No borders or nationalities. About First International Deer Husbandry Championships
MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS Correspondent Dmitry Osipov/. The Iengra River is a quiet place near a village in Yakutia, which has the same name. Fewer than a thousand people live amid the snow-covered tundra. However, every March the village wakes up: hundreds of fans are watching a reindeer sled race - the most spectacular and popular competition of the First International Championships in Traditional Deer Husbandry. The event in Nerungri (Yakutia's second biggest city) on March 15 - 19 featured participants from 14 regions in the Russian Arctic and Far East, as well as from China and Mongolia.
White deer brings luck
Dozens of reindeer sleds are rushing towards the finish line. The speed is comparable with that of a car: teams accelerate to 50 km/h. The track is icy at times, and with bumps, in some places it's hidden under snow. Not everyone makes it to the finish line. Some deer, frightened by people, noise and unfamiliar riders (only the Amur Region's team has brought their own deer to the competition), lose their route or run back to the start.
In the mass race, Yury Semenov, a reindeer herder from Iengra, having 25 years of experience, gets the first to the finish line. He tells us how herders begin preparing fawns for racing when they are only four or five months old.
"You can immediately tell by the deer whether it will be fast or not. Some deer are lazy, and some are strong, aggressive, impetuous. Out of a thousand animals, there can be just only one sporting deer. When selecting, we always mind how it is built, and what character the animal has," - the happy winner smiled.
The Semenovs' farm has about 300 deer. Almost the whole family is engaged in reindeer husbandry. Yury's cousin Nadezhda has won reindeer sled races among women. They both have received prizes necessary for work in the tundra - Buran snowmobiles. Nephew Sergey has also participated actively - at the chairmanships' opening ceremony he performed a popular Evenk song.
Yury is taking me to a white deer, valued by the Evenks - an ethnic group that has been living in Iengru since ancient times. Interestingly, the local river's name in the Evenk language means "branched horns."
Yury said every deer has its own character, and it always lets you know when it dislikes something or when it is tired. The sector's biggest problem is the global warming, he said.
"There is less yagel (reindeer lichen) nowadays. I think it's because the climate is changing. We have to add feeding, salt. There are too many wolves now, they seem to be afraid of nothing. At times, when wolves are coming, we have to guard the herd all night through," he told TASS.
Reindeer herder must be strong
To survive in the tundra, a reindeer herder must manage a reindeer team skillfully, and equally must possess other skills, in which the championships' participants have competed. Those are jumping over sleds, lassoing, and a relay race on hunting skis.
"The winner is the one who lassoes more deer," - this is a simple rule of the lariat throwing competition. The lariat is a special rope for catching deer. It is woven from several thin buckskin belts," Ivan Enkovav, a participant from Chukotka, explained to us.
Experienced reindeer herders can easily cope with this task. However, beginners find it is quite a trick to lasso a stubborn animal.
"It's very easy: you turn the rope, then go to the herd and lasso a deer. When throwing the lariat, you need to mind the wind strength and the distance to the animal. Sometimes, the wind speed may be 20 m/s. Throw the lariat from about 20 meters," Ivan said.
Life in the North is a real test of strength. Hunters and reindeer herders must be agile, fast and hardy. These qualities are necessary for participants jumping over sleds. Even in the nasty weather the winner has managed to jump over 190 wooden barriers. Another task is to assemble a yaranga (ethnic tent). Quality is what matters here, not speed. Indeed, the yarangas, which were built the fastest, have fallen down in the strong wind - there's no rush in the tundra.
Reindeer husbandry has no borders or nationalities. The championships' geography is vast. A Chinese Evenk Xiao Chenghao said in his country reindeer husbandry is a sector aimed at development of domestic tourism. Xiao no longer rides deer - he makes videos about them and posts them on social networks. His dream is to drive together with his friends from Yakutia to Chukotka. There's no exact route yet, he added.
Mongolia's Ganbat Namzhav said he enjoyed everything in Yakutia, but the biggest interest was to learn how his "counterparts" live in other countries. He came to the championships to exchange experience.
It took Oleg Abramov from the Amur Region eight days to cover more than 300 kilometers to get to the championships. "In the past, we used to ride our reindeer to Yakutsk. Not any longer," he says, and - looking at his impassive face - it is impossible to get whether he is upset by this fact or pleased. His tent smells of fresh larch: the floor of an improvised yaranga is covered with branches. Soup is boiling on the fire.
Secrets of chum hostesses
"The hostess of a chum (an ethnic tent, home) must be skilled to do everything - to chop wood, carve deer carcasses and frozen fish, keep the house warm and clean, light a fire in any wind, because men are in the tundra most time," said Elena Antipina, director of the Arctic College of the Peoples of the North from the Nizhnekolymsky district in Yakutia's north.
At the competitions, Elena's task is to determine the best hostess. The competitions among women include cutting and cooking fish, making a fire, making kamus - deer wool, which is used for making footwear. Cutting frozen fish is probably the most complicated stage, because it is important to make sure during this process the fish must not melt, and then the participant needs to watch the cooking time to make sure the fish does not remain raw.
"Without women there's no life in the tundra. Everything depends on her: she will dress her husband, have him put on boots, will feed him deliciously, will calm down the crying child, will cure the one who's sick. Within minutes, our women can carve up a whole deer carcass. They can clean the fish, gut the ducks or geese the husband has hunted," Olesya Enkovav said describing an ideal chum hostess.
Her favorite dish is called "pane." It is made of deer blood. "You cook blood like porridge. It's very tasty! We also eat stroganina (sliced frozen fish or venison), fish soup, though not often. For special occasions we cook butter from deer bones," she said.
However, not only experienced women take part in the competitions - further generations are next to them. Ten-year-old Emilia Fomina from Iengra has been riding deer for the third year. "I ride every day, it doesn't interfere with my studies. Deer are sweet and kind animals," said the girl. She participated in a deer race among kids - this tournament was beyond the championship's program.
A participant from the Magadan Region, Marfa Kyrkovskaya, a retiree, explained how to make kamus. "At first, you need to remove the rough layer - the mezdra, a layer of subcutaneous tissue on the uncut skin. Soften it with your hands," she said. "At the competition, they were given a thick camus - quite difficult for beginners."
Every summer Marfa goes to help a reindeer farm. "In May I'll go to cook yukola (dried fish) of salmon and chum salmon. In winter, I make clothes for reindeer herders, I make torbases - footwear of reindeer fur for walking in the snow, and malakhais - fur hats," she said.
The tournament was held in the framework of Russia's chairmanship in the Arctic Council in 2021-2023. The chairmanship events' operator is the Roscongress Foundation.
Photo by Alexander Ryumin/TASS
