Friday, December 06, 2013

Let's all move to KYZYL

Such news had to come from Portland, popular as the culture destination of the U.S, to even the boy sitting somewhere in Asia. Tuva - bucketlist item #16 - definitely has a growing pull. All was well until the spring of two-thousand-and-twelve and then I learnt about Tuva. It is a 'brilliant' land, rich of geographical, cultural, and aural features.

The aural allure, especially, is what the region is steeped in. Nothing has attracted people to it more than Tuvan Throat Singing, which was what the Shamans - the ethereal medium between the spirit and the living world - would practise to influence, and hence control the populace. Now that the world has found it, it has a spiking reaction of saving it. There was an engrossing documentary Genghis Blues on Paul Pena, a San Fran blind bluesman who learns this enchanting art, and ultimately competes in TYVA to win the first prize (in his respective division).

The region of Tuva itself has a mystical allure. It is a pea wedged two mattresses - of Russia and Mongolia. It is a boiler-plate and a melting-pot for a lot of the culture. Tuva is a state that the Russians 'colonized', not militarily occupied, which is what they usually would do; they adopted a more steady and sensitive approach. It comes off as a land of some very hardy folks who survived through and maintained an organic yet highly efficient and prosperous society right into the 20th century. And they love horses!

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