Chief Tuvan Shaman Turning 80 Today!

Today the well-known ethnographer, Doctor of Historical Sciences, and merited Tuvan writer Mongush Borakhovich Kenin-Lopsan turned 80 years old. He was born on a shepherd's campsite in a picturesque place called Khondergei in the Dzun-Khem district to a poor arat family. After Tuva joined the USSR in 1944, he was sent to study at Leningrad State University, along with many other talented graduates from his class. The main instructor of the young, inquisitive Tuvans was their lecturer-professor Vladimir Nadeljaev. This first wave of Tuvan intelligentia paved the way for long-term friendship between Tuva and St. Petersburg. Mongush Kenin-Lopsan is one of the founders of Tuvan literature and author of the first Tuvan novels, however his main devotion has always been science. He became the first researcher of Tuvan shamanism. This "un-Soviet" subject could not for a long time be defended as a thesis. The achievement of a degree in Historical Sciences became possible for him after the world recognition of his works. The degree came after the first Tuvan-American seminar on shamanism in 1993, when for the scientific contribution into the study of shamanism he was awarded with the rank of "Living Treasure of the World" by the American Fund for Shamanic Research. Today his works are translated into dozens of languages around the world. A special event in Tuva occured in 2001, with the release of an edition of his biographic novel "Buyan-Badyrgy", devoted to the founder of Tuvan statehood. A new book by Mongush Kenin-Lopsan is under preparation in the Institute of World Literature, entitled "Algyshes (songs) of Tuvan Shamen"