hello friends
let me tell you all about my latest obsession in lieu of doing my desk job (technically i am on lunch break it's fine). it is related to tannu tuva. tuva is today a republic inside the russian federation, but for a brief moment in time was a country of its own bordering mongolia and the ussr. i think the republics of russia in siberia and central asia (and the caucuses too but that's besides the point) are super fascinating places. they are essentially their own countries with their own very long and distinct histories inside the modern country of russia. there are many different peoples that we basically never hear about in our parts of the world because they don't have their own nation states - tuvans, buryats, etc. the groups inside this part of the world have connections all over the place because all people are interconnected. there are many turkic groups distantly connected to the people of turkey and azerbaijan, there are groups of uralic peoples with distant ties to finland, estonia and hungary, and most cool there are the yeniseian people (today just the ket i think) who are demonstrably related to indigenous north americans!! they are today decently inland in siberia but their language is related to the languages of alaska, canada, california and arizona/texas. there's dna evidence backing up this connection too. that's crazy to me.
anyway sorry that's a tangent. the thing i am super into atm is the tannu tuva national anthem. it is called the tuvan internationale. i think i have heard every rendition of it on youtube so here's maybe the best one (imo):
how good is it!! not what you traditionally expect from a national anthem. the throat singing. the key change. the female choir in the second verse. the pacing of the drums. i legit cannot get it out of my head. i keep finding myself singing it to myself.
here is a version by huun huur tu, a famous ""world music"" band from tuva. the album is called 60 horses in my herd which i think is a really good name for an album. when i eventually get a record player i will seek out a vinyl copy of this album.
in general like every single tuvan song is a banger. there are no misses.but this one in particular just really gets my heart.
...but anyway yes we all fall down the central & north asia rabbit hole at some point in our lives right. you guys have felt the call of the steppe too right? daydreaming of sunsets and golden grass and mountainous horizons and taking pride in your herd of horses instead of sit at computer all day bullshit? (yes i am very aware that that lifestyle that i am imagining does not exist, probably never really existed, and is a very glorified propagandised image. nationalism produces embellished imagery. but the image is extremely alluring to dream about, real or not)
thank you for listening to my ted talk ig. i hope you also enjoyed the tuvan internationale
