Exhibition “Tofalars. Lost in the Sayans”

About exhibition

The exhibition, shown at the Russian Museum of Ethnography, is dedicated to the traditional culture of one of the smallest peoples of Siberia (only about 700 people). The way of life of this ethnic group, which was settled in the hard-to-reach areas of the Nizhneudinsky Uyezd of the Irkutsk Governorate until the late 1920s, was defined by mountain-taiga pack-and-saddle reindeer herding. The exhibition sections display items used for reindeer care, means of transportation, traditional costume, attributes of the shamanic cult, and are accompanied by historical photographs. The vast majority of the Tofalar collections in the Russian Museum of Ethnography (RME) were acquired in 1908 by the well-known ethnographer and collector Viktor Nikolaevich Vasiliev and were transferred to the museum in 1911 through the mediation of Emperor Nicholas II. At the present stage, the museum collections are virtually the only source for studying the material culture of this remarkable people. Due to the isolation of their settlement area, all items, despite their simplicity and archaic character, are unique. The RME’s Tofalar collection was successfully exhibited in late 2023–early 2024 at regional museums in Novosibirsk and Irkutsk as part of a joint project. Now RME staff are presenting it in Saint Petersburg as part of the series “Small Peoples of a Big Country.” Many exhibits were restored specifically for the exhibition and are being shown in Saint Petersburg for the first time.