Revive Altai cultural/environmental sustainability

Svetlana Katynova, our Altaian point person for reviving Altai cultural/environmental sustainability, has just returned from El-Oyin,  the annual cultural gathering of the Altai people.

Svetlana has organized a team of experts focusing on reconstructing a dyadagan -- a Pazyryk harp that figures in Altaian epic songs. The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg has remnants of one that was excavated from an archeological site. She writes:

After 3 days of work at El-Oyin, we all returned home tired, but very inspired. There were meetings, negotiations with Hermitage staff about the continuation of the project on the harp, specialists in organizing international festivals from St. Petersburg. It was great.

At El-Oyin our harp did not want to play, for several reasons, including sacred ones. I need to think hard and draw up a clear plan of action.

I send a draft version of sand animation [about how the dyadagan came to be]. We will continue to work on it.

The exquisite 9-minute sand animation video is linked below. I hope it inspires you as much as it does me, to see such beauty being created. Thank you for your support that makes it happen.

Links:

• How the Dyadagan came to be.

As mentioned in the last report, Project Leader Svetlana Katynova received a government grant to enable them to purchase professional recording equipment for documenting origin stories, both visually and with throat-singing. Your donation contributed to providing the 10% reserve funds that Svetlana was required to provide to be eligible for the grant.

Another aspect of the grant is the reconstruction of a mythical musical instrument called the dyadagan, remnants of which were found during excavation of one of many piled-stone monuments called kurgans. Before receiving the grant, Svetlana has worked on this project pro bono for more than three years.

Since the last report, Svetlana and her reconstruction team of traditional-instrument experts traveled to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg (which is similar in function to the American Smithsonian Museum) to view, examine, and document the remnants of the dyadagan, as the first step to reconstructing it. 

Thank you for your ongoing support for this project. I have been working with Svetlana on cultural sustainability for the ancient Altai people for more than a decade now, and her efforts have been innovative, significant, and unflagging.