Tuva.Asia / The New Research of Tuva

Interest in ancient shamanic practices is growing with every day.  Alarmed by ecological catastrophes, disillusioned in contemporary society, and having accumulated a substantial number of philosophical questions about life, a person looks for answers in his true roots - in living nature.

It is believed that with the help of multiple shamanic techniques, it is possible to  enter the world of one's subconscious, heal disease, and to avoid losses and failures. But is shamanism really as powerful as people say? We decided to ask a man who experienced the mystical "power of nature" in practice - Stanislav Shaposhnikov, physician-psychotherapist, and a student of the singing shaman Nikolai Oorzhak.

Archeological excavations along the construction of Kyzyl-Kuragino railway, acting under the grant of Russian Geographical Society are going strong. Every week brings new finds. Scientists found a cast bronze bit, consisting of two parts - a part of horse harness. This find helped the archeologists to determine that the kurgan dates to Scythian era - 9^th-6^th centuries before our era. The scientists believe that the bit was made specially for the burial.

Archeologist Yuri Teterin discovered several artifacts also dating to Early Scythian period - 6^th - 5^th centuries before our era.

Among the finds were a bone pendant in the form of a moose hoof that served as decoration of clothing. The pendant was crafted in a special way: its surface was covered with ornamentation suggestive of the  animal's hair.

It is an old truth: if you can't find something, you should look somewhere else.  It is the prose of life: it is useless to look for your keys in your purse, if you have left them at home by the mirror, and it is useless to look for your cell phone in your pocket if you have left it in the store. And it is totally  useless to search for Genghis Khan's tomb where it is not. But where should you search? Not anywhere! Mongols have already dug up everything possible in their country, and nothing. It is the same story with the Buryats. One of the traditions states that the great conqueror was buried where he was born. That means Delyun-Boldok valley. The area is quite large - it includes Aginsk Buryat circle, Onon district, it crosses Russian-Mongolian border, passes through Dadaliy sumon (administrative unit of Mongolia) Khentei aimak (district), and  terminates in the area between Selenga and Onon rivers.

Anastasia has been drawing only bones and stones for 16 years. It is not a new art trend, but her work - to document work tools of ancient humans in the smallest fine detail.

"The direction of the marks on this material is not always visible, especially on a photograph, but an artist can show it with use of  shading and cross-hatching, that is - an archeologist can see it right away", - explains Anastasia Abdulmanova, an artist of Institute of  Archeology and Ethnography of Siberian section of RAN.

All these finds were made in Denis's Cave. Evidence of the last 280 thousand years of life on Earth is hiding here. Each and every one of the numbered strata holds evidence of various civilizations. In the 11^th stratum, archeologists found remains of heretofore unknown branch of humanity - the Denisovets.

How can you differentiate a shaman from a quack, what does one need to know before a visit to a shaman, is it obligatory to sprinkle vodka during rituals? These questions disturb believers, regardless of the fact that there is an increasing number of shamans. Or those who describe themselves as such. The head of shamanic association "Tengeri", Bair Tsyrendorzhiev answers these questions.

-  On 10 July, there will be already the 2^nd prayer meeting to the Master spirit of Selenga at Omulevoi mountain. The ritual will be performed by your association. It was amazing at the first of these ceremonies, how many of the shamans have Tibetan names and surnames. How do you explain this obvious Buddhist origin and the rank of a shaman?

-  Zoya Bairovna, the fundamental series "Monuments of Folklore of peoples of Siberia and Far East" has three Tuvan volumes . How did this immense work originate?

-  It is more accurate to say: not how, but who. Doctor of philological sciences, Professor Soktoyev started it all.

In 1983, Alexander Badmayevich moved from Buryatia to Novosibirsk, and be3came the organizer of the Siberian people's folklore section, the first director of Philology institute of the Siberian section of Russian Academy of Sciences. And he founded the series "Monuments of Folklore of peoples of Siberia and Far East"; the plan was for sixty volumes.

He was an amazing man, a scholar with tremendous creative energy. His human charm, like a magnet, drew people to him. He could get them to develop enthusiasm and interest in an idea.

On 20 July in Ulan-Ude in Buryatia, there will be a performance by the prominent Tuvan group Huun-Huur-Tu at the Third international festival  "Voice of the Nomads". Baikal-Buryatia".

This group has been called the model of high taste and style, which is why the group became a world-scale star, firmly entrenched within the elite of World music of the planet.  "Novaya Buryatiya" presents an interview with Radik Tyulyush - soloist of the group, with which he has been working for six years.

Before that, Radik studied in Buryatia and was a member of various Tuvan ensembles, including "Tyva" and "Yat-Kha".

Today marks 106 years from the birth of Leonid Potapov - Soviet ethnographer, doctor of history, professor, aureate of State(Stalin's) prize of USSR, Merited Scholar of RF, Merited scholar of Tuvinian ASSR. L. P. Potapov was a strong researcher of the history and culture of Altai, Shors, Khakass people, of Tuvans and some other people of South Siberia religious beliefs of non-Russian populations of South Siberia receive special attention in all his works.

He formulated the question about the relatively late origin of shamanism among people of South Siberia, evolving on the substrate of  ancient local nature cults and folk understanding of humans.

In the sphere of spiritual culture, Potapov turned a special attention to pre-Islamic beliefs of people of Central Asia.

To breathe penetrating, inimitable sound into an ordinary piece of wood.  To bring it to life. To turn it into an instrument that makes people laugh and cry, to feel empathy. This art - the art of making a musical instrument -  was transmitted to Aldar Tamdyn by his father - a musician and the first master of Chadan in making folk musical instruments.

Now both Aldar Tamdyn and his two sons are musicians and craftsmen.

In 1998 Aldar Tamdyn tried to make his first musical instrument. The knowledge received from his father did not disappoint him, his hands remembered, felt the wood, and the igil sounded.

And in 2008 minister of culture of Tuva Vyacheslav Dongak, who knew Aldar as a musician of the folk group "Chirgilchin", promised help in creating his own atelier for making Tuvan national instruments, and allocated 50 thousand rubles that became the starting capital  for the family firm of the Tamdyn family. They bought carpentry equipment, and within a year they registered as a private enterprise - OOO "Ovaa".  This year, OOO "Ovaa"  received a grant of 500 thousand rubles.

She is one of those who know what to do with their life and what to do in this life to fill it with meaning and content.

Literaturologist and folklorist Zoya Samdan is not a desk scholar. She has spent thirty-seven years collecting oral Tuvan folk art - tales and myths.

And Tuvan story-tellers, speaking in their native language and in Russian, have added their voices to members of other nations in the multi-volume series "Monuments of Folklore of Peoples of Siberia and Far East" - a huge project of Russian scholars from various republics that was begun in 1983 and continues to this day.

The epic connected with her work on two volumes of this series - "Tuvan folk tales" and "Myths, legends and traditions of Tuvans" - she considers a gift of fate.

And she is confident that this immense labor was not in vain; the folklore collected in the books of the series will be relevant forever.

Because it comes from the people and returns to them.

When did people first appear at lake Baikal? Regardless of the fact that the first camp sites on the lake shores date to 20-25 thousand years, scientists believe that people first came here no less than 300-400 thousand years ago, in the Middle Paleolithic era. Not all of the puzzles of the lake can be solved right now. It is possible that even older finds are hiding beneath its waters. And who knows, possibly one day our descendants will find even older evidence of human activity. Tagir Abdulov,  archeologist and science worker at the laboratory of paleoecology and human evolution of the History department of IGU, told us about Siberian "madonnas", the Kitoy and the Glazkov cultures at a lecture of   the Center for independent social research and humanitarian foundation "Baikal. The Third Millennium."  of the  Voskresnoye university of the Humanities.

Plenipotentiary representative office of Republic Tyva in Moscow is sending to Tuva a set of medals "For love and fidelity" of the Foundation  of Socio-cultural initiatives, headed by wife of  President of Russia, Svetlana Medvedeva,  to be given to50 Tuvan families during celebrations of the Day of the family, love and fidelity.

This Russian holiday originated thanks to Prince Petr of Murom and his wife Fevronia, who lived in 13^th century and became models of spousal fidelity, mutual love and family happiness already during their lives. This family couple is worshipped by Orthodox Christians as protectors of the family and marriage.  According to legend, Petr and Fevronia died on the same day - 25 June (8 July in new style calendar) 1228. Their bodies, laid out in different places, miraculously appeared in a single coffin, which was considered a miracle. Petr and Fevronia were canonized at a church synod in 1547. Their remains are kept at the Trinity cathedral off the Holy Trinity monastery in Murom.

Long time ago, according to the legend, Khakass people did not know of throat-singing. When the Master of khai (throat-singing) - khai eezi found out, he came to teach the people. Huge, black, handsome, he met a Khakass at Iskharchyzy (near Kizlas), who was sleeping on the bank of Great Esi river.  When the sleeper woke up, he was so frightened at the sight of khai eezi, that he involuntarily exclaimed: "Tatai!" - a magical word, expressing revulsion. The Master of Khai was offended, did not say anything, went to the north and settled between the White and Black Iyus rivers. There he changed his anger into mercy and began to teach his art to the people. This became the homeland of all the famous Khakass khaiji, tellers of  heroic epics, stories and legends of the ancient hero warriors… 

Plenipotentiary office of  Republic Tyva in Moscow has sent books to Tuva, donated to Tuvan libraries and schools by the Save Tibet Foundation - almost a thousand of them. Among them are:  a collection of classical Buddhist texts "The Lotus Garden" ( editor PhD. M. Kozhevnikova,2010), for children of middle school age; S. Kuzmin's book "Hidden Tibet. History of independence and occupation" 2010), and booklets with Buddhist texts preparatory to the Russian teachings of His Holiness Dalai Lama XIV in December 2011.

This is not the first present that the Foundation has given Tuva: last year  they have presented to young readers of the republic a "bioGraphical" novel by Japanese artist Tetsu Saiwai, devoted to the life and activities of His Holiness Dalai Lama XIV in the "manga" format.

-  Sainkho, if somebody addresses you as Lyudmila, will you respond?

-  Certainly not. I don't react to that name anymore. And the audience won't react either. If somebody hangs up a poster: Lyudmila Namtchylak, nobody will understand anything. 

-  Why did you pick precisely this name as your stage pseudonym?

-   A woman of that name used to live in Kyzyl - Sainkho Darzhayevna Dorzhu. She was a dancer, and later, after she retired, she worked in the Union of Theatre artists.  Charming, kind, woman. I liked both her and the combination of the sounds of her rare name.

And when it became necessary to have a mysterious, exotic-sounding name which would reflect what I was doing on the stage, that is what I chose.  The process of getting used to my new name began in 1986: in Krasnodar,  they  gave me the certificate already  as Sainkho.