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…

Roman Sofronov is a Yakutsk-based fellow, who has his own YouTube channel with great videos displaying the life in Yakutia, the biggest Siberian|Russian region.

He’s got great black-and-white 8mm home videos of children made in an ordinary Yakutian|Siberian village called Ytyk-Kyuel’ in the Soviet time. Fascinating flashbacks! Enjoy the history of Yakutia.

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Saina, Yakutsk-based Siberian ethno singer, will give her first big solo concert in Moscow on Dec. 18th, 2010. The event will be hosted in the “DOM” concert hall. More show info, think, might be got directly from her through her facebook profile Saina Singer. By the way, she is a fan of the eYakutia – English Yakutia fb page as well.

Who is Saina?

As I said in my previous post Saina, the singer of Yakutia’s Northern nations, Saina is pretty much able to present herself. Listen to her introduction (click on the title to play the audio):

Saina’s audio self presentation

Listen also to her amazing songs (full versions). Read the rest of this entry…

EPL Diamond LLC, Yakutsk-based company that cuts ALROSA’s diamonds and produces its own jewelry, has the right to use the motto “EPL Diamond. Brilliants of Yakutia.” Indeed, diamonds it uses are mined, cut and crafted in Yakutia.

Another great thing the company has is its product promotion policy. In all promo materials you can see beautiful Yakutian ladies with no less beautiful jewelry with installed Yakutian brilliants.

Yakutia. Plus Yakutian women. Plus brilliants. What a great combination of components! It’s enough to reveal the whole purely magical exotic Siberian beauty in one promo piece.

Well, let’s stop on it and start enjoying the following images. Read the rest of this entry…

This is one of fourteen short films made by Martin Heylen for the Belgian National TV Channel. The episode depicts how ice roads on the Lena River are used and what type of road maintaining works is conducted in winter. In the video you can see, why road workers pour waters on ice, why they strew snow on the surface and etc.

Saying a lot of thanks to Olga Monastyreva for her sharing the link with us. Olga lives in Belgia and she reports that Martin Heylen is pretty famous in his country and his TV Show about Siberia, including Yakutia, was broadcasted on a major TV Channel in the course of one month. Later it was repeated at requests of viewers. Moreover, Martin received a national TV award for those series.

Enjoy a film, though it is in the Flemish language.

I am really, really a big fan of Sakha Theater. I love everything they did, do and will do. Recently I got a fantastic CD solely dedicated to the Sakha Theater set design. That’s a presentation disc, that gives profound information about the theater, its decor history, artists and their works. Saying a big thank to ST for providing me with the disc.

In this post I am presenting Vladimir D. Ivanov, an art director of the Sakha Theater, who worked almost thirty years ago. Further, please, find his profile and images of his works. Read the rest of this entry…