00:00
[sil.]
GRANADA TV
DISAPPEARING WORLD
MONGUN-TAIGA
P NO 8035 EDITED
TOUCH PRODS
PART ONE
GRANADA
00:50
[music]
Disappearing World
01:05
UNKNOWN: The high mountain of Mongun-Taiga...
01:10
[music]
01:25
UNKNOWN: ...stands and looks over the valley.
01:30
[music]
01:40
UNKNOWN: The beautiful river Mogen-Buren...
01:45
[music]
02:00
UNKNOWN: ...chatters and flows.
02:05
[music]
02:20
[sil.]
THE HERDERS OF MONGUN-TAIGA
KYZYL KHAYA
THE SOVIET UNION
02:30
NARRATOR: At the foot of Mongun-Taiga lies the settlement of Kyzyl-Khaya. The 1,000 inhabitants here provide shops, a hospital, a school, a communications center, transport, and administration for a vast State Farm occupying half the district, the Ryon (sp), which takes its name from the mountain. The Ryon Mongun-Taiga lies in the extreme southwest corner of the autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Tuva. The Tuvinians are one of many small nationalities to have this status within the Soviet Union. And they have the distinction by all calculations of living at the very center of Asia.
03:10
UNKNOWN: A long time ago, in very ancient days when the world went round and round, and when people read religious books, by seven great seas and by seven huge mountains, there lived the mighty Toybuhan. Toybuhan had a very strong horse and he led one hundred soldiers and sixty warriors...
03:55
[music]
04:00
NARRATOR: This epic story takes about a day to tell, and talks of blue bulls dwelling in magic lakes of giant frogs, and spirits that dwell in high places, and how to protect oneself against them. For the moment, we must move on.
04:15
Teacher: Children, today's lesson is about the geography of Tuva. Open your books and note the theme. The main aim of this lesson is to study the geography of Tuva. Most of Tuva has mountain terrain. 82% of Tuva is mountainous, only 18% is flat.
04:40
[music]
06:10
NARRATOR: It was always cold in the mornings, but most days the sun came through. And during the four weeks in September we spent on the farm, there were only three or four days when we were given a sharp reminder of how the weather could be.
06:25
[sil.]
06:30
NARRATOR: Mostly though, the weather was very kind. The Tuvinians are nomadic herders, hunters, and farmers with a flourishing language of their own which is spoken in this film. Though many Russians now live in Tuva, there are none in this isolated area. During our time in these pastures, we gradually came to know our way around. To recognize, scattered an average of a kilometer apart, Boris' yurt, Old Gombo's (sp) camp, Ilyia's (sp) yurt, Erysorog's (sp) yurt. And we came to know that the people here are descended from four ancient clans: the Irgits (sp), the Dongaks (sp), the Salchaks (sp), and the Herteks (sp). And that nowadays they are all intermarried. In other words, everybody in the area is related. The modern State Farm is built on traditional family networks We spent some of our time in the company of one particular family, headed by Chuglaral Darambazza (sp), an Irgit. Chuglaral is 52. He herds 360 sheep on behalf of the State Farm and additionally looks after 300 sheep of his own. While his time is overwhelmingly given over to herding, to his wife Terish falls a variety of women's work including milking, cooking, looking after the calves, and sewing. Like many another farmer, Chuglaral tends to a certain pessimism.
08:05
Chuglaral: We have problems herding in this region. We only have livestock breeding around here. We have no agriculture. We don't grow any corn. So herding is all we've got. The main problem is that every year the weather seems to get more severe.
08:25
UNKNOWN: [non-English narration]
08:30
NARRATOR: It's getting cold outside but the stove warms the yurt, the water's on the boil, and Terish pounds the tea for Chuglaral's supper. She's been doing so for 32 years.
08:40
UNKNOWN: When did you get married?
08:45
Terish: I was 18.
08:50
Chuglaral: Nowadays they choose for themselves. But I didn't know her at all. The old people found her for me.
09:00
UNKNOWN: Did you meet before the wedding?
09:05
Chuglaral: I knew there was a person, I more or less knew she existed.
UNKNOWN: And your parents decided for you?
09:10
Chuglaral: Yes, it was my parents and the older kinsmen who advised us to get married. They set up a yurt for us and we began to live in it. And we had a modest wedding.
09:25
UNKNOWN: Terish, did your parents too advise you to marry him?
Terish: Yes, they said this was somebody I could marry.
09:30
UNKNOWN: So that's how it began for you? And after a time love came along?
09:40
Chuglaral: What else could we do?
UNKNOWN: Perhaps love appeared when the children came?
09:45
Chuglaral: We didn't know how it would turn out, But we followed the elder's advice. Everything is fine and we're pleased.
09:55
[sil.]
10:10
[sil.]
10:40
Eres: A horse is the most valuable thing around here. It's the most valuable thing for a human being. For us it is even more valuable than a car.
10:55
[sil.]
11:05
UNKNOWN: Be careful! Be careful!
11:10
[sil.]
12:00
ERES: You tell a horse's character from the way it takes its mother's milk and how it responds to the bit in its mouth.
12:10
UNKNOWN: Could you explain how this works?
12:15
Eres: You see how it turns its head when you pull the reins. In ten days or so it gets used to it.
12:25
[sil.]
12:40
UNKNOWN: And can any boy break in a horse or can only a few do it?
12:50
Eres: Actually, only brave boys can do it.
12:55
NARRATOR: Chuglaral's next youngest son is Zhora. He's the quiet one.
13:00
Chuglaral: He's just been taken on by the State Farm as a trainee herdsman. We want him to carry on our way of life, and eventually take over from us.
13:15
UNKNOWN: Zhora, do you want to be a herdsman?
Zhora: Yes.
UNKNOWN: Well, Zhora, what do you dream of for your life? You're young, life's ahead of you. What are you going to start with? Maybe you're going to cut hay?
13:25
Chuglaral: Yes, he's going to cut hay. He must learn a herder's work to be able to carry on here.
13:40
UNKNOWN: Will he get special training?
Chuglaral: Yes, special training.
13:45
UNKNOWN: When did you finish school, Zhora?
Zhora: This year.
UNKNOWN: So you've only just started work?
13:50
Zhora: Yes.
UNKNOWN: When do you go into the army?
13:55
Zhora: Next year.
UNKNOWN: Next year? When the army is over, will you come back here or go to Kyzyl-Khaya?
14:05
Chuglaral: No, he'll come back here. He's got to take our place, my wife starts drawing her pension this coming October.
14:15
UNKNOWN: Their only daughter is Choygunma (sp), 22. She is studying the retail trade at an institute hundreds of miles away in Novosibirsk. This is her annual visit home, and like anyone else in this roadless landscape, she has begged a lift off a farm vehicle that happened to be going his way.
14:35
[sil.]
14:50
Terish: Where have you gone?
14:55
Choygunma: Here I am.
Terish: What can we do? They're filming us. Of course they're filming us. I'm all undressed.
15:05
Choygunma: Where's father?
Terish: This'll kill me, I want my scarf!
15:10
[sil.]
15:25
Terish: Oh goodness me, I'll die! They're Filming and my hair's a mess.
15:35
Choygunma: Don't worry, don't worry.
15:40
Terish: Oh, wait a moment. Please wait while I put On my scarf.
15:45
Choygunma: Just be filmed as you are.
15:50
Terish: My hair is all undone. Oh, I've come out in a sweat. You all came so unexpectedly.
16:00
Choygunma: Stop fretting.
Terish: I wasn't ready for this. At least I've got my scarf.
16:05
Choygunma: Did they film Eres already?
16:10
Terish: Yes, they're filming everything.
16:15
NARRATOR: Families move their yurts upwards of four times a year in pursuit of good, seasonal pasture. A keen herder may move as many as 10 times. Today it's Olig's (sp) turn. Shifting comparatively early from autumn to winter pastures. Where formerly the yurt would have been loaded onto a train of horse carts, today in under an hour the entire household goes on the back of a lorrie provided by the State Farm.
16:45
[sil.]
17:20
NARRATOR: When a family is moving, the neighbors commonly drop by to lend a hand and exchange gossip.
17:30
[sil.]
17:40
UNKNOWN: You're lucky, they've filmed you.
UNKNOWN: Yes, I told them a story.
17:45
UNKNOWN: You told them a story did you? Which story did you tell?
17:50
UNKNOWN: I told them Altan Tozh. He gave Altan Tozh a bag and sent her on her way. Altan Tozh went on for days and days, and came to a high black mountain with a black cave. And Altan Tozh went down through the cave, to the country of Erlik.
18:15
NARRATOR: Meanwhile, on a more practical plane, Eres demonstrates another of his precocious skills.
18:25
[sil.]
18:30
Chuglaral: First we put the sheep on its back and hold its legs. Then the person puts his hand into the sheep's chest and feels around for the main artery. He feels it beating, grabs it, ruptures it, and that's all. Killing a sheep is a very honored and respected thing to do. We always do it in this place. The butchering and sorting the innards can be done inside the yurt but the killing must be outside. We kill a sheep to the left of the door because it's the side the sun rises and the door opens in this direction. Yes, it's the custom always to kill a sheep on this side.
19:30
UNKNOWN: Killing a sheep and having to deal with all this must take a lot of time?
19:40
CHUGLARAL: Yes, it takes a lot of time but mostly these innards are dealt with by the women. Pouring the blood into the intestines is men's work.
19:55
UNKNOWN: Women can't?
20:00
CHUGLARAL: Women are not supposed to do it.
UNKNOWN: Why not?
20:05
CHUGLARAL: Because that's the way things are.
20:10
[sil.]
20:15
UNKNOWN: And what are you doing now, could a woman do that?
CHUGLARAL: Yes, this is usually women's work. I'm just doing it now to show you. Generally it's women's work but if the woman is busy, the man may do it. If there isn't a man around women can pour the blood. But the one thing a woman cannot do is kill an animal. A woman absolutely can never kill an animal. This is a highly respected bit, it's got a small head to it, the Tush. And when you cook it you must take it from the pot, and throw it on the fire.
21:00
UNKNOWN: In the fire?
CHUGLARAL: Yes, in the fire. The fire is greatly respected and this piece is called the Fire's Fate. The fire is greatly respected and that's why we offer this bit. There's another bit, off the rump which must also be cut off and given to the fire. The most fatty bits must be offered to the fire. In Tuvinian custom, we very strongly respect the fire.
21:25
Ivan: How can I get this out? I'll manage it somehow.
21:30
NARRATOR: The fire spirit is the guardian of the yurt and it's occupants against evil powers. One way to avoid misfortune is to be forewarned by a diviner. Here Ivan has been asked by Luba (sp) to tell her future. Which he will do by reading the cracks in a sheep's shoulder blade that he is heading up.
21:50
UNKNOWN: On what occasions do you tell fortunes with the shoulder blade?
Ivan: We do it when people are ill, or when people want guidance for the future, or when cattle have gone astray, or for various life problems. These things we can help with, various personal problems.
22:15
UNKNOWN: And are there people who can tell fortunes with complete accuracy?
Ivan: Yes, there are. They can tell the future as if they saw it all with their own eyes. This bone is getting too dry. I must make sure it doesn't break up. Nobody should go out of the yurt.
22:35
UNKNOWN: You mean while you're doing this?
22:40
Ivan: Coming and going could have an adverse influence.
22:45
UNKNOWN: What shall we put it on?
22:50
Ivan: On the earth. Oh, it's tricky to get it out.
23:00
[sil.]
23:35
Ivan: The weather's going to go bad, it will turn worse. Someone will arrive and want to talk to you. But that person's tongue may be cut off. It will be soon. You see that hole and line there? There's the answer.
24:05
UNKNOWN: What should I do?
24:10
Ivan: Make sure you don't become the victim of gossip.
24:15
[sil.]
24:20
Choygunma: How are you doing with Perestroika?
Chuglaral: Perestroika's going on all right.
24:25
Choygunma: I suppose you wouldn't see it so much out in the pastures. It's probably more obvious in towns. It is noticeable there.
24:40
[music]
25:10
[sil.]
END OF PART ONE
GRANADA TV
DISAPPEARING WORLD
MONGUN-TAIGA
P NO 8035 EDITED
TOUCH PRODS
PART TWO
DISAPPEARING WORLD PART TWO
26:35
Terish: Study hard, and be a good boy. Right, off you go.
26:50
[sil.]
27:00
NARRATOR: Like all the other children on the farm over the age of seven, Eres boards at the school in Kyzyl-Khaya, 30 kilometers away. So after an active weekend at home, it's back to the smell of chalk for another week.
27:15
Teacher: Right, who can tell us the name of the mountain range of Mongun-Taiga? Hands up! Hands up! Right, Eres.
27:25
Eres: In 1842, in Tuva and the Altai, Chikhachov, some scholars led by Chikhachov studied here under Chikhachov's leadership, and in our Mongun-Taiga.
27:40
Teacher: You mean our Tuva.
27:45
Eres: In our Tuva they carried out studies in honor of that this range was named the Chikhachov range.
27:55
Teacher: Right, sit down.
28:00
[sil.]
28:20
NARRATOR: Eres is lucky to be able to come home most weekends. He's got a classmate with a motorbike. But most children remain in Kyzyl-Khaya for weeks on end, inevitably loosening their ties to the life of the pastures.
28:35
[sil.]
28:40
UNKNOWN: Eres, when you grow up, what would you like to be?
Eres: A driver.
28:45
UNKNOWN: And why?
Eres: Because I like cars, and because I like mechanical things generally.
28:55
UNKNOWN: Would you like to be a shepherd like your parents?
29:00
Eres: No, it's not likely I'll be a shepherd, but I will help them.
29:05
UNKNOWN: You're not going to be a shepherd?
29:10
Erys: Yes.
UNKNOWN: But you're such a good horseman, don't you want to work with horses?
29:15
Eres: Yes, I love horses and there are many things I'm interested in but you have to choose one thing for your career.
29:25
[sil.]
29:35
NARRATOR: The Soviet Union that Eres is growing up in is in the throes of a new revolution that seeks among many aims to recapture the original spirit of 1917. General Secretary Gorbachev is attempting to restructure the largest and least flexible bureaucracy the world has ever known. Perestroika is the word on every lip. And even if most people we spoke to were privately cynical of Mr. Gorbachev's chances of success, the Party Secretary at our farm was cautiously optimistic.
30:10
Party Secretary: In our country, Perestroika is going on. A Decree of the Central Committee says our main task is the idealogical explanation of Perestroika to the masses. Therefore, our basic work consists of spreading this ideology, spreading this ideology in the spirit of glasnost, openness. In a spirit of democracy and self-criticism we hope to achieve our ideological aims.
30:45
NARRATOR: The most striking aspect of Perestroika for the herdsmen of these pastures has been the introduction of Semyeni Podriat (sp), the family team system. This concentrates production around the individual family which enters into a contract with the farm to produce a given target of meat, wool, or dairy products from a given number of state animals placed in their charge. The State Farm side of the bargain is to provide central amenities, fodder (ph), and an allocation of transport for the seasonal moves. One of the most popular features of the new system is that there is no longer any limit on the size of private herds. And the herders, like Boris here, have undoubtedly welcomed the change whilst taking time to get used to it.
31:30
Boris: For two years now we've had this new system of Family Teams. We're still learning about it and gaining experience of how it works. The first thing about a Family Team is that you make a work plan. You plan out what expenses you will incur and everything is written out in a contract. When we worked under the old system we were all working together and our work was rewarded in equal amounts, and we had our results evened out. The Family Team is different from the old system because everybody knows and can count up the results of their labor. They have a personal interest in their own results. Everybody tries as hard as they can because they have a direct stake.
32:30
Party Secretary: Perestroika is a very complex matter from a historical point of view. It will not achieve its aims in the short term. It demands a long time to be accomplished, and the various obstacles to it are very strong. What are these obstacles? For example, things that really hold us up are lapses of discipline among leaders as well as among ordinary workers and shepherds, and casual attitudes to one's job. We still find with some leaders the old Command Tone. There are many occasions when leaders do not react to concrete questions put to them by workers. These things happen all too often amongst us. These are the mechanics of the obstacles to Perestroika. One way or another we must strive to overcome them.
33:25
NARRATOR: Tuva joined the Soviet Union in 1944, and the Soviet system began immediately to grapple with what were perceived as backwards, superstitious practices among the local population. It was no accident during this period of what was called militant atheism, that the settlement of Kyzyl-Khaya was built over a site of ancient ceremonial significance. Old Gombo remembers from his youth what used to go on here.
33:50
Old Gombo: I don't know how it got its name, but there was a big Ova, called Bai-Ova, on that site. To this Ova came Tuvinians and Mongols to make offerings. Mostly Lamas carried out the rituals. They had horse races and wrestling matches. They had a great feast. Tuvinians and Mongols together had a great celebration. For these big festivals they brought meat and provisions. And I saw these feasts with my own eyes.
34:30
Old Bayu: It was formerly the case in Tuva that people used to suffer spells of madness. For example, a woman might fall under a spell and begin a passionate affair with a beautiful male spirit. Or a man could begin an affair with a fantastically beautiful female spirit. When people fall into such a relationship the couple could not be separated. There were no forces or earthly powers capable of separating them. Only a shaman who commanded the Great Separator Spirit could help. They made a small figure of a woman riding a deer and they placed it by the fire. The models of the woman and the deer were painted dark blue and alongside them by the fire they placed food, and from a fat male sheep one rib on a stick. They took a large pot of water and put salt in it which had to be taken from a lake. Then they took the pot with a pair of tongs and placed it by the fire with the models and the food. Then the shaman got to work. He asked the mad person, "Who is the spirit possessing you?" The person didn't reply. Then the shaman took a whip and began to whip the mad person. The patient couldn't stand this and began to call out, "Spirit Lover!" and put up a great crying and groaning.
36:15
NARRATOR: It later transpired that the person being cured in this exhausting ritual was in fact Old Bayu's own father.
36:20
Old Bayu: The shaman took the things and threw them in the fire. My father took the pot and ran three times round the outside of the yurt. The shaman fired his gun. Then my father came back inside the yurt and the people who were there questioned him. They asked him, "What happened to you?" "In the spring, I was riding along Eldi-Khem when I heard the sound of a Jew's harp being played. From that moment, my heart changed.
36:55
[music]
37:00
NARRATOR: This landscape is studded (ph) with signs of human culture, some of them a thousand years old like this Turkit (sp) grave, some still of active significance like these cans (ph) called Ova where clearly some rituals still go on despite the authority's claims that all this sort of thing has died out. Whatever these rituals are, we were not to see them. We were similarly out of luck with this little boy. We wanted to know why he was dressed as a little girl and his dressed as a little boy. We asked their mother.
37:35
UNKNOWN: Why do you dress your little girl as a boy and your little boy as a girl?
37:40
UNKNOWN: That's how my grandmother used to dress her children.
37:50
UNKNOWN: What meaning do you give to that? Did your grandmother explain the meaning to you?
37:55
UNKNOWN: Yes, she did.
38:00
UNKNOWN: Tell us about it.
UNKNOWN: Well, my grandmother simply dressed her children this way.
38:05
NARRATOR: And that's as far as we got. Again, look at little Ajana (sp) here with her hair in the standard pretty Soviet bow. Then two days later all her hair cut off, her temporary baldness hidden under a scarf. We had asked to film this family ritual but it was not to be. We were always on more productive ground if we talked about the past rather than the present. Old Ivan the fortune teller recalls the end of one particular shaman's career.
38:40
Ivan: A Mongolian came here who was both a shaman and a lama. When he arrived here the rich people of this region got together and told him to serve only one religion. They told him to stop shamanizing. He agreed and threw his shaman's drum away into the river. His drum floated and floated. Down and down it floated until it came to a narrow bend in the river. Since then that place is called Drum Bend.
39:15
UNKNOWN: And when we go to Kyzyl-Khaya, will we see this place?
39:20
Ivan: Yes, you will.
UNKNOWN: And he gave up being a shaman?
39:25
Ivan: Yes, he ceased shamanizing and continued just as a lama.
39:30
UNKNOWN: I am going to go on a walk along a thin hair, passing between two great mountains.
39:40
[music]
39:50
NARRATOR: This woman is descended from an ancient family of shamans. However, she herself is a retired actress and she is performing in the staff car park behind the cultural museum where she works in the capital city Kyzyl (sp).
40:10
[music]
40:15
NARRATOR: We were privately told that there are still practicing shamans but the party line is clear.
40:20
Party Secretary: Every Soviet citizen may follow his beliefs. In the 1950's and 1960's there were people in this district who quite openly engaged in religious activity. Among these people, there were still active shamans and lamas but they got old, and their activities have now died out. Nowadays there are really no people who are fanatical believers but, of course, there are some exceptions, people who visit the Arzhan, for example. And people who carry out rituals to the high places. These people do not hinder us in our work. We don't take any actions against such people. And in general we regard it as their own private affair.
41:15
[music]
41:50
NARRATOR: Shoi (sp), a storyteller from earlier on, is nearing the end of a long walk to the Arzhan, a sacred spring.
42:00
[music]
42:05
Shoi: The Arzhan's water contains many healthful substances. People visit the Arzhan to cure various diseases. It particularly helps people who have problems in their joints. The make-up of the water is very rich.
42:20
[sil.]
42:25
Shoi: Oh purest medicinal spring, who cures the sick. Oh mighty Ala-Taiga, I take your waters. Arzhan! Here with this pure white milk I make my offering to you.
42:40
[sil.]
42:50
Shoi: Oh, sacred spring, who restores health to workers and shepherds who are sick. Arzhan! I offer you my pure white milk.
43:00
[sil.]
43:20
NARRATOR: The authorities have decided to tolerate sacred springs like this because the water does indeed have various healthful properties. So long as he sticks to this medicinal explanation, Shoi is on safe ground. He is not inclined to elaborate on the spring's spiritual side.
43:35
Shoi: We begin with the head because you must get it used to the temperature. If you begin somewhere else, it will affect the head. That's why people put their head under the Arzhan first.
43:50
[sil.]
43:55
Shoi: When you put tea under the Arzhan, the block becomes saturated with the goodness and it naturally absorbs all the healthy qualities fo the water. Then, when you brew the tea later, it's a very healthy drink.
44:10
[sil.]
44:15
Shoi: From ancient times, people have come here to pray at the Ala-Taiga Arzhan. They tie up ribbons to show respect for the Arzhan. These ribbons are tied up to give color to the Arzhan.
44:35
UNKNOWN: This morning you tied up a ribbon. What meaning did you give that?
44:40
Shoi: I was decorating the Arzhan like everyone else. That's how we do it.
44:50
NARRATOR: Undoubtedly, many features of the living, traditional culture of Tuva were hidden from us. We were to understand that everyone is now modern minded. What room will there be for traditional culture in the future? What does Eres' school teacher tell her pupils?
45:05
Teacher: Tuvinian culture? Well, I suppose any nation, regardless of how many people it numbers, has its own culture. People should not forget their national culture. In any old-established culture there are positive and negative aspects. In the old days, Tuvinians did have some positive customs and I think it's a great pity they've been forgotten. We try to preserve the positive side. We learned of these customs from the old people. There used to be a very particular etiquette. For example, a younger person was not allowed to cross the path of an older person and there were customs about how you entered and left a yurt. That's what it was like. People who rode horses carried knives but mainly as decoration. They weren't thought of as weapons, A knife was just a decoration. On entering a yurt, The knife was left outside on the roof. This is witness to the peacefulness of Tuvinian people. There were many other positive features in the old ways. Before the age of 40, Tuvinians never used to drink alcohol. This custom was observed until quite recently. And only people of middle age would allow themselves an occasional drink. Well, these kinds of positive sides to our culture are unfortunately forgotten. We try to explain them to our pupils and revive them as positive features of our national heritage. With this aim in mind we carry out Agitation and Propaganda.
46:45
UNKNOWN: Think for yourselves. The norm is going to rise from six square meters to 12 so the living space per head is to be doubled. This is how the situation looks for our district. So, what are the prospects for Kyzyl-Khaya and our State Farm as we move towards the year 2000?
47:05
NARRATOR: Agitation and Propaganda most commonly boil down to a traveling show touring the pastures. Usually beginning with a report from the administration, in this case about the Soviet's plans to build more houses. The undoubted main attraction are the traditional songs. Whatever else may be under threat in Tuvinian culture, it is difficult to imagine they will readily abandon this unique style of throat singing.
47:35
[music]
48:50
UNKNOWN: Those customs like Ova, Edik, Dagir, have they survived to the present day?
49:00
Old Gombo: Now, no.
UNKNOWN: What do you think about that?
Old Gombo: If there's no belief what's the point in observing these rituals? Only the people of the older generation observed them. These days the young know absolutely nothing.
49:15
UNKNOWN: In your childhood, were you a believer? Were you a believer?
49:20
Old Gombo: How could I not believe?
49:25
UNKNOWN: And your parents, did they believe?
Old Gombo: Of course they did.
49:30
UNKNOWN: What about your children?
Old Gombo: Oh, my children know absolutely nothing at all, nothing at all.
49:35
UNKNOWN: What do you think about that? Is it better if someone believes or not?
49:40
Old Gombo: What's the point in believing? If a person is in good health, what point is there in the old beliefs? In the old days, people believed in these things because they had no defenses against illnesses. Nowadays, people turn to doctors and they cure them.
50:00
[sil.]
50:10
UNKNOWN: So you now trust to doctors?
Old Gombo: Yes.
50:15
[sil.]
50:20
Old Gombo: All of that...
50:25
[sil.]
50:30
Old Gombo: ...was when I was very young, not nobody knows about it. Even people born in the 20's and 30's don't know about it. The young today know nothing about it. They have vaguely heard about it.
50:50
[sil.]
50:55
Old Gombo: Oh, what's she up to?
51:00
[sil.]
51:05
Old Gombo: We'll have to take her out, Rock her. It's time to do the milking now.
51:15
[sil.]
51:20
Choygunma: What are your plans now for the future?
51:25
[sil.]
51:50
Choygunma: Future? Plans?
51:55
[sil.]
53:00
Choygunma: I'll finish at college and then come back here to help my parents. I'll work in Kyzyl-Khaya.
53:10
[sil.]
53:20
UNKNOWN: In the settlement of Kyzyl-Khaya or out here in the pastures?
53:25
Choygunma: In the settlement.
53:30
UNKNOWN: And you won't miss the shepherds life at all?
53:35
Choygunma: No.
53:40
[music]
Anthropologist CAROLINE HUMPHREY
Tuvinian Interpreter MARINA MONGUSH
Soviet Co-ordinators OLEG TOGOEV, PAVEL TSARVOULANOV
Camera LAWRENCE JONES
Sound Recordist PHIL TAYLOR
Dubbing Mixer PETER MAXWELL
Graphic Designer GRAHAM ADSHEAD
Rostrum Camera MARTIN KELLY
Series Adviser DAVID TURTON
Film Editor ORAL NORRIE OTTEY
Researcher CHARLIE RODGER
Executive Producer ROD CAIRD
Directed and Produced by JOHN SHEPPARD
(C) Granada Television MCMLXXXIX
54:40
[sil.]
A TOUCH PRODUCTIONS FILM FOR GRANADA TELEVISION