center of Asia”. There is deep significance in the name of the obelisk: Tuva is at the maximum distance from the world’s oceans; it means that it is at the geographic center of the Asian continent. Since times immemorial, this area has been the crossroads and meeting place of cultural traditions of the East and West, of the North and South; this is where mutual influence and mutual enrichment of different cultures took place.

In connection with the recent presentation of the seven-volume anthology  “Uriangkhai. Tyva Depter.”,  edited by Sergei Shoigu, I would like to demonstrate the value of this entire project by a single example of a rare publication included in this anthology – namely a translation of Otto Maenchen-Helfen’s book “Journey to Tuva”. The anthology presents, together with other interesting scholarly works, the first published translation into Russian language of the book of an Austrian German, Otto Maenchen-Helfen, who was a social democrat in his political convictions. It can be stated without any exaggeration that the author of this relevant translation, aide to the Chairman of the Government of Republic Tuva, Dina Oyun, produced a magnificent contribution to the study of a multitude of problems in the more recent history of Tuva. She translated the” Foreword” to the 1992 USA edition, written by the Austrian scholar’s wife, Anna Maenchen, from English, and the entire book “Journey to Tuva” from the German original, which was first published in Berlin almost 80 years ago.

We are observing 98 years from the birth of prominent Russian historian – ethnologist, poet, translator, founder of the passionary theory of ethnogenesis, researcher of nomadic cultures of Eurasia, Lev Gumilev. He was born in Tsarskoye Selo on October 1, 1912. He was son of poets Nikolai Gumilev and Anna Akhmatova. As a child he was brought up by his grandmother in Slepnevo of Bezhetsk district of Tver gubernia. From 1917 to 1929 he lived in Bezhetsk, and from 1930 in Leningrad. During the years 1930-1934 he worked in expeditions in the Sayans, the Pamir and in Crimea. From 1934 he matriculated at the department of history of Leningrad University. In 1935 he was expelled from the university and arrested, but after some time he was released. In 1937 he was reinstated at the university.

There are few musical cultures left on the planet that take us to a deeply primal place and even some of those cultures, mainly hailing from indigenous people have been swallowed up by electronic music or turned into popular culture in the form of world music. But for any of you who have listened to an a cappella Saami yoik, a traditional Navajo chant, Aboriginal didgeridoo, Tibetan nomadic music, or Tuvan throat-singing have experienced that deep primal place. Your root chakra opens. Shamanism and music were wedded to each other hundreds of thousands of years ago. The first flutes, drums, harps, etc were put to shamanic use, as were many of the early singing traditions. These shamans knew about the power and intent of sound and put it to good use either healing others in some way or put it to bad use through sorcery to trip up an adversary. But even without any prior knowledge of shamanism or ancient musical practices, a music listener can experience their rootedness to the natural world listening to primal music. This certainly proves true with the Tuvan quartet Huun Huur Tu’s latest recording, Ancestors Call.

When we went to Tuva on a business trip, we never even suspected that we would have an audience with the president of Tuvan shamans. For that reason, we were totally unprepared for such a meeting. Personally, I know absolutely nothing about shamanism, and even more so, I have no idea how to behave during an interview with a representative of this culture. The President for life of Tuvan shamans, Mongush Kenin-Lopsan lives in Kyzyl, in a small one-story wood cabin. He is already 85(!) years old. The little room where he receives visitors holds many shelves with books, and strange incomprehensible pictures hang on the walls. Most of the books were written by Mongush Borakhovich himself. They contain myths and shamanic lyrical poetry. They have been published several times in America and in Europe.