Revive Altai cultural/environmental sustainability

Today is GlobalGiving "Matching Day" and we are excited to be fund-raising for an innovative model Altai village that will immerse city kids of Altai descent in their culture -- which may be their only access to their heritage. Your donation this morning will get an extra 30% matching bonus. The sash around my waist in the...

Tomorrow, you will have a chance to make your donation to revive the Altai culture BIGGER! Our Altai partner, Svetlana Katynova has persuaded the local government to make land available for a traditional Altai village so that Altai kids living in the city can experience their culture, which is otherwise lost to them. Thirty...

A week ago, I got an urgent e-mail from our Altai partner Svetlana. Viktor, one of our gifted young throat-singers had been invited to a national festival in St. Petersburg. It was his chance to shine. Trouble was, he had no money for travel. I couldn't help personally because my own personal resources have long since been...

For several years, your donations have enabled us to provide support to young Altai throat-singers, so they could afford to continue their training. We are delighted to announce that they once again performed at El Oyin, the biennial national Altai cultural festival, to rave reviews. They also continue to perform for...

Thank you for your continuing generosity for sustainability of Altai's culture and environment. One of our long-term initiatives has been to foster cottage-industry cooperatives in the villages. Last summer, a plum dropped in our laps. Here's the story: I was trekking back toward the village of Tyungur with three members of...

Thank you for your continued support of the sacred Altai culture.  Your contribution during the winter is especially valuable, because materials for the construction of the new Altai cultural revival center must be ready to go when spring comes to Altai. The nice weather doesn't last long! A great start was made last...

Amazing progress was made last summer toward the development of the planned cultural revival center in the village of Tyungur in Altai. Local volunteers installed about 1000 feet of fencing (to keep the cows out and the young children in), dug and constructed an outhouse, and built an outdoor kitchen and sheltered dining...

The new Altai Cultural Center in Tyungur, Altai Republic, (which this project supports) started the summer off with a huge contribution to the local community -- a pro bono kids' camp for local children. The month-long camp specialized in teaching the children about Altai throat-singing, as the counselors were all...

Herodotus called this place "the pastures of heaven." And its all at risk! The Altai people are working feverishly to protect the ancient and fragile sacred cultural heritage of global importance, including mummies preserved in permafrost, from being laid waste by a gas pipeline that, according to independent assessments,...

With average temperatures of -30C. at this time of year, we can hardly wait for next summer! With donations made during the winter, village volunteers will continue with the construction of the cultural center in Tyungur Village that will not only provide training in sustainable livelihoods to indigenous villagers from all...

Thank you for your continuing support of sustainable traditional livelihoods. 100% of donations received are now supporting the construction/establishment of two indigenous cultural centers in the village of Tyungur, the trailhead for pilgrimages to sacred Mt. Belukha. One is a sound-healing center to enable throat-singers...

Traditional sound healing center progress In May, our project to construct a throat-singing sound healing center in the village of Tyungur in the Altai Republic in southern Siberia won a $2500 RUHeart prize from the Fred Foundation. I visited the site in late June, and attach a photograph. The logs are for construction of...

Construction of a traditional healing center in the village of Tyungur is set to begin in late June . Only within the last week has the weather been warm enough for construction. The village administration has provided the land, and the villagers will provide the labor. Traditional Altai structures, called a'ils, have a...

Dear fellow Earth-ship cosmonaut! For the past decade, since I understood the crucial global importance of the glorious Altai Mountains and their beleaguered indigenous stewards, I have devoted all my time and all my resources (my income, my savings, my inheritance) to finding ways that a Westerner could help and not do...

We are now focusing on two related arenas: - preservation of Altai's sacred sites of recognized global importance, and - support for indigenous stewards of those sites. GREAT NEWS re sacred sites: By some miracle, the January 2010 deadline for Altai people to register their traditional lands has been EXTENDED 10...