Exhibition "Evenki Complex"

About exhibition

The Evenki people's main occupations were reindeer herding, hunting, and fishing. The museum displays a camp of a group of families united by kinship ties. The camp includes several types of traditional Evenki dwellings: conical chums covered, depending on the season, with larch bark, birch bark, and suede (zamsha) sewn from reindeer skins. In the center of the camp there was a summer hearth where food was prepared and meat and fish were dried. Inside the chum there was only the bare necessities — a hearth, movable tables, metal and birch-bark utensils, a child's cradle, and bedding made from reindeer skins. Everything else was stored outside on stilted storage platforms (labaz) of various constructions. On special platforms were kept pack bags, saddles, traps, hide-processing tools, hunting footwear, and boats. The camp also contained a pen of poles with a shaded canopy for reindeer. Near the dwellings shelters for dogs were erected. Set apart is the shaman's camp, whose obligatory attributes include wooden figures of sacred animals and birds representing the shaman's spirit helpers.