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Published: November 18th 2010
Ulan Ude wasn't somewhere I'd always wanted to visit. In fact I probably wouldn't have chosen to stop here but all the guide books say its one of the 3 must-see place on the Trans-Siberian route so I thought I better stop and find out why. Good decision.
From the train Ulan Ude seems like an enormous metropolis, its by far the biggest city we have seen since leaving Vladivostok and comes complete with tower blocks and industry – quite a shock after all the little wooden villages. But once we are down in the centre there's a really relaxed, friendly, small town feels to the place. Its a pleasant place to wander round with plenty to see: the old wooden houses in the back streets with wonderfully ornate fretwork windows, the grand mansions and Opera house on the main street, the golden domed orthodox cathedral catching the sunlight at the far end of the street and, of course, Lenin. The Lenin statue here is quite unique – its just his head but its the largest Lenin head in the world although there seems to be some dispute as to whether its 7.7m or 13.5m high, either way its pretty
Ulan Ude - the old and new
there's lots of old wooden buildings with incredibly delicate filiagre decoration.big and very popular with wedding parties who keep turning up for photo shoots.
But we are not here to see the town, we are here to experience the cultures that surround it and the next two days seem to involve a lot of alcohol and dressing up! Ulan Ude is the capital of the Buryat Republic and the Buryats are native Siberians. In looks, culture and language the Buryats are most closely related to Mongolians and indeed as you drive south from Ulan Ude the landscape is similar to the Mongolian steppes (Mongolia is 250km south of here). Its quite a change from all the forests of the last 3 days.
We spend a happy few hours in a Buryat yurt - helped by the Amrita herbal drink that tastes rather alcoholic but is, apparently, medicinal. After helping to seal up the buuza (meat dumplings) we sit down for a very nice traditional Buryat lunch: soup, buuza, fried 'doughnuts' and Siberian pineapple jam (sea buckthorn). Edwin is sat by himself on male side of the yurt and the 4 ladies are on the female side but they put the same sized bowls of food on either side
of the room so Edwin has to excel himself in order not to offend – very amusing from our side of the room. Then we retire to play a game of knuckle-bone pairs and listen to the yochin being played (its like a zither like but hammered rather than plucked). All very civilised.
The Buryats practice Tibetan Buddhism but, along with all other religions, this was suppressed under communism. All of the Datsans (monasteries) were destroyed and the monks sent off to the Gulags. Now they are being rebuilt but not on the original sites, monks from Tibet and Mongolia have visited and divined the most auspicious spots for the new temples. They are nowhere near as big and grand as those in Tibet, somehow they have a more homely, approachable feel to them. Atsagatski Datsun seems to stand in middle of nowhere but there's a steady flow of locals through the door leaving a few coins in front of the various images.
Ivolginsky Datsan is the headquarters of Bhuddism in Russia so is larger than the other Datsans but it still feels 'homely'. We join the locals walking round the eclectic collection of prayer wheels that randomly
surround the main buildings – some are large wooden wheels needing 2 people to turn them, others are a simple row of painted tin cans. Its all centred round one small temple, painted in blocks of primary colours, that dates way back to 1946 when Stalin allowed a modicum of religious freedom. Now newer, gaudier, temples are springing up all around it with a more sophisticated and sleek look to them. But for now the complex still retains that mix of bustling activity alongside a calm tranquillity that makes you feel welcome and encourages you to loiter a little longer to hear more of the rhythmic chanting of the monks.
There are other colourful, welcoming communities surrounding Ulan Ude and next we head out to some of the Old Believer villages. Seems strange to be walking through a log cabin village rather than looking at it from the train window. The Old Believers separated from the Orthodox church back in the 1600's after radical reforms were introduced. Over the years they were persecuted and fled to various strongholds one being Siberia.
We have lunch with three 70 yr old Old Believer minxes who know how to enjoy themselves
and insist on us drinking lots of vodka and home-brewed kvass (which counts as non-alcoholic as its <1.2% alcohol). Edwin, as the sole male, has the job of keep the vodka glasses topped up and making toasts and gets chastised by the 3 minxes every time he's a bit too slow at topping up, where as we are glaring at him encouraging him to slow down. After finishing off the vast spread of soup, meat & potatoes, fish pie, salad, rice pudding, jam doughnuts, honey we are whisked into the garden for singing and dancing. They are a colourful bunch in all ways; every surface of their house is painted in bright colours and then colourful flowers or patterns are painted on top. They wear lots of layers of colourful clothes as I find out when they dress me up - but they confide that the more layers there are the more fun it is having them taken off!! Finally their outfits are topped off by sparkly jewels hanging from their head-scarfs and rows of amber necklaces (to protect from goitre). Its all great fun and when we leave you do feel that you have learnt something and appreciated their
an after dinner game of knuckle-bone pairs
although they are actually sheep's ankle bones culture.
On our last day we head out to the Open Air Ethnographic Museum – its a great place with reconstructed buildings dotted round the forest taking you on a chronological journey from Bronze Age settlements, to Native Siberian encampments, to Cossack settlements, Old Believer Settlements and 19th century urban towns. Here we come across the Evenks, another group of native Siberians who lived in conical tents covered by deer skins in winter or birch bark in summer. Strangely there's no explanation board but one hut is clearly quite different, surrounded by animal and bird totem poles arranged in very specific ways and some with offerings of coins or cigarettes pressed into splits in the wood – must be a shaman's hut. The lack of explanation make us investigate more closely and come up with theories – its fun spotting the difference and similarities and constructing our theory. Then, rather gratifyingly, when we do come across an explanation (miles away from the hut) its not so far from our theory and it fills in a few gaps. The totems in front of the hut look like benign and friendly animals plus a river full of fish and sure enough
they represent the Upper World where good spirits live, especially bears & fish. Behind the hut the totem are scary looking a bit like crocodiles and pigs, apparently these represent the Lower World where dead and evil spirits live, especially wolves and gluttons. In the Middle World is the shamans hut and the bird spirits which are the best totems flying above us on long sticks in a variety of shapes and sizes. One is quite clearly an owl. Working it out for ourselves was much more fun than just reading an explanation and we paid so much more attention to the details.
Its been a really interesting couple of days and so not what I expected in Russia – Bhuddist temples, yurts, colourful houses and people indulging in their traditional way of life with freedom and enjoyment. It was definitely a good decision to stop here but now its time to head back to the train and continue eastwards.
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pictures
we dont want to see pictures of edwin i want pictures of you xx