Rules of conduct
N 51°33'336'' E 099°15'341''
Day: 160-162
Sunrise:
09:28/09:28
Sunset:
17:22/17:24
Total kilometers:
1281
Soil condition:
Ice, snow
Temperature – Day (maximum):
minus 17°C
Temperature – day (minimum):
minus 25°C
Temperature – Night:
minus 30°C
Latitude:
51°33’336”
Longitude:
099°15’341”
Maximum height:
1981 m above sea level
The day after New Year’s Eve, the Tuwa camp is quiet. While a few women and the men who haven’t looked too deeply into the cup tie their reindeer from the trees as they do every morning and drive them into the forest to eat lichen, some of yesterday’s festive community sleep off their intoxication. Like every morning, we also take it easy. As the sun only peaks behind the mountain ranges from around 11:00 am and hides behind one of the snow-covered mountains again at 4:00 pm, the days are quite short and the nights very long. By adapting to daylight, we spend a kind of hibernation in the taiga. A fine thing that was abolished a long time ago by the industrial age through artificial light.
The days in the Tuwa camp fly by. In the meantime, we have become part of life out here. Purvee, the shaman’s wife, said: “You are a new family to us. We are happy to have you here.” A nice compliment. We hope to be able to maintain the good mood. Of course, we try not to make any gross mistakes. That could cloud our life together. So we take care not to collect any wood that has already been handled by humans. You can tell if it has been cut or stacked at any point. Trees already marked with axe blows are also taboo, as someone has chosen them for themselves. The Tuwa usually cut their wood a year in advance. The reason for this is to have dry wood for heating and cooking the following year. With the extreme winters, a good supply of wood is essential for survival.
But we don’t just take care to use untouched wood, we also observe one or two rules of conduct. For example, if you accidentally bump someone’s foot against yours, you shake hands with them. If we are offered something, we first touch the bowl with our right hand, only then may we help ourselves from it. It is also important not to sit with the soles of your feet pointing towards it while eating. There is a saying; “If you don’t finish your tea, your work won’t get done”, which means you have to finish the tea you are offered. The set of rules is very extensive. We learn new things every day and as soon as we find out about them, we pay attention to them and incorporate them into our everyday lives.
Among other things, it is important to always welcome guests in a friendly manner, no matter when and how often they come, and to offer them at least tea and bread if nothing else is available. As already mentioned, however, we always serve a few very popular sweets and, to the great delight of our guests, coffee with milk and sugar. But we don’t want it to sound as if we are subject to a strict set of rules. It’s not like that. We are free and can do what we want.
Since the rules listed are of Mongolian origin, I ask Ultsan: “Do you have your own rules of conduct? I mean rules that belong exclusively to the Tuwa people?” “I don’t know of any,” replies the young hunter. It looks like the Tuwa have been Sinicized over the course of time. By which I mean that since their flight from Russia in 1944, they have almost completely adopted Mongolian culture and their own has been forgotten.
In the evening, Tsaya invites us to a bear meat dinner. “Don’t eat too much of it. You’ll get diarrhea at first because of the fat content,” she warns us. I am delighted with the taste. The meat is tender. It does not taste like game, perhaps more like hung beef, and does not have a typical bear taste. Whatever a typical bear taste might be? “Would you like a piece of it?” Ultsan asks Tanja, cutting off a strip of raw bear fat. “Gladly,” she replies to his amazement. “It’s best if you swallow it, otherwise it will make you sick,” advises Tsaya, whereupon Tanja actually puts the piece of fat in her mouth and swallows it as if advised. “It’s good for the stomach,” says Ultsan, also eating a piece.
We look forward to your comments!
