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The Hu – Photo: L. Weikel

Diversion From and Unity With

And now for something completely different. I offer tonight’s post as both a diversion from and unity with the world at large.

It’s been a while since I wrote about one of the loves of my odd life: Tuvan throat singing and its very close cousin, Mongolian throat singing. I have a couple of favorite Tuvan throat singing groups, but tonight I’m thinking wistfully of The Hu, the Mongolian folk-metal band that Karl and I went to see in Brooklyn in September 2019.

I’m so glad we had that experience! Little did we know that it might be a very long time before we ever have such a chance again.

Tonight’s Diversion

My niece posted a video by The Hu on Facebook today that I just saw this evening. I have to admit, I became mesmerized and haven’t been able to turn their music off ever since.

I decided to write about them again tonight in the hope that you might allow yourselves to give this music a listen. It may strike you as really strange at first, but if you close your eyes and just allow yourself to ‘ride’ the rhythms, vocals, and ancient instrumentals, you may find yourself transported (or at least diverted) from the stresses we’re all encountering right now.

One selection I am finding myself loving as I sit here trying to muster my thoughts is a piece entitled Shireg Shireg*. What I love about this selection in particular is how much it reminds me of more traditional folk pieces from both Mongolia and Tuva.

I’ll see if I can find a single version of it on YouTube (I did – it is linked above to the title), but if I can’t, it’s at minute 38.27 in this wonderful fundraising video. I hope you’ll listen to it and allow yourself to be transported to the steppes for a few minutes. Both are beautiful renditions in their own ways.

Unity

And it is this video benefiting Covid-19 relief by The Hu that brings me to speak of experiencing the unity we have with even the furthest parts of the world. Mongolia is pretty much on the opposite side of the globe, and is a land of vast steppes, taiga, wild nature, and tremendously fierce and loving nomadic people.

Yet Mongolia, like the rest of the world, is not immune to Covid-19. And The Hu performed this fundraiser to benefit their fellow Mongolians who are battling the ravages of this pandemic just as we are. (I do believe they are more compliant with the mask wearing and have actually been more successful in quelling the spread than we have been here in the U.S.) That said, they don’t have anywhere near the healthcare capacity that we do (nor the population).

No country is immune. We’re all in this together. But that doesn’t mean we can’t lose ourselves in that great unifier…music.

*I just found the lyrics to Shireg Shireg and – what a surprise – find them to be meaningful to me in many ways, and quite possibly to you as well:

Water your red horse with piebald mane without the gag-bit
Please, remember the kindness of your old and grey father
Ride on the slope of the blue fold mountains
Please, remember the compassion of your old and caring mother

Shireg shireg
Shireg shireg

Take care of your loyal steed when you travel in foreign lands
Make friends with good people who you ride in the horde
Feed your bow and arrow with the wind
Abide by your moon sword as you sleep
Have the intuition to see the evil
Have the strength to endure barriers

Shireg shireg
Shireg shireg

We kiss your right cheek as we say farewell
We’ll kiss the left one when you return
Farewell, your elderly father and mother will be waiting for you at home

Shireg shireg
Shireg Shireg

Source: LyricFind

Mongolian shamans on the steppe – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-314)

Return of the Mongols

OK, I know. I’m weird. I love me my Tuvan throat singing and I’ve not been shy in sharing that love with you, my peeps.

If you recall, I mentioned that even though I refer to throat singing in general as ‘Tuvan’ throat singing, it actually originated in and is endemic to the culture of southwestern Siberia (the Altai region), south central Siberia (Tuva), and Mongolia.

Of course, that’s because all of the political boundaries separating these countries didn’t exist back when throat singing originated. But just as there are languages, and dialects within those languages, that share a common root, the same applies to the phenomenon of throat singing.

Mongolian Folk-Metal

I’ve already given you a flavor of throat singing from the Altai Republic. And then some examples of Tuvan throat singing. Tonight I’m going to give you a fascinating and modern take on this form of singing by introducing you to The Hu, a Mongolian folk-metal band. Yeah. You read that right. Folk-metal.

And it is some crazy awesome music, if I do say so myself.

Beyond loving the 21^stcentury interpretation of my beloved throat singing, I find the cinematography in the video for this song (Yuve Yuve Yu) succeeds in capturing aspects of the astounding beauty of the Mongolian landscape.

I have to admit that the lyrics to this song stir something deep within me also. I resonate with the desire of these musicians to urge their Mongolian kin to reconnect with the legendary ferocity of their ancestors and their astonishingly successful leader. Their ferocious nature, though, remains an unmistakable core thread of their being, no matter where you look or whom you meet.

Reconnecting to the Ferocity of Life

But the ferocity is not what you might expect, meaning war-like or antagonistic expression. Rather, the Mongolians and southern Siberians (Tuvans) I’ve met live ferociously. They love and laugh and share themselves with a wildness and intensity that mirrors the harsh environment in which they live: the vast steppes, mountains, and taiga.

Indeed, I’ve learned a lot more about Chinggis (Ghengis) Khaan since traveling to Tuva in 2003 and then returning to Mongolia and southern Siberia in 2017. Fascinatingly, his values and beliefs resulted in the Mongols being instrumental in cultivating and disseminating education, literacy, and religious freedom throughout their vast empire.

There is something to the inherent wildness of the steppes and the nomadic way of life that appeals to me at the deepest level. Granted, much has changed in the way many Mongolians and Tuvans live, including moving to cities, such as Irkutsk, Kyzyl, and Ulaanbaatar. I feel it is the wild essence that The Hu are calling their countrymen and women to remember and reclaim.

I need to post. Maybe I’ll write more about this another time… In the meantime, I hope you groove to this as much as I do.