How Khanty reindeer herders live. Ethnic tourism is being developed in Priuralskiy district

Tourists arriving in Yamal can get acquainted to traditional lifestyle, everyday life, customs, traditions and culture of Khanty reindeer herders. They will have the opportunity to go fishing, to visit reindeer herds, to go hiking in the Sub-polar Ural and to see beauty of the Northern Lights – Aurora Borealis. The coordinator of the project “Rossiyskoye Selo” (Russian rural area), the executive director of the Yamal Union of reindeer herders Timur Akchurin and an individual entrepreneur Yevgeniy Seraskhov visited the nomadic camp of reindeer herders nearby the Sub-polar Ural on the territory of Priuralskiy district, where it is planned to develop ethnic tourism.

Reindeer herders told about their life in tundra and shared their problems and suggestions, including on nomadic payments and wages for women choum-keepers. (The note: a choum rabotnitsa or a choum-keeper, a reindeer herder’s wife working in a choum, running her family’s household and helping in reindeer husbandry and other work; a choum is a traditional home of nomads, reindeer herders; it is similar to a tepee).

“To increase income of families of reindeer herders, I think, it is necessary to consider the issue on increase in monthly allowances to persons leading nomadic or semi-nomadic way of life. Also I think that it is necessary to legalize the status of women choum-keepers at the federal level, more exactly, to introduce a specialization “Choum rabotnitsa” to the register of professions of Russia, as for our region it is basis of bases. As a rule, she is not just a reindeer herder’s wife but also a mother, who has many children and who runs her family’s household in a choum. In addition, she also helps her husband: travels together with him and their big family from one nomadic camp to another. At that, women choum-keepers are registered as reindeer herders of the third category, what does not correspond fully to their functions and does not guarantee full observation of their rights”, Timur Akchurin said.