Tuva.Asia / The New Research of Tuva

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.

Today we celebrating 93 years since the birth of prominent American physicist, laureate of the Nobel Prize Richard Phillips Feynman. He is well known not just because took part in the work on the atom bomb, but also because he prepared the ground for the invention of nanotechnology. The physicist was a great dreamer, traveler and musician, who for long years passionately wished to get to the mysterious, far-away country - Tuva. His dream was never realized, but the passion itself was transmitted to those close to him, his friends, and as a result became the foundation for the Friends of Tuva  association in the USA. His friend Ralph Leighton wrote a book about Feynman's Tuvan dream ("Tuva or Bust"). We have published an excerpt of this book in No. 1-2 2099. You can also read about R. Feynman in Marina Mongush's overview "Foreign researchers of Tuva".

This year Mongolia will be observing several noteworthy historical dates. On the occasion of one of such anniversaries - 2, 200 years of  formation of Mongolian state - on 26-27 August there will be a world festival of peoples of Xiongnu descent, under the aegis of  President  Ts. Elbegdorj.

At this time, 33 countries have been invited. As part of the project, a wide spectrum of cultural, sports and other activities of  people of Xiongnu descent will be organized.

There are parallel plans for a conference of world leaders, meeting of young leaders for the purpose of exchange of experience in the field of citizens' participation in the development of the region.

International exhibition "Traditions of folk art of Mongolia" opened at the National Museum of Tuva on 29 April. The exposition shows women's and men's jewelry,, made in the traditional way of Mongolian masters of the jewelry art. They represent a concentration of the heritage of the multifaceted and unique Mongolian culture.

The author of the jewellery is an artist- craftsman Nyamsuren Dorjzhantsan. She was born in the town of Arvaikheer of the Ovurkhangai aimak of Mongolia. Since 1995 she has been involved with jewellery art. Nyamsuren is a Master of Arts, and a participant in many exhibitions in Mongolia, Russia, Korea, and other places. A significant proportion of the exhibition consists of  antique  folk locks, some of which are 300 years old. More than 52 of the locks and other objects of decorative-applied art is from the private collection of Otonbaatar Rinchensambuu, a science worker of the Academy of Sciences of Mongolia, a tibetologist and specialist in ancient Mongolian writing.

President of Mongolia Ts. Elbegdorj sent a letter  of greetings to an American professor, anthropologist Jack Weatherford, congratulating him on his victory in a yearly contest of audio-books, where his book "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" won the first place.

"We Mongols are grateful to you, because your book about the role of Great Mongol Empire  in history, and  the cultural heritage of the Mongol people in the history of humankind became a significant step in the promotion and spread of  factual and objective information throughout the world about the history and culture of Mongolia. The success of this book based on historical facts and scientific research and written in a literary style, gave the Mongols and all humankind  a feeling for the importance of study of history. I wish you great success in further research and creative work, states the letter.

In Tuva, the collection of means to make a gilded statue of the Buddha continues. These days, a team of the famous group "Tyva Kyzy" has been preparing for a charity concert. The "daughters of Tuva" will be performing with the remarkable Tuvan-Austrian singer Saiyn-Khoo Namchylak.  Today, on 23 April, she has left for Kyzyl from Austria, where is her permanent residence.

-  It is not our first joint project, - Choduraa Tumat, the leader of  the group told the "Tuvinskaya Pravda"  correspondent.

-  We have the experience of performing together with her in the UNCOOL festival in 2007 in Switzerland. Her singing technique, is really without precedent, it is not in vain that she has been called "The magic voice of Tuva. She responded to our request very actively, and her pay will also go into the fund for building the statue.

International competition in national types of wrestling will take place in 2011 in the capital of Tuva. This decision was reached by sports authorities of Tuva and Mongolia, which is the main initiator of this competition, as announced by the first deputy of the minister of youth and sports affairs Radislav  Navazhal, who conducted the talks by assignment by the head of the republic Sholban Kara-ool.

 The Mongolians agreed with the Tuvan premier's proposal to annex this event with other activities of the main holiday of Tuva, the Day of the Republic, which will celebrate the 90^th anniversary of the founding of the republic.

It is proposed to secure the participation of the strongest wrestlers from Mongolia, Inner Mongolia (China), Russian regions Altai, Buryatia, and Kalmykia in the competitions. It is also expected that athletes of the SNG countries, Kazakhstan, Kirgizia and others will come. Altogether 100 masters of  traditional single combat will participate.

A new popular science publication  of Tuvan Institute of Humanitarian Studies (TIGI)

"Keepers of Spiritual culture", a collection of  articles by a candidate of philological sciences,  the chief scientific worker of the folklore section Zoya Samdan. The book has been published with the support of the Ministry of  education and studied of Republic Tyva. The chief editor is Doctor of philology K. A. Bicheldei, and the reviewer is Doctor of historical sciences M. B. Kenin-Lopsan.

The author offers a collection of articles to the readers' attention concerning the life and art of  the carriers and keepers of Tuvan spiritual culture - S. A. Saryg-ool, M. B. Kenin-Lopsan, A. K. Kalzan, Yu. L. Aranchyn, and O. K. Daryma, as well as of many experts in Tuvan folklore.

These portraits and thoughts on the ways of the preservation and development of  Tuvan spiritual culture were written during the past decade and published in various collections, journals and periodicals of the republic.

Books are eternal. No Internet can ever compete with a product of the printing press - it is forever. For posterity. There is an  event that represents a milestone for Tuva, and for Turkologists of the entire country and of the world: a massive work of a collective of authors has just been published - Nikolai Katanov's "Sketches of the Uriangkhai country". It is a diary of Nikolai Fedorovich's travels "undertaken in 1889 on assignment by the Imperial Academy of Sciences and the Imperial Russian geographic Society" - an extremely interesting record about the ways of  life and existence of the ancestors of today's Tuvans. The notes were recorded daily during the exploration of the center of ASIA, FROM 13 March TO 3O August. And already one month after the end of the expedition, on 26 September, the manuscript was ready for publication.  But…

Specialists from Tibet are coming to Republic Altai to study  hidden Buddhist spiritual treasures, or terma of the earth, which were found there in 2002 in a cave.

On Sunday of 24 April they will research in Barnaul these cultic objects, which have been kept for all these years at the building of  the Ongudai district administration of Republic Altai, to identify them and to come to an expert opinion.

Among the objects found in the Ongudai district, beside the terma texts, are rosaries, a bell, two vajras (a sacred weapon of Hindu and Buddhist mythology), fabric for wrapping the book, with a buckle in a vajra form, and two figures of lions or celestial dogs.

These discovered treasures have a great scientific value and can help to study the spread of Buddhism in Gornyi Altai, as the ministry of tourism of Republic Altai believes.

Dear colleagues! International Scientific-Practical Conference on «Modern Turcology: Development Trends and Current Challenges» has been scheduled for May 17-18, 2011 at the Kazakh State Women’s Pedagogical University, organized in honor of the 20 th anniversary of the Republic of Kazakhstan and in memory of the 80^th anniversary of the well-known scientist and turcologist, Doctor of philological science, Professor Abzhan Kuryshzhanuly. Conference Sessions include: General issues of Turcology, Runic scripts studies and history of Turkic languages, Issues of Turkic terminology, History and culture relations of the Turkic people: issues of Anthropology and Ethnography, Succession of the elements of world linguistic layout in the old Turkic and modern Turcology, Turcology teaching challenges and particular Turkic languages, Current challenges of modern Turkic languages and Literature.

According to legend, Genghis-khan was buried in a place which he himself pointed out, on the slope of one of the peaks of the mountain massif  Burkhan-Khaldun - a sacred mountain of ancient Mongols. This mountain once save young Temujin's life, hiding him in its inaccessible thickets and crevices; he always came here before  portentous events for the support of the supreme deity of the Mongols, Eternal Blue Heaven, a deity living on mountain peaks, among holy springs. Three rivers originate here - Onon, Kerulen and Tuula.

"One day, hunting in these places, Genghis-Khan stopped to rest under the crown of a huge lone  tree.  Having spent some time there in a condition of  semi-forgetfulness, then he got up and said that he would like to be buried precisely there when he dies," - states the legend.

Novosibirsk Akademgorodok archeologists put on exhibit for public viewing a carpet embroidered two thousand years ago. This carpet was found in 2009 in a kurgan of the nomadic empire of Hsiung-Nu  in the Noin-Ula mountains on the territory of Mongolia, 120 kilometers of Ulan-Bator. The fabric embroidered with human figures was lying at the bottom of the burial pit, which had been robbed already in the ancient times. Restoration of the artifact,  undertaken by restorers of the Moscow Kremlin museums took more than one year.

- The archeologists successfully recovered these masterpieces,  then in the shape of clumps of mud, from a depth of 10-12 meters. Things like that are not in the Louvre, nor in the Hermitage, - says the deputy director of Institute of Archeology and ethnography of SO RAN, academician Vyacheslav Molodin.

Today was the last day of the International exhibition of  tourist and recreational services and airlines, "Tursib-2011", which took place in MVD "Sibirskaya Yarmarka" in Novosibirsk. Among the multitude of Russian and  international participants, the Tuvan presentation booth was visibly different in its exotic appearance, at the very least to visitors who are used to relax on sandy beaches of foreign countries. A traditional Tuvan yurt, with interior furnishings, masters of the yurt wearing national attire and a shaman with a drum presented an inimitable image of Tuva. People approached, examined the yurt with interest, took photographs.

To top it off, the well-coordinated work of Tuvan tour operators did not leave the visitors indifferent.

Constant raids by the anti-poacher tam "Irbis" with the support of WWF  facilitated the removal of the menace to snow leopards in the southern part of the "Sayano-Shushenskiy" nature  sanctuary. The anti-poacher brigade "Irbis" is a joint group of inspectors from several neighboring specially protected territories of the southern Krasnoyarsk Krai,, Khakassia and Tuva. This group has been receiving permanent support by WWF  for the struggle with illegal hunting in snow leopard habitats for the past several years. A raid of the active group in February-March allowed the group to encompass the territory on the border of the "Sayano-Shushenskiy" nature sanctuary, the protected zone and adjacent areas of "Khan-Deer" area and preserve "Ubsunur depression" (Tuva).