Tuva or Bust - The Sequel

The travel bug has infected me badly, but since international travel is probably a few years off, I am making plans for way in advance.

When I turn 50, I want to go to Tuva.

(I can almost hear all of you clicking onto Google to figure out where in the world that is. I’ll save the trouble for you. Click here.)

Tuva is a remote, autonomous region of Russia, on the western border to Mongolia. Its people are historically nomadic, with shamanism still evident in the 20th Century. It is also home to one of most unique singing styles I have ever heard – throat singing.

All of this actually started with the Florida International Festival, easily the most wonderful cultural experience that exists in my area. I always try to hear whatever obscure music or performance they offer. This year, it was Huun Huur Tu, the throat singers of Tuva.

A trained Tuvan can make a deep guttural sound and, through the magic of harmonics, are able to make a second sound with his single voice (apparently Tuvan women don’t do much throat singing.) You can learn more about it here.

Some of it sounds like an aboriginal didgeridoo accompanied by a flute, but it is very hard to describe – a sound that primordial.

It is some of the most fascinating music I have ever heard.

Of course, that sparked a new fascination and a search for all things Tuvan. I have just finished a hysterical little book called, Tuva or Bust , which chronicles how one of our nation’s most eminent physicists and his friends spend years trying to figure out a way to get to Tuva, in the era before Glasnost.

Luckily, for me, arranging the trip won’t require the kind of international connections described in the book.

Still, it will be (hopefully) be a lot less tainted by American culture. At least I hope it will be by the time I get there in 2022.