Tuva.Asia / The New Research of Tuva

International dance festival in Cheonan, South Korea, has finished. According to the results of three stages of the contest,  the ten finalists chosen were: Kosovo, Slovakia, Indonesia, Tuva, Guam, Uzbekistan, Russia (Khabarovsk), Poland, Mexico and Philippines. The first place went to Philippines, second to Uzbekistan, and the third - to Tuva. However, the Tuvan ensemble feels morally the winner: after all, there were teams from 23 countries in the competition!

Congratulations to our artists! 

On 27 September, at the V. Kok-ool Tuvan Theater of Music and Drama, a meeting took place with the group "Hikashu", meaning "Elegy" in translation. The leader of this Japanese group, Makigami Koichi, has been to Tuva many times, and this time he brought the entire group with him: Sakaide-san, Mita-san, Shimizu-san, Sato-san (Translator's note: Sakaide Masami, Mita Freeman, Shimizu Kazuto, Sato Masaharu respectively).

The meeting was organized by the Center of Tuvan-Japanese friendship "Kargyraa". The Center, opened since march of this year, works closely with Japanese center "Khoomei", headed by Makigami Koichi himself.

"Hikashu" is very popular in Japan, USA, and other countries; right now the group is touring in Russia.

The festival which began on 28 September, is gathering speed: performance after performance, the first stage is finished. Tuvan ensemble "Sayany"  has performed "Dembildei", "Ezir Kara", "Vereteno", "Shaman", and "Naadym". Aside from the contest performances, which brought in about one thousand spectators every day, the festival participants also bring pleasure to their hosts with performances on small stages, "Sayany" with a new number and new costumes every time. During a10-minute show, they presented "Doshpuluurum", "Shaman", and "Oitulaash", and during a15-minute show, "Ezir Kara", "Shaman", "Zvenyashchaya nezhnost" and "Oitulaash".

The film "Disappearance of a witness"  turned into a trampoline for Papa that gave him the final boost into cinematographic Olympus. Akira Kurosawa, the director of world-renown, when he saw the movie, cast the Tuvan actor Maxim Munzuk for the title role of his film "Dersu Uzala".

Papa used to tell us that Kurosawa, after reading Vladimir Arseniev's books "Po Ussuriyskomu krayu" (In the Ussuri land) and "Dersu Uzala"  was so absorbed with the image of Dersu, that he simply dreamed about bringing the books to the screen, and he was happy when such an opportunity presented itself.

The filming of the Soviet-Japanese co-production film took place in 1974 in the Ussuri taiga, in the district of  the town of Arsenievo; Maxim Munzuk received the honorary citizenship of this town on 23 October 1975, after the filming was finished.

Yesterday the official opening ceremony of the International dance Festival in South Korea took place. The ceremony began with performance by Korean artists, who performed vividly and professionally, introducing the participants in the festival with their dance art. The mayor of the city and the president of the city council presented good wishes to the contestant collectives. Leaders of the collectives also presented greetings. The Tuvans brought a present for the mayor: national men's' hat. The artistic leader presented a speech, which divulged the depth of vivid folk culture of Tuva.

In the next few days, the contest and other performances will begin, which will be observed by the citizens of Cheonan.

My childhood impression: Mama and Papa were real wizards - they could turn into anybody they wanted!

We children were the witnesses of the birth of these transformations. They were complicated births: sometimes there were arguments during the rehearsal process, which sometimes, even though rarely, turned into quarrels.

"Why are they so tormented about it? Why?" - I found the answer to my childish question already as a grown-up, in Papa's notes:

"There is this rule - any role, even without words, should be wrung out , to the maximum of all the possibilities; any role should be played to the utmost."

And that is how they played.

Early fall in the republic was marked by visits by high-ranking spiritual personages. in early September, Patriarch of Moscow and Whole Russia Kirill visited Tuva. last week, the Supreme lama of Kalmykia Telo Tulku Rinpoche  took part in rituals  performed in Kyzyl by monks of Tibetan monastery Gyudmed. I had the good fortune to meet with Telo Tulku Rinpoche, talk with him, and ask him several questions.

End of summer 1935. Maxim Munzuk brought Chairman of the Soviet of Ministers, Sat Churmit-Dazhy to Chadan. And while the minister was deciding important state matters, he decided to work on his own no less important personal matter: to offer his hand and heart to Kara-kys.

He knew that his beloved was very close by - in Bora-Khol. A mass campaign in liquidation of illiteracy was in progress in the republic, and then student from Kyzyl co-educational school was teaching the local people to read and write.

He decided to make an impressive entrance - not on foot, not on a horse, but behind the wheel. However, he did not risk taking his boss's car; he talked a local tractor driver to lend him the iron horse for one evening. The tank driver training he received in Moscow came in useful: he could easily handle any technology that was then available.

From 7 to 10 October 2011, on the invitation of the Gosduma delegate Larisa Shoigu and with the support of the Foundation for  preservation of cultural and philosophical traditions  of Tibetan Buddhism "Save Tibet ", the famous physician and Buddhist monk Barry Kerzin has been visiting Tuva.

B. Kerzin is an American, who received classical medical education in the USA.  In his own word, he had experienced many sufferings in his life since young age: he had been seriously ill, had been comatose, his mother died and then his young wife… Then he began his path of spiritual search, which took him to Tibet and  turned him to Buddhist philosophy.

"Life can't be stopped, that means that time can't be stopped either. The saying - a time for everything - is not in vain. It really is like that: everybody is born in his own time and lives in his own times.

Do we have the right not to respect the past times? Do we have the right to pass judgment on the past?

Do we have the right not to forgive mistakes?

We have no such right. But we do have the right to analyze, to make choices and to prevent repeating mistakes. And mainly - to remember and to keep."

 This quotation comes from Maxim Munzuk's notes from 1994. He had such a habit to first concentrate the ideas on small fragments, then to develop his ideas based on these notes on  large pages.

A huge kurgan wit a diameter of more than 100 meters, where, possibly, the very same people are resting who raised Arzhaan-2  - that is the so-called elite funerary-memorial complex Chinge-Tei I.  South-Siberian archeological expedition headed by Konstantin Vladimirovich Chugunov has been occupied with study of this historical monument already for three years.

This year, 25 scientists have been working on excavations of this monument. So far, only a small proportion of the work has been finished. In three years, a small part on the edge of the kurgan has been dug up, it is still far from the center, and to excavate that, technology has to be brought in.  Financing of the project, performed by the State hermitage is not that large, and the work moves only slowly. However, the scientists are glad: nobody hurries them, and it is possible to study the object in  scrupulous detail.  There is plenty to study. The kurgan is interesting both by its structure and by the finds. Chugunov himself speaks of the results of his studies willingly, even though he does not consider them to be something special.

Today Tuva lost one of the most vivid representatives of the traditional school of Tuvan khoomei, the owner of  inimitable performance mastery of kargyraa style, National khoomeizhi of Republic Tyva, Aldyn-ool Sevek. In the words of  musicologist Valentina Suzukei, his manner of throat singing was unique to such an extent that it was unmistakably recognizable, just like Soruktu Kyrgys, Ak-ool Kara-Sal, Maxim Dakpai, Kyzyl-ool Sanchy Khunashtar-ool Oorzhak, Gennady Tumat and many of our prominent khoomeizhis.  He was the only khoomeizhi whose performance so far nobody in the world could copy or imitate, despite all striving.

Today's issue of  "Russian reporter" journal, which compiled a rating of the ten most successful ethnic musicians, had a pleasant surprise for fans of Tuvan music. The boom of ethno-music or "world music" took place in the entire world in the 90's; the main supplier of stars of this genre to the world scene turned out to be the disintegrated Soviet Union. As the author of the material, Natalia Zaitseva, believes, this was due to a coincidence of two factors:  the fact that the borders opened, and a search for national identity of the populations of the former empire. At the same time, national traditions, which grew from the fragments of USSR, often first developed  in the West; then the musicians by origin from the former Soviet republics toured in Russia - already in the capacity of stars from abroad. 

One of the most vivid representatives of the traditional school of Tuvan khoomei, who is the possessor of  inimitable mastery of performance in the kargyraa style, is the National khoomeizhi of Republic Tyva Aldyn-ool Sevek. 

His way of throat-singing performance is unique to such an extent that it is unmistakably recognizable, just as Soruktu Kyrgys, Ak-ool Kara-Sal, Maxim Dakpai, Kyzyl-ool Sanchy, Khunashtar-ool Oorzhak, Gennady Tumat, as well as many others among our prominent khoomeizhis were unmistakably recognizable. The it was impossible to mistake the performance of each of these khoomeizhis with that of anybody else. It is precisely the recognizability and uniqueness of the manner of performance that is the most highly prized quality of traditional khoomei, which, unfortunately, is being gradually lost in our times. 

President Elbegdorj has walked in the steps of his country's history.

Born into a nomad family, he spent his young years on horseback as a herdsman. It was a life he loved with his parents and brothers. He could have stayed but change was sweeping across Mongolia.

After a stint in the army and university in Ukraine to study journalism he was swept up in his country's revolution over throwing decades of communist rule.

Now years later as President, the 48-year-old Elbegdorj is retracing his steps.