Landscapes | Singing | 00:00 |
| EMMA GRIFFITHS: It could be a radio signal perhaps from another world; an unbelievably low tone mixed with a whistling tune. | 00:16 |
| Singing | 00:27 |
Pan right to Choodu | EMMA GRIFFITHS: But it's all coming from the one earthly instrument a human voice. Shonchalai Choodu is the latest prodigy in a long line of throat singers. | 00:33 |
Choodu singing | But as one of the few women to master the art - she's breaking a centuries old taboo. | 00:54 |
Choodu | SHONCHALAI CHOODU: There was a belief that women who throat sang could not have children. But it's not true because I throat sing and I have a daughter and a son. And it's fine. | 01:10 |
Vladimir sings by river |
| 01:22 |
| EMMA GRIFFITHS: Men have always held the throat singing spotlight. | 01:30 |
| Vladimir Oidoopaa even has a particular style of throat singing named after him. | 01:41 |
| VLADIMIR OIDOOPAA: I am especially amazed when women sing. | 01:52 |
Vladimir | Such sounds from a woman's throat. | 02:00 |
| It was thought that if a woman was a throat singer her family clan would die. | 02:10 |
| The people were scared. Tuvans are superstitious. | 02:19 |
| EMMA GRIFFITHS: The desire to keep the art form alive has triumphed over superstition as it has centuries of occupation and repression. | 02:29 |
Tuvan faces | Music | 02:38 |
| EMMA GRIFFITHS: Throat singing has given the Tuvan people a cultural character. It stands out in what can feel like an increasingly homogenous world. | 02:50 |
Choodu and man sing | Singing | 03:00 |
| SHONCHALAI CHOODU: I've been singing since I was very little... five or six years old. Even in my first memories I was a throat singer. | 03:08 |
Choodu | When I was little, going out and herding the sheep I would sing for the nature around me. | 03:19 |
Camp in Siberia | EMMA GRIFFITHS: Shonchalai Choodu has brought me to her family's summer camp. A yurt high in the Sayan Mountains of southern Siberia. | 03:30 |
| Inside it's a picture of family warmth. | 03:42 |
| The modern world hasn't yet reached this place. Age-old customs are still an everyday way of life. | 03:49 |
Choodu sings/ Landscapes | SHONCHALAI CHOODU [singing]: Among the horses of my herd. There's a very beautiful spotted colt... | 04:00 |
| EMMA GRIFFITHS: Tuva lies at the centre of Asia, but it feels like the middle of nowhere. There are just two roads leading to the outside world. | 04:29 |
| For most of its history, this small pocket of land has been ruled by the empires surrounding it -- Mongol, Chinese, Soviet and now Russian. | 04:46 |
Festival |
| 05:05 |
Khuresh wrestling | EMMA GRIFFITHS: Perhaps because of its very isolation, Tuva has been able to absorb foreign ways and keep its own alive. | 05:13 |
| Tuvan Khuresh wrestling is still the favoured sport and the local language is strong. | 05:25 |
| Singing |
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Fire. Festival | EMMA GRIFFITHS: But it's throat singing that is at the very heart of Tuvan life. It's the main attraction at the annual music festival in the eastern city of Chadan. | 05:53 |
Choodu sings |
| 06:04 |
| EMMA GRIFFITHS: Shonchalai Choodu has the crowd mesmerised. | 06:12 |
| If Shonchalai is the face of Tuva's thriving culture, then Vladimir Oidoopaa's is the story of its past battles for survival. | 06:25 |
Vladimir sings | EMMA GRIFFITHS: Worshipped as a musical legend. He's the Jimi Hendrix of a Tuvan Woodstock. | 06:35 |
| VLADIMIR OIDOOPAA: When a person is throat singing, for me it's like a singing soul. A soul that sings. | 06:52 |
| It's how you express yourself. Which of your own agonies you want to express through the sound. | 07:04 |
| EMMA GRIFFITHS: Vladimir Oidoopaa's agonies hark back to Soviet times. Though Tuva outlived the repressive regime - it bears some deep scars. | 07:17 |
| VLADIMIR OIDOOPAA: Everyone was herded into a heap, and trimmed like lawn to stop anyone from showing their individuality. | 07:33 |
Vladimir | Those who sang a satirical folk song could be jailed so people didn't become rebellious. | 07:45 |
| And throat singing in any style was regarded as dissent. | 07:52 |
Vladimir plays accordion and sings | EMMA GRIFFITHS: Vladimir Oidoopaa says he's pushed aside the worst of the Soviet influence and kept the best his beloved accordion. | 08:04 |
| VLADIMIR OIDOOPAA: Beautiful sound isn't it? | 08:18 |
Monks chanting |
| 08:21 |
People at temple remains | EMMA GRIFFITHS: The spiritual life of Tuvans was strangled in the Soviet era. | 08:28 |
| Under orders from faraway Moscow, the local religions of shamanism and Buddhism were banned; shamans were persecuted, Buddhist lamas shot, and temples destroyed - like this one. | 08:33 |
| Believers were forced to hide their rituals -- among them throat singing. | 08:50 |
Girls in traditional dress | Vladimir Oidoopaa believes music will heal all wounds. | 09:01 |
Temple ceremony | VLADIMIR OIDOOPAA: Throat singing prevents our nation from dying spiritually. | 09:09 |
Vladimir | To me, throat singing means power and philosophy, love for my nation, love for my people, to respect other opinions and to be tolerant of different religions. | 09:15 |
Kids wrestling. Shonchalai watches | EMMA GRIFFITHS: For Shonchalai Choodu the ghosts of the Soviet Union have faded and Tuva's relative freedom today has given her new ambitions: she wants to take her talent and the Tuvan culture to the world. | 09:35 |
| SHONCHALAI CHOODU: Throat singing is important not just for Tuvans but for all the world, because it's a beautiful treasure. | 09:51 |
Shonchalai | Some people use it for healing, and a person who is grieving can listen to it, or sing it himself, and he will be transformed spiritually. | 10:05 |
Tuvan landscape | Singing | 10:20 |
| EMMA GRIFFITHS: It's hard to believe that Tuva is really a part of Russia. It seems to be a place all its own. | 10:26 |
Singer on horse | Centuries of invasion and foreign rule have failed to silence these incredible voices and the sounds of Tuva seem destined to ring out for centuries to come. | 10:38 |
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Credits: | Reporter: Emma Griffiths Camera: Simon Johnson Editor: Simon Brynjolffssen Producer: Olga Pavlova | 11:02 |