“We have never believed that people are separated from Nature. Walruses are the walrus people, whales are the whale people, and the orca is our most honourable animal. When a hunter dies, his soul passes into the killer whale.”
Igor Makotrik speaks slowly, measuredly, as if every word carries considerable weight. He is 62, but like many Yupik, he looks younger. Igor heads the Novoye Chaplino community of sea hunters. There are about 400 residents in the village, and a community of 15 hunters provides the entire village with food.
It’s still mid-August, but the yellow and red colours of the tundra make it clear that winter is very close. Gloomy rain clouds crouch over hills decorated with stripes of the previous year’s snow. For hundreds of kilometres around, there is not a single tree, nothing that is a barrier to the piercing cold wind. The air temperature during the day is about five degrees Celsius; the water temperature is a degree above freezing. This is what summer in Chukotka is like.
A diesel generator hums continuously at the edge of Novoye Chaplino, producing electricity for the entire settlement. There is a boiler on the opposite side of the village.
According to northern custom, heating mains are not buried but run along the ground, parallel to the streets, in concrete boxes. In the alleys, wooden walkways are built across these concrete elevations. The heating is never turned off here, even in summer.
CRAFTING KAYAKS THE TRADITIONAL WAY
There is no heating in the workshop of Timofey Ayanto, a master carpenter. Everybody in Chukotka knows Timofey; he has long since forgotten how many baidarkas and sleds he has made for the hunters.
Denne historien er fra AG 162-utgaven av ASIAN Geographic.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra AG 162-utgaven av ASIAN Geographic.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Wildlife Big Yellow Beauty
The popular "amelanistic" form of the Burmese python is considered among the most beautiful snakes - if that's your sort of thing
All That Glitters Is Gold
From Turkey to China, the yellow metal plays a central role in cultural practices and is coveted as a symbol of affluence and status
Chengdu Hotel Spotlight TRIKA TSANG INTERNATIONAL HOTEL
For an authentic taste of Tibet in the heart of Chengdu, the most luxurious option is the majestic Trika Tsang International Hotel.
The Mighty Yellow
Over 5,000 kilometres long and flowing through nine provinces and autonomous regions, the Yellow River is China's second largest, after the Yangtze, while its basin is deemed the cradle of Chinese civilisation
Conservation Yellow in Peril
While the demand for use in traditional Chinese medicine is putting seahorses under pressure, it is damaging non-selective fishing that is driving depletion
Revealed Doctor Yellow
Japan Railways' special lemony Shinkansen is a rare sight to behold
History Spiritual Rebirth
During the Spanish Golden Age, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan achieved the first European navigation to Asia via the Pacific, arriving in the Philippines in 1521 and claiming the islands for Spain. But by converting the first Filipinos to Catholicism, Magellan also instigated the Christianisation of the entire archipelago, a spiritual rebirth celebrated through the two most important festivals in the Philippines - Fiesta Señor and Sinulog.
Green Dreams
With its tea plantations and rice paddies, dense jungles and expansive forests, the region is well known as a green paradise. But many of the most impressive Asian landscapes have names you may never have heard of. Journey with us as we reveal just some of the incredible locations that make the rest of the world green with envy!
Life On The Edge
In the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, in the remote northern Russian Far East, indigenous ethnic groups like the Chukchi and the Yupik live in the most extreme conditions, hunting seals in their traditional kayaks as they have for millennia
The Karakoram Anomaly Decoded
For decades, scientists have believed that glaciers in the Karakoram Range are defying the trend of those across the globe-resisting glacial melt due to human-induced global warming. But as we trek up the Karakoram's second-longest glacier in July, as the United Nations announces the world's hottest ever month on record, does the melting ice beneath our feet suggest the so-called Karakoram Anomaly is slowing? Or is there a ray of hope it will continue to delay the inevitable?
