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Siberia - 2000
Siberia - 2000
Jacek Pałkiewicz2006-06-18 22:55:37
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FORSAKEN IN THE SIBERIAN WASTES
The little village on the banks of the river Bikin is surrounded by dense wild taiga. On a clear severe winter's day I pursue a dream begun years ago on reading a book by Arseniev. Like the great Russian author, I, too, wish to meet my own Dersu Uzala, the hardy little character made world famous by film-director Akira Kurosawa. Now at Krasny Jar, on the Sikhote Alin mountains I have come across Suan-Ka, "swift river", an Udegey hunter. This eighty-year-old man has Mongolian traits: wide flat cheekbones, short nose, broad forehead and slit eyes.
There are skins hanging out to dry on his izba. Inside is a great stove emanating a pleasant warmth. I gaze satisfied at my Dersu Uzala, while he while he vigorously slices up some frozen “stroganina” for us to eat raw. "I am a happy man. My life has been good. I never want for food. In summer there is fruit in the woods and in winter I can go hunting. What more should I want from life?"
He goes on to tell of the old beliefs of his people - there are now only 1,500 of them - and of shamans who spoke to the spirits, the wind and animals. He has lost count of all the bears he has killed. He has even shot at tigers, but only in self-defence. "We Udegeys respect the amba. We don't kill him. His spirit would haunt us." The Udegeys are now part of the history of trade with China, which bought their furs and ginseng, the plant of life. Of his eight sons, only two have stayed on in the taiga, the others have gone to school and live far away. "They have forgotten how to use a rifle", he sighs mournfully.
Suan-Ka is one of the last survivors of a Siberian people that is disappearing. Many other ethnic groups are suffering a similar fate: there only two thousand Ulchis left in the lower Amur valley; a hundred Orochis in Sakhalin; six hundred Yukaghirys on the River Kolyma and no more than a thousand Eskimos.
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