Visiting the Old Believers behind Baikal

 

Visiting the Old Believers of Transbaikalia, whose culture is recognized by UNESCO as part of the World Cultural Heritage, you will get the famous Moscow Road, passing along the picturesque right bank of the Selenga. An hour from Ulan-Ude along a good highway, enjoying unique landscapes, and here you are in the ancient family villages of Tarbagatai, Desyatnikovo, Big Kunaley.

 

Old Believers (family) - a unique branch of the Russian people - a particle of ancient Orthodox Russia. Here, on the territory of modern Buryatia, the schismatics were relocated in the second half of the XVII century by decree of Catherine the Great.

Part of the Russian population – adherents of the old faith, rituals, everyday life, rejected the reforms of Patriarch Nikon and later moved to Siberia as whole families, began to be called “family”.

 

Thanks to the spiritual culture, the family has preserved unique traditions. Wherever the Old Believers found themselves, mastering new lands, they sacredly preserved the customs of antiquity.

 

The original culture of the family Transbaikalia is clearly reflected in the architecture of Old Believers villages. Picturesque family villages have a special “face”, recognizable even by an inexperienced observer. They are distinguished by an ineradicable need for beauty, brightness and riot of colors. Houses with figurative carved casings, painted shutters. The huts are always neat: the ceilings are painted, the floor is covered with carpets-halves. The red corner is rich in icons, the table is covered with a homespun tablecloth. In the middle of the Russian oven, decorated with ornaments, with various flowers and birds, and from that oven the hosts of the guests with shcha, porridge, mushroom, cherry, fish pies and pancakes with honey and sour cream are treated - this is the traditional cuisine of the Old Believers, which you will taste.

 

Fabulously beautiful outfits of family women: shirts embroidered with birds and flowers, bright sundresses and aprons are decorated with ribbons, on the head of a kitten (an old headdress), on the chest a multi-row amber necklace

 

A special folklore tradition is the singing manner of the Old Believers, it preserved elements of the musical culture of pre-Petrine Russia.

 

In Tarbagatai, in the museum of antiquity, unique manuscripts and books of almost 400 years ago are stored - real monuments of ancient Russian writing, ancient peasant utensils, equipment for household work, belongings of village life.

 

Excursion to the Old Believer village is a real journey into history. You will get acquainted with the museum of the life of the Old Believers and a visit to the ancient Orthodox church, a meeting at the farmstead of the Old Believers with rituals, customs, unique multi-voiced singing and dishes of Old Russian cuisine.

 

 

Author: Gankina Julia Nikolaevna
Author's personal page: http://www.personalguide.ru/guids/1305/608/