Dr. Dorzhu Kuular, the Chair of the Tuvan Literature Department at Tuvan State University, is celebrating his 70th birthday today. A long-time devotee of Tuvan folklore, Dr. Kuular defended his thesis "Formation of Tuvan Poetry" in 1969, and in 2000 earned his doctorate in philological science when he presented "Tuvan Folklore in the Context of Central Asian Oral Poetic Traditions". His lectures on Tuvan verse formation and Oriental Literature are very popular among students at the university.