The YURT

The universe of the nomads


«Юрты» на Яндекс.Фотках

The nomadic dimension of the populations of these steppe-like areas binds them to nature in an indissoluble relationship, penetrating their deeper spiritual dimension: symbol of this bond is the dwelling of the nomad, the tent.
Called gheer among the Mongols and yurt among the Tuvinians, the house of the nomad is extremely practical and functional, easy to disassemble and to transport, a sure and solid shelter, suitable for their hard living conditions. Always oriented with the door to the south, it also works as an astronomical clock, making it possible to tell the time according to the position of the sun when it shines through the central hole.


«Юрта, мужская половина» на Яндекс.Фотках
Men's half

As soon as the small door is opened and its threshold is crossed, we are projected in a magical world where every object, every furnishing, the fire and the place where you take a seat follow a precise symbolic order, unchanged in the course of ages. The Sacred Fire is set in the centre and it represents the ancient world, our memory, our ancestors we have to respect and to pay tribute with offerings of sacred food.
Inside the yurta, are represented the ties between the cosmos, time and human beings. There is a precise relationship between the animals of the oriental horoscope, the disposition of the household goods and the places where you seat yourself. To north opposite the door there is the rat, the picker, where we find the trunks with the familiar treasures and next to the treasures, there is the seat of the oldest guest, that is worth of great respect.
Then there is the position of the snake, the place of the servants, in a well-to-do family or where it is seated the woman guest, the one that like the servants brings news, messages, gossips of the external world. The door is the horse, symbol of the work and the relationships with the world. Afterwards, we find the sheep, symbol of wealth and fertility; connected with it, where they hung the butchered animals.
Then we find the monkey, symbol of the working ability, that is why in this place the harness of the horses are hunged. The rooster comes next, where the hosts and the strangers take a seat: just like the rooster, they raise at sunshine in order to continue their journey. Afterwards, there is the dog, symbol of abundance and property, in fact it is up to the dog to defend the property and in that spot they keep the bags containing the harvest of the year, their clothes and blankets. Finally, we find the pig, symbol of the products of nature, and as the Tuvinians are mainly hunters, this is the place where they keep their guns, they hang their game and their furs.


«Юрта, женская половина.» на Яндекс.Фотках
Women's half

Nothing is at random in the yurt, but it corresponds to an ancient, immutable order that nowadays is still respected, not only as a sign of tradition, but as a precise way to interact with the cosmos.

Source:www.siberianshamanism.com

Gudok

Gudok is an ancient Russian folk music instrument. In spite of its name (meaning “hooter” in Russian) it is a string instrument. Skomorokhi (wandering minstrel-cum-clowns) used it in a combination with the Gusli. Gudok consisted of an oval or pear-shaped dugout wooden case, a flat sounding board with resonator holes, and a short fingerboard without frets, with a straight or unbent head. The instrument could be 30 to 80 cm long. It had three strings posited at one level to the sounding board. When playing the bow touched all the three strings simultaneously. The melody was played on the first string, and the second and the third ones sounded without pitch variations. Continuous sounding of the bottom strings was one of the prominent features of Russian folk music. During the performance the instrument was held on a player’s knee in the vertical position. Has been extended later, in XVII-XIX centuries.

Gudok reminds of a number of string instruments of the world. These are Bulgarian Gadulka and Southern Slavic Gusle and Liritsa, as well as West European Rebek and the Greek stringed lyre. There are also various Middle Asian instruments, less similar in the shape of the case. One of the Middle Asian names of such a stringed instrument – gidjak also reminds of the Russian Gudok.

All these instruments are placed vertically on a knee and play with the bow on three (most often) strings. The tune is played only on the highest string. There are only four “playing” fingers, though the little finger is often not used. Taking into account the open string there are only five (or four) sounds, just like in early Gusli. The remaining two strings "hooted" similar to the well-known Scottish bagpipes.



Gudok can be referred to professionally made, but musically simplified instruments. Though many folk masters who knew joiner's craft, could make such an instrument independently.

European instruments differed from their Eastern analogs by having a wooden upper sounding board instead of a leather membrane or an animal’s bladder, like the latter ones. So European versions with richer and more powerful sounding can be considered more progressive.

Most likely, metamorphoses with a pro-Gudok occurred in Greece and from there got spread across the Eastern Europe, including Russia. However, Russian Gudok had its own peculiar features. Its case was of a pointed boat-like shape instead of a pear-like shape.

It is remarkable that Gudok was recorded in archeological excavation of Veliky Novgorod earlier than Gusli. By the way, in the Astrakhan Province a reed pipe and svirel were also called Gudok.

Gudok was often used in small ensembles both with other instruments and with their relatives. There was a whole family: Gudok, Gudochek and Gudische.

Gudok was very popular in Russia at all times. It managed to survive even persecutions of secular music in the 17th century, under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. But it could not withstand the attack of the western music in the 19th century and disappeared from Russian culture, without having lived to its millennium. Gudok was partly replaced by the violin.

Source:http://www.russia-ic.com/

IVAN SHMELYOV: "PILGRIMAGE MORNING"

EXCERPTS

Forbidden publication during the Soviet period, this classic nineteenth-century story of the life of a young Russian boy, Ivan Shmelyov, was recently unearthed and reprinted to the great satisfaction of contemporary Orthodox Russians. Road to Emmaus is pleased to be the first to translate portions of this forgotten classic for English readers. In our initial offering, young Ivan, Gorkin (an old family friend), and a few of the servants have risen early to go on pilgrimage from Moscow to St. Sergius-Holy Trinity Lavra…



Chilly dawn breathes through the window. The morning is so quiet that I hear pigeons running over the roof and our dog Bushuy shaking the sleep from himself. For a moment I lie in bed stretching, listening to roosters crow, to Gorkin’s voice in the yard…

We drink tea in the front room, father and me. The clock has just cuckooed four. The door to the dining room is slightly closed in order not to wake anyone. Father is also going somewhere; he has his riding boots and his coat on. He drinks dark red tea from a cut glass, makes calculations in his notebook, kisses me absent-mindedly. He waves his hand strictly when I want to tell him that our samovar has become pink and the front room has also turned pink in quite another way! “Later, later! Don’t dangle your legs. Here, spread the caviar on your bun.”

And he goes on calculating, “Seven thousand trees and more from the new grove…well, twenty thousand trees…” A thatch of hair swings over his forehead as if it is calculating, too. I swallow hot tea and the clock tick-tocks. Why is the steam over the samovar pink, and the tablecloth and the wallpaper? The dark humpbacked icon of the Lord’s passion seems to have become new. The crucifix can be seen on it. Why is it so…? Beyond the window — you can reach it with your hand — there is a pink brick wall with a stripe of sunshine on it. That is why there is light in the front room. It has never been so before. I tell father, “The sun has dropped in on us.” He looks vacantly at the window and I see his face brighten.

“Eh?… Yes, yes, it has come to our by-street.” He stares and thinks of something. “Yes… only seven or eight days a year does it peep into our little cranny. Your grandfather used to wait for the long days to come… he always drank tea here with the sun, as we are now, and showed it to me. I was little and then I forgot, and now I am showing it to you. So everything goes…” he says thoughtfully. “… Pray for grandfather.” He looks about the room. It is getting dim again; only the icon is shining. He looks up and sings without words, his favorite: “Before Thy Cross, we fall down O Maaasterrrr, and Thy Holy Resurrection we magnify.” The sun crawls away from the wall. In this sliding light, in the sad tune, in grandfather who has gone somewhere and saw what I see now, I feel as a vague thought that everything passes… and that father will go too, as did this accidental light. Up through the window, between our rooftop and the next house I see a stripe of blue sky and I am flooded with joy.
____________________
“Well, have you eaten your fill?” Father asks. “Remember; obey Gorkin. He has a bag with small coins and will give you some for the beggars. If God wills we will catch up with you in Troitsa.” He crosses me, puts me on his shoulders and runs down the stairs… It’s so cheerful outside in the yard because of the sun, and it’s a little fresh. Our horse Krivaya is shining as if he had been polished; the shaft-bow is also shining, and the harness. The cart, which is brand-new, looks like a little toy. Gorkin is wearing a canvas tunic, a May cap tilted on his head. He carries a cloth bundle. His cheeks are pink with cold and excitement and his beard is silvery. Antipushka is holding Krivaya’s reins and Fedya looks like a city man with his polished knee boots as if he were going to church. By his side there hangs a bag with a tin kettle tied to it. On the porch sits Domna Panfyorovna in a headscarf, her baggy neck so red that one can see she is very hot. She wears a grey talma, a sleeveless cloak with tassles and trinkets hanging from it. There is a heavy carpet bag in her lap and a big-bellied white umbrella. Anyuta is peering from under her headscarf like a little doll. I ask if she has brought the tiny glass ball with her. She looks at Babushka and stays silent, groping in her pocket. “The package has been handed over; deliver it in one piece!” Father says, putting me on the hay.

“Be sure, we won’t spill it,” Gorkin replies, then takes off his peaked hat and crosses himself. “Well, a good hour for us, and for you who stay here happily, never missing us. Forgive me a sinner, if I have been rough in anything. Bow to Vasili Vasil’ch for me.” He bows to father, to our cook Marushka, to the carpenters and furriers who have gathered to work. They have spent the night in the cart and scratch their heads as they climb from under the quilted blanket to see us off. He bows also to the yard, silent at this hour. A clamour of voices say, “Good hour to you;” “Bow to the God-pleaser for
us…” Gorkin laughs, shaking hands with father in farewell. They kiss. I jump off the cart. “Let him show off a little and then we will put him back,” says Gorkin. “Don’t walk too fast. Watch and follow me. Let’s tread lightly as pilgrims do, then we won’t tire ourselves. And you…Domna Panfyorovna, hold onto your fashions and don’t shame yourself.” “I’ll roll along like a little round stone…just let me put my carpet-bag up here.” Trifonich, barefoot, runs out of the entryway; he has overslept and almost missed us to say goodbye. He thrusts up a parcel for Sanya, his grandson who is a novice at Troitsa. “Tell him his grandmother and I will come in autumn to visit him. The trade cannot be left now, just at the working season.” “Well, bless us, Lord…! Let’s go!”

Translated by Inna Belova and M. Nectaria McLees
source http://www.roadtoemmaus.net/back_issue_articles/RTE_10/Pilgrimage_Morning.pdf

Kolyadka- russian carol

Nebo i Zemlya. Heaven and Earth. Novokuznetsk Choir

Gallery of the old russian new year tree toys

Women from Russian village (krest'yanki) in traditional winter dress.






Russian paratroopers, different tipes of them










Samovar.samovar.


Ded Moroz ded moroz. and Snegurochka snegurochka.

Velikiy Ustyug Silver Patination

Velikiy Ustyug Silver Patination is the national Russian art and craft that developed in the 17th century in Velikiy Ustyug, nowadays a district centre in the Vologda Region. It is decoration with patina designs of various silver items, such as, for example, cigar cases, glass holders, and tableware sets.

The technology of patination is as follows:
1. Little cuts are engraved, chased or etched on the surface of a silver item.
2. Alloy of silver, copper, lead and sulfur is fused into the pattern.

There are different variations of preparing the alloy, imposing and fusing it. According to certain data, Ustyug masters use the most ancient technologies known today.

Ustyug silver patination always has had appreciable distinctions from that of Moscow and Petersburg masters: much emphasis is given to subject engraving; drawing is quite saturated, with much denser coloring. The background performed with strokes forms a kind of a grid. The image is often supplemented with carved or chased details. In most of the cases general contour of an object is depicted, without detailed elaboration.




History

The art and craft of silver patination appeared in Russia in the 10th century, but got widespread development only in the 17th century. Since the second half of the 17th century Velikiy Ustyug has taken the lead in this handicraft in Russia. The art of patination in Ustyug reached its blossom in the 18th century, and the mid of the century was the time of its first record in official papers: Ustyug dweller Michael Klimshin was summoned to the Russian capital “for training Muscovites from merchant class in this skill”.

Manufactories of Popov Brothers were opened in Velikiy Ustyug in 1762.

From the mid 18th century Ustyug works started to bear the impact of the baroque style popular in Europe at that time. Complicated subject compositions typical of Ustyug masters acquired lush setting. Hunting and pastoral plots gained popularity.

However, starting from the 1780s predominant were subjects, characteristic of strict classicism, according to the canons of which the setting also became much more austere. Masters often used practically documentary pictures of cities and even geographical maps as subjects. In the mid 19th century leading masters often applied floral ornament entirely covering the surface of an item, with use of sharp contrasts.

However, by the late 19th century private handicraftsmen of Velikiy Ustyug could not compete with large capital factories, the fact marking the decline of Ustyug silver patination.

In 1933 M.P.Chirkov established the artel “Northern Patina” in Velikiy Ustyug. Originally it manufactured some plain mass-produced items, such as glass holders, spoons, etc., decorated with simple flower ornaments. However, E. P.Shilnikovsky, who headed the artel from 1936, managed to restore forgotten traditions, and also introduced a number of innovations. One of the novelties was creation of “literary” silver collections based on works by Pushkin, Gogol, and Krylov.

Thus, Ustyug silver patination was revived and reached unknown success — in 1937 at the World's Fair in Paris it was awarded the Big Silver Medal and the diploma (for a series of items based on Pushkin’s works of literature). In 1961 the artel was transformed into a factory. For ornamentation of works large floral patterns with insertions of birds and fantastic and mythological creatures were used.

Thanks to its international glory the “Northern Patina” factory in Soviet period constantly got governmental orders, most of which were performed on the basis of Shilnikovsky’s drawings. The enterprise issued items dedicated to nearly all considerable events, such as Moscow anniversary, Soviet space exploration, etc.

Source:russia-ic-com

Unique lakes