Tuva.Asia / The New Research of Tuva

Practically the entire collective of Khakass Philharmony participated in the program of Days of Khakass Culture in Tuva, where it was associated with the Day of National Unity. Now even many Tuvan children know what a chatkhan is. It is a Khakass musical instrument in the shape of an elongated rectangular box with horse-hair strings stretched length-wise; it is a symbol of the Khakass nation. It was precisely a chatkhan which was used to accompany the heroic epics, “alyptyg nymakhi”. It is believed that chatkhan is an instrument equal in power to the shaman’s drum, and if necessary can be successfully used for the same purpose. Another favorite Khakass instrument, which has not lost its authority to this day, is khomus - a remote relative of Russian balalaika. Just like the chatkhan, it has been known since ancient times: the first mentions of  khomus date to the beginning of our era.

This year, the historical work “The Secret History of the Mongols” which was written in 1240, turned 770 years. In the framework of the celebrations of this anniversary, on November 8-9 a scholarly conference took place in the capital, organized by AN of Mongolia, together with MonGU, Scientific-technical University and Museum of national history. About 30 Mongolian scholars and 8 foreign mongolists presented scholarly research papers on the subject of this unique document. During the conference at the Museum of National History an exhibition of  works of Mongolian craftsmen and artists, as well as emigrants from the Autonomous district of Inner Mongolia, China, was opened. The emigrants presented their own version of “The Secret History of the Mongols”, transcribed on silk paper in artistic calligraphy. There are statistical data that this work has been translated into 20 languages of 30 countries of the world, and was published 200 times. The most popular variant among Mongolian readers is the translation of academician Ts. Damdinsuren. This version was published in an issue of 180 thousand.

-  What does the Direction of specially protected natural territories of Republic Tyva, that you are the head of, do, Chaizu Suvan-oolovna?

We protect the natural complexes of the prohibited territories, and monitor the condition of their resources. We do that by patrolling those territories, performing raids, and make sure that the laws are observed. Each of the protected territories has its own regime of protection. Here in Tuva we have fifteen protected territories and one natural park. We have 19 inspectors protecting them in the field. The territories have different areas, but the way it works out is that  whether it is 100 thousand hectares or 30 thousand, one person has to do the work. If you put together the total area of all the protected territories  -  700 thousand hectares  -  and average it out, each inspector is responsible for more than 35 thousand hectares on the average. That is very much.

Alexandra David-Neel is known as the author of several popular books about esoteric subjects, the best known of which is “Magic and Mystery in Tibet”(1931). However, there is not much that is generally known about the personality of this admirable woman. She was born in 1868 in Paris. The little girl started showing musical abilities very early in life. As she grew up, she became quickly famous as a singer, and shone on the stage of Paris Opera. Then she made a fortunate marriage. But when she turned 43, David-Neel’s life drastically changed - she was diagnosed with throat cancer. The physicians gave her a terminal prognosis.

Ulyana Mongush, a scholar, has completed a titanic work, having collected under one cover all the interesting facts about the life of the legendary Tuvan khoomeizhi, leader oft eh group Huun-Huur-Tu, Kaigal-ool Khovalyg, who celebrated his 50^th birthday earlier this year. The book “The Willful Khovalyg and Huun-Huur-Tu was published I two languages - Russian and Tuvan. There is also a short summary of the book in English.  “Khurtuun Khovalyg bile Khun-Khurtu” quotes the rich speech of the throat singer, who has a remarkable sense of humor and knows all the intricacies of Tuvan folk traditions.

She is able to do many things that are beyond the imagination of  an ordinary woman:  she climbs mountains, understands the peculiarities of a steppe ecosystem, easily reads the taiga like a book, hunts armed poachers, and plays billiards. 27 people work under her leadership. Twenty-three of them are men who are sparse of word and quick to act, who do not sit in offices, but perform their work of  guarding the protected territories in their care. Animals are not afraid to meet them, but hardened poachers and criminals are; to win their sincere respect is a very rare thing. Outwardly fragile but hard inside, she believes that everybody needs the protection of the Direction of specially protected natural territories of  Republic Tyva that she leads: forest and water, hare and bear,  little fish and small birds, but most of all - people themselves. Her family speaks in four languages, but the are rarely all in one place. Her husband is the American scientist Brian Donahoe, who is also an ecologist.

— Kherel-ool Dazhy-Namchalovich, how do you manage to combine two such different types of activity – mental and physical? — It is always necessary to combine mental load with physical. I have many exercise machines at home. Sport and mental work should always sensibly, methodically alternate, otherwise the person who does not exercise will not be able to work productively, and especially will not be any good at scientific and research activities. Mental work uses a tremendous number of nerve centers, but during physical work they rest. It is a purely physiological process. When a person exercises energetically, the blood circulates, purifies and oxygenates, then it goes to the brain and the brain also recuperates. As a result, the capacity for prolonged mental work and the quality of thinking improve.

Over the past several decades, the Asian part of the world has been taken over by a veritable Genghis-Khan-mania.  Especially residents of Central Asia are given to worshipping and honoring of the great military leader, who conquered half of the Earth’s globe. These areas felt an acute deficiency of real, not mythical historical heroes, after the Soviet idols had been dethroned. Some days ago, I noticed a curious announcement saying that thousands of well-to-do Kazakhs expressed a wish to undergo quite expensive DNA analysis, in order to find out whether, by chance, they might not be descendants of the founder of the Golden Horde. In Ulan-Bator, which I had the luck to visit recently, I did not notice any special fanaticism relating to the khan of all khans on the part of the Mongols.

Kungurtug is now a name of a small settlement located in south-east Tuva at the elevation of 1583 m above sea level. Photographs were presented to Pravda.ru by members of expedition “Por-Bazhyn 2007”.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama spent the last full day of his current visit to Atlanta by participating in three different events that symbolized his commitments as also his hope that the current generation will make this century a peaceful one.  In the morning he first addressed the participants of the International Tibetan Buddhist Conference in Emory University’s Conference Center before going to the Woodruff PE Center for an interactive session with students and faculty of Emory.  In the afternoon, he participated in a conversation with artists about the role of the arts in promoting a compassionate society. The program began with the chanting of an invocation by a group of Drepung Loseling monks.

Pravda.ru publishes photo-albums of travels, including those in Tuva. One of them is dedicated to Por-Bazhyn. Every photograph is accompanied by interesting commentary. In the south-west of Republic Tuva, high in the mountains, on an island in the middle of Tere-Khol lake, there are ruins of an ancient Uighur fortress, which was built in VIII century C.E. it is one of the most mysterious archeological monuments of the world.

 

The ancient Tuvan song 'Chyraa-Khoor,' explains Radik Tyulyush of the Tuvan band Huun Huur Tu, tells the story of a man riding his horse – a yellow trotter, as the title translates. "It's a very good horse for traveling, and he took it from the west of Tuva to the east of Tuva, traveling around and giving the names of everything – names of the mountains, names of the forests," he says over the phone from his home in Kyzyl, the capital of the Russian Federation republic that sits just north of Mongolia. Even if you don't know the words, the music paints a stirring picture. "That is a very old melody," says Tyulyush, the newest and, at 35, the youngest member of the group, who plays traditional flute and joins his bandmates in the signature Tuvan throat singing. "Very, very old – 13 or 14 centuries. Very old music."

He gets up every morning at 4 AM and sits down to work – he reads, he writes. Then he does his morning exercises, trains, and actively stretches his muscles. Afterwards he eats breakfast, packs up and goes to work.

As soon as he shows up in the building, everybody hears his thundering voice, and his boiling energy does not let anybody rest. Only for one hour during lunch can his subordinates take a free breath, because then this passionate workaholic removes himself to his home, needing to fortify himself with a short nap. But afterwards – back into action: to attentively observe the teaching process, to tutor students, to encourage instructors, and to bring up the pupils.

On October 14, a multi-media video-bridge Moscow – Kazan – Kiev took place, involving the theme: “Did the Tatar – Mongol yoke exist?” Historians from Kazan, Moscow and Kiev participated in this conference. The video-bridge was organized by IA Tatar-Inform and RIA Novosti. The Ukrainian participants were the first ones to speak. Historian Vladimir Belinskiy explained that Rus (old name of Russia) was a part of the Golden Horde. “And the Russian principalities were ruled by Genghisids. There was no yoke, the Russian principalities were an integral part of the Golden Horde,” – he said. Expert of the corporation of strategic consulting “Gardarika”, politologist Konstantin Matvienko offered information that Kievan Russian Orthodox episcops represented Batu-Khan in Byzantium.  “This does not look much like occupation, - he emphasized. – And Alexander Nevskiy fought against the Crusaders ion the side of the Golden Horde.  The Golden Horde was the precursor of Russian state.

15 October 2010 - On his last full day in Palo Alto, His Holiness  participated in the full day academic conference on “Scientific Explorations of Compassion and Altruism.” This conference brought together distinguished researchers under the auspices of the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) to examine issues such as, what are the key evolutionary and neurobiological underpinnings of compassion and altruism? What compels us to take risks at a cost to act on behalf of others? How does one potentiate such behavior? The Conference focused on new findings in psychology and the neurosciences, including the emerging field of neuroeconomics. It was divided into four sessions, two in the morning and two in the afternoon.