Ancient traditions vs. Hi-Technology
Published 21 March, 2009, 10:29
More than five thousand kilometres east of Moscow, Buryatia in Russia’s Siberia is historically a land of nomads. But now it’s also home to some high-tech industries.
Buryatia lies on the shore of lake Baikal. Its territory is covered with steppes and forests. The Buryats have bred wild horses and sheep on the Siberian steppes for centuries.
That is until the Soviet Union set up collective farming and made them quit their nomadic ways of raising cattle. But today farmers are once again reviving the ancient art of their ancestors…
“That’s the most profitable way of raising cattle. The sheep don’t need much care. In fact they don’t need care at all. They take what nature gives them”, says local farmer Ilya Garmayev.
The farmer, the republic’s one-time martial arts champ, quit city life and started farming just because, as he says, he couldn’t live without the call of the wild. But to revive the old methods, Ilya Garmayev had to invite ethnic Buryats from Mongolia and China who had not lived in the Soviet Union and therefore – still clung to their customs.
“Local Buryats stopped being nomads and forgot the experience of their ancestors. But I believe they can re-learn it”, says herdsman Sukhubator Zhamserne.
Indeed, Buryats are nomads no more. Again thanks to the Soviet Union. Good or bad, during those times the republic developed dozens of industries, which are still successful. And that includes aviation.
One of the plants in the capital Ulan-Ude produces the famed Russian helicopters. Even though it makes five times less choppers than some 20 years ago, the industry is one of the most successful in the region.
The plant is the second largest export producing plant in the whole of Siberia. More than 40 countries buy the helicopters and it give jobs to around six thousand people, making it the republic’s biggest employer.
But even giant employers like this plant can't help everyone in this Siberian republic. Half of the population still lives off the land. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and its collective farms, most villagers were left on their own with their cattle.
“It’s hardly possible to find a job here. You can’t expect young people to stay here and raise cattle in their backyard. My son also left”, says farmer Boris Baldanov.
As thousands of Buryats flock to the city with hopes of a better life, the fear is that the republic’s once famous livestock breeding will not survive. But farmers say the only way for them to save it is to go back to their roots.
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