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.

In Krasnoyarsk, the master of throat-singing performs in small halls. But in the USA, his album “Back Tuva Future” got to be among the 10 best, according to “New York Post”, together with John Lennon’s disc.

-  I have traveled throughout the world with concerts, and I have not been only to Australia and Africa.  I can tell you that definitely it is much more complicated to organize a concert in Russia than abroad. The tastes of our young people have been conquered by pop. Of course, that is not our weight category - we work only for real aficionados of national culture, and there are very few of those in Russia.

Practically the entire collective of Khakass Philharmony participated in the program of Days of Khakass Culture in Tuva, where it was associated with the Day of National Unity.

Now even many Tuvan children know what a chatkhan is. It is a Khakass musical instrument in the shape of an elongated rectangular box with horse-hair strings stretched length-wise; it is a symbol of the Khakass nation. It was precisely a chatkhan which was used to accompany the heroic epics, “alyptyg nymakhi”.

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.

Prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin participated in another action associated with protection of animals. The main goal  of the Prime minister’s expedition to the “Ubsunur Depression” nature preserve, located in Republic Tyva, was to verify the areas of habitation of  the snow leopard,  which is listed in the Red Book and under threat of extinction.

The Premier’s visit to the preserve, which is in South Siberia in a depression of the same name near the salt-water lake Ubsu-Nur, took place in September, but the photos first showed up in the media only days ago. On October 30, a series of photos was published by the official site of the Prime Minister.

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.