Yakuts people in the Khangalassky District of the Sakha Republic(Siberia):Horse herders on an island

Yakuts people in the Khangalassky District of the Sakha Republic(Siberia):Horse herders on an island in the Lena River.  Yakutian horses areshort, fat and hairy, and can survive temperatures of 60°C.Village of Sinsk, west of the Lena Pillars.  Most inhabitants arehorse herders, hunters and fishermen.  Even the few Russians who livehere speak the Yakut language as their first language.The sacred shamanic site at the base of the Lena Pillars, wherepeople come to leave offerings of oladushki pancakes.Khangalassky District was the last place in the Sakha Republic(Yakutia) to stop resisting the Russian conquest.  Traditional Yakutculture is still the way of life here, and the district is veryisolated.  There is a road from Yakutsk that is usuable in summer,but only into part of the region.  Further travel is by boat insummer, or driving over the ice in winter.Traditional horse herding is practised in the region, particularly inthe village of Sinsk, where the Sinyaya River flows into the Lena. The herders keep their horses on islands in the river, or on theriverbanks in the forest.  These hardy horses are able to stayoutside all winter in freezing temperatures.  The herders move themfrom one pasture to another at certain times of the year, travellingon horseback in summer, and by horse sledge in winter.  Duringwinter, horse sledges are a common mode of transport within thevillage.Fifty kilometres down the Sinyaya are the Sinyaya Pillars, which areslightly smaller than the Lena Pillars.  Along the banks of the LenaRiver are many ancient rock paintings, between the villages of Elankaand Sinsk. -- source link

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