Encyclopedia
The
Tuva Republic is a
federal subject of
Russia . The direct transliteration of the Russian name of the republic is
Respublika Tyva . Although the republic's official English name has been
Tyva Republic since 1993, it remains more commonly known as
Tuva.
Geography
The Republic is located in extreme southern
Siberia, the Capital
Kyzyl is located at the geographic
Center of Asia. The eastern part of the republic is forested and elevated, and the west is a drier lowland.
- Area: 170,500 km²
- Borders:
- Maximum N->S distance: 450 km.
- Maximum E->W distance: over 700 km.
Time zone
Tuva is located in the
Krasnoyarsk Time Zone .
UTC offset is +0700 /+0800 .
Rivers
There are over 8,000 rivers in the republic. The area includes the upper course of the
Yenisei River. Most of the republic's rivers are Yenisei tributaries. There are also numerous
mineral springs in the republic.
Major rivers include:
- Bolshoy Yenisei River
- Kantegir River
- Khemchik River
- Maly Yenisei River
- Upper Yenisei River
Lakes
There are numerous lakes on the republic's territory, many of which are glacial and salt lakes. Major lakes include:
- Todzha Lake, a.k.a. Azas Lake —the largest in the republic
- Uvs Nuur - shared with Mongolia and a World Heritage Site
- Kadysh Lake
- Many-Khol Lake
Mountains
The area of the republic is a mountain basin, ca. 600 m high, encircled by the Sayan and Tannu-Ola ranges. Mountains cover over 80% of the republic's territory. Mount Mongun-Tayga is the highest point in Siberia.
Natural resources
Major natural resources of Tuva include
coal, iron ore,
gold, and more.
Climate
- Average January temperature: -32°C
- Average July temperature: +18°C
- Average annual precipitation: 150 mm to 1,000 mm
Administrative divisions
Demographics
According to the 2002 Census, Tuvans, a group of
Turkic people, at 235,313 make up 77.0% of the republic's population. Other groups include
Russians , Komi , and a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population.
Official languages are Tuvan and
Russian.
- Population: 305,510
- Urban: 157,299
- Rural: 148,211
- Male: 144,961
- Female: 160,549
- Females per 1000 males: 1,108
- Average age: 25.5 years
- Urban: 26.4 years
- Rural: 24.5 years
- Male: 25.2 years
- Female: 27.6 years
- Number of households: 82,882
- Urban: 47,073
- Rural: 35,809
History
The historic region of Tannu Uriankhai , which Tuva is part of, was controlled by the
Mongols from the
13th to
18th centuries. It established itself as a
khanate in the
15th century until 1757 when it was brought under Chinese
Manchu rule to 1911.
During the
19th century Russians began to settle in Tuva, resulting in an 1860 Chinese-Russian treaty, in which China allowed Russians to settle providing that they lived in boats or tents. In 1881 Russians were allowed to live in permanent buildings. By that time a sizeable Russian community had been established, whose affairs were managed by an official in Russia . Russian interests in Tuva continued into the
20th century.
During the
1911 revolution in China,
tsarist
Russia formed a separatist movement among the Tuvans.
Tsar Nicholas II ordered Russian troops into Tuva in 1912, as Russian settlers were being attacked. Tuva became nominally independent as
Urjanchai Republic before being brought under Russian protectorate as
Uryanay Kray under Tsar Nicholas II on 17 April 1914. This move was apparently requested by a number of prominent Tuvans, including the High Lama, although it is possible they were actually acting under the coercion of Russian soldiers. A Tuvan capital was established, called
Belotsarsk . Meanwhile, in 1911, Mongolia became independent, though under Russian protection.
Following the
Russian Revolution of 1917 which ended the imperial autocracy, most of Tuva was occupied from 5 July 1918 to 15 July 1919 by
Kolchak's "White" Russian troops , though in the autumn of 1918 the south-western part was occupied by Chinese troops, the southern part by Mongol troops led by Khatan Bator Maksarzhab.
From July 1919 to February 1920 the communist
Red Army enters Tuva, but from 19 February 1920 to June 1921 it was once more re-incorporated into China . On August 14, 1921 the
Bolsheviks established a
Tuvinian People's Republic, popularly called
Tannu-Tuva. In 1926, the capital was renamed
Kyzyl, meaning "Red"). Tuva was
de jure an independent state between the World Wars.
The state's first ruler, Prime Minister Donduk, sought to strengthen ties with Mongolia and establish Buddhism as the state religion. This unsettled the Kremlin, which orchestrated a coup carried out in 1929 by five young Tuvan graduates of Moscow's 'Communist University of the Toilers of the East'. In 1930 the pro-Soviet region discarded the state's Tibetan-Mongol script in favor of a Latin alphabet designed for Tuva by Russian linguists, and in 1943 Cyrillic script replaced the Latin. Under the leadership of Party Secretary Toka, ethnic Russians were granted full citizenship rights and Buddhist and Mongol influences on the Tuvan state and society were systematically reduced.
The
USSR annexed Tuva outright in 1944, apparently with the approval of Tuva's Little Khural , though there was no Tuva-wide vote on the issue. The exact circumstances surrounding Tannu-Tuva's incorporation into the USSR in 1944 remain obscure. Salchak Toka, the leader of Tuvan communists, was given the title of First Secretary of the Tuvan Communist Party and became a de-facto ruler of Tuva. Tuva was made the
Tuvan Autonomous Oblast and then became the Tuva ASSR on October 10, 1961. Toka's rule was characterized by a concerted effort to introduce collectivism and to destroy Tuvan culture, especially that of a religious nature. Salchak Toka died in 1973.
In February of 1990, the Tuvan Democratic Movement was founded by Kaadyr-ool Bicheldei, a philologist at Kyzyl University. The party aimed to provide jobs and housing , and also to improve the status of Tuvan language and culture. Later on in the year there was a wave of attacks against Tuva's sizeable Russian community, resulting in 88 deaths. Russian troops eventually were called in. Many Russians moved out of the republic during this period.
Tuva was a signatory to the March 31, 1992 treaty that created the Russian Federation. A new constitution for the republic was drawn up on October 22, 1993. This created a 32-member parliament and a Grand Khural, which is responsible for foreign policy, ensuring that Tuvan law is given precedence and any possible changes to the constitution. The constitution also allowed for a referendum if Tyva ever sought independence. This constitution was passed by 62.2% of Tuvans in a referendum on December 12, 1993. At the same time the official name was changed from Tuva to Tyva .
The
Republic of China has never officially recognized the Russian claim, and maps made in
Taiwan have often included Tuva as part of China. This claim, along with the Taiwanese claim to
mainland China, has been largely ignored since the early
1990s.
Politics
The head of the government in Tuva is the Chairman of the Government, who is elected for a four-year term.
As of 2005, the Chairman of the Government is Sherig-ool Oorzhak, who was re-elected on March 17, 2002. Tuva's
legislature, the Grand Khural, has 162 seats; each deputy is elected to serve a four-year term.
The republic's Constitution was adopted on October 23, 1993.
Economy
Tuva has a developed mining industry . Food processing, timber, and metal working industries are also well-developed. Most of the industrial production is concentrated in the capital Kyzyl and in Ak-Dovurak.
Culture
Tuvans are famous for their
throat singing.
Khuresh, the Tuvan form of wrestling, is a very popular sport. Competitions are held at the annual
Naadym festival at
Tos-Bulak.
Sainkho Namtchylak is one of the only singers from Tuva to have an international following. She is also very involved with Tuvan culture. Every year she invites western musicians to perform in Kyzyl and to learn about the country, its culture and its music. In recent years, however,
Kongar-ool Ondar has become well-known in the West as well, in large part because of the film
Genghis Blues featuring Ondar and American
blues singer
Paul Pena.
Galsan Tschinag is an award winning author of Tuvan descent who writes poetry and essays. He is best known in the german-speaking world, but he has published some works in English as well.
Oral traditions
Tuvans have a rich tradition of orally transmitted folklore, including many genres, ranging from very brief riddles and aphorisms, to tongue twisters, magical tales, hero tales, scary stories, and epics that would take many hours to recite. A few examples and excerpts of the epic genres, such as "Boktu-Kirish, Bora-Sheelei" have been published. This art form is now endangered as the traditional tale-tellers grow old and are not replaced by younger practitioners.
Religion
Three religions are widespread among the people of Tuva:
Tibetan Buddhism, Orthodox Christianity and
shamanism. Buddhism's present-day spiritual leader is the 14th
Dalai Lama.
In September 1992, the 14th
Dalai Lama visited Tuva for 3 days.
The people are mainly adherents to
Tibetan Buddhism, combined with native
Shamanism.
During the 16th and 17th centuries Tibetan Buddhism gained increasing popularity in Tuva.
Religious practice declined under the restrictive policies of the Soviet period but revived somewhat in the early 1990s. Tuva is also the only country in the world to have shamanism as an official religion.
The Tuvans' higher than average
syphilis infection rate has been blamed on a Shamanist tradition of the Republic, which says a woman is more fertile if she has had a large number of sexual partners before marriage.
Some
human rights groups report problems with religious freedom for Christians and
Muslims.
Education
The most important facilities of higher education include the
Tuvan State University and the Tuvan Institute of Humanitarian Research, both located in the capital Kyzyl.
Miscellaneous
- In the 1920s and 1930s, postage stamps from Tuva were issued. Many philatelists, including famous physicist Richard Feynman, have been fascinated with the far-away and obscure land of Tuva because of these stamps. The stamps were issued mainly during the brief period of Tuvan independence, and had many philatelists in a furor, as they did not conform to various standards. Feynman's efforts to reach Tuva are chronicled in the book Tuva or Bust.
- Tuva was featured prominently in the award-winning documentary Genghis Blues
[i]
...
.
...
, Russia's Emergencies minister, is Tuvan.
- According to a recent study by Ilya Zakharov, deputy director of Moscow's Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Tuvans are more closely genetically linked to Native American peoples like the Eskimo, Navajo and Apache than any other group.
See also
[i]
...
documentary about Tuva and Tuvan throat singing
Sources and External links
- .
- A traditional Tuvan boardgame.
