Juliana in her video Uhuktuu. Performed by khomus, a Yakut musical instrument.

This is Juliana. She performs music by the Yakut musical instrument called Khomus.

Juliana is well known in Yakutia, Siberia / Russia. By the way, she started her career in the first team of Albina Degtyareva’s Ayarkhaan female ensemble.

At present, she performs solo and sounds powerful and looks effective.

Watch her video clip “Uhuktuu” (Awakening), listen to mp3 and see screenshots in high resolutions. Read the rest of this entry…

A short video is dedicated to the biggest Yakut national holiday called Ysyakh (Yhyakh). Celebrated annually in June.

Created by Vladimir Moonkuev. Music by Sasha Lukin.

No words. The video conveys all the message. Enjoy! Certainly, you’re welcome to Yakutia in summer!

This is a trailer of the “7 Days in Foreign Land – Yakutia” travel film done by Joe Macke, an American, and Stepan Burnashev, a Yakutian. Currently, they are working on editing. Wish them luck!

Ayar Kuo is a photographer of Yakutia. Love her last set of black-and-white photographs dedicated to ordinary Yakut villagers. Hope you’ll like people’s portraits too. They are very authentic.

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Here in historical videos, you can see how Yhyakh (Ысыах in Russian), the Yakut national holiday, was celebrated in the 1960s. For the long period, the Soviets prohibited the Yakuts to hold its traditional summer event, but eventually, since 1941, allowed.

Yhyakh is the celebration of the summer solstice. Dedicated to the spirits of Ajyy and nature revival. Followed with the rising sun worship ceremonies, abundant food, kumis (also spelled kumiss, koumiss or kumys; it’s the horse milk) drinking, national sports games, horse races.

Further, please, find the second historical video. Read the rest of this entry…

In old times, Yakut women loved to wear silver adornments, as the silver was the most respected precious metal. Any silver accessory or ornament enhanced the beauty or status of the wearer. Later, gold gained its popularity and earned its own place in female collections.

Nowadays, Yakut wally are popular as well. They are usually worn on traditional holidays, for instance, in the course of Ysyakh, the Yakut summer solstice celebration. How they looked like in the past might be seen in Yakutia Tresuary Museum in Yakutsk.

Hereby, please, see 17 images of Yakut traditional adornments made out of silver and gold, namely necklaces, pendants, earrings, bracelets.

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This is really great! Received a message from Antoine Corbisier-Baland. He is a a Belgian tutor, who teaches the French at North-Eastern Federal University (former Yakutsk State University). Antoine sent his black-and-white photographs of Yakutia. I think, his pictures are great! Interesting and captive!

In the above pictures: 1. On the river in October. 2. Crossing the Lena River on the way to Amga.

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Enjoy khomus (Yakut Jew’s harp) music and images of Yakutia in the amazing video slideshow created by Marianna Leontieva in 2008. The author lives in Moscow and she called the video “Khomus… A Yakutian’s Nostalgia…” Think, no additional info is required.

By the way, Yakutsk will host the 7th International Jew’s Harp Society Congress on June 23-26, 2011. It will be held right before the Yasyakh national holiday celebration in the area of Ys Khatyn near Yakutsk. My god, my fingers are crossed, don’t want to miss this must-be-awesome event.

Download the Congress Program (pdf, 525 Kb).

Look at what type of fur clothes the Sakha people had in the past. A play staged by the Sakha Theater in Yakutsk, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Russia.

More videos, photos and posts about Sakha Theater.

At the end of November, when the real Siberian winter was getting colder and colder, three young guys decided to ski from the village of Elanka to the famous Lena Pillars (stone pillars) located on the Lena River bank a few hundreds of km south from the city of Yakutsk. When they were doing skiing expedition, the outdoor temperature was minus 45 degrees Celsius. They say, it was pretty windy. Skiers overcame 50 km only, but spent 5 days on the way.

These guys look pretty ordinary, but they are not as such. First, they are real Siberian villagers. Harsh cold conditions are not big deal to them. Second, one of them, Timofei Vasiliev, is from the village of Moma located in the Momsky National Park and surrounded by mountains of the Verkhoyansky Range. Trekking last summer, Timofei and his friends managed to find the volcano without any GPS navigator. Third, they are leaders of the newly-fledged Yakutsk student adventure club called simply, “Extreme.”

Below, please, see Timofei’s photos and comments. Read the rest of this entry…