Tuva.Asia / The New Research of Tuva

Practically the entire collective of Khakass Philharmony participated in the program of Days of Khakass Culture in Tuva, where it was associated with the Day of National Unity. Now even many Tuvan children know what a chatkhan is. It is a Khakass musical instrument in the shape of an elongated rectangular box with horse-hair strings stretched length-wise; it is a symbol of the Khakass nation. It was precisely a chatkhan which was used to accompany the heroic epics, “alyptyg nymakhi”. It is believed that chatkhan is an instrument equal in power to the shaman’s drum, and if necessary can be successfully used for the same purpose. Another favorite Khakass instrument, which has not lost its authority to this day, is khomus - a remote relative of Russian balalaika. Just like the chatkhan, it has been known since ancient times: the first mentions of  khomus date to the beginning of our era.

This year, the historical work “The Secret History of the Mongols” which was written in 1240, turned 770 years. In the framework of the celebrations of this anniversary, on November 8-9 a scholarly conference took place in the capital, organized by AN of Mongolia, together with MonGU, Scientific-technical University and Museum of national history. About 30 Mongolian scholars and 8 foreign mongolists presented scholarly research papers on the subject of this unique document. During the conference at the Museum of National History an exhibition of  works of Mongolian craftsmen and artists, as well as emigrants from the Autonomous district of Inner Mongolia, China, was opened. The emigrants presented their own version of “The Secret History of the Mongols”, transcribed on silk paper in artistic calligraphy. There are statistical data that this work has been translated into 20 languages of 30 countries of the world, and was published 200 times. The most popular variant among Mongolian readers is the translation of academician Ts. Damdinsuren. This version was published in an issue of 180 thousand.