Tuva.Asia / The New Research of Tuva

-  Sainkho, what is your main character trait?

-  Curiosity.

-  And being non-standard?

-  Being non-standard is more of a result.

In the West, probably, it is less conspicuous, because people are more tolerant.  To behave extravagantly or to look different from the others is not such a very noticeable thing. Artists and singers are perceived as people of a different world, and society accepts their out of the ordinary characteristics calmly.

-  Did it take a great inner effort to shave your head?

-  No. I was 43 at the time. My management was in Milan, and Milan is the Italian Mecca of fashion.  And they would design new clothing for me for every new album. And for one of the albums, they found a long cashmere dress, form-fitting, with bare shoulders. And something like a shawl that I could wrap myself in.

She had two names. Only one remained - a mysterious one.

She herself is a mystery.

Avant-garde.  Intriguing. Non-standard. Not subject to aging.

Improviser and experimenter, constantly surprising others and able to surprise herself.

Sainkho Namtchylak, who sings in voices of winds and hurricanes, stars and birds. She makes drawings with tea and coffee. She writes poems without punctuation and without rhyme - by a stream of consciousness.

Having conquered world fame, she for a long time remained misunderstood and unrecognized in her own native country - in Tuva. And it made her suffer. Even mysteries can suffer.

Although planned for April 12, it was on a sunny and warm evening of May 10 in Bonn, the former capital city of West Germany on the river Rhine, that the renowned University of  Bonn through its Institute for Oriental and Asian Sciences, Department for Mongolistic and Tibetan Studies, had invited both its staff and students for an evening entirely dedicated to Tuva and its culture.

Alouette Verlag’s editor and publisher of the German edition of Sevyan Vainshtein’s famous book “Mysterious Tuva – Expeditions into the Heart of Asia” (with a DVD featuring the German version of Leonid Kruglov’s documentary “Sewn Arrows”) had been asked to introduce the author and his book to the assembled academic staff (see photo) and students.

On 1 June, during the 10^th International theatre festival of Turkic nations "Nauruz", actors of  V. Kok-ool Theater of music and drama presented their show "Kultegin", based on E. Mizhit's play, on the stage of K. Tinchurin Tatar theatre of comedy and drama. The hall was packed. The show went on in one breath, in the opinion  of both the actors and the audience, with exciting emotional acting of the performers, who put all 100% into it. The festival's experts, in judging the play, especially noted the expressive acting of Oleg Sat and Stanislav Iril, and the feminine acting of actress Aizana Chylbak-ool. The director-producer of the play Alexei Oorzhak played  the role of Alp Eletmish.  The specialists called the show "virile" and Tuvan theatre in general special. The main theme of "Kultegin", as the theme of brotherhood of Turkic nations, turned out to be very much in harmony with the idea of festival "Nauruz".

On 30 May in Kazan on the square in front of the State Academic Theatre of G. Kamal, official opening of the 10^th International Theatre Festival of Turkic People "Nauruz" took place. From Tuva, folk music ensemble "ShaaLaash" (Sound of Waterfall or of Great River Yenisei) of the Tuvan music and drama theatre performed.  Members of the ensemble: National artist of RT Stanislav Iril )doshpuluur, vocal, khoomei), Merited artist of RT Saidash Mongush (kengirge, vocal, khoomei), director of musical part of the theatre Oktyabr Saaya (igil, vocal, khoomei), and National artist of RT, director of the theatre Nachyn Shalyk (percussions, sygyt).

In the words of Stanislav Iril, the spectators insisted on an encore. "ShaaLaash" will be performing again at the closing of the festival, which will take place on 3 June (on Sabantui holiday).

"Radio Rossii", introducing two publications by the remarkable Tuvan singer Sainkhoo Namchylak, which were released in recent years by LEO Records in Great Britain, discusses both the projects and the singer herself. The first project was made with a percussionist from the USA Jarrod Cagwin.  He is a universal, unusual percussionist, and the situation that led to the meeting of these two musicians was not completely ordinary either. Sainkhoo Namchylak very much likes spontaneous improvisation  in conditions which are close to her nature . And since she is Tuvan and very close to natural music, regardless of all her incredible education, nature is alive in her. Such circumstances arose at one point.  There was a festival in Vienna " at the Odeon Theatre, named "In Trance". This is an absolutely accurate description of how Sainkho gets into music. The Tuvan singer herself is a virtual bridge between the naturalness of Tuvan nation and Western civilization.

It is possible to get here by a highway running along the Angara and the Baikal shore. Then you take a ferry. A day of travel, and we are on Olkhon Island - the ancient home of Buryat shamanism. The Buryats, their shamans, and also magicians, healers and priests of the whole world believe that this is precisely the sacred place, where it is easiest to come into contact with spirits, enter a trance, and exchange occult experiences. "The consecrated ones" call this piece of land, shaped like a stretched-out body of a Baikal seal 80 km long, with walls in the south and mountains in the north, the "energetic heart" of the deepest fresh-water lake-sea of the plane, and Cape Burkhan is one of the nine sacred places of North Asia. This is where Siberian shamans sought sanctuary from Genghis Khan's cavalry and from the guns of the revolution. Key words such as "sacral center", "nature preserve of spirits", "chosen land" "ancient homeland", "last bastion of shamanism" find a lively response and empathy from the islanders. "Yes, friend, - the locals nod, pointing around the beach and mountain, - this is where they live, the spirits. Look at the teeth of Burkhan!"

On 1 - 5 June, Tuvan capital will host the interregional festival "Musical Summer in Tuva".  Ministry of culture of the republic is one of its main organizers. As the minister of culture, Vyacheslav Dongak informed us, composers and performers from Moscow, Tatarstan, Buryatia, Kalmykia, Khakassia as well as from Belorussia and Siberian cities will  participate. The Chairman of the Union of Composers of Russia, Vladislav Igorevich Kazenin, a man who brought significant contribution to the development of musical art in Tuva will be the honored guest. It was precisely Kazenin who stood at the sources of founding the Union of Composers of Tuva.

An internet web site for the youngest readers of Russia, the first literature site in Tuva for children opened on the eve of  Children's Day. Tuvan folk tales, proverbs and sayings, the best novels, stories and verse for children, which were at various times created for children by Tuvan writers and translated into Russian are presented on the portal.  "Raduga Tuvy" (Tuvan Rainbow) is one of the first stages of social project "Tuva chitayushchaya" (Reading Tuva).

"Raduga Tuvy" (http://tuvacheleesh.ru) is a gift for respected, beloved, bright, good and talented children of Russia - of all ages and nationalities. It is meant for those whom we want to teach to read good books, think deeply, and to develop fine and accurate feeling for words, - said the initiator of the "Tuva chitayushchaya) project, journalist Inna Printseva.  -  So far, the site is only in Russian language. This is explained by its two tasks. The first - to help children fr5om remote Tuvan districts to fully master Russian language. The second - to give children in other Russian regions to read Tuvan books."

Ancient stone walls. They surround mountains in Khakassia, transect promontories on the Baikal. People who built them have left so long ago, that the descendants remember neither the names of the tribes, nor the language the ancient architects spoke. Scientists do not know exactly to this day  for what  purpose these  walls were built. There are 90 such "fortified towns" on the territory around lake Baikal, and in Khakassia, where they call them "sve", there are more than 50. Various hypotheses and versions about the time when they were built, and their functional purpose were discussed at the international scientific conference "Ancient cultures of Mongolia and Baikal Siberia".

On 5 - 18 May 2011 with support of WWF of Russia and WWF of Mongolia, trans-border areas of snow leopard habitat were observed. The density of evidence of irbis life activity is comparable to the best habitats of this species in Nepal and India. Experts of the international expedition observed the Mongolian part of Tsagan-Shibetu  range (nature preserve "Tsagaan-Shuvuut") and  Chikhachev ridge (area of national park "Silkkhemin Nuruu"), adjacent to Russian border. A group of irbis inhabits this trans-border zone,  the study of which is exceptionally important for protection of this rare predator in Russia and Mongolia.

Staff of Altai nature preserve,  of Institute of Biology of Mongolian Academy of Sciences, WWF of Mongolia, anti-poacher brigade "Irves" (Mongolia) and Administration of specially protected natural territories of  lake Uvs-Nuur basin and Mongolian Altai participated in the expedition.

On 17 May, masses and prayers will be performed in all the temples of Tuva, associated with the celebration of Day of Three Feats of Buddha Shakyamuni. As the abbot of the main "Tsechenling" temple, Tenzin Chimba (Buyan Bashki) informed the Savetibet.ru portal, this year Buddhist clergy turned to Tuvan Buddhists with a special request to dedicate this day to performing good deeds. Beside that,  Buddhist monks and priests, who are members of the Buddhist association of Tuva, proposed to the residents of the republic to renounce eating of meat on this day.

" For nomadic people (Tuvans, Kalmyks, Buryats, Mongols, and Tibetans) meat eating is a tradition that is very difficult to renounce, said Buyan Bashki. - However, we appeal to make this day a vegetarian one, so that as few as possible living creatures suffer on this day, and people can accumulate spiritual merit in this way."

Since the very beginning of human history, the need for  spatial organization has been one of life-affirming orientations of Homo habilis (skillful man) and Homo sapiens (thinking man). Our ancestors of long ago, who lived more than 2 million years ago, were motivated by instinct of self-preservation, and were hardly thinking of comfort. These things became important to people only much later, some hundreds of thousands of years ago, and then, in search of a better deal, they pleased themselves by inhabiting the depths of caves, grottoes and cliff overhangs, coming into conflict with their previous occupants - large predators. Cave camp sites of the Lower Paleolithic Age, discovered today in various corners of the world,, were the first human dwellings, where together with housekeeping activities their thinking was formed, as well as esthetic tastes and mythic-ritual complexes of the first humans.

V. Kok-ool Tuvan State theatre of music and drama will present director Alexei Oorzhak's drama Kultegin based on Eduard Mizhit's epic drama at the 10^th theatre festival of Turkic peole "Nauruz".

The play tells of the life of the ancient Turkic society, torn by  internal conflicts, which were skillfully fomented by the rulers of a mighty neighbor of the Turks - China. The story tells of  efforts of Kultegin and his brother Bilge-Kagan, directed towards the preservation, recovery and strengthening of their nation.

After the premiere, Tuvan press called the play a "true masterpiece", even though the expectations were different.  Specifically, there were doubts associated with the discrepancy between the modest means of  the Tuvan music and drama theatre and the grandiose format of the epic: the budget for "Kultegin" was only 700thousand rubles, according to official data.

Today at a round-table conference at the National museum a whole campaign for promotion of female throat singing started off. We will be speaking about traditions of its performance in the republic and the current existence of female khoomei. The initiative of the debates,  the concert in Kyzyl, and the tour of the districts of the republic belongs to the legendary Tuvan-Austrian singer Sainkho Namchylak and to the only khoomei performing all-female group in the world, "Tyva Kyzy" (Daughters of Tuva).

"We have Shagonar, Ak-Dovurak, Erzin, and Chadan on our tour schedule. We would also like to perform in Samagaltai," says Sainkho, who arrived to Kyzyl last night.