facebook
twitter
pinterest
expert@trans-siberian.co.uk UK: +44 (0)345 521 2910 USA: 1 8665 224308
  • Journeys
    • Trans-Siberian Classic
      • Journey Planning Guide
      • Trans-Siberian Classic – departing St. Petersburg
      • Trans-Siberian Classic – departing Moscow
      • Trans-Siberian Classic – departing Beijing
      • Trans-Siberian Classic – departing Vladivostok
    • Trans-Siberian Rail Cruises
    • Luxury Trans-Siberian Rail Cruises
    • China Trips
  • Destinations
    • Russia
      • Ekaterinburg
      • Irkutsk & Lake Baikal
      • Moscow
      • Novosibirsk
      • Perm
      • St Petersburg
      • Ulan-Uday & Buryatia
      • Vladivostok
    • Mongolia
      • Bayan-Gobi
      • Elstei
      • Erlian
      • Huhehot
      • Naadam Festival
      • Terelj National Park
    • China
      • Beijing
      • Guangzhou
      • Guilin
      • Harbin
      • Hong Kong
    • Interactive Map
  • Expert Help
    • About
      • No Ordinary Travel Company
      • Our People
      • Our Small Print
    • Responsible Travel
    • Flights
    • Visa Info
    • Trains to Russia
    • Life on board Classic Trans-Siberian
    • Traveller’s Checklist
    • Booking
    • FAQ
    • Hints & Tips
  • Gallery
  • Blog
  • Contact

Blog Post

Trips and Tales #82: Buryatia: Last stop before Mongolia

07 Sep 2012
Comment are off
Bernard H. Wood
Buryatia

Trips and Tales (Part 82)

A holy well in Buryatia countryside

On the map Buryatia caresses Lake Baikal as a scooping hand with its waters resting in the cupped palm. Around 60% of Baikal’s coast is part of the republic’s territorial land which at (just over) 350 square kilometres covers an area roughly the size (though not the proportions) of Germany.

The climate is dry, bright and sunny. Apparently very sunny, with over 300 days of blue-skied sunshine annually. That’s to be the envied here in the UK where it’s often provident to venture out with sun-cream in one hand and an umbrella in the other, just in case. Good grief, I can feel my serotonin levels drop through the floor at the very thought.

Down on the ground, Buryatia could well polarise the opinions of incoming tourists. In a world where a high degree of homogeneity caters for the “rich-western-tourist” (can’t you read a book by the pool in a great many identi-kit hotels, continents apart?), Buryatia (and upcoming Mongolia) makes many fewer concessions to modern convenience, and least of all: our convenience. It is mountainous across 80% of its territorial land and a great deal of it doesn’t even have roads – or at least anything resembling a road by our pampered standards. It’ll be time to break out the Jeep if you fancy a rugged bounce around the region. Much of the infrastructure, doesn’t appear to work or at least needs a good overhaul, all largely due to a combined lack of resources (at all levels) and political will. Reading between the lines I have to speculate: in a region where traditional values and lifestyles are still so prevalent; current even, is the pressure there to “get it fixed” anyway?, compared to say; a westernised nation?

Chances are that most venturing this far from their comfort zones are going to know-the-score well in advance and are here because of the nature (quite literally) of the region. You won’t have turned up expecting Brit themed pubs, beach-side fish and chips and a golden-mile of night clubs, for example. All good then.

It’s odd to talk about deeply held tradition in the context of a republic that only came into “official” existence in 1923 initially as the Buryat-Mongolian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. But of course, indigenous peoples have been living in their native regions long before Europeans turned up to draw rings on maps and give their contents names. It was formed from the merger of the Mongol-Buryat and Buryat-Mongol Oblasts. There was some reshuffling and renaming: peripheral territories were lost (reassigned to neighbouring regions) in 1937, “Mongolian” was dropped from its title in 1958, sovereignty declared in 1990 and the status of “Republic” adopted two years later. There’s definitely a sense of removal, of independent pride perhaps; its autonomous status survived the communist era and is still maintained within the Russian Federation today.

Aside from its relatively recent inception, another surprise is that the Buryats themselves only make up around a third of the population, the majority being Slavs, a good deal of whom are Old-Believer Russian Orthodox incidentally (and hopefully, interestingly). The other main creeds are traditional Shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism, existing in a seemingly tolerant, even curious mixture. Someone I spoke to mentioned that his fellow Buryat Buddhist friend dropped by the Orthodox Church on Sundays, just because he liked the services. And why not? Yes, there definitely seems to be some pleasant surprises here. (Remember our chat with Igor, Buryat Shaman?)

The non-Buryat majority is due in no small part to Russian colonisation of the region since the 1600’s in a bid to exploit natural resources (essentially furs and gold) as the notion of expansion East started to become a tentative reality. This was all pioneer trail blazing two hundred years prior to the relative ease offered by the Trans-Siberian Railway. Aside from the two disproportionate main ethnic groups, there are also sub-percentile representations from Soyot, Georgian, German, Tartar, Armene, Uzbek and Azeri origins.

More next time.


[Photo by mikeemesser]

About the Author

Social Share

  • google-share
Ready to Book? Speak to an Expert
Feefo logo

Travellers Checklist

Visa Info » Flights » Trains to Russia » The Checklist »

Hints, Tips & Fun Facts...

Don’t take a suitcase. Take a soft bag with wheels and a pulling handle.
2018 certificate of excellence tripadvisor

Your payment is protected: everything is held in a trust account until you've completed your trip.

Explore the blog

  • Celebrations and Events
  • ▼Destinations
    • China
    • Hong Kong
    • Mongolia
    • Moscow
    • Russia
    • St Petersburg
  • ►Life
    • ►Arts & Culture
      • Food and Drink
      • Stories – Folklore -Superstition
    • History
    • Life in Russia
  • News
  • Russian Language
  • ▼Series
    • (Moderately) Superstitious
    • A and L in Irkutsk
    • A Few Choice Words
    • Alien Visitors
    • All About The Bottom Line
    • All In The Game
    • All In The Preparation
    • All Quiet on the Eastern Front
    • Almost Medieval
    • Ancient Traces Revisited
    • Animated Russia
    • Anomalous Zones
    • Arrival: Beijing
    • Baba Yaga Revisited
    • Backwards and Forwards
    • Baikal at Last!
    • Business in the City of Extremes
    • By the time you read this
    • Captured Fragments
    • Chasing the spirit
    • Cheaper – Better – Easier
    • Christmas Leftovers
    • Doomed Utopias
    • Dreams Made Concrete
    • Easter Variations
    • Eastwards To Novosibirsk
    • Feline Exhibits
    • Fragmentary Views
    • Free Knowledge for the Proletariat
    • Free Russian Cinema
    • Gobi and Steppe Wanderings
    • Good Advices
    • Good Traditions
    • Grandfather Frost
    • Here Seeking Knowledge
    • Hiking – Cooking – Tick Picking
    • How Cold?
    • How Hot?
    • Igor the Shaman
    • In and Out of Ulaanbaatar
    • In and Out of Ulan Uday
    • International Womens Day in Russia
    • Irkutsk Now
    • Is It Safe?
    • Joanna Lumley’s Trans-Siberian Adventure
    • Kizhi: Scattered Memories
    • Kvas – The Good Stuff
    • Language and literature 2016
    • Last stop: Vladivostok
    • Life On Rails
    • Loveless
    • Low Season Traveler
    • March Of The Immortals
    • Maslenitsa
    • Matilda: A Russian Scandal
    • Minefields of the soul #1
    • Mongolia By Proxy
    • More on Krasnoyarsk
    • Mythological?
    • Nightmare Fuel
    • Non-Verbal Confusion
    • Opposing Worlds
    • Over The Border
    • Pagans On Ice
    • Pronunciations and Tribulations
    • Random Freezings
    • Remembrance Day
    • Russia Sells Alaska
    • Russian Language: Ways and Means
    • Russian things to see and do
    • Scam-Tastic
    • Scrapbooks and Backpacks
    • Sculpting the National Character
    • See You In The Bunker
    • Shadow Man in Circumspect
    • Shot By Both Sides
    • Siege Fatigue
    • Something about Cossacks
    • Sort Your Life Out
    • Stretching the Ruble
    • Survivalist
    • Sweeping generalisations
    • Systems of Control
    • Taking Care
    • The Bear Thing -and Other Interlopers
    • The Ghost at Your Shoulder
    • The Other 10%
    • The roll of the egg
    • The Silent Anniversary
    • The Snow Maiden
    • The Spirits of Winter
    • The Temple at the Border
    • There’s a Russian in my House
    • These Four Walls
    • Thespian Pursuits
    • This Word “Defective”
    • Trans-Siberian Offshoots
    • Trips and Tales
    • Unknown Territories
    • Unseen Unheard
    • Visitations
    • Vodka
    • Voices of Experience
    • Welcome to Magnitogorsk
    • When a lobster whistles on top of a mountain
    • Words are Hard
    • X-rays and space ships
    • Yes They Mean Us
    • Your Cash In St.Petersburg Now!
    • Zaryadye Park
  • Tourist Tips
  • Uncategorized

Quick Links

Ready to Book
Speak to an Expert
FAQs

Destinations

Russia
Mongolia
China
Interactive Map

Journeys

Trans-Siberian Classic
Trans-Siberian Rail Cruise
Luxury Trans-Siberian Rail Cruise
China Trips

Contact Us

E: expert@trans-siberian.co.uk
T: +44 (0)345 521 2910

facebook twitter
© 2018 Russia Experience - All rights reserved