• Ensemble Han Tigir - Traditional songs of the Khakas people

The Ensemble Han Tigir performs traditional music from Central Asia: epics, songs of praise and songs in throat singing (overtone singing). The name also means "universe" which is understood as the three worlds according to schamanistic belief. There is an upper world in which the gods of heaven (Tenger) live, and a middle world, this is life on earth with animated nature. They believe in the existence of entities in the form of spirits (such as earth and water spirits), in a place of eternity, where human beings experience rebirth, the life on earth with the kingdoms of the peoples, which ought to live therein in harmony, in balance. And finally, there is the underworld, the world of death.

The Khakass people, also called Yenisey Kirgiz or Abakan Tartars, bequeathed an extremely interesting culture to their descendants, the basic features of which have been handed down from ancient times until the present day. One of the most important forms of Khakass and Altai art is the narration of epics to the accompaniment of the two-string lute komys (topshur). Epics are also accompanied with the chatkhan (jadagan), a type of guzheng, or the rare yykh (ikili), a king of viola da gamba. The texts are usually enunciated in a low guttural bass register used by throat singers (khaigee).

The name Khakass is of Chinese origin and was used for an ancient tribe in the Sayan Mountains (Mount Karagosh 2'930 m).The appearance and habits of this "Kirgiz" people were described in Chinese chronicles in the first centuries AD, approximately. The Khakass themselves have been using their own tribal designation (Sagai, Khachin, Beltir, Shor, Koibal, Kyzyl).

As early as in the Paleolithic period the region of present-day Khakassia was populated by pastoral nomads, hunters and fishermen. The rulers changed (the Huns, the Zhuzhans, the Altai Turks or "Oirats"), people wandered, and the borders shifted. Since the 6th century the influence of the Altaic and Uighur tribes has strengthened the Turkic ethnic element. During this period, ancient Kirgiz tribes rose, and a little later (8th till 9th centuries) the Yenisey Kirgiz tribes, the far ancestors of the Khakass emerged.

Nowadays, the Khakass live in Siberia on the Upper Yenisey River. The northern and eastern parts of the region are flat steppe land (the Abakan-Minusinsk-Basin), while the southern and western parts are mountainous (the Sayan and Altai mountains). Neighbouring the Khakass territory are the Kemerovo Region, the Krasnoyarsk Province, the Republics Altai and Tuva. The name of the capital is Abakan which means 'bear's blood', and it is situated at the mouth of the River Yenisey. The area is one and a half times bigger than Switzerland with a population of about half a million people, of which 10 % are Khakass people and the remaining are immigrants, especially from Russia.

Industry is slowly developing, with local wellness tourism from the nearby located cities of Sibiria (Novosibirsk, Krasnojarsk, etc.) gaining more and more importance (as there have been found mineral springs). Apart from urban life in large cities, there are still nomads living on hunting, fishing and breeding horses and cattle as well as keeping sheep and goat stock. Furthermore, the people are dependent on agriculture with corn, potatoes, and vegetable. The mining of copper and gold is supported on the industrial level


- Stageplan - Han Tigir

Latest CD:
- Kadyn Bazhy - Songs of the Khakass and Altai people, Abakan 2001.
- Ensemble Üch Süme-R - Traditional songs of the Khakass and the Altai people - Vol. I - FM 50038
- Ensemble Han Tigir - Hongorai - wind of our homeland - Traditional songs of the Khakas people - FM 50049 - in preparation
- Female Ensemble - Traditional songs of the Khakas people - FM 50050 - in preparation

- watch profil in YouTube

Review:
- published by Ethnotempos - 2006
- published by Newsweek Moscow - 2006

Tamara Davletova
ex. Üch Süme-R

Tamara, Maxim and Zhanna - Han Tigir - Festival Abakan 2008