Khakassia 1-27.09.2008
We drove to Khakassia through St. Petersburg; we took the opportunity to visit the Wycliffe office. We’re still having some 7000 km of driving ahead of us.
Traces of the times when someone was showing the one and only right way are still visible all over Russia.
In many places in Russia memories of the second world war are still kept alive: monuments, tanks, cannons, planes…
A typical Siberian block of flats – timber is an excellent isolation material considering the temperatures there (-25 °C on average in winter, even down to -35°C).
A typical Syberian house with decorated shutters (they might be also green or yellow). Nearby a typical apple tree with tiny but very tasty and sweet fruit.
Tasztyp village – the capital of one of the regions in the Republic of Khakassia.
During a meeting in a Khakassian village.
Often during our visits to the Khakassian people we worshipped the Lord by singing.
A meeting with Khakassia’s Christians (they are very few of them).
Khakassia’s Christians from the same village; sisters and their cousin (on the right).
This boy asked me to take a picture of him with the notebook, that he got from us together with other drawing tools.
Khakassia people eat simple ford, often bread and potatoes. Here we are at a meeting where there were more dishes and plenty of food.
Most Khakassia people are shaman. Mountain passes are often a place for worship – when passing one you are expected to give an offering to spirits: coins, food, wodka drops…
You can still find such grave mounds from around VII c.BC, from an old Khakassian country.
Yurta – in such houses Khakassia people, half-nomadic, used to live. This yurta was built as a touristic attraction in a place where a stone of fertility is worshipped.
The main trees in taiga are pine, cedar, spruce. There is a very high moisture content in the moss which builds an undergrowth, so any shoes get wet quickly…
There is plenty of raw material in taiga…
The border between the Republics of Khakassia and of Tuva – mountain pass at 2206 m a.s.l.
Our team at the above mentioned mountain pass.
Khakassia people have always lived by cattle-breeding. Nowadays the number of cattle is much less than before the soviet times, however one can still see flocks of sheep, cows or horses by the roads.
Popular Russian pierożki – they are deep fried; the most common stuffing is: potatoes, cabbage, meat.
Gypsy settlement in the neighbourhood of Abakan, the capital of Khakassia.
In the above mentioned Gypsy settlement
In the villages not very many Khakassia people own cars – such a motor bike with a typical side-car is a popular means of transport.
Streets of Khakassia villages.
There is no bathroom or running water in a typical Syberian house; a toilet and water source is outside.
In one of the bookshops in the capital of the republic we found books of John in the Khakassian language edited as a result of the project of the New Testament translation into this language.