Tuva.Asia / The New Research of Tuva

Today the head of Tuva, Sholban Kara-ool met with Japanese musicians who arrived in Kyzyl on the invitation of  the Center of Tuvan-Japanese Friendship  "Kargyraa". Yanagiya Koharu, Makigami Koichi and Udai Shika left Tokyo  next day after the earthquake. Sholban Kara-ool, first of all, expressed through them deep condolences to the entire Japanese nation.

-  We live right in the heart of Asia, and  we feel special pain for the tragedies that happen to our Asian friends, - said the Premier . - I have been to Japan, and I know what a courageous nation strong in spirit the Japanese people are. We, in our turn, are prepared to offer any kind of support and help to Japanese families who were impacted by the elements.

45 kilometers from Kyzyl in the west direction of Kyzyl-Shagonar highway by the Ulug-Khem river at the place "Balyktyg-Kharaar", there has been constructed an ethno-cultural complex  "Aldyn-Bulak" .  Yesterday, the official presentation of the complex took place; it is expected to become one of the strategic objects of tourism business, as well as to make a substantial contribution into the piggy-bank of tourist attractiveness of Tuva.   More than 30 million rubles has been allocated for its  construction out of the republic's budget. The finished ethno-cultural complex has become the last note of the Year of Tourism.

The school memorial museum of Nadia Rusheva published a set of postcards of the young artist's drawings - devoted to her illustrations to Mikhail Bulgakov's novel "Master and Margarita". This is already the second postcard set; the first was published in 2009 (for the occasion of  the 40^th anniversary of N. Rusheva's death), and consisted of reproductions of drawings of various of Nadia's series.

In the words of Natalia Usenko, the head of the museum, the aim of publication of the sets  is to make people acquaintanced with Rusheva's work or to give her fans an opportunity to see their  long-loved drawings. The series "Master and Margarita" was scanned at  A. S. Pushkin State Museum, where the drawings are kept.

Before he left for Sakhalin, Premier-Minister of RF Vladimir Putin went to Abakan, to the Khakass sanctuary. Under  the aegis of the Premier, there are many programs in protection and study of animals, including the rebirth of leopard population in Sochi and snow leopard in Khakassia and Tyva. He also initiated the allocation of means in the form of grants to the Russian Geographic Society.

Several days ago, a male snow leopard was captured. He was documented by photo-traps several times before; he has been walking around with a poacher's noose around his neck for six months. The scientists found wounds on him, and  treated them for a few days. The head of the government took a look at the animal and listened to the specialists.

The former successful mathematics teacher of Elista intermediate school No.3, Ekaterina Adyayeva, after she left for her well-deserved retirement, was not confused, as so often happens in our times. Since she knew how to do practically everything at home with her own hands, she became involved in in learning folk crafts - Kalmyk embroidery and a type of handicraft that is very exotic today - felt-making.

- I became enthusiastic about felt-making the first time I saw it done, - says Ekaterina Lidzhievna. - in winter of 2009, together with doll-maker Elena Lukina,, we took part in an international symposium "The art of felt in the Turkic world: history and the present", which took place in Kazan.

Not just folk craftsmen were there - there were scientists, scholars and officials, who were all seriously interested in the rebirth of felt-making.

It was sad to hear that this type of decorative-applied art belongs to Bashkirs and Tatars. After all, this is a traditional occupation of many nomadic peoples, including the Kalmyks.