Russian Traditional Village Life

These are images from the State Museum of Ethnology in Ulan Ude, the capital of the Buryat Autonomous Republic in eastern Siberia.

Flag of Buryat Autonomous Republic

Flag of the Evenki peoples

The Museum in Ulan Ude is an open-air museum. Visitors walk through open grounds where information about the many cultures that have occupied the area is traced through representative buildings and cultural materials. This informs visitors of the area's peoples, both past and present.


Museum grounds | Buryats | Evenkis | Evenki shamanism | Cossacks | Siberian exiles | Further study/Links

map of Russia

The Autonomous Buryat Republic is a region of Russia located in eastern Siberia. This large area is also described as the trans-Baikal as it is the geographical area surrounding Lake Baikal, the largest lake in the world.

Ulan Ude is the capital of the Buryat Autonomous Republic and is located very near the south eastern shore of Lake Baikal. It currently has a population of 353,000 but was founded in 1666 as a base for collection of fur tribute. Fur tribute was the taxation or payment extracted from local populations by the newly arrived representatives of the Russian empire it attempted to assume administrative control over the Siberian lands.

map of Buryatia

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