Jacob's Guest Entry

Our day trip to Kyakhta was a worthy microcosm of my journey so far. The town is in many ways similar to small boom-towns out West. Kyakhta is currently suffering under a state of sad and slow decline. Yet during the 18th and 19th centuries as Russians were moving eastwards into the vast hinterlands of the Russian Empire, Kyakhta was fabulously wealthy. The source of the wealth was the tea trade which provided most of Russian and some of Europe with its tea. Caravans would come out of China to this border town between Mongolia and Russia. Then with the advent of the Suez canal, the tea trade disappeared from Kyakhta. The remnants of the wealth are still visible through the decayed but once grand houses, the ruins of Churches that were once large and richly decorated and a museum, which was the main destination of our trip.

The journey to Kyakhta is also worthy of description. Most transport here is available through a fleet of privately operated vans and buses that run designated routes with fixed prices. These vehicles are known as marshrutkas and have quite a bit of character. Our marshrutka was typical. It was a van that seats 12 and was decorated with delightful trim and tassels all around the windows. The color scheme was reminiscent of the crayons with bizarre names to children, such as fuchsia, cyan and magenta. The soundtrack was nonstop Russian Euro-pop. The inside of the windows were covered in a thick layer of frost as the outside air temperature was about -20 degrees Fahrenheit. So in order to see the Asian steppe during our three hour trip, we had to scrape off frost for a 30 second view before the small hole began to fog up. The passengers were a mixture of Buryat and Russian and were generally kind and interested to find Americans in their midst. The Buryats are local people who are quite similar in language and culture to Mongolians.

Once in Kyakhta, we hurried to the museum in order to escape the cold. We used the still common outdoor pit toilets and then finally began our perusal of the museum. Jesse has explained that many Russians seldom get outdoors and hence receive much of their exposure to nature through the natural history wings of museums. Taxidermy is still much loved in Russia and this museum did not lack for stuffed animals. In particular, the museum had a large collection of natural oddities and freaks, such as five legged animals, 2 headed animals, an animal with eyes but no head (I was also confused about how this was possible) and Siamese twins. Jesse did mention a strain of Russian thought which held that through understanding the exceptions of nature, you gain a true understanding of nature. Apparently, one of the czars had a penchant for such animals and the gems of his collection are on display in St. Petersburg. There were also many 'typical' animals of Russia, such as bears, boars, wolves and nerpa seals of Lake Baikal.

After saying goodbye to the two-headed lamb, we went to another wing and were greeted by pictures and stories of the merchants and explorers who moved eastwards with the Russian Empire. There were a number of natural scientists dispatched by the czar to catalogue the flora and fauna of the new lands, map and do basic ethnographic work. Russian explorers even competed with the British for access to Tibet. I particularly liked the pictures of the merchants with their camel caravans laden with tea and of the town square filled with tea bricks. I could get a feel for the town in its heyday when the Mongolian, Chinese and Russian cultures intermingled along with their money.

The last two wings of the museum owed their richness to Stalin's religious persecution, which involved looting and then closing churches and temples. One wing held looted artifacts from the local Buryats' Buddhist tradition, which is Tibetan in origin. The colorful but fierce ceremonial masks and serene Buddhas were in stark contrast to the harshness of the surrounding steppe. The final wing held looted artifacts from the local Orthodox churches, only one of which is not now in ruins. Of greatest interest was a very nontraditional icon painting of the nativity. The painting had none of the typical stylizations of Russian iconography, but instead seemed indicative of the contemporary tastes of that day with its realistic style.

After a brief walk through the main street in town, we decided to escape the cold and hurried into a restaurant. By this time, we were quite cold, as the museum was a poorly heated large concrete and stone building. After standing for 2 or 3 hours in such a building, one can get a deeply set chill. We found two restaurants and neither of them was marked as such on the outside. After entering each restaurant, there was an empty vestibule with a number of doors from which to choose. The wrong door might lead to the kitchen, broom closet or bathroom. We only knew these buildings contained restaurants through the recommendations of people on the street. But, the restaurant we chose was warm and the food was surprisingly good.

The day ended with a three hour drive back to Ulan-Ude in a marshrutka. The conversation included some discussion with the driver's friend about American icons such as Barrack Obama and Mike Tyson, along with repeated affirmations of Russian-American friendship.