Tuva.Asia / The New Research of Tuva

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.

A miracle? Yes, to a certain extent it is a miracle. The group performs very rarely in Eastern Siberia, and  in Russia in general. It is not surprising that even professional musicians in Buryatia do not know Albert Kuvezin, and if they have heard of him,  it is only  in  connection with world rock-festivals and European charts.

However, Albert Kuvezin's name is well known in Germany and Belgium, Spain and France, USA and Canada.  Already by the late 90's, "YAT-KHA" participated in  world tours with some of the best known American and European rock groups. That is super-level!  All concert halls of "Carnegie Hall" class! There were recordings of discs in Toronto and London, films, clips and soundtracks in Japan, France, Hong-Kong.

The condition of the snow leopard population in the south part of Shapshal ridge and on the Tsagaan-Shibetu ridge in Tuva is favorable, but the main menace to the irbis still comes from poachers. That is the conclusion reached by the experts of the expedition which took place with the support of the Altai-Sayan section of WWF after calculation of the numbers of snow leopard and mountain goat. The participants in the project, which ended on March 6, were workers of the "Ubsunur depression" preserve and inspectors from State Committee of Republic Tuva  for Hunting and Fishing. Evidence of irbis activity was found in all the observed river valleys - from the upper Khemchik and Shui, and also in the basins of rivers Toolaityg and Barlyk. 23 tracks were found, which, in the opinion of experts, belong to 15-17 leopards, and one visual sighting of this rare predator was registered.

Today, on 14 March 2011, Japanese musicians came to Kyzyl, despite the destructive earthquake which took place in their native country.

On 18 March 2011 at the House of National Art,  a major concert of Tuvan-Japanese music, "Music without borders", will take place, dedicated to the opening of the regional public organization  "Center of Tuvan - Japanese  friendship "Kargyraa".

The chief founder of this organization is the famous musician Otkun Dostai.

Today is the birthday of the star of world ethnic music -  one of the most internationally famous Tuvan women - talented, inimitable Sainkhoo Namchylak. Lyudmila Okan-oolovna Namchylak - that is the singer's real name - started her life in a small Tuvan village in a family of schoolteachers in 1957. Her parents loved music very much, and played musical instruments when they were young. Her father had a pleasant baritone, and he often performed with musicians - amateurs in concerts in Tuva. Later the family moved to Kyzyl,, because the head of the family received a new position, and became apolitical supervisor of TASS in Tuvan television. On Sundays, he liked to teach his daughter to sing and dance. Her father also often read poems and verse to his wife and daughters.

On March 6, the Maslenitsa festivities will take place in the national park with all the necessary  attributes of  seeing off the Winter:  Russian folk games and contests, including a competition in the fastest eating of pancakes. There will be a pillar with a prize all the way on the top, and the burning of Maslenitsa effigy. The example of  last year, when the Maslenitsa and Shagaa (Lunar new Year) fell to the same date and a competition in "tevek" was held,  turned out to be infectious. It was decided to continue the tradition this year. Only the status of the competition will be designated as "Championship" in "tevek" - the first in history.

Tevek is an international game. It is known that  already in  Old Rus, one of the favorite children's games was "pochekushki", which is an analog of Tuvan  "tevek". A similar type of sport is still widespread in Great Britain, where it is called "socks".

Since December 2010, Tuva has been actively evaluation the question about the form of a planned monument to the founders of Tuvan statehood, which will be 90 years in 2011.

The government of Tuva has set up a curator committee, which is expected to evaluate all the proposals concerning the monument and to make a final decision. But to take personal responsibility for the final decision is not simple, because the opinions are strongly divided: during the process of evaluation, four distinct variants have separated - and the essence of the differences is very simple together or separate.

The event which took place 90 years ago in the small place of Sug-Bazhy, which later became the village Sug-Bazhy of Kaa-Khem district, really was of historical significance.

Respected colleagues!

We are pleased to inform you that a new electronic periodical publication "Medical Anthropology and Bioethics (MAiB) has been registered  in Russia (El No. FS77-39035). This is the first international journal in our country of scientific, educational and popular-science profile, oriented towards the above scientific directions.  Its founder is the institute of RAN of the Order of Friendship of Peoples of the N.N. Miklukho-Maclay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology (119991, Moscow, Leninskiy Prospect, rm. 32A).

Dear friends!

We are happy to present the next issue of the journal  - No. 1 for 2011. The key sections of this issue contain interesting publications:

Article by prominent economist A. D. Begzi about economy of Tuva on the background of  the perspectives of development of Siberia;  another by archeologist D. K. Tulush, about the problems of destruction of monuments of Tuva; and  by the Kazakh scholar  E. I. Rudenko , about  the Indian model of modernization. The issue has a new section for works of pedagogical nature -  "Science of Education", and it started off with three articles by researchers of Tuva. These and other materials are available in this issue of the  journal,  the total volume of which is 316 pages.

 It turns out that the earth has eyes and mouth, and any garbage thrown on it is just like spitting in your mother's face. Such strong opinions have the students of TGU and College of Arts brought from a training session "Tuvan folk etiquette", which took place on February 9. This training, associated with the Day of Learning, took place at the department of psychology and pedagogics of Tuvan State University. The instructor - Tatiana Ondar,  a lecturer at the same department, put all her strength into getting the students to remember the postulates of ancient Tuvan customs for a long time.

Already at the entrance to the auditorium the students encountered an original test -  do you know how to greet someone correctly the Tuvan way?

 If you walk out of the gate of the Holy Trinity church in Kyzyl and walk down the street, towards the Yenisei, soon you will be at the doorstep of the "cabin" of the oldest shaman of Tuva. The street on which you can complete the journey from shamanism to Orthodox Christianity and back in ten minutes carries the name Komsomolskaya. A well-known picture, isn't it?  Gods, values, ideals - everything mixed together in the make-up of a contemporary person…

 

We are happy to invite you to the first virtual exhibition of Professor Yuri Popkov, our editorial board member and Doctor of Philosophy, Deputy Director of the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.  He is an ethno-sociologist, well-known both in Russia and internationally, frequently visiting Tuva with lectures and research expeditions. He is also known as a person with a delicate soul who hardly ever parts with his camera. Although we are not professional photographers, we like the work of our colleague very much. We believe that this is what a true researcher should be like  - always enthusiastic, versatile, creative..

The exhibition is devoted to the Day of Science in Russia.

The Republic of Buryatia, situated in thr Russian Federation beyond the eastern shores of Lake Baikal, is home to a mixture of Russians and indigenous peoples who have rich cultures of their own. The capital of Buryatia, Ulan-Ude, is located some 100 kilometers southeast of Lake Baikal and has about 370,000 inhabitants. The city takes its name from the Uda River, a tributary of the Selenga, which is the primary river flowing into Baikal from the east. The appearance of Russian settlements in the area (known as Trans-Baikal or, more broadly, Dauriia) began in the middle of the 17th century, when Cossacks and other explorers sought new trading routes to China, as well as valuable furs such as sable.

Sankt-Peterburg publishing house "Aleteya. Istoricheskaya khiga" has re-published a monograph by the Candidate of philosophy, editor-in-chief of the "New Research of Tuva"  journal, Chimiza Lamajaa, "Tuva mezhdu proshlym I budushchim" (SPB., 2011), (Tuva between the past and the future). The book was initially published in 2008 at the Moscow publishing center "Voskhod-A'" in a limited small issue, and has since become unobtainable for large strata of readers. This is the first time that the history of Tuva has been analyzed  on such a large scale and on so many different levels by a mind of a philosopher, the first time that new themes have been raised in the humanitarian knowledge about Tuva: the transformation of the traditional society of Tuva, the problems of forcible soviet mobilization of the region, the cultural traumatization of the Tuvans, the various generations of residents of Tuva in 20^th century, the national character of Tuvans, the influences of natural factors on the formation of idiosyncrasies of national character...

Northern Asia is a place that is extremely interesting from the point of  view of genetics. Already in deep ancient times, Europeoid and Mongoloid races met there and their contacts are evidenced by the formation of racial type of significant proportion  of Eurasian population. Beside that, the oldest populations of this region also participated in populating America.. To reconstruct a holistic model of the processes of population of Northern Asia and America, specialists of the Institute of Biological Problems of the North of DVO RAN spent several years analyzing the structure and variety of mitochondrial DNA sequencing of various ethnic groups of Eurasia and America. Their research was supported by grants from RFFI and DVO RAN.