Exhibition "Nine Treasures of Buryatia"

On November 3, the Nine Jewels of Buryatia exhibition opens as part of the Ulan-Ude Culture Days in Moscow, dedicated to the 350th anniversary of the founding of the city of Ulan-Ude, at the All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art.

Folk art of the Republic of Buryatia is a unique layer of original art and cultural heritage of the peoples of the Baikal region. The exhibition “Nine Treasures of Buryatia” fully follows the Russian concept of “dialogue of cultures”. A peculiar code is encrypted in the title: “Nine Jewels” symbolize the spiritual wealth of life. Of the nine jewels is the body, mind and consciousness of man, as well as the world around us, the unity of soul and body, the unity of Man and the Cosmos. In addition, in the performances, the heavenly spirit, the patron saint of blacksmithing Bozhintoy, the founder of the bright heavenly blacksmiths, Darkhans, the initiator of the blacksmithing craft on earth, had nine sons. They were sent to earth to teach people to create, to engage in creativity in a global sense.

The handicrafts of Buryatia have their roots in the depths of centuries, to the origins of the primitive decor of ancient ceramic vessels and geometric ornaments on ancient objects of traditional everyday life, which carry cosmogonic semantics and become the primary basis for the development of modern decorative and applied art.

The exhibition “Nine Treasures of Buryatia” will feature such types of arts and crafts as a Buddhist tanka, silverware, bronze sculpture, beadwork, horsehair tapestries, kumalans, family rugs and much more.

Sculpture. Bronze. casting. 26x33x29

Wood, carving, painting. Yanjima. 70x40x35

Evenki Kumalan. Fur, sewing. D-50cm.

In ancient times, the Buryats mastered the technology of metalworking. They knew how to pour bronze, forge iron, and mint silver. Today, silver craft remains one of the most popular genres of folk art crafts. Currently, there has been a surge in interest in such a complex material as bronze in Buryatia. Each year, new names of talented young sculptors who turn to this genre appear. And today we can already talk about the phenomenon of modern Buryat bronze.

Horse hair tapestry is a brand of arts and crafts of Buryatia. The "source" tapestry of horsehair - the ancient mat "Taar" has long existed in the Buryats. Taaras were decorated with contrasting color stripes or zigzags of various widths.

In Evenk folk art, a harmonious combination of practicality and elegance strikes. Through the efforts of talented craftsmen, high boots, bags, hats and other everyday items embroidered with bright beads turn into works of art. Each product, as if permeated by the sun’s rays and radiates joy, and this determines the openness of the artistic world of Evenki of Buryatia.

A distinctive feature of the culture of the Old Believers of Buryatia (Semey) is that, thanks to their religious views and strict morality, they managed to preserve the foundations of the family structure, traditional methods of housekeeping, national clothes, folk crafts and crafts. The uniqueness of the Semey ethnic culture is that they managed to convey to our time the cultural features of pre-Petrine Moscow Rus.

The decorative and applied art of Buryatia is a bright and distinctive phenomenon in the multi-ethnic cultural space of Russia. Based on the deep roots of folk crafts, it lives and develops, allowing contemporaries to touch the objects that their ancestors used in their distant everyday life…