The most illustrious shamaness Ai-Churek has left us, departed for another world…

The life of a shaman is an endless struggle. Shamans, just like fighters in the ring are always in a fighting frame of mind in their spirit, but in contrast to athletes, who fight only in the ring, the Shamans Fight for Life and Strong Blood, and their Fight lasts their Whole Life on Earth and Afterwards…

On November 21, one of the strongest Tuvan shamanesses, Ai-Churek (Moon Heart) passed away in Kyzyl; she was the head of organization of Tuvan shamans “Tos Deer” (Nine Heavens). In the words of one of the members of association “Dungur” (Drum), “Ai-Churek was called by the spirits.” in her opinion, that is also the cause of death. Officially  physicians determined the cause of death as a heart attack. Special funeral ritual is planned fro November 26. “The strongest shamans will gather and perform a mystery”,  as  “Dungur” announced.

Buryat rescuers found a group of six pilgrims on Friday in the area of Lake Belin-Khol of Kaa-Khem district of Tuva, who left two years ago, led by monk Alexander Vorobiev from the Samara region to visit holy places in the Eastern Sayans, as the press-service representative of Emercom Tuva informed RIA Novosti.

In his words, the notice about missing pilgrims was first received only in October. The telephone confidential line was informed that two years ago 50 people from Samara region, led by a monk decided to visit holy places, and some of the pilgrims never returned.

We protect the natural complexes of the prohibited territories, and monitor the condition of their resources. We do that by patrolling those territories, performing raids, and make sure that the laws are observed. Each of the protected territories has its own regime of protection.

Here in Tuva we have fifteen protected territories and one natural park. We have 19 inspectors protecting them in the field.

The territories have different areas, but the way it works out is that  whether it is 100 thousand hectares or 30 thousand, one person has to do the work.

She is able to do many things that are beyond the imagination of  an ordinary woman:  she climbs mountains, understands the peculiarities of a steppe ecosystem, easily reads the taiga like a book, hunts armed poachers, and plays billiards.

27 people work under her leadership. Twenty-three of them are men who are sparse of word and quick to act, who do not sit in offices, but perform their work of  guarding the protected territories in their care. Animals are not afraid to meet them, but hardened poachers and criminals are; to win their sincere respect is a very rare thing.

Larisa Shoigu meeting with colleagues in Medical College, Kyzyl. November, 7 2007- Larisa Kuzhugetovna, why did you choose the profession of a physician?

- I am ashamed to admit it, but it was a spontaneous decision. My friends and classmates, Nina Kravtsova and Tanya Filippova were planning to go to medical school, but I vacillated between journalistics or mathematics, I was interested in the Novosibirsk mathematics school. As far as journalistics were concerned, Papa had a serious talk with me, telling me what I remembered for the rest of my life: as a journalist, you either have to be very good, or you’ll spend the rest of your life correcting proofs. Mathematics somehow spontaneously sloughed off.

So I followed my friends into medicine. And I never regretted it.

But we did not just dive in without thinking. We decided to test ourselves beforehand – can we or can’t we? And we tested ourselves in the morgue.

One of his books became the best children’s book of Russia in 2007. He is a Doctor of Buddhist philosophy, who studied in India at the Drepung Goman University. He graduated from the department of psychology at one of the colleges in Moscow. He has been visiting Tuva these past few days, accompanying the monks from the “Drepung Goman” monastery on their Russian tour. His Buddhist name, which was given to him by the Dalai-Lama XIV, is Tepchoy, which is short for Tenzin Choyzin – Keeper of the dharma and knowledge.

- The stories you write are very unusual. Tell us, please, how you started to write.

- I started writing five years ago, because there was an obvious need for literature for children. Everybody liked the first book, “Stories for baby elephant Lanchenkar”.