Tuva.Asia / The New Research of Tuva

In Almaty, presentation of documentary film of famous Kazakhstan director Rustem Abdrashov "In Search of Tengri" (Tengir Zharylkasyn) took place. Why this journey of a group of scientists, ethnographers, artists and journalists is based on Genghis Khan's route,  the origin of the idea, and what happened as a result - journalists present at the press-showing received the answers to these questions during 2.5 hours of the film. The main sponsor of the expedition since the planning stage in June 2011 is the media firm "Alash Media Group". Information support was provided by channel STV, Seventh Channel, radio station TengriFM, and newspaper "Alash Ainasy".  A journalist from Tengrinews.kz joined the scientific-artistic collective of  turkologist Napil Bazylkhan, turkologist-arabologist Robert Ermes; artist-restorer Krym Altynbekov, film director and cinematographer Sabit Kurmanbekov, musician-ethnographer, kobyz-player Erlan Sabitov, dombra player Abulkhair Abdrash; rock-singer Asem, photographer Rustem Rakhimjan and others.  From that moment, light was thrown on every step of the expedition for 15 days of travel.

This Year of the Dragon has, de facto, started off in Tuva somewhat earlier before its usual calendar term, announcing its coming with an earthquake, which, as a matter of fact, did not cause serious injuries to the population; that is fully understandable, because ancient Uriangkhai can be considered the homeland of dragons. Professional astrologists warned that unpredictability, unexpectedness, and spontaneity of events are quite characteristic of this calendar-mythological personage, and mentioned his habit of showing up before the usual term, suddenly changing all the established rules and norms. There are many misconceptions in western astrology and mythology about the coming Year of the Dragon and its totemic protector spirit, Fire-Breathing Serpent-Dragon, which are very offensive to this totally noble, valiant and wise personage of Central Asian nomad folklore.

This year on January 31, Nadia Rusheva would have turned 60. 

The vivid, active, promising life ended when the girl was only 17. She was born in 1952 in an artistic family. Her father Nikolai Konstantinovich Rushev (1918-1975) was a theatre artist. Her mother, Natalia Azhikmaa-Rusheva(born 1926) is one of the first Tuvan ballerinas. The family lived in Ulan-Bator at the time, as instructors on art duty. They gave the girl a Mongolian name - Naidan - which means "Eternally living" in translation. It turned out to be a prophetic name. in our days, Nadia Rusheva's art is known to practically any cultured person, in Russia and abroad. Taking a pencil in her hand, the girl rapidly and accurately produced a drawing on paper. There was an impression that invisible lines were already present, and the child was only following them. And the young artist never used an eraser. She produced one illustration once and forever. Each of these creations was a unique picture which showed a fairy-tale hero with astonishing precision.

German publisher LAP Lambert Academic Publishing recently released two books by a Tuvan researcher, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Merited scientist of Republic Tuva, head scientific worker of Russian Institute of Culturology, and the head scientific worker of Tuvan Institute of Humanities Research of Government of republic Tuva, Marina Mongush. The title of the first monograph is "Vdali od svoikh, svoi sredi chuzhikh" (Away from your own, your own among strangers). It is dedicated to ethnic groups of Tuvans, who are currently living away from Republic Tuva. 

Anokhin's National Museum, where the mummy of the famous "Altai princess" is kept, will open in 2012 in Gorno-Altaisk after complete reconstruction, as the Minister of Culture of the region, Vladimir Konchev, informed RIA Novosti. The mummy of  a woman was discovered by the expedition of Novosibirsk archeologist Natalia Polosmak in 1993 in a kurgan of Scythian era on Ukok plateau in Altai, near the border with Mongolia. This find, which has been dated to more than 2,500 years old, is considered to be one of the most significant archeological discoveries of recent times. Native Altaians consider the mummy to be their ancestor and call her "the Altai princess".