People of Tuva
Anthropology, Shamanism, and More

• Australian network SBS TV produced a report about Tuvan shamans for their current affairs program Dateline.
   

• The Siberian Studies Centre of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle (Germany) has launched its website at www.eth.mpg.de.
  Go to the site and select the option "Siberian Studies Centre" on the menu on the left hand side.
   

• An interesting article by Paul Goble, 20th Century’s Generational Divides Shaping Tuva’s Future discusses exactly what the title describes.
   

• Photo agency Magnum presents a photo essay on shamanism by Abbas.  Outstanding!
   

• Here is a copy of a great article on the reindeer herders, courtesy of Tuva-Online.
   

• Galsan Tschinag's book The Blue Sky is now available in English from Milkweed editions:   www.milkweed.org.
  
  The debut of a major voice in contemporary world literature.
  In the high Altai Mountains of northern Mongolia, the nomadic Tuvan people’s ancient way of life collides with the pervasive influence of modernity as seen through the eyes of a young shepherd boy. The confrontation comes in stages. First his older siblings leave the family yurt to attend a distant boarding school. Then the boy’s grandmother dies, and with her the boy’s connection to the tribes. But the greatest tragedy strikes when his dog, Arsylang—“all that was left to me”—dies after ingesting poison set out by the boy’s father to protect his herd from wolves. “Why is it so?” he cries out in despair to the Heavenly Blue Sky, but he is answered only by the silence of the wind.
  Rooted in the oral traditions of the Tuvan people and their epics, Galsan Tschinag's novel weaves the timeless story of a boy poised on the cusp of manhood with it the tale of a people's vanishing way of life.