Valentina Nikolayevna Tuguzhekova

Doctor of Historical Sciences, professor, director of Khakassian Research and Development Institute for the Abakan Language, Literature and History Russia, Abakan

The problem of Preserving Historical and Cultural Heritage of Sayano-Altai

Today at the beginning of the 21st century the Roerich Pact still remains topical. The problem of protecting the cultural heritage is especially important under the conditions of globalization, changing geopolitical circumstances, deep economic and spiritual crises in the world community. The problem of military conflicts, terrorism, intensive development of natural resources have endangered the monuments of ancient civilizations and of the cultural heritage of the peoples of Russia. These problems are very acute for our region too, because Sayano-Altai is rich in ancient monuments of various epochs and cultures.

Khakasia is often referred to as an open air museum. The degree of concentration of archeological monuments on this territory places Khakasia among the leading places in Russia. There are more than 13 thousand archeological monuments located on a relatively small area of 20.9 thousand square metres on the territory of Khakasia. The industrial development of the region and the development of virgin land destroyed dozens of thousand of ancient monuments. A great number of monuments went under the waters of the man-made Krasnoyarsk sea – the result of the Krasnoyarsk and Sayano-Shushenskaya Power Stations.

The stone stele rising at the foot of burial mounds look very spectacular. They really look like guards watching over the peace of the dead. This is a specific feature of the local burial mounds (kurgans) which can be found nowhere else. The kurgans (burial mounds) are considered to be architectural constructions, which points out their man-made nature. And the weather-beaten and sun-scorched sight of the lichenous stelae is a convincing evidence of how ancient the burial-vaults are.

The surface of many stele is covered with mysterious signs and drawings. The purpose of these carvings is supposed to be magic and ritual. On some of them one can find the image of a three-eyed mask. These are re-used statues, which are much older than the kurgans (burial mounds) erected mostly by the contemporaries of the Scythians in the VII-III centuries B.C. But the relief images were carved as early as the beginning of the II millennium B.C. With the help of primitive bronze and copper tools people used to carve pictures of the Universe. The three-eyed mask was placed in the centre and linked the powers of the upper, celestial world and the underworld. Such ancient stone images are unique and can be found nowhere in the world! The solar sign on the coat of arms of Khakasia was copied from these stone images.

There are whole galleries of drawings depicting scenes of life in ancient settlements and images of their religious views on the rocky sides of the steppe hills and mountain ranges. Some of the petroglyphic drawings are unique and are world famous. These are the Sulekskaya, Boyarskaya, Maloarbatinskaya carvings, petroglyphs on the Oglakhty and Kunya hills on Khyzyl Khaya and Izryg Tag. Khakasia is one of the few regions where one can trace the history of the development of fine arts beginning from the epoch of New Stone Age up to today’s ethnography.

In the hills one can come across another spectacular archeological memorial – fortresses which are called "sve" (which means fortress). Usually it is a stone wall built up of sandstone plates. The wall encloses the top of the hill on the sloping side. There are also places where such walls stretch for miles. The local population used these mountain fortresses as a hiding place when there was danger of invasion as early as in the Bronze Age.

In the steppe one can come across camps and caves of mammoth hunters as well as ancient observatories, unique burial grounds of the Bronze Age, family burial vaults with tall stele. These stele are called "Chaa Tas" – "War Stone". One can wander in the expanses of the Khakas steppe for hours, just like in a museum, examining and admiring the works of the civilizations which disappeared long ago. The advantage of such "museums in the steppe" is that the "exhibits" are displayed in the environment they had been created. This allows the "visitor" stand face to face in private with the ancient cultural landscape and like in a time machine travel back into the depths of the past ages and millennia.

The history of archeological research in Khakasia is the longest in Russia. And a lot of information has been collected during this period. It is in Khakasia that Russian archeology was born. It happened in the winter of 1722, when D.G. Messershmidt and F.N. Stralenberg dug up the grave of one of the burial mounds not far from the village of Abakano-Perevos for the first time in Russia. Many generations of archeologists have investigated practically all types of memorials known here since that time. Many of those researchers rank among outstanding Russian archeologists .Research showed that the archeological materials from Khakasia are important not only for the study of regional history but also for the huge part of the Euro-Asian continent. Some of the monuments connected with fine arts open many unknown pages in the history of mankind in general. This inspires us to come up with the initiative to organize excursions in this "museum in the steppe".

Our task is to preserve these monuments for generations to come.

Some positive tendencies to protect this historical and cultural heritage have been outlined in Khakasia in the past few years.

Thus, a programme called "Popularization of the cultural heritage and development of cultural tourism on the territory of Khakasia in 2009 – 2013" was adopted in 2008. 30.61 million roubles were allocated to finance this programme. The main idea of the programme is to set up an open air museum in every administrative district of Khakasia.

Within the frames of this programme a museum was open in the village of Ust-Sos of the Beiskii district in 2010. The "Maloarbatskaya Pisanitsa" (Petroglyphic Drawings at the village Maloarbatskaya) began its work in the Tashtypskii district. There are six museums of this type working in Khakasia today.

This movement began in the 1990s when the ethnic public came up with the initiative to replace the famous stone image "Ulug Khurtuyakh" (Great-grandmother) from the Natural History Museum to its original place. In 2002 the stone was transferred to Askizskii district and the "Ulug Khurtuyakh Tas" museum was opened. This museum became the place of pilgrimage and worship of Great-grandmother, the guardian of ancient traditions of the Khakas people.

The Council of Elders (Chairman V.N. Torosov) addressed the Supreme Council of the Republic of Khakasia with the initiative to give some sacral places the status of "the monuments of historical and cultural heritage of the Republic". There are 90 monuments of material and spiritual culture in the list.

In Khakasia, like in other regions of South Siberia, not only sacred hills, certain areas but also archeological monuments such as ancient burial mounds (kurgans), stone images are treated as sacred places.

According to the ethnographer V.Ya. Butanaev, there are about 200 religious places in Khakasia. According to the Council of Elders there are more than 300.

Most respected are the hills Borus, Izykhskiy, Uitag, Samokhval, Sunduki. The hills moulded the outlook of the Khakas people. They take it as a mountainous steppe country situated in the centre of Sayano-Altai plateau and surrounded on sides by mountain ranges. The Kuznetskii Alatau is called in the Khakas folklore as "Ulgennig Syn" (Heavenly Range), and the Sayany are called "Khan Tigir Syn" (Celestial Range)

To honor the mountain host spirits stone piles called "obaa" were piled on mountain passes. Every passing man was supposed to bow to them and add their own stones to the pile. As a rule men picked up stones while climbing up hill. And women stuck birch twigs on the east side of the pile. If a man crossed the pass for the first time he tied a sacred band "chalamaa" onto the pole standing in the "obaa" pile with the hope to make his life longer. It was not allowed to laugh or sing near "obaa". If there was wine available people circuited the "obaa" clockwise three times and sprinkled it with wine. It was inauspicious to climb to the pass at night time.

Besides, people worshiped the cult of water. At new moon of the beginning of every summer people had the ceremony of water worship (sug taii) at the source of a brook or on the banks of big rivers such as the Abakan, the Belyi and Chernyi Iyus, the Chulym and the Yenissey. In the north of Khakasia where there are many lakes the offerings were made at the lake shores.

Also the Khakas people worshiped ancestors at the burial places, as well as celestial bodies, sacred menhirs, family places, shrines.

All the periods of cultural, moral, spiritual development beginning from the most ancient times which left us something of intransient value can be traced in the culture and history of ancient lands of Sayano-Altai like in the shear plane of the archeological layer.

N.K. Rerikh imprinted those intransient elements by his scientific and artistic creative work. He called them landmarks which are still topical today.

Rerikh said: "With ancient wonderful stones we′ll lay the steps to the future… The past and the future do not exclude each other, on the contrary, they strengthen each other. One cannot help appreciating and admiring the achievements of ancient cultures! The wonderful stones have kept the inspired hieroglyph, always applicable like the truth which always applies".

In the light of today′s challenge to preserve the ancient monuments for our progeny the Rerikh Pact is very up-to-date and topical.



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•  The Roerich Pact and the Banner of Peace as a Remarkable Phenomenon of the World Culture
Reports and Speeches at the International Social and Scientific Conference.
Delhi – Kullu – Shimla – Kalimpong October 22– November 5 2010


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