BAIKAL

The Bai­kal - Descrip­ti­on and Expe­ri­ence

BAIKAL INDIVIDUAL TOUR - SOUTHWEST BAIKAL

The Bai­kal - Descrip­ti­on and Expe­ri­ence


Sum­ma­ry in seven Words

The Bai­kal - my dream and my source.

So I could bring the expe­ri­ence to the shor­test pos­si­ble deno­mi­na­tor. I would nevert­hel­ess like to descri­be the Bai­kal on the one hand by much more and, on the other hand, let some expe­ri­en­ces flow into it.

My jour­ney to the shaman in the midd­le of the Bai­kal las­ted 55 years. Even as a child I had drea­med of it.

Baikal Reise 2016
Sun­ri­se on the Litt­le Sea of Lake Bai­kal - in the back­ground the island of Olchon (click to enlar­ge)

Many names have given the Sibi­ria­ki­ans to their Lake Bai­kal, the lar­gest, deepest, most beau­tiful and mys­te­rious freshwa­ter lake in the world. The RBB and WDR vide­os → “The Bal­lad of Lake Bai­kal - Part 1 - Win­ter trip” and → “The Bal­la­de of Lake Bai­kal - Part 2 - Sum­mer trip” was just a first impres­si­ve look at what was wai­ting for us. → Klaus Bednarz„ the for­mer Rus­sia cor­re­spon­dent of the ARD, tells us about Lake Bai­kal in his films. Locals are also heard - such as during sum­mer holi­days, a woman of Sile­si­an ori­gin based on the Bai­kal island of Olchon.

We expe­ri­en­ced a posi­ti­ve deve­lo­p­ment for locals and also the main­ten­an­ce of the Bai­kal, almost two deca­des after the ori­gin of the films. We expe­ri­en­ced also grown, extre­me­ly attrac­ti­ve tou­rist pos­si­bi­li­ties.

Our Tra­vel Group and the Bai­kal
auf Olchon in der südlichen Gebirgslandschaft
From the val­ley of the Wer­ra to the Bai­kal - on the island of Olchon in the sou­thern moun­tai­nous land­scape (Click to enlar­ge)

How did we - 3 mar­ried cou­ples in the 6th deca­de, from the Wer­ra regi­on in the midd­le of Ger­ma­ny - to Bai­kal?

We are loo­king for a spe­cial kind of hos­pi­ta­li­ty among per­haps hos­pi­ta­ble peo­p­le - per­haps in a wild-romantic land­scape, far from mass tou­rism and monu­men­tal blind­ness - in order to pur­sue some­thing spe­cial on soli­ta­ry paths.

In August 2016 we stay­ed at the Bai­kal.

Somehow, we’­ve always been curious about respec­ta­ble things in and around. But we are also always loo­king for simp­le things that are no lon­ger self-evident today. And what can not be bet­ter than the peaceful Far East of Rus­sia stret­ching infi­ni­te­ly far behind the Urals.

We know this coun­try under the name → Sibe­ria - the coun­try so rich in tra­di­ti­ons, flo­ra, fau­na and also mine­ral resour­ces. The future of this vast and very spar­se­ly popu­la­ted coun­try will depend abo­ve all on how the wealth of the coun­try can be mea­su­red, even with respect.

We had respect for the sub­ject - also regar­ding health aspects. Such fears were wea­k­en­ed with every day on the Holy Sea.

Every day, every one of us felt how this world gave us more and more strength.

The source of this was not only the uni­que flo­ra, fau­na and the soul of the Bai­kal - the source of this was also the peo­p­le.

Our fel­low tra­ve­ler Erwin told us how to meet stran­gers. Always con­sider them as fri­ends you have not yet met. And Erwin wan­ted to get to know ever­yo­ne - he sim­ply spo­ke to the peo­p­le at every place. And alre­a­dy doors were ope­ned to new worlds.

The curio­si­ty dro­ve us every day on the bead of Sibe­ria - accor­ding to the mot­to:

Curio­si­ty is your gui­de in the jungle of igno­rance.

It was about mee­ting the unknown. Our mot­to here - be open min­ded and watch wit­hout pre­ma­tu­re judgment. And remem­ber - open yours­elf to the other, becau­se you are stran­ge to him. The way is your desti­na­ti­on and not the desti­na­ti­on.

Lake Bai­kal

Bea­te, a par­ti­ci­pant, also descri­bes the lake in 7 words:

The Bai­kal - para­di­se for the sen­ses.

Lake → Bai­kal has even more wor­shipful names such as the “Pearl of Sibe­ria” or the “Foun­tain of the Pla­net”. Accor­ding to the tra­di­ti­on of → shama­nism, it is cal­led the “Holy Sea” of the → Buryats.

Bai­kal” means trans­la­ted from the Bur­ja­tic as much as “Rich Lake”. In the tra­di­ti­on of the nati­ve Buryats, the lake is a god.

With locals we felt their deep vene­ra­ti­on against the lake.

Expres­si­ons of this wor­ship were many small ges­tu­res that we obser­ved. Each of our ever-changing riders and excur­si­on gui­des loo­ked out for the most embar­ras­sing cle­an­li­ne­ss in natu­re. A topp­le, thrown away by tou­rists wit­hout care, picked them up to dis­po­se of them.

Along the paths the­re were incon­spi­cuous, sacred places whe­re vehic­le dri­vers or hikers stop­ped, bowed to the ghosts (not thro­wing money) in the form of coins.

In free moments near the lake, they use the favor of the hour to devo­te them­sel­ves high abo­ve the Bai­kal in a holy envi­ron­ment of peace and con­tem­pla­ti­on. They absorb the ener­gy sur­roun­ding the lake and space.

In the Natio­nal Park

Our tra­vel group could of cour­se in the over 2 weeks stay at the Bai­kal not all parts of the huge lake. In essence, we visi­ted the Bai­kal Natio­nal Park → “Pri­bai­kals­kij” (Rus­si­an: Прибайкальский национальный парк).

The Pri­bai­kals­kij is one of 2 natio­nal parks ...

... and ano­ther 6 reser­ves, which were pro­tec­ted as a pro­tec­ted area around the Bai­kal. In the natio­nal park eco­lo­gi­cal, his­to­ri­cal and aes­the­tic values are strict­ly pro­tec­ted. Various core zones of the park are acces­si­ble wit­hout per­mis­si­on and others only with per­mis­si­on.

Auf den Bergen über dem Kleinen Meer
In the Natio­nal Park - on the moun­ta­ins abo­ve the Litt­le Sea (Click to enlar­ge)

It opens up from the sou­thwes­tern tip along the west coast to far north. It stret­ches over the slo­pes of the Pri­mor­ski Moun­ta­ins, which is oppo­si­te the island of Olchon. It also includes the enti­re island of Olchon and the rocky islands on the Litt­le Sea. Its area covers a mas­si­ve 4180 squa­re kilo­me­ters.

So our excur­si­ons took us to the sou­thern Bai­kal, along the Bai­kal West Bank, across the Klei­ne Meer and the lar­gest Bai­kal island, the island of Olchon.

Irkutsk - Start to Bai­kal

The start­ing point of our com­pa­ny in the natio­nal park was the capi­tal of the Oblask Irkutsk - the Paris of Sibe­ria. The Oblast has an area of 774,846 squa­re kilo­me­ters. For com­pa­ri­son - the area of the new fede­ral sta­tes of the FRG is 108,179 squa­re kilo­me­ters. With 2,428,750 inha­bi­tants (as of 14.10.2010), the popu­la­ti­on den­si­ty is only 3.1 inha­bi­tants per squa­re kilo­me­ter.

Irkutsk is a his­to­ri­cal­ly grown city, ...

... which reflects the archi­tec­tu­re dif­fer­ent­ly. Pre­vious­ly they built main­ly wood and deco­ra­ted the street faca­des par­ti­cu­lar­ly. In the 18th cen­tu­ry, mas­si­ve, sump­tuous buil­dings were built in the clas­si­cal style and from the begin­ning of the 19th cen­tu­ry they were built in the Jugend­stil style.

Many famous buil­dings, such as the Och­lop­kov Thea­ter, the “White House” of Irkutsk (today the University’s sci­en­ti­fic libra­ry), the Muse­um of Local Histo­ry, a buil­ding of the dis­trict policli­nics, were crea­ted.

The lat­ter buil­ding was the seat of the Russian-Asian Bank until 1917 - one of the lar­gest banks of pre-revolutionary Rus­sia. It finan­ced inter alia. The gold and coal indus­tries, mills, saw­mills, lea­ther indus­try and the explo­ra­ti­on of the nor­the­as­tern pas­sa­ge.

The uni­ver­si­ty town has about 600.000 inha­bi­tants.

The Trans­sib con­nects the city and the regi­on like an umbi­li­cal cord with East, West and South Asia.

Not far from our hotel on the Anga­ra is a monu­ment of tsar Alex­an­der III - built in 1908. It was erec­ted in honor of the then lar­ge­ly com­ple­ted Trans­sib. The street Karl-Marx also starts here.

The Lenin Strait is ano­ther main street of the city. Here, as usu­al in Rus­si­an cities, the­re is a monu­ment of the lea­der of the Octo­ber Revo­lu­ti­on → Lenin.

Many exis­ting hotels have been built sin­ce the 1930s. The Second World War left hard­ly any mate­ri­al dama­ge. The many sol­diers of the Sibe­ri­an units, the fal­len and their fami­lies were the vic­tims.

The cen­tral bank of Rus­sia, the admi­nis­tra­ti­on of the city of Irkutsk, the Lin­gu­i­stic Uni­ver­si­ty and the admi­nis­tra­ti­on of the Irkutsk regi­on are loca­ted at Kirov Squa­re, the main squa­re of the city. On the 9th of May the squa­re also ser­ves as a para­de ground.

The squa­re of the three churches is a striking fea­ture of this tole­rant world in Sibe­ria.

Irkutsk - an der Polnisch-Katholischen Kirche
Polish-Catholic Church (Click to enlar­ge)

The Epi­pha­ny Cathe­dral, the Church of the Rede­emer with the oldest stone buil­ding of Eas­tern Sibe­ria and a neo-gothic → Polish Roman Catho­lic Church are united.

In front of the Church of the Rede­emer is the “Eter­nal Fla­me”, a memo­ri­al for the fal­len in the Second World War.

Behind the Polish church beg­ins the Pro­le­tars­ka­ya street, which leads to the cir­cus and the place of work. Direct­ly at the sta­tio­na­ry cir­cus we are on the last evening for a fes­ti­ve din­ner to guest with our gui­de Lyud­mi­la. It was a won­derful at Rus­si­an Pivo, deli­cious, dried or smo­ked fish fil­lets of various kinds, Rus­si­an salad with cran­ber­ries and of cour­se the best red cavi­ar.

Pro­le­tars­ka­ya Street took us back to Karl-Marx-Strasse. The clas­si­cal­ly built mas­si­ve hou­ses are usual­ly won­derful­ly pre­ser­ved. Many old woo­den hou­ses are threa­ten­ed with decay.

All of this hap­pen­ed par­al­lel to many new buil­dings and resi­den­ti­al sett­le­ments built in modern buil­dings of our time. Modern Irkutsk is now pre­sent ever­y­whe­re. Modern indus­tri­al enter­pri­ses and new tech­no­lo­gies cha­rac­te­ri­ze new busi­ness are­as. Semi­con­duc­tor tech­no­lo­gy has also deve­lo­ped its own state-of-the-art stan­dards in Rus­sia, and requi­res spe­cia­lists from a wide varie­ty of disci­pli­nes.

What is too litt­le - cle­ar­ly - par­king lots. For this, the fuel cos­ts only half a euro.

Reflec­tion

Lake Bai­kal, the Sibe­ri­an rivers of strength and bubbling, the unu­su­al tra­di­ti­ons and sere­ni­ty of the nati­ves in the end­less Sibe­ri­an expan­ses, only natu­ral phe­no­me­na that are to be found here - all this and more, Müt­ter­chen gives Rus­sia a very spe­cial cha­rac­ter and a gent­le soul. If one expe­ri­en­ces this flair, one will inva­ria­bly be drawn into this spell for all eter­ni­ty

Am Kleinen Meer
On the Litt­le Sea (Click to enlar­ge)

It is incre­di­bly emo­tio­nal when one expe­ri­en­ces and feels this - the infi­ni­te power of Bai­kal its­elf. With every day at the Bai­kal we felt how we were freed more and more from the bal­last of civi­liza­ti­on, from the klein­geist of the wes­tern pre­sent - how we felt more and more com­for­ta­ble in an ener­ge­tic, abso­lut­e­ly peaceful envi­ron­ment.

Every reflec­tion on the days at Bai­kal recalls in us the­se emo­ti­ons and strength and frees new crea­ti­ve thoughts.

The lake is loca­ted in the south of → Sibe­ria, the north Asi­an part of Asia and in the sou­the­ast of the → Rus­si­an Fede­ra­ti­on. West of Bai­kal is the huge → Irkutsk Gover­nora­te. To the south is the → Bur­ja­tic Repu­blic, which also belongs to Rus­sia and bor­ders Mon­go­lia with its Burjatic-Mongolian ori­g­ins. In the north, the lake affects the → Baikal-Amur-Mistral (BAM) and in the south the → Trans­si­be­ri­an Rail­way (Trans­sib).

A part of the → Czar Gold has been lying on the bot­tom of Lake Bai­kal for over 100 years - sure­ly buried deep in the thick sludge lay­ers. At that time the Trans­sib at the Bai­kal was not yet finis­hed. In win­ter, the Trans­sib tracks were laid over the meter-thick ice of the lake. Some of the wagons with the pre­cious tre­asu­res of the Tsar were pro­ba­b­ly too hea­vy.

Num­bers and Geo­lo­gy

The fol­lo­wing figu­res about the lake are only appro­xi­ma­te values. To pro­vi­de abso­lut­e­ly accu­ra­te num­bers would be to repro­du­ce exact­ly the num­ber of aste­ro­ids in the aste­ro­id belt of our solar sys­tem. The lake is too powerful in all its mani­fes­ta­ti­ons.

The lar­gest depth of the lake is about 1,637 meters direct­ly east of the island → Olchon. In the depths, the spi­rits are sepa­ra­ted. The figu­res vary by a few meters back and forth. The water volu­me is expec­ted to be about 23,500 cubic kilo­me­ters. The alti­tu­de abo­ve sea level is 455 meters and the sea sur­face around 32,000 squa­re kilo­me­ters.

The Bai­kal has a north-south exten­si­on of about 630 kilo­me­ters ...

... and a width in east-west ext­ent: bet­ween 30 and 80 kilo­me­ters. The length of its coast­li­ne is around 2,000 kilo­me­ters. 174 cas­ca­ding up into the lake, which is cha­rac­te­ri­zed by the many small, calm bays.

An der Sandbucht am Kleinen Meer im Basis-Camp Da-Shi
Island in the Litt­le Sea - oppo­si­te the island of Olchon (click to enlar­ge)

26 islands rise from the lake. The lar­gest of them is the island of Olchon. It has a north-south exten­si­on of 72 kilo­me­ters and a maxi­mum width of almost 14 kilo­me­ters.

The Lake Bai­kal is fed by 336 tri­bu­t­a­ries - the lar­gest of which is the → Selen­ga. Yes - and somehow the lake has to “over­flow” some­whe­re. The only, but powerful, out­flow is the → Anga­ra. This → “Gate to Bai­kal” is alre­a­dy about 1.5 kilo­me­ters wide at the out­flow. It is flan­ked north through the small vil­la­ge → List­v­jan­ka as well as south through Port Bai­kal, at the end of the his­to­ric Trans­sib or old Bai­kal rail­way → “Krug­obai­kal­ka”.

A huge con­ti­nen­tal trench bro­ke out the lake.

The lake is loca­ted in a tec­to­nic cleft, exten­ding from north to south. The Eura­si­an and Amu­ri­an pla­tes drift apart and lea­ve this deep gap. The two pla­tes are pushed apart prac­ti­cal­ly by the sou­thern Indi­an pla­te. Sedi­ments from many mil­li­ons of years fill the actual­ly 6 kilo­me­ter deep crack. The­r­e­fo­re, the lake is “only” a litt­le over 1.6 kilo­me­ters deep.

Various ther­mal springs and seis­mic acti­vi­ties are the expres­si­on of the still occur­ring move­ments. The ten­si­ons are always unloa­ded only in light form. Every few days, light, harm­less ear­th­qua­kes occur. Seve­ral cen­ti­me­ters per year drift fur­ther east and west coast.

The Rus­si­an Soul

Lake Bai­kal is the place of the Rus­si­an soul.

Thus it is also sung in the → Bai­kal anthem. But what is cha­rac­te­ristic of land and peo­p­le under this aspect? In the fol­lo­wing a brief attempt at an expl­ana­ti­on.

Rus­si­an soul” can per­haps be descri­bed as a sum of distinc­ti­ve fea­tures of the Rus­si­ans as a result of a fusi­on of many peo­p­les, tra­di­ti­ons, con­fes­si­ons and influen­ces of Wes­tern and Eas­tern influen­ces in the vast coun­try. Someone who comes from a “small-scale” coun­try, per­haps still har­bor­ing great­ness or natio­na­lism, will find it hard to under­stand.

Utterance of the Rus­si­an soul, among others. In a high con­nec­tion to some­thing, a strong desti­ny, a capa­ci­ty for pati­ence, an abdi­ca­ti­on, a suf­fe­ring abili­ty, but also in a strong home con­nec­tion and a grea­ter role of fee­lings than of ratio­na­li­ty.

Ulti­m­ate­ly, the con­cept of “Rus­si­an soul” also com­bi­nes a strong sen­se of soli­da­ri­ty and com­mu­ni­ty. For many Rus­si­ans, important refe­rence groups are first the fami­ly and then the com­mu­ni­ty or the coll­ec­ti­ve.

In the Muse­um Vil­la­ge Tal­zy
im Museumsdorf "Talzy" an der Angara
In the Muse­um Vil­la­ge Tal­zy on the River Anga­ra (click to enlar­ge)

The small muse­um vil­la­ge → Tal­zy pro­vi­des a fan­ta­stic impres­si­on of the tra­di­tio­nal way of life of the peo­p­le at the place of the Rus­si­an soul at Bai­kal. The cul­tu­re and life­style of the first Rus­si­an sett­lers is reflec­ted here. The vil­la­ge is an open-air muse­um and at the same time an archi­tec­tu­ral monu­ment of an old Rus­si­an vil­la­ge type.

It is loca­ted about fif­ty kilo­me­ters east of Irkutsk on the banks of the Anga­ra River - just a few kilo­me­ters befo­re the “Gate to Bai­kal”.

In the vil­la­ge you can see all that a tra­di­tio­nal Rus­si­an vil­la­ge has made over cen­tu­ries - anci­ent Sibe­ri­an cour­ty­ards, a small school, a church, inte­ri­or fur­nis­hings, muse­ums, work­shops, a mill, smit­hy and a small jail. Among other things, a woo­den church built in 1679 as well as a fort­ress built around 1630 give the sett­le­ment a clas­si­cal, Rus­si­an cha­rac­ter.

Visi­tors also actively see the tra­di­tio­nal art of tim­ber, cedar, clay, stone and pre­cious stone. In the church the­re was a recep­ti­on for us by a men’s choir with clas­si­cal Rus­si­an folk music.

Also sui­ta­ble for the vil­la­ge. The hou­ses are crow­ded in rows. The farm­steads are sepa­ra­ted from the out­side by auxi­lia­ry buil­dings for catt­le or han­di­craft and strong pali­sa­des. Resi­dents are thus pro­tec­ted from the harsh cli­ma­te in the win­ter half year, even pro­tec­tion from the bear. Short paths and exten­ded woo­den bridges pro­vi­de rapid assis­tance.

Old Rus­si­an com­fort and warmth took us into the village’s lap.

The living are­as in the hou­ses are small and effec­ti­ve. The oven for coo­king the food is in the midd­le with the slee­ping area abo­ve. Of cour­se - a Rus­si­an hot water hea­ter - the useful → samo­var - also belongs to the life­style here.

I real­ly only missed that a small win­dow from one of the woo­den hou­ses opens befo­re us, an old Rus­si­an Babush­ka looks out and a folk tale tells us the → witch Bab Jaga. Well, the­se fairy tales - the most beau­tiful in the world - we know enough.

Tal­zy is not only very inte­res­t­ing for Rus­si­an tou­rists from other parts of the coun­try. Thou­sands fro­lic in Pied­mont in par­ti­cu­lar, when the → Mas­le­ni­za - the but­ter fes­ti­val - is cele­bra­ted every year at the end of the win­ter.

Ortho­dox belie­vers are for­bidden to eat meat in the week befo­re the start of the Ortho­dox fas­ting. Howe­ver, milk, milk pro­ducts, eggs and fish are per­mit­ted. The old cus­toms and tra­di­ti­ons, such as Rus­si­an dances, games, the bur­ning of Mas­le­nit­sa dolls, solemn → Bli­ny food, encoun­ters of the loves and the mother-in-law evening, are a huge, enthu­si­a­stic expe­ri­ence.

Bai­kal and Tou­rism

The Bai­kal area is cha­rac­te­ri­zed by wild, Sibe­ri­an forests, the → tai­ga, moun­ta­ins, wide step­pes, pro­tec­ted are­as, steep coasts, soli­ta­ry sand bays.

The posi­ti­on of the Bai­kal can be descri­bed as 2 full day train jour­ney east of the Urals.

The → Ural is the bor­der bet­ween Euro­pe and Asia. From Moscow to → Irkutsk - the regio­nal capi­tal on wes­tern Bai­kal - it is about 3 ½ days train jour­ney with the Trans­sib. In the oppo­si­te direc­tion, the Bai­kal can be rea­ched by train within 1 ½ days from Vla­di­vos­tock or from Bei­jing. The flight time from Moscow to Irkutsk is about 5 ½ flight hours.

The regi­on offers fasci­na­ti­on and attrac­tion wit­hout mass tou­rism. At the end of August / begin­ning of Sep­tem­ber you are almost alo­ne the­re as a tou­rist. Wes­tern Euro­peans are hard to meet - rather tra­ve­lers from Rus­sia, Chi­na, Japan and Korea, who usual­ly arri­ve by train. Ger­mans seem to be a par­ti­cu­lar­ly rare “spe­ci­es” at the Bai­kal, but are all the more wel­co­me.

Ger­mans enjoy high app­re­cia­ti­on.

One of the most beau­tiful are­as is the small sea, the sea bet­ween the island of Olchon and the Bai­kal west coast, the “Rivie­ra of Sibe­ria”, the “Sand Bay” and the “Tage­ran Step­pe” on the west coast south-west of Olchon.

Cli­ma­te, natu­re and loca­ti­on in the → Litt­le Sea (rus­si­an: Malo­je Mori­je, Малое море) ensu­re that it is rare­ly rai­ning here and is sun­ny on almost all days of the year. The rather shal­low Litt­le Sea can refer to the hig­hest water tem­pe­ra­tures in the Bai­kal in the sum­mer. Smal­lers crui­sing here and con­nec­ting the many smal­ler islands.

Sandbucht am Kleinen Meer
Sand Bay at the Litt­le Sea (Click to enlar­ge)

At the “Sand Bay” the­re are some basic camps for exten­si­ve excur­si­ons into the moun­ta­ins or along the Bai­kal. U.a. The­re is the beau­tiful base camp → “Da-Shi”, which is loca­ted direct­ly on the water, whe­re we stay­ed. The camp offers ever­y­thing to make you feel at home during your stay or the excur­si­ons.

The camps are usual­ly only acces­si­ble with off-road vehic­les over very bad­ly for­ti­fied, almost adven­tur­ous ways. You do not want mass tou­rism here with cal­cu­lus - just as litt­le as on the island of Olchon or along both sides of the Bai­kal.

The envi­ron­ment and the uni­que­ness of the regi­on have prio­ri­ty for the locals. The same is true for Irkutsk, the regio­nal capi­tal.

World Heri­ta­ge Site

Most of the water­front and the lake are part of the world heri­ta­ge. Sin­ce 1996, the regi­on is on the → list of UNESCO World Heri­ta­ge sites. The Rus­si­an Duma deci­ded to imple­ment the “Baikal-Law” in 1999, which seems to secu­re the con­ti­nui­ty of the uni­que natu­re suc­cessful­ly.

Our impres­si­on was that the law of Bai­kal is very popu­lar among the local peo­p­le and the natu­re reser­ves ful­fill their pur­po­se. No one feels empowered to get wood from a natu­re reser­ve for a fire site or to throw a ciga­ret­te butt care­less­ly into natu­re. Only - some Sou­the­ast Asi­an tou­rists do not always stick to it.

The lake is the only major lake in the world with water in drin­king water qua­li­ty. It is the deepest and oldest fresh water lake on earth. A quar­ter (!) of all the liquid amounts of freshwa­ter on the earth hou­ses the lake. Hence the name “Foun­tain of the Earth”.

Floa­ting in the sea and sim­ply drin­king some water in the Holy Sea - no pro­blem. It tas­tes like the best spring water. It’s like a fue­ling of pure ener­gy.

Until a few years ago, a paper and cel­lu­lo­se plant loca­ted in → Bai­kalsk on the south bank of the lake made nega­ti­ve head­lines. Mean­while the fac­to­ry is clo­sed.

That the water of Bai­kal is of the very best puri­ty is also due to the enorm­ous size of the water reser­voir. The lake has a tre­men­dous mecha­nism for self-cleaning. Small crea­tures in all depths free the water from impu­ri­ties and ensu­re the com­ple­te­ly clear water in drin­king water qua­li­ty.

Near Natu­re Super­la­ti­ve

The midd­le to north Lake Bai­kal is sur­roun­ded on both sides by high moun­tain mas­sifs with peaks up to 2600 meters. From this ari­se the many small streams to the lake, in which one can find lucky gold clumps.

The lake’s age is about 25 mil­li­on years. It is the oldest freshwa­ter lake in the world. The­r­e­fo­re, the lake is known as “Galá­pa­gos of Rus­sia”. Through its age and thou­sands of years of iso­la­ti­on, the lake has been able to deve­lop a world-wide uni­que flo­ra and fau­na.

The Bai­kal and its regi­on form a uni­que natu­ral para­di­se.

Flo­ra and fau­na con­tain about 2600 spe­ci­es. Appro­xi­m­ate­ly half of the­se are only based the­re. Among other things, on the lake, the only fresh-waterbush spe­ci­es of the world, the → Baikal-Seal.

A whim­si­cal spe­ci­es of fish are the → Golo­man­ka, sca­ly, trans­pa­rent fish, half of which are oil. The most com­mon spe­ci­es is → Omul. This fish with its big eyes belongs to the fami­ly of the → sal­mon fish. It is available ever­y­whe­re around the lake - eit­her culina­ry, smo­ked or sim­ply dried and sal­ted - sim­ply deli­cious (!) And healt­hy.

By the way - the Omul and other spe­ci­es threa­ten­ed extinc­tion in the nine­ties due to over­fi­shing. At Soviet times, acti­ve off­spring were still acti­ve through fishing coope­ra­ti­ves. At Yeltsin’s time, almost anar­chy aro­se in the fishe­ries indus­try - off­spring were left out. Sin­ce Putin, many things have been regu­la­ted, espe­ci­al­ly for the pur­po­se of pro­tec­ting natu­re in and around Lake Bai­kal, inclu­ding fishing.

The lake is lar­ge­ly enc­lo­sed by moun­ta­ins and the tai­ga.

Wanderung zu den “Heiligen Quellen” des Baikal
Val­ley of the “Holy Source” of Bai­kal (Click to enlar­ge)

The tai­ga is the nor­t­hern­most forest for­ma­ti­on on the earth and is also cal­led → “Bore­al coni­fe­rous forest”. In the area north-east of the lake, we see main­ly the “Dark Tai­ga” with regio­nal spe­ci­es of high pines, pines and firs. To the south-west of Bai­kal, the forests con­sist main­ly of need­ling larch trees forming the “Hel­le Tai­ga”. Fur­ther south the­re are exten­si­ve birch forests. In the sou­thern part of the lake exten­si­ve step­pes form over the moun­tai­nous land­scapes.

In the vast forests reinde­er, bear, lynx, elk and also wol­ves live. Wild hor­ses are sin­gled out in the step­pes. Amur leo­pards and Sibe­ri­an tigers were also pre­sent here, but have moved back to the eas­tern part of Rus­sia. In the sum­mer, the Groß­wild lived in the broad moun­ta­ins and forests of Sibe­ria, but also ven­tu­red into the small sett­le­ments clo­se to Bai­kal during the win­ter half year.

On The Litt­le Sea

Coming from the south of Irkutsk, we rea­ched the small sea in the midd­le of the north-south ext­ent of the Bai­kal about half an hour in the midd­le of the woo­ded moun­ta­ins. Here the Bai­kal is the widest.

From a hill we sud­den­ly saw among us in the val­ley a small place with a fer­ry port. From the­re fer­ries lea­ve to the island of Olchon. Under the hill the small sea bet­ween the Baikal-West coast and the long, elon­ga­ted island Olchon ope­ned up.

Reise nach Khuzhir auf Olchon - am Wanderer-Denkmal
At the Wal­ker Monu­ment - just befo­re the crossing to the island of Olchon (click to enlar­ge)

On the hill we stop­ped - not only becau­se of the view. This is also the monu­ment of the → “Bai­kal Wal­ker”. It is dedi­ca­ted to the for­mer con­victs in Sibe­ria. It was built in Octo­ber 2014. The locals bring the grace of the bron­ze figu­re to a famous song of the con­vict, the song “Through the wild step­pes of Trans­bai­ka­lia”.

The Bai­kal hiker show­ed us the way to the mys­ti­cal island Olchon.

Sonnenaufgang am Basis-Camp Da-Shi
Sun­ri­se at the base camp Da-Shi (Click to enlar­ge)

In the val­ley we rea­ched the small sea. It is pro­tec­ted bet­ween high moun­ta­ins in the west and the island of Olchon. Its avera­ge depth is only 100 meters. In the sum­mer, the water can heat well. The­re are also the main fishing are­as.

The Small Sea is cha­rac­te­ri­zed by many bays with woo­ded moun­tain slo­pes, whe­re many a base camp for tou­rists hid­den in the coun­try­si­de.

On the Island of Olchon

Becau­se of a break­down, we arri­ved late at night on the island of Olchon in our base camp in Chuz­hir. Thanks to the mobi­le pho­ne recep­ti­on, we were able to get some help in the­se are­as. After 22:00 the­re was still a strong Sol­jan­ka and a beer for us in Chuz­hir despi­te the clo­se of the shop.

In the coming days we alter­na­ted from the base camp with our cross-country mini­bus to the north and south of the island. The tours were always see­mingly wit­hout a sys­tem on exten­ded paths to the goal.

The trips resem­bled a safa­ri through impas­sa­ble are­as.

It went through pic­tures­que beau­tiful land­scapes and shama­nic stone for­ma­ti­ons. In small hikes we rea­ched the most beau­tiful are­as in the midd­le of the Bai­kal.

On the way we streng­the­ned our­sel­ves with deli­cious fish soup. Each of our riders pre­pared this soup at the camp fire from the Omul, the baikal-typical salmon-related fish.

The hig­hest ele­va­ti­on of the island of Olchon is the moun­tain Zhi­ma at 1276 meters. Toward the east, he falls abrupt­ly to the island shore. Direct­ly on the shore, the Bai­kal moun­tain con­ti­nues to drop stee­p­ly abo­ve 1600 meters below water.

On the island of Olchon, various pine varie­ties as well as cedars, pop­lars, larch trees and bir­ches set green accents in wild moun­tain land­scapes of the north of the island and along the east side.

The name of the island means “small forest”.

Nevert­hel­ess, about 40 per­cent of the island’s sur­face area is occu­p­ied by step­pe, which is spre­a­ding as a result of the dry Asi­an air mas­ses. Mea­dow, stone and desert step­pes spread infi­ni­te­ly - espe­ci­al­ly in the south of the island.

Rug­ged rocky land­scapes and spec­ta­cu­lar cliffs form the coun­try whe­re wild hor­ses can still be found. Ground Squir­rel (russ. Sus­lik, Cуслик) always touch­ed our paths and rose curious­ly becau­se of our pre­sence.

The → cedar is said to be magi­cal.

im Norden von Olchon, über dem großen Baikal
In the north of the island Olchon - View over the gre­at Bai­kal to the Usch­ka­ni islands (Click to enlar­ge)

Per­haps it is due to a sub­s­tance of the cedar, the → Thu­jo­ne (also Absinthol or Tanace­to­ne). The sub­s­tance Thu­jo­ne has a menthol-like smell and is con­tai­ned in the essen­ti­al oil of the cedar. It can deve­lop psy­choac­ti­ve effects.

It is said that a part of cedar wood is given to us and always car­ri­es it with its­elf, it should deve­lop heal­ing powers. So after the trip we gave fri­ends with a trai­ler from the wood.

Olchon has many pecu­lia­ri­ties accor­ding to the mood of natu­re.

Salt lakes on the island - 6 in num­ber - which are not con­nec­ted with the ground­wa­ter, testi­fy to many influen­ces in the tec­to­nic for­ma­ti­on of the island. The water of the­se lakes has a pH of about 9.0 and is very sulp­hu­rous. The­se lakes dry out regu­lar­ly - except for one, the lake “Zha­ra­nur”, which means as much as “black lake”.

In the north of Olbia the­re is a 6 kilo­me­ter long dune, which for deca­des has blown parts of the local vil­la­ge Pest­chan­ja, an old fish fac­to­ry and a for­mer gulag. The old woman of Sile­si­an des­cent, men­tio­ned at the begin­ning, still lives in the vil­la­ge. As a small child she lan­ded with her par­ents long ago in the for­mer Gulag. She stay­ed here fore­ver.

The North Cape of the island is a sacred buri­al place. On the island, a huge rock juts out of the water. He looks like a fang. The Buryats also gave the Cape the name “Kho­boi”. A woo­den pile is soli­ta­ry the­re and func­tions as a cult. It is used to attach tex­ti­le tapes of old clot­hing to the decea­sed or to depo­sit money coins for the homage of the spi­rits.

On the Shaman’s Rock

On the edge of the main sett­le­ment of the island - on the place Khuz­hir - see­mingly lonely is a lime­s­tone rock. The rock at Cape Bur­chan (bur­ja­tic: “god”) is known as the shaman rock.

The shaman rock is the most famous land­mark of the island and is also one of the lar­gest holy sites of Bai­kal.

In Khu­zir, we took one of our base camps at Bai­kal. A walk to the shaman’s rock at Cape Bur­chan was one of our habits.

Heiliger Schamanenfelsen auf der Insel Olchon
Holy shaman rock on the island of Olchon (Click to enlar­ge)

Pre­vious­ly, access was allo­wed only to shamans. Sin­ce the Bron­ze Age, the rock has been a sacri­fi­ci­al site, as evi­den­ced by rock dra­wings in caves.

The holy shaman’s rock (Rus­si­an скала Шаманка, Ska­la Shaman­ka) is the holiest site of the Buryats and sim­ply the sym­bol of Bai­kal. At this place one should be abso­lut­e­ly calm and in its­elf only posi­ti­ve thoughts roam.

So we wal­ked awk­ward­ly and in posi­ti­ve thoughts sunk repea­ted­ly through this place. So we did not only our­sel­ves good. We also hono­red the digni­fied histo­ry of this place, its faith in diver­si­ty and its spi­rits.

On the Island of Ogoy

Ano­ther small place of pil­grimage in the Litt­le Sea is the small, unin­ha­bi­ted island of → Ogoy. It is also cal­led the island of shamans. Many small typi­cal shama­nic relics - pray­er rib­bons and small stone pyra­mids ever­y­whe­re con­firm this.

The place is, howe­ver, first a Bud­dhist pil­grimage site. The sym­bol of - a Bud­dhist monu­ment - stands on the top of the island of Ogoj. For the locals it does not make a big dif­fe­rence.

Having clim­bed the sum­mit of the island, the breath­ta­king flair of the lake of Bai­kal is a form of trance not only by the sacred place but by a breath­ta­king fla­re. Per­haps it is sim­ply all around us in effect with the anci­ent tra­di­ti­ons.

My most seve­re → tin­ni­tus is slain by the dea­fe­ning silence. I feel the cont­act with some­thing tran­s­cen­dent.

Insel Ogoj am buddhistischen Denkmal „Stupa der Verklärung“
Island Ogoy at the Bud­dhist monu­ment “Stu­pa of the Trans­fi­gu­ra­ti­on” (Click to enlar­ge)

On the sum­mit one stands befo­re this sanc­tua­ry - the “Stu­pa of the Trans­fi­gu­ra­ti­on”. A → stu­pa is, in the most com­pre­hen­si­ve sen­se, a sym­bol of Bud­dhism. The­re are many pos­si­bi­li­ties and levels of the inter­pre­ta­ti­on of a stu­pa - the diver­si­ty is howe­ver the decisi­ve and signi­fi­cant.

In this stu­pa are various Bud­dhist relics - among others. A 750-kilogram libra­ry with ori­gi­nal Bud­dhist texts - has been kept for future gene­ra­ti­ons.

In the Tage­ran Step­pe

The Pri­mor­ski­an Moun­ta­ins on the west coast of the Bai­kal is pre­do­mi­nant­ly cover­ed with a “bright Tai­ga”. This vege­ta­ti­on is inter­rupt­ed by the moun­tai­nous Tage­ran step­pe. This step­pe lies direct­ly on the midd­le Bai­kal south-west of the island of Olchon.

The road from Irkutsk pas­ses through this step­pe just befo­re the island of Olchon. During an excur­si­on into the Tage­ran step­pe, we crossed their end­less appearan­ces. On the Baikal-West coast, you reach across the step­pe across impo­sing cliffs along the gre­at Bai­kal.

The Tage­ran step­pe con­ta­ins many secrets.

Exkursion in die Tageran-Steppe am Großen Baikal
Tage­ran step­pe at the Gre­at Bai­kal (Click to enlar­ge)

It is pro­ba­b­ly one of the most mys­ti­cal places on the Bai­kal. The rocks of the rock for­ma­ti­ons are esti­ma­ted to be bet­ween 30 and 40 mil­li­on years. Geo­lo­gists look for rare mine­rals in the step­pe. Nevert­hel­ess the­re is also a lush plant world - even repre­sen­ta­ti­ve of an alpi­ne vege­ta­ti­on zone, the → Edel­weiss.

Right here, on the rocky slo­pes and in caves, the first sett­lers lived at Bai­kal. Archaeo­lo­gi­cal excava­tions form evi­dence of the­se first human sett­le­ments.

The­re are various caves from the ice age in the regi­on around Sach­jur­ta as well as karst caves on the steep bank to the Bai­kal. The caves are not easy to find and dif­fi­cult to access.

To the south of the Tage­ran step­pe, the­re are rock engra­vings up to 5000 years old on the Mount Mazur and Sagan Saba Bay (Buri­al: “White Rock”). The place has always been a place of holy cere­mo­nies of shamans.

Sett­led on the Bai­kal

Loo­king at the share of natio­na­li­ties, a very strong sett­le­ment has been seen on the nor­t­hern edge of the lake sin­ce the con­s­truc­tion of the → BAM (Baikal–Amur Main­line). On the other hand, tra­di­tio­nal Burya­ti­an sett­le­ment area (→ Burya­tia) is on the south and south-east bor­der. Buryats most­ly live in the vast step­pes and moun­ta­ins to → Mon­go­lia. The bor­der to Mon­go­lia is about 90 kilo­me­ters south of Bai­kal.

Of cour­se - in all regi­ons around the lake, dif­fe­rent natio­na­li­ties and also reli­gi­ons live, more or less propor- tio­nal­ly repre­sen­ted.

They all always live har­mo­nious­ly tog­e­ther.

The first sett­lers came to Bai­kal in Sou­thern Sibe­ria over 30,000 years ago. They sett­led in pre-ice age and the oldest sec­tion of the Stone Age on the ice edge - tog­e­ther with mam­mo­ths, bisons and rhi­no­ce­ro­ses. Rock engra­vings, dra­wings, and even pain­tings in caves are a tes­ta­ment to pre­his­to­ric sett­le­ments and the first human steps in this regi­on.

The Sar­ma Val­ley

In the Sar­ma Val­ley on the Bai­kal West Coast, we could admi­re part of such dra­wings at the foot of a huge rock.

Along the small river Sar­ma we wal­ked into this val­ley. In the far end of the rocky val­ley, wide but rather low forests began to rise. Here we tur­ned around, sin­ce in the forests of the late sum­mer bear could be expec­ted.

Many legends accom­pa­ny the Sar­ma Gor­ge.

Our excur­si­on gui­de repor­ted some. The rock at the ent­rance of the bay is simi­lar to an old Bur­ja­tin. Ear­lier, women were not allo­wed to enter the ravi­ne at a fer­ti­le age. The punish­ment was a storm from the val­ley.

in der Sarma-Schlucht
In the Sar­ma Can­yon (Click to enlar­ge)

This bay could have been con­nec­ted to the nor­t­hern seas long ago, and the sett­le­ment of the Bai­kal with the Bai­k­alb­be may have taken place.

It is, howe­ver, also pos­si­ble that the migra­ti­on of the Rob­be took place via the Bai­kal out­flow of the Anga­ra. The Anga­ra flows as a tri­bu­t­a­ry to the → Yenis­ei, which flows again in the north of Rus­sia to the → Kara Sea of the → North Polar Sea.

A bio­lo­gi­cal sta­ti­on in the Sar­ma Del­ta, foun­ded by the Edu­ca­tio­nal Uni­ver­si­ty of Irkutsk in 1976, explo­res flo­ra and fau­na. The sta­ti­on ope­ra­tes, among other things, orni­tho­lo­gi­cal stu­dies.

The rocks to the right and left of the val­ley are geo­lo­gi­cal­ly con­side­red under ele­va­ted pres­su­re and tem­pe­ra­tures. Thus the­re are inclu­si­ons of rare gem­stone gar­net - known in the Midd­le Ages under the name Kar­fun­kel.

Winds

From this huge Sar­ma val­ley nar­ro­wing at the end of the val­ley, howe­ver, the most drea­ded, stron­gest wind winds over the Bai­kal, which also quick­ly atta­ins orcans­ta­ri­ne­ss, also occa­sio­nal­ly escapes.

Our tour gui­de told us that the Sar­ma wind, if he is real­ly at the Raus­to­ben from the val­ley, car­ri­es even hea­vy rocks with him. Such chunks car­ri­ed it over many kilo­me­ters to the island of Olchon, even in a hea­vy storm. This storm was unpre­dic­ta­ble.

The wind makes the sand crack­le on the banks.

If you are alo­ne on the shores of Bai­kal alo­ne, you will never lea­ve this equal­ly holy and holy world. One feels a fusi­on of natu­re, spi­rit, Bai­kal with all ele­ments. You can hear the sand as it con­ti­nues its hike. One is so infi­ni­te­ly distant from the glo­bal, power-obsessed pro­blems of our time.

Baikal Reise 2016im Norden von Olchon, über dem großen Baikal
Abo­ve the Gre­at Bai­kal (Click to enlar­ge)

You want to keep this magi­cal hike fore­ver. Like an odys­sey through the uni­ver­se you would never want to end it. All the­se winds should be an ever­las­ting dri­ve in this ener­ge­tic envi­ron­ment. On some cor­ners you can even find hiking dikes.

The sands crack­le soft­ly as the waves of the wind-blown lake Bai­kal glim­mer in the sun set­ting, star-like reflec­tions. I felt so free on the win­dy shores and on the moun­ta­ins high abo­ve the Bai­kal.

Words of the shaman - here they get their mea­ning.

A total of about 30 dif­fe­rent winds are descri­bed at Bai­kal. The­re are glo­bal winds, which influence the cli­ma­te at Bai­kal dif­fer­ent­ly depen­ding on the sea­son. They are main­ly influen­ced by atmo­sphe­re and air mas­ses. The ligh­ter local winds result from regio­nal tem­pe­ra­tu­re dif­fe­ren­ces bet­ween air and water.

Schiffahrt im Kleinen Meer - Sturm aus dem Sarma-Tal
Storm from the Sar­ma Val­ley (Click to enlar­ge)

The winds often chan­ge their direc­tion within seconds. So - sail­ors and swim­mers were wat­ching. Their names are depen­ding on the regi­ons whe­re they come from - Sar­ma, Gor­na­ya, Bar­gu­zi­ne, Verkho­vik, Nizo­vik, Poka­tuk­ha, Kha­rak­haik­ha, Bugul­gei­ka, Anga­ra, Selen­ga and She­lon­nik.

To descri­be all the winds here would be idle. Even locals hard­ly suc­ceed. Their under­stan­ding is, howe­ver, all the more important for mari­ti­me cap­ta­ins.

Cli­ma­te

From mid to late Sep­tem­ber night frosts. In the win­ter, the­re is lite­ral­ly Sibe­ri­an cold. Tem­pe­ra­tures are avera­ge at night at minus 25 degrees, pos­si­bly up to minus 40 degrees. Bet­ween Christ­mas and New Year’s Eve, the lake is usual­ly released for vehic­le traf­fic. The ice is then meter­dick. At the end of May the lake is rela­tively free of ice.

In the few sum­mer weeks you can bathe com­for­ta­b­ly.

At the end of August the water tem­pe­ra­tu­re rises to 12 to 14 ° C on the open sea, on the coast in pro­tec­ted coves at 22 ° C. But no mat­ter what tem­pe­ra­tu­re - a bath in Lake Bai­kal is always a uni­que plea­su­re and source of new strength.

The day­ti­me tem­pe­ra­tures in the sou­thwes­tern Bai­kal rise to as much as 25 degrees or even hig­her.

The­re is hard­ly any snow in win­ter on the Bai­kal. A mirror-smooth sur­face is usual­ly found. The noto­rious winds of various kinds dri­ve the flakes to the edges of the moun­ta­ins around the lake. The­re they pile up to high snow drifts - sui­ta­ble, among other things, for caves of the Bai­kal seals, in which the­se and their off­spring over­win­ter.

Trans­por­ta­ti­on

The coun­try is incre­di­bly wide. The roads can not all be expan­ded - becau­se also too rare­ly. The main road on the west coast of Bai­kal runs from north to south only through a dirt track. Now and then a mobi­le pla­ner in the use for the straigh­tening - that must be enough.

Reise nach Khuzhir auf Olchon - kurz vor dem Fährhafen
Ride through the step­pe (click to enlar­ge)

Off-road vehic­les do their trans­port ser­vice in sum­mer and in win­ter. 4-wheel dri­ve and leaf springs. Vehic­les that cross the vast step­pes in the south are loo­king for the new rou­te par­al­lel to exten­ded lanes.

From the Bai­kal to the Paci­fic to the east, it is only about 2000 kilo­me­ters. The legen­da­ry river → Amur, which forms a bor­der river bet­ween Rus­sia and Chi­na, flows along this rou­te. Is it real­ly ide­al to cycle along it to the Paci­fic by trak­king?

Fer­ry ser­vice on the Bai­kal is available on the lake only from 17 May to 10 Novem­ber each year.

The thick ice in the long win­ter half year does not per­mit a ship­ping.

Air­ports with direct con­nec­tions to Moscow or Frank­furt / Main in Ger­ma­ny are loca­ted in Irkutsk and → Ulan Ude, the capi­tal of the Bur­ja­tic Repu­blic.

The Trans­sib in the south of Bai­kal has stops in Irkutsk, Slud­jan­ka and Ulan Ude. In the north the­re is a stop of the BAM in the town of → Sewe­r­o­bai­kalsk. The­se tracks form the main sup­p­ly arte­ries for the regi­on. For exam­p­le, the Trans­sib con­nects over 9288 km as the lon­gest rail­way line in the world Moscow with Vla­di­vos­tok on the Paci­fic.

En rou­te with the Tran­sib

Of cour­se we had to get to know the flair of Trans­sib. A for­mer rail­way­man was also a tra­ve­ler among us. From Moscow to Irkutsk, we were too long - three and a half day the train is on the way. So we rest­ric­ted our­sel­ves to a part of the Trans­sib rou­te.

Unfor­gettable remains the ride on the old rail­road, the his­to­ri­cal → “Krug­obai­kal­ka”.

Then it star­ted. In Irkutsk, we were stan­ding in front of a legen­da­ry Trans­sib train on the neat train sta­ti­on. His over­whel­ming slee­ping com­part­ments were packed with pas­sen­gers. Each wagon was mark­ed with a sign “Moscow - Ulan-Bator”. Befo­re the train could con­ti­nue, train atten­dants clea­ned the win­dows and hand­les at the ent­rance.

Legen­da­ry is also the punc­tua­li­ty of the­se trains. On the huge track, every train arri­ves at the exact minu­te at each stop.

In front of this train stood our similar-looking tra­di­tio­nal rail­road. In each wagon the­re are two train atten­dants to take care of the pas­sen­gers.

unterwegs mit der Alten Bahn - Endstation in Port Baikal
unter­wegs mit der Alten Bahn - End­sta­ti­on in Port Bai­kal

We were on the road for nine hours. We hea­ded from Irkutsk towards the sou­the­ast on the Trans­sib rou­te to Slud­jan­ka, at the sou­thern­most tip of the Bai­kal. The­re was a 45 minu­te inter­lude with a chan­ge of the lock­omo­ti­ve.

In List­vy­an­ka, the his­to­ric rail­way sta­ti­on buil­ding was an eye­wit­ness - as is the case ever­y­whe­re in Rus­sia. Abso­lut­e­ly clean, a lot of marb­le made from the lob­by rather a small cast­le.

Then on the rou­te of the old tsar rail­way con­tin­ued “hair-like” along the wes­tern Bai­kal shore north to Port Bai­kal. In small places the­re were inter­me­dia­te stops with tra­di­tio­nal addi­ti­ons for the tou­rists. One could repre­sent the feet or look at the hos­pi­ta­ble local peo­p­le. For the resi­dents we were a wel­co­me chan­ge.

For rail­way enthu­si­asts, of cour­se, the dimen­si­ons were also impres­si­ve. Not only are the rou­tes incre­di­bly far in Rus­sia, but also ever­y­thing that has to do with the rail­way - whe­ther the gau­ge of the track or the enorm­ous dimen­si­ons of the wagons and loco­mo­ti­ves.

Along the rou­te the­re was a chan­ging pic­tu­re of mys­ti­cal land­scapes, of old tun­nels and stret­ches on the banks of the Bai­kal, blue lagoons, steep rocks, fog banks or sun­ny shores, some­ti­mes dark, almost men­acing, and then invi­ting blue, glas­sy Waters.

In Rus­si­an com­fort, the train on the track wel­led up with anci­ent woo­den thres­holds towards its desti­na­ti­on. At the same time, the noi­se of the rails fell - for a long time I had not heard that.

In Port Bai­kal the­re was a tra­di­tio­nal recep­ti­on with Rus­si­an folk­lo­re. Pas­sen­gers joi­n­ed the artists, sang and danced. After­wards we took the fer­ry over the “gate to the Bai­kal” to the oppo­si­te side in List­v­jan­ka.

Big­ger cities

West of the lake lies Irkutsk (600,000 inha­bi­tants). The city is a uni­ver­si­ty and capi­tal city in the Rus­si­an → Irkutsk Oblast, loca­ted on the only out­flow of Lake Bai­kal, Anga­ra.

South-east of the lake lies Ulan Ude (400,000 inha­bi­tants), capi­tal of Burya­tia with Mon­go­li­an flair, eth­no­gra­phic muse­um and the Bud­dhist → Ivol­ginsk monas­tery.

On the nor­t­hern edge of the lake Sewe­r­o­bai­kalsk (25,000 inha­bi­tants), a “child” of the BAM - was crea­ted in the cour­se of the con­s­truc­tion of the Baikal-Amur-Magistrale com­ple­ted in 1984.

The capi­tal of Mon­go­lia → Ulan Bator is only 8 hours train jour­ney south­bound over 585 kilo­me­ters from the capi­tal city of Burya­tia Ula­an Ude.

Peo­p­le

The peo­p­le of the Bai­kal regi­on, no mat­ter whom you meet as a Ger­man, whe­ther you are a poli­ce­man, an air­port employee, a kwa ven­dor, a bus dri­ver, an old man or a boy, peo­p­le in the coun­try­si­de, locals on Olchon Island, forest workers, Rus­si­ans or Buryats All are always cha­rac­te­ri­zed by the utmost warmth, hos­pi­ta­li­ty and hel­pful­ness.

The main lan­guage of the locals is the Rus­si­an.

The young peo­p­le are also most­ly Eng­lish. Often we had cont­act with locals. Lan­guage bar­riers were not an obs­ta­cle for us to under­stand - espe­ci­al­ly not for our fel­low tra­ve­ler Erwin.

Sim­ply the huma­ni­ty to each other brought again and again incre­di­bly moving moments for us - moments, which will never be for­got­ten in us. The Rus­si­an lan­guage came back from hid­den regi­ons in the brain.

An old woman

We will remem­ber an encoun­ter with an elder­ly Burya­tia. We were sit­ting at a speed train in a huge mar­ket hall in Irkutsk, when the good woman came in on a stick sup­port­ed.

Erwin had a free stool next to him. Thus, accor­ding to the mot­to, “He does not do any­thing good unless he express­ly wis­hes it.” He poli­te­ly offe­red the old woman to sit down: “Sadie­ties boscha­luis­ta” (Rus­si­an: Sадитесь пожалуйста.)

The Burya­tia sat almost on Erwin’s lap.

Tur­ning to the appar­ent­ly very trust­wor­t­hy appearance of Erwin, she began to tell. Erwin lis­ten­ed to her very pati­ent­ly and inte­res­ted quite a while, but she hard­ly unders­tood them. At some point, he told the Burya­tia in rus­si­an lan­guage that he did not under­stand her: “Ja nje ponu­ma­ju” (Rus­si­an: Я не понимаю). The woman stared. Lyud­mi­la, our gui­de, trans­la­ted the reason for her and assu­red her that we were Ger­mans.

The old woman explo­ded in a hear­ty laugh. She then said that Rus­si­ans and Ger­mans were all the same.

I use the favor of the situa­ti­on.

Irkutsk - in der Markthalle - mit einer Tochter Temüdschins
Daugh­ter Temüdsch­ins - Aut­hor: Wol­le Ing

With my came­ra I posi­tio­ned mys­elf kne­e­ling befo­re the two and took snapshots. When the Bur­ja­tin remark­ed to me, she had to laugh again and again and stab­bed me with her poin­ting fin­ger almost into the lens. It sound­ed like an out­cry. She was sur­roun­ded by Ger­mans and felt so eeri­ly at ease.

Now she told us proud­ly and proud­ly that she was a daugh­ter of → Gen­gis Khan. Lyud­mi­la told us the back­ground. The appro­xi­m­ate­ly 450,000 → Bur­jats from the Bur­ja­tic Repu­blic and other sur­roun­ding Rus­si­an repu­blics belie­ve that they are ...

... daugh­ters and sons of the unf­or­got­ten Gre­at Khan and Mon­gol lea­der Genghis Khan - also known as Sued­chin.

Eth­no­lo­gi­cal­ly, this mass of des­cen­dants is not at all absurd. The → fami­ly tree from Gen­gis Khan curr­ent­ly indi­ca­tes at least 1.5 mil­li­on living des­cen­dants of the lar­ge khans in nor­t­hern Chi­na, Mon­go­lia and Rus­sia (source: latest sci­en­ti­fic inves­ti­ga­ti­ons of male Y chro­mo­so­me of the Well­co­me Trust San­ger Insti­tu­te in Hinx­t­on (GB)) .

Final­ly, Erwin asked the old Bur­ja­tin any ques­ti­on: She did not know the ans­wer and said:

Я не могу знать все, потому что я всего сто пятьдесят лет.”

She said that she could not know ever­y­thing becau­se she was only 150 years old. It was a wise ans­wer from a well-honest, elder­ly woman and a des­cen­dant of the Duch­chin.

We were incre­di­bly impres­sed by the warm Babush­ka. If the woman were still older, she could have ans­we­red many ques­ti­ons 😉

Reli­gi­ons

Peo­p­le in the Bai­kal regi­on are often reli­gious. Reli­gi­ons coexist peaceful­ly with each other and part­ly mixed with → Chris­tia­ni­ty (Old Belie­vers, Evan­ge­lists), → Bud­dhism and → Shama­nism.

The Rus­si­an Ortho­dox Church has his­to­ri­cal­ly spread to the wes­tern side of the Bai­kal. The south-eastern side of Bai­kal is pre­do­mi­nant­ly Bud­dhist. The anci­ent shama­nism is pre­sent around the Bai­kal and on the island of Olchon. Other beliefs, among others. The → Islam are also to be found.

At Bai­kal the reli­gi­ons seem to be fused.

In some places, reli­gious sites such as churches are used for the prac­ti­ce of reli­gious cere­mo­nies by dif­fe­rent reli­gi­ons simul­ta­neous­ly or alter­na­te­ly.

One expe­ri­en­ces the coexis­tence of dif­fe­rent reli­gious con­fes­si­ons ever­y­whe­re. In many peo­p­le, the cru­ci­fix next to a Bud­dha and also relics of shama­nism are loca­ted next to each other.

This peaceful and tole­rant con­fe­de­ra­ti­on of deno­mi­na­ti­ons is exem­pla­ry in the world.

Irkutsk - am Platz der 3 Kirchen
Irkutsk - Squa­re of the 3 Churches (Click to enlar­ge)

Shama­nism plays a spe­cial role. It is the ori­gi­nal belief of pri­mi­ti­ve peo­p­le all over the world.

Faith, beliefs, tra­di­ti­ons, rites and pos­si­bi­li­ties have been han­ded down from gene­ra­ti­on to gene­ra­ti­on for thou­sands of years. Repre­sen­ta­ti­ves are often cha­rac­te­ri­zed by very spe­ci­fic phy­si­cal or other cha­rac­te­ristics over many gene­ra­ti­ons.

The Shaman

A famous repre­sen­ta­ti­ve of shama­nism is the shaman → Valen­tin Vla­di­mi­ro­vich Hag­daev. He is alre­a­dy born in the 19th gene­ra­ti­on of Bur­ja­t­a­an shamans and is known all over the world. A fork­ed thumb of the right hand was the sign of all his pre­de­ces­sors. Valen­tin was also born with this shama­nic label.

How was Valen­tin a Shaman?

At the age of six he went to sleep one evening. He could not wake up the fol­lo­wing mor­ning. His par­ents brought him to the hos­pi­tal. Valen­tin saw ano­ther world in the appa­rent uncon­scious­ness. It was very colorful. When he had a chan­ce to cla­ri­fy his ques­ti­ons the­re, he came back into his body and felt that our world is full of suf­fe­ring. He also felt that in the other world ever­y­thing is simp­le.

Later, he had a mee­ting with a black hor­se, an anci­ent race, which also had a rela­ti­on to a for­mer shaman. Ano­ther sign was his six fin­gers on his right hand - the hand with which to make sacri­fices. Valen­tin first refu­sed to be a shaman, but accept­ed it later. So he began his lear­ning and his way, as a shaman.

The 57-year-old Valen­tin is pro­ba­b­ly a modern shaman.

He com­mu­ni­ca­tes with the world not only in con­ver­sa­ti­on or spi­ri­tual­ly, but also via the Inter­net and via email. His shaman school was his grand­fa­ther, also a famous shaman - alre­a­dy at times. Valentine’s father bro­ke out of this line - he was a Com­mu­nist - but Valen­ti­ne did not mean to be con­temp­tuous.

Valen­tin con­ti­nues an important tra­di­ti­on and spo­ke to us about shama­nism as fol­lows:

We respect our histo­ry, cul­tu­re, tra­di­ti­ons and cus­toms. We wor­ship the sacred fire, our gre­at ances­tors and the gods of hea­ven, the earth, the sun and the moon. Pray to the crea­tors of the uni­ver­se and Mother Natu­re. We preach life in harm­o­ny with our­sel­ves and with natu­re.”

The Shaman Valen­tin per­forms in many places tra­di­tio­nal ritu­als, but also lec­tures on the histo­ry and cul­tu­re of the Buryat Mon­gols. He mas­ters methods of tra­di­tio­nal medi­ci­ne as well as Mon­go­li­an astro­lo­gy “Zur­hay”.

Der Schamane Valentin Hagdaev am Schamanenfelsen auf Olchon
The legen­da­ry shaman Valen­tin Hag­daev at the shaman’s rock on Olchon (Click to enlar­ge)

He wro­te sci­en­ti­fic works and poems about the world of shama­nism. He tra­ve­led around the world to con­vey his faith. Thus he was, among other things, Alre­a­dy at uni­ver­si­ties in Switz­er­land and in Ger­ma­ny for lec­tures.

Valen­tin has many talents - he is a trai­ned tur­ner, was a con­s­truc­tion worker, was with the army, is a tea­cher, book aut­hor and direc­tor of the cul­tu­ral cen­ter.

We had a mee­ting with him, which we had to thank only the decades-long fri­end­ship of Ljud­mi­las with the shaman. He per­so­nal­ly told us about the tra­di­ti­ons of shama­nism on the shores of Lake Bai­kal.

With awe, we sat 6 tra­ve­lers bare­foot in the cir­cle around him.

We lis­ten­ed to his lec­tu­re at Schnei­der­sitz. We loo­ked a lot like child­ren, who look up to the fairy tel­ling grand­mo­ther. His lec­tu­re las­ted for a long time. What was heard was more important to us than the pain in his legs.

Deep­ly, during his report, he loo­ked alter­na­te­ly into the distance and into our eyes. He accom­pa­nied every state­ment with expres­si­ve ges­tu­res.

He also spo­ke proud­ly of a feast of shamans, ...

... in which he recei­ves the most famous repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of shama­nism every year at the shaman’s rock at Bai­kal. Repre­sen­ta­ti­ves are among others of the pri­mi­ti­ve peo­p­les of Asia, Aus­tra­lia and North Ame­ri­ca.

I was able to meet the high­ly rever­ed and legen­da­ry shamans, who had been wide­ly admi­red throug­hout the coun­try. Ljud­mi­la - our gui­de - had alre­a­dy told him about me befo­re our mee­ting. But he see­med to have read more about me deep­ly in my eyes during his lec­tures - right down to my last thoughts. I felt it for­mal­ly - but had no urge to defend mys­elf against it.

I had the fee­ling that he felt my ever­las­ting deep tor­ment as deep­ly in hims­elf as a result of cer­tain things. He gave me so much strength and ener­gy to cope with his mind and his respon­ses.

We tal­ked about God, spi­rits and the world. As one of the hig­hest things in the world, he values diver­si­ty - inclu­ding the diver­si­ty of reli­gi­ons. He told me:

Wit­hout diver­si­ty, the world would be not­hing.

The supre­me being in the world is not one of the many spi­rits of shama­nism or a god, in the faith of this shaman.

The hig­hest being to be rever­ed are the par­ents.

Wit­hout them, we would not exist. So he always car­ri­es an amu­let with hims­elf with the pic­tures of father and mother.

How the future looks? He could tell me some­thing about it, even to my own. But the­se are things that requi­re action for socie­ty - which do not hap­pen in self-development.

He saw in me the dis­po­si­ti­on to action. Why? Hm ‘... - I too have some out­ward fea­tures, as he assu­red me - but not of a shaman, but of one .... The last thing I’ve said remains with me.

I mys­elf must have a long time to think about what has been said. But I know with cer­tain­ty - with the Rus­si­an soul and the Holy Bai­kal: “I want some more, but no power.”

The Future lies only in our Hands

Yes - we tal­ked about many things - about his and my coun­try.

His grea­test wish is that the two count­ries - Rus­sia and Ger­ma­ny - will be able to ...

... as it was in the best sen­se in the past cen­tu­ries the case or best tra­di­ti­on - just as we were only a few years ago on the very best way.

beim legendären burjatisch-mongolischen Schamanen Valentin Hagdaev
The aut­hor in con­ver­sa­ti­on with the legen­da­ry Burjatic-Mongolian shaman Valen­tin Hag­daev (Click to enlar­ge)

He wis­hed that the two govern­ments would go back tog­e­ther. He wan­ted us to report back in Ger­ma­ny about Rus­sia, the Bai­kal and its peo­p­le, whe­re­ver it is pos­si­ble. He wis­hed that we should car­ry posi­ti­ve mes­sa­ges in the sen­se of peace bet­ween the two nati­ons. He also wan­ted me to wri­te down my expe­ri­en­ces with reli­gi­ons.

Vio­lent fan­ta­sies of extre­mists of this world are des­truc­ti­ve tools. We agreed on that.

In order to under­line the­se con­cerns, I should smo­ke with the gre­at Shaman Valen­tin the peace pipe which he has given me. As a con­fi­dent non-smoking, for­mer smo­ker, I took it bra­ve­ly on me. Hop­eful­ly no rel­ap­se.

It was an honor for me -  Спасибо! Для меня это было почестью.

This path at the Bai­kal and the shaman was and remains an inspi­ra­ti­on source - of cour­se only if I meet her open­ly. Then ever­yo­ne can over­co­me their own limits.

At the end of our con­ver­sa­ti­on, the shaman hug­ged me intent­ly - I repli­ed - as two deep­ly con­nec­ted brot­hers.

Open let­ter

The mee­ting with the shaman and all our expe­ri­en­ces at the Bai­kal in Rus­sia, I took the oppor­tu­ni­ty to wri­te an open let­ter to all depu­ties of the Ger­man Bun­des­tag. It is about “A ques­ti­on of war or peace!” It was my pro­mi­se to the shamans to talk about it. The open let­ter was sent to the Bun­des­tag on 24 Octo­ber 2016 and is rea­da­ble under » “Your Action for Peace”.

The Pho­to­gra­phy

In the past, I often had colors “drauf­ge­legt” or colors inten­si­fied during the final deve­lo­p­ment of the pic­tures (pho­to pro­ces­sing, Ado­be Ligh­t­room, etc.). The reason - the gray in gray in Cen­tral Euro­pe seems ubi­qui­tous - it is the­re, of cour­se.

Now, howe­ver, the­re were sur­pri­sing results regar­ding the color. Espe­ci­al­ly in pho­tos with suns­hi­ne - despi­te a gene­ral color reduc­tion during deve­lo­p­ment - the­re were still very inten­se colors on the snapshots - more inten­se than you are accus­to­med to.

In par­ti­cu­lar, blue, aqua­ma­ri­ne and green were often sup­po­sedly cover­ed. It was not neces­sa­ry to con­trol tem­pe­ra­tu­re or heat at all. We thought back and forth. What could the alle­gedly per­cei­ved, alle­ged “color pro­blem” have for a reason?

May­be the ans­wer is simp­le. The air at Bai­kal has a much hig­her puri­ty. Natu­re does not only look more inten­se, it also blos­soms more inten­si­ve­ly. The water does not just seem blue - it’s blue and abso­lut­e­ly pure. The star­ry sky does not seem to be lit­te­red with more stars at night - it real­ly is.

Natu­re has the pri­ma­cy and not the ever­y­day gray of the hec­tic civi­liza­ti­on. The who­le thing is clou­ded only when the sun does not shi­ne - but most­ly it seems the­re 🙂 THIS IS BAIKAL! Is it that bad?

A pho­to expert, who is very fami­li­ar on the spot, said to us:

As you know, the BAIKAL has many super­la­ti­ves, inclu­ding the color world. The extre­me tec­to­nics make the water most­ly deep blue appear. The inter­play of the sun and rapidly chan­ging clouds often brings exci­ting con­trasts into the pic­tu­re.

You should con­scious­ly use the­se con­trasts in the pic­tures. If the blue is too clo­se to the water, the “blue chan­nel” can be redu­ced in the pho­to pro­ces­sing. Reason can also be days with high UV-content. Recor­dings around the noon time are par­ti­cu­lar­ly bluish. Of cour­se you can also com­pen­sa­te for this with fil­ters.

In the sen­se of exci­ting pho­tos we ten­ded to the contrast-rich side. And - some­ti­mes pho­tos of the Bai­kal with only weak colors or com­ple­te­ly in black and white have their very spe­cial charm.

Fare­well

Well, the sum­ma­ry was a bit lon­ger than 7 words. Fare­well was hard for us. Sure­ly the­re is much more to tell about the Bai­kal regi­on and expe­ri­en­ces.

THE BAIKAL, this giant of our pla­net, will sure­ly remain unfor­gettable to me, my fel­low tra­ve­lers. Again, I do not want to wait 55 years until I meet the Holy Sea and the shaman again. For me the expe­ri­ence is not only source and expe­ri­ence, it is much, much more ...

wolle-ing_stift-01-2

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