The first time I ever wanted to travel abroad was when I was just 9 years old. I went to a small private school located in a shopping center called "The Village." In that same plaza was a movie theater that showed a lot more classic, international, and independent and old school movies rather than the current out-coming movies. I had a science teacher that year whose name was Greg. He was by far one of the greatest science teachers I have had in my life and he will forever hold a special place in my heart and in the hearts of my two closest sisters who also had him.
One week a movie called Genghis Blues came into the theater and my science teacher came into possession of some free tickets. He asked kids in my class and their parents if any of us wanted to go to see this movie. He explained the basic premise of the movie. A blind blues singer named Paul Pena while listening to the radio one day happened upon a Russian short wave radio station and heard a group of Tuvan throat singers. Paul Pena became so fascinated with this form of singing that he later learned the Tuvan language, and self taught the Tuvan style of singing. Years later he traveled to the Republic of Tuva and won the Kargyraa portion of a National Throat Singing contest.
I don't really remember my thought process at my young age of 9 years... Maybe I just thought that if Greg wanted to see it, it was obviously worth seeing... but I decided to go see this movie.
I absolutely loved the movie and have wanted to see it again ever since. I have looked into buying the movie since then, but I only found it recently, and the DVD costs $25 so I have yet to deposit the money necessary to buy the film. In the moment I left that theater though, I knew that I would forever love the Tuvan people. I had never traveled anywhere, and I knew nothing of alternate lifestyles. I had never learned of anything more intriguing to me than of the Tuvan people and their style of throat singing. For years I studied the Tuvan language, and their culture and their food in my spare time. I attempted to teach myself how to perform the act of throat singing, but never truly mastered it (although one of my brothers did, as well as that beloved science teacher, Greg). I have of course, always been intensely jealous, not that I'd necessarily be inclined to admit that.
Every now and then I try to share my love for this people and their music with people I am friends with. I am most frequently met with mocking apprehension. It hurts. I'll be honest. I know they don't realize that I am attempting to share with them, something that I hold dear to my heart... but it does still hurt sometimes to see their faces as they mock the sounds that to me are some of the most beautiful sounds in the world.
I know that Tuva, the small Autonomous Republic, wedged between Siberia and Mongolia will forever be a place my heart longs to see. Even to this day, when I hear Tuvan singing, I long for the sights, and the smells, and the tastes of Tuva.
Can you honestly tell me after watching that... that you have ever seen or heard someone sing with more fervor or passion? I see it in their faces. I feel more love for a people I have never seen, listening to them, than I could ever explain. The closest description I have ever heard was when a dear friend of mine explained to me the feelings she had when hearing the Call to Prayer in Jerusalem... although I am sure our feelings are different.
I don't know that I will ever feel closer to the world than when I listen to Tuvan singers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsVzm-rgS-w&feature=related
1 comment:
That is beautiful and inspiring! It calmed my spirits a lot. I understand the parallelism to the call to prayer. Sometimes the most beautiful sounds are in a language we don't understand. Because only then do we pay more attention to the deeper meaning.
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