Buryatia, Russia – Map, Geography & Cultural

The Republic of Buryatia is in southern Eastern Siberia running along the eastern part of the deepest freshwater lake on Earth, Lake Baikal. The size of Montana (351,300 square kilometers) in border to border size, it is an area that borders on steppes, mountain ranges, and forested taiga. The republic borders Irkutsk Oblast to the north, Zabaykalsky Krai to the east, and Tuva Republic to the west, and Khovsgol, Selenge and Bulgan provinces in Mongolia to the south.

Buryatia is economically dependent on such spheres as mining, agriculture, tourism, and transportation. Goods between Europe and East Asia flow in the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Mongolian railways and meet in Ulan-Ude. In the meantime, Lake Baikal is the destination that catches the attention of scientists and tourists all over the world as it is the only place with such unique biodiversity and clear waters. Buryatia is an important bridge in history, the environment and post-modern development in its strategic location, with rich natural and cultural environments.

History

Archaeological sources confirm that people lived in the area of modern Lake Baikal at least since the Palaeolithic, and stone tools dating back to more than 40,000 years exist. By the start of the first millennium BC, nomadic people like the Slab Grave culture; the ancestors of modern Buryats roamed the lands, leaving burial mounds spotted on the steppe. Since the 3rd century BC, the Xiongnu confederation made its influence, which was succeeded by Turkic khaganates and the mighty Genghis Khan and his heirs' Mongol Empire starting in the 13th century.

During the medieval, the region was under the influence of the Northern Yuan dynasty and other Oirat and Buryat principalities. Tibetan Buddhism was brought to the country by Buddhist missionaries in the 17th and 18th centuries, during which local datsans (monasteries) were established and shamanistic practices were incorporated. The mid-1600s Russian Cossack expeditions encroached from the east against fur trades as well as tribute inversions (yasak), and in 1666 established the post of Udinskoye. By the 1720s, Kyakhta had become one of the most important trade centres on the Russo-Chinese border that organised trade in tea, silk, and fur.

Empress Elizabeth legitimised Buddhist practices in Siberia in 1741, and in 1764, the first Pandito Khambo Lama was elected, thus setting the spiritual leadership of the area. There was slow Russian colonization, missionary work, and road building connecting Baikal with Irkutsk and Minusinsk in the 19 th century.

After the Revolution of 1917, Buryat nationalists, White Russians, Japanese interventionists, and Bolsheviks were fighting to rule the area. Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created in 1923 by the Soviet government. Collectivisation and any purges of the 1930s destroyed most Buryat intellectuals and many monasteries due to the early collectivisation. Buryats fought in the Red Army during World War II, and the local industry contributed to the development.

Industrialisation after the war gathered pace in the 1960s and 1970s with the Baikal-Amur Mainline and the Gusinoozersk power station. With the disintegration of the USSR in 1990, Buryatia proclaimed its sovereignty and introduced the existing constitution in the year 1994. Today, it is keeping a balance between regional autonomy and integration into the Russian Federation.

Culture

The cultural landscape in Buryatia is comprised of the mosaic of the nomadic culture, the Mongolic culture, and the Russian culture. According to history, this kind of movement of herding was done seasonally, where they followed livestock to the summer alpine pasture and the winter downhill lowlands. After all, the Buryats live in permanent buildings now, but the ceremonies and festivals do use yurts as a representation of the life of their ancestors.

Sagaalgan, the Buryat New Year, which is held in late January or February, is a good example of such continuity. The festival, characterised by white birch ornaments, feasts and horse races, wrestling and archery competitions, is a combination of shamanic rites and Buddhist prayers. Even at the Naadan sports festival, there is a display of older competitions which include horse racing on rough landscape, wrestling of ankle bones, and the knucklebone dice game.

Music and performance art also symbolise strong connections with the steppe. Gesar Khan and the shaman invoked in the epic recitals are accompanied by the morin khuur (horsehead fiddle) that produces a haunting two-string tone. Throat singing (khoomei) imitates the picture of the wind through grass and the sound of the walls of a canyon. Modern groups combine these trends with the motives of rock music, jazz, and classical and export Buryat identity to the international stages.

Tibetan Buddhism and shamanism of the locals go hand in hand. Another site of Buddhism in Russia was founded in 1945, near Ulan-Ude; the Ivolginsky Datsan acts as the seat of the Buddhist religion in Russia; the present Khambo Lama resides here. Shamans, referred to as bokh and amber, observe ritual places at sacred groves, mountain wells and burial kurgans and perform rites in honour of nature spirits (etei) and group prosperity.

Food courses resemble bygone shepherding and farming customs. Pork, beef, and mutton are well represented: there are buuz, steamed dumplings; khuushuur, pan-fried filled pockets of meat; and others. The dairy products, especially airag (fermented mare milk), cottage cheeses and butter sculptures, represent a culture sensitive to herd management. It is possible to find handcrafted products: embroidered deels (overcoats), silver jewellery made with inserts of coral and turquoise, felt wall hangings, carved wooden objects, all show a reflective understanding of local materials and local motifs based on Buddhism, shamanism and the animal myths.

Language

Buryat is a close relative of Mongolian dialects in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, China and is a member of the Central Mongolic branch. Buryat is historically an oral language, though it began to be written in the 19th century on the Classical Mongolian script. Latin-based alphabet was evident in 1930, and Cyrillic orthography in 1939 came along with three additional letters to distinguish vowel contrasts.

Buryats' territorial extension is characterised by five main dialects: Khori (western Baikal coast), AlarTunka (southwest coast of the lake), EkhiritBulagat (Ust-Orda region), Bargut (Hulunbuir), Lower Uda (Nizhneudinsk environments). The standardised literary norm that is taught, produced in the media and in print is based on Khori.

Years of Soviet integrationist policies have placed Buryats in the countryside and domestic domains. Government, school and mass media were Russian-dominated, and this made UNESCO rank Buryat as categorically endangered. Since the 1990s, local governments and non-governmental organisations have organised revitalisation programs: those that are organised in Buryat language, teacher training programs, Buryat language radio and TV broadcasts, and digital dictionaries. Literary contests and cultural festivals are additional ways to encourage participation of youth.

The contemporary literature and journalism of the Buryats is focused on topical issues: urbanisation, identity, environmental care; re-telling of the national epic poems and narratives is used to retain the elements of the national folklore. Interactive academic relations among universities of Buryatia, Mongolia and Inner Mongolia allow comparative investigation and guarantee viability and reorientation of the language in the globalized world.

Geography

The terrain of Buryatia is defined by such locations as the intersection of Siberian highlands with the mountain system of the East Sayan and Khentii and the Lake Baikal basin. Mountainous or hilly terrain occupies about 80 per cent of the republic, having an elevation of 455 m above sea level to 3,491 m at Munku-Sardyk in Eastern Sayan Range. Baikal Mountains form along the northeastern shore of the lake, and the southern uplands are made up of Ulan-Burgas and Selenga Highlands.

The climate in Buryatia is very continental. The winter season starts off as early as November and continues until the middle of April, characterised by clear skies, low humidity rates and average low temperatures in January at -27 C in Ulan-Ude and even lower in valley floors. Summer is June to August; the average highs throughout July are +17 °C, averaged out by altitude and closeness to Baikal. The rain also falls more/less during the summer time, providing more than 60 per cent of all the yearlong rain throughout the year, promoting dense grasslands and forests.

Mid-elevations (taiga houses) include Siberian larch, Siberian pine, Siberian spruce, Siberian fir and cedar. Steppe grasslands can be found in river terraces and intermontane basins, whereas the higher slopes are crowned by shrub thickets and alpine meadows. Buryatia is also at a biogeographic crossroad, with Siberian species (elk, sable, musk deer), steppe inhabitants (Corsac fox, marmot) as well as high-mountain wildlife (snow leopard, Altai argali). The special ecosystem of Lake Baikal protects more than 1,700 endemic species comprising including the nerpa (Baikal seal) and omul fish.

The territory of Buryatia contains about 9 per cent of the region under protection. The Baikal Nature Reserve and the Barguzin and Tunkinsky National Park preserve old-growth forest and mountain tundra, as well as wetlands. Habitats are secured at Transbaikal Highland by Zabaikalsky National Park. Ecological issues such as illegal logging, poaching, mining effluents and tourist pressures generate regional initiatives in eco-monitoring programs, community-based conservation and sustainability advancement.

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