Rescuers found the body of the shepherd who was buried by the avalanche in Mongun-Taiga district in Tuva on March 20. The search, performed manually, took two days. On March 25, at 14:40 in local time, the body of the herdsman Khaaya Omudan was dug out from under a 1.5 meter layer of compressed snow. The body was extracted after the arrival of public prosecutor’s deputy, and released to family members yesterday.

Today marks 65 years since the day when the legendary tank driver, Khomushku Namgaevich Churgui-ool received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. At the time of victory, he was near Prague, after the war he worked in Tes-Khem kozhuun, in the village of Bert-Dag. He was selected as a delegate to the Supreme Soviet of USSR, and has done much for the village which had become his home. He died in 1978. In the border village Bert-Dag, a monument was raised to the Hero. Today, his compatriots will put a wreath there.

The native of Barun-Khemchik kozhuun, Khomushku Churgui-ool, went to the front as one of the first group of volunteers of TNR. These citizens of Tuva wento pay the international debt: Baikara Biche-ool, Kyrgys Idam, Kongar Tyulyush, Oyun Bartyi-ool, Ondar Dyrtyk, Tyulyush Nursat, Tyulyush Kyzyl-Tac, Tyulyush Shaidun, Tyulyush Uinuk-ool, Khomushku Churgui-ool, and Khovalyg Saiyn-ool.

Today, as part of the cinematic festival “Kinematograficheskii Chekhov” , in the “Klassika” hall (Ezenshtein Library, Moscow), National Artist of SSSR Yuri Solomin and other participants of the film team will introduce the film “Dersu Uzala”(Mosfilm 1975), based on the writer and traveler Vladimir Arseniev’s book of the same name. The film showing is dedicated to the 100^th anniversary of the great Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa.

Tuvan national instruments became the foundation of the Siberian collection of the State ethnographic museum of Warsaw. The museum obtained 2 igils and 2 byzaanchy – handcrafted bowed string instruments, as well as a shamaness’ costume from the collection of ethnic costumes in possession of the Tuvan artists who are now on tour throughout Europe in the framework of the presentation program “Regions of Russia. Republic in the center of Asia – Tyva.”

Squall winds with snow covered the republic late at night of March 18. The wind speed reached storm condition at times, and the snowfall was so strong, that visibility on highways was under 5 meters. Drivers simply could not continue driving and had to stop and get off the roads. In the conditions of disaster power outage in Kyzyl, the lights remained on only in some sections of Chuldum Street, where the lights are powered by solar batteries. As the meteorology center of Tuva announced, the snowfall during these 24 hours was about equal to a full month’s amount.

Adygzhy Sambuu from Adyr-Kezhig village became a double champion of the 16^th reindeer herders’ festival which just took place in Todzha kozhuun. He was able to saddle and load a reindeer faster than anybody else, and was first in the main competition – reindeer races.

The first stage of the “Nine treasures” project ended

During the past two months, I had the good fortune to meet and to get to know a huge number of people, different in age and in character, in their profession and in their relationship to life in general. All of them had one thing in common – their participation in the special project “Nine Treasures”, which started on January 13 of this year.

Within the Russian House of Science and Culture in Berlin, a great venue for presenting Russian regions to Germany’s capital, the European tour of the Republic of Tuva made a two-day stop on March 15 and 16 to give us a glance into the exotic culture of the very center of Asia – in 2010, the “Year of Tourism” of Tuva.

Last Friday, people and visitors of the Austrian capital Vienna had a unique opportunity to learn about Republic Tuva – a presentation of this Russian region in the center of Asia took place at the Russian Center of Science and Culture (RCNK).

Those who gathered at RCNK met shamans of the “Bear Spirit” association. In full shamanic regalia - picturesque leather clothing and with ancient drums in their hands – they performed ritual dances accompanied by burning of special herbs.

Lama Suldum Bashky (Tsultim tenzin) has been elected as the Supreme lama (Kamby-Lama) of Tuva at the congress of Tuvan clergy on Friday, as the Buddhist site of the republic announced. The previous Kamby-lama Dzhambel Lodoy (Apysh-ool Sat) had been in that position since 2005. Three candidates were proposed at the elections – Dzhambel Lodoy, Bolat-ool Mergen,the head of temple “Aldyn Khuree” in Chadan, and lama Suldum Bashky. As the site notes, after the announcement of the candidates, Lodoy and Mergen retracted their candidacy in favor of Bashky, explaining that this will be the correct decision, because Bashky is one of the eldest and most respected lamas of the republic.