November 2, 2006
Mongolian shaman, elder to speak
Galsan Tschinag,. A shaman and elder of the Tsengel Tuva of Mongolia, will speak at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 6, in 120 Communications. Tschinag, a writer who left his homeland as a young man to be educated in Europe, returned there to reclaim his heritage after publishing his first few books. In 1995, Tschinag led his people, in perhaps the largest caravan since Genghis Khan, from their scattered homes under Soviet rule back to their ancestral home in the High Altai Mountains. The mountains are in the extreme west of Mongolia, in a province about half the size of Maine, bordered by the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China.
The Blue Sky, published in October, is Tschinag’s first book to be published in English (it was translated by Katharina Rout). The novel tells of a boy growing up in the traditional way of the Tuvan people, in a yurt, raising sheep and horses, surrounded by alpine lakes and spectacular peaks. In the valley below, the town is the locus of Soviet control and of all modern influences. Slowly, as the boy comes of age, the influence of the town creeps up the mountainside and changes his life.
The talk will be followed by a performance and reading by Tschinag in his native language and translated into English. Books will be available. Tschinag’s appearance is sponsored by the Elllison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, The Simpson Center for the Humanities and the University Book Store. For more information call 206-543-4852 or e-mail reecas@u.washington.edu.
