Tuva.Asia / The New Research of Tuva

 It turns out that the earth has eyes and mouth, and any garbage thrown on it is just like spitting in your mother's face. Such strong opinions have the students of TGU and College of Arts brought from a training session "Tuvan folk etiquette", which took place on February 9. This training, associated with the Day of Learning, took place at the department of psychology and pedagogics of Tuvan State University. The instructor - Tatiana Ondar,  a lecturer at the same department, put all her strength into getting the students to remember the postulates of ancient Tuvan customs for a long time.

Already at the entrance to the auditorium the students encountered an original test -  do you know how to greet someone correctly the Tuvan way?

 If you walk out of the gate of the Holy Trinity church in Kyzyl and walk down the street, towards the Yenisei, soon you will be at the doorstep of the "cabin" of the oldest shaman of Tuva. The street on which you can complete the journey from shamanism to Orthodox Christianity and back in ten minutes carries the name Komsomolskaya. A well-known picture, isn't it?  Gods, values, ideals - everything mixed together in the make-up of a contemporary person…

 

We are happy to invite you to the first virtual exhibition of Professor Yuri Popkov, our editorial board member and Doctor of Philosophy, Deputy Director of the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.  He is an ethno-sociologist, well-known both in Russia and internationally, frequently visiting Tuva with lectures and research expeditions. He is also known as a person with a delicate soul who hardly ever parts with his camera. Although we are not professional photographers, we like the work of our colleague very much. We believe that this is what a true researcher should be like  - always enthusiastic, versatile, creative..

The exhibition is devoted to the Day of Science in Russia.

The Republic of Buryatia, situated in thr Russian Federation beyond the eastern shores of Lake Baikal, is home to a mixture of Russians and indigenous peoples who have rich cultures of their own. The capital of Buryatia, Ulan-Ude, is located some 100 kilometers southeast of Lake Baikal and has about 370,000 inhabitants. The city takes its name from the Uda River, a tributary of the Selenga, which is the primary river flowing into Baikal from the east. The appearance of Russian settlements in the area (known as Trans-Baikal or, more broadly, Dauriia) began in the middle of the 17th century, when Cossacks and other explorers sought new trading routes to China, as well as valuable furs such as sable.

Sankt-Peterburg publishing house "Aleteya. Istoricheskaya khiga" has re-published a monograph by the Candidate of philosophy, editor-in-chief of the "New Research of Tuva"  journal, Chimiza Lamajaa, "Tuva mezhdu proshlym I budushchim" (SPB., 2011), (Tuva between the past and the future). The book was initially published in 2008 at the Moscow publishing center "Voskhod-A'" in a limited small issue, and has since become unobtainable for large strata of readers. This is the first time that the history of Tuva has been analyzed  on such a large scale and on so many different levels by a mind of a philosopher, the first time that new themes have been raised in the humanitarian knowledge about Tuva: the transformation of the traditional society of Tuva, the problems of forcible soviet mobilization of the region, the cultural traumatization of the Tuvans, the various generations of residents of Tuva in 20^th century, the national character of Tuvans, the influences of natural factors on the formation of idiosyncrasies of national character...

Northern Asia is a place that is extremely interesting from the point of  view of genetics. Already in deep ancient times, Europeoid and Mongoloid races met there and their contacts are evidenced by the formation of racial type of significant proportion  of Eurasian population. Beside that, the oldest populations of this region also participated in populating America.. To reconstruct a holistic model of the processes of population of Northern Asia and America, specialists of the Institute of Biological Problems of the North of DVO RAN spent several years analyzing the structure and variety of mitochondrial DNA sequencing of various ethnic groups of Eurasia and America. Their research was supported by grants from RFFI and DVO RAN.

The long awaited project of the Year  of Tourism - ethnocultural complex "Aldyn Bulak" finally opens.

The ceremonial opening of the yurt-restaurant in ethnic style will take place on 25 February. In the design of the yurt, the main emphasis was on the interior , to reflect the unique history and culture of our republic. It is based on elements of Tuvan traditional way of life and on the riches of the Scythian time - on the objects found in the kurgan burials "Arzhaan-1" and "Arzhaan-2". The walls are decorated with various images of  the Scythian time. The yurt is divided into 16 zones, and calculated to seat 100 people.

The diameter of the yurt is 15 meters, the walls are 3 meters high, and the total height of the yurt is 5 meters. Beside that, there is a stage for  ceremonial activities and cultural programs.