RUSSIA: Old Believers of Eastern Siberia reveal their culture and traditions to visitors
Record ID:
758710
RUSSIA: Old Believers of Eastern Siberia reveal their culture and traditions to visitors
- Title: RUSSIA: Old Believers of Eastern Siberia reveal their culture and traditions to visitors
- Date: 8th September 2008
- Summary: YOUNG BOYS WALKING THROUGH STREET
- Embargoed: 23rd September 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Lifestyle
- Reuters ID: LVA4G0HQT60EXT5PFKJJTC9YFP0M
- Story Text: For nearly 250 years Eastern Siberia with its harsh climate has been home to a large community of Old Believers.
The Old Believers separated from the mainstream Russian Orthodox Church in 1666-1667 after refusing to accept church reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon. Patriarch Nikon ordered changes in the Russian church rites to bring it into line with the Greek orthodox liturgy.
Old Believers fiercely rejected all innovations or the 'new faith' as they called it and said that the official church had fallen into the hands of the Antichrist.
The Russian Orthodox church and state responded by launching an official persecution of Old Believers and many of them had to flee to remote and inaccessible areas, like Siberia.
Buryatia, an autonomous republic on the western shore of Lake Baikal, today is home to 250,000 Old Believers.
Once a closed and isolated community, Buryatia's Old Believers today are open to visitors and take an active part in developing tourism in this remote part of Siberia.
Large groups of tourists from Europe, Canada and Brazil visit the village of Tarbagatai, about 30 kilometres from Buryatia's capital Ulan-Ude.
At the entrance to the local cafe they are met by group of Old Believers in their traditional clothes, performing their ancestors' songs.
Inside the tourists get a chance to see a folk music performance and to try out the Old Believers' traditional cuisine.
Lyubov Plastinina, an Old Believer and local businesswoman, has convinced her community that developing tourism in Tarbagatai and other Old Believers villages, will benefit the residents and help to promote and preserve their rich culture.
"People welcomed my idea [to receive tourists], because many people have no jobs here and this gives them an additional income. Tourists are buying souvenirs, food from people's gardens, like honey, berries. For the tourists some are making "kvas" [traditional Russian non-alcoholic drink made of bread], others make jams. So, people here are busy working", said Lyubov, who was the first one to develop a tourist infrastructure in the Old Believers' villages.
Buryatia lies on the famous TransSiberian rail route and many tourists pass through the region. Groups are taken to Tarbagatai for a brief encounter with the Old Believers.
"No I did not really know about Old Believers, we are part of the group and they brought us here and told us all about them, " said Teresa, a tourist from Spain, after visiting a traditional Old Believer's house.
"It is very interesting, it is something which is out of the ordinary, for sure", said Francois Gereni, from Canada.
The foundation of the Old Believers life and culture is their faith and the church has always been the centre of the community.
For many years there was no church in Tarbagatai, but in 2003, thanks to Father Sergiy, a new church has been built.
"Before the revolution there were five Old Believers churches and two 'new-believers'. After 1936 all of them were destroyed, nothing was left.
People then tried to hide whatever they could at home, on the roof, in the mountains. In 1958, the authorities discovered a cave here, in Zharchiha and found two trucks full of church things which were hidden there by the priests. They burnt some of it right there and destroyed the rest later", said Father Sergiy, showing some of his church's 17th century pre-schism books and icons.
Unlike mainstream Orthodox churches, icons used by Old Believers depict Christ or the Saints blessing themselves with two fingers, not three fingers, as in post-reform icons and books.
Father Sergiy has also created an Old Believers' museum in Tarbagatai, which shows a wide collection, from traditional clothes to instruments, dishes and tools used by Old Believers, the icons they prayed to and books they read.
Old Believers, repeatedly persecuted by the state, had to hide and preserve everything they possessed. 69-year-old Maria Stepanova, who offers accommodation for tourists who want to live with an Old Believers family, shows an old photograph of her mother-in-law among other Tarbagatai women.
"(In the past) people used to dress more simply in their daily life, but every morning women got up early in order to tie the 'kichka' (a special Old Believers headdress for women)," said Zinaida Yerofeeva, wearing traditional clothes she inherited from her mother. "If the woman was a skinny thing, then she used to wear such skirts, she would put on two or three of them, so she looked bigger, our 'Family Old Believers' (the name of her Old Believers community) liked plump women. This skirt is very old, it has been worn for many, many years and then women would put on a pinafore, to make such a sarafan would take six metres of fabric."
says Zinaida Yerofeeva, proudly displaying a 200-year-old skirt and pinafore.
Tarbagatai Old Believers, at first apprehensive about going into tourism, today are doing their best to attract more visitors. In this poor area with its high unemployment rate, many make their living or get an additional income by working with tourists.
They have realised tourism does not pose a threat to their traditions and culture, but quite the opposite.
Tourism has revived the Old Believers culture. For some it means pulling their grandmothers' clothes out of the wardrobe and wearing them with pride, for others it means learning the old songs at school and singing them together again. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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