The Legend of Angara

In the times of old, mighty Baikal was jovial and kindly. All of his heart was given to his only daughter Angara. There was nothing under the heavens to supersede her beauty. By day she was bright--brighter than the sky, by night she was dark--darker than a storm cloud. Whoever passed by her, everyone marveled at her, and praised her. Even the itinerant birds--geese, swans, cranes--descended nethermost, but seldom took to the water. They spoke: --Who dareth darken the bright? The Old Man Baikal cared less for his own soul than for his daughter. Once, while Baikal reposed himself, Angara betook to the flight to young fellow Yenisei. There arose the Father, splashing the waves in rage. Fiery storm broke, the mountains cried out, the forests collapsed, the heavens turned black with grief, animals scattered about the face of the Earth in horror, fishes dove to the bottom, birds shot to the sun. Wind alone was wailing and the mighty sea was raging. Powerful Baikal struck a gray mountain, broke a cliff away and hurled it after his fleeing daughter. The cliff landed on the very throat of the beauty. Pleaded the blue-eyed Angara, choking and weeping, and begged: --Father, forgive me and let me have a single drop of water, for I am dying of thirst... Cried out Baikal in fury: --I hath naught to give thee but thy tears!... For millenia, there flow the tears of Angara towards Yenisei, while the lonely and gray Baikal turned gloomy and ominous. The cliff that Baikal cast after his daughter got the name "Shaman Cliff" among the people. Rich sacrifices were offered to Baikal there. People used to say: "Should Baikal get infuriated, he would tear the Shaman Cliff away and the water will surge out and flood the Earth…

Lake Baikal is between 51 29’N and 55 46’N latitude and 103 41’E and 109 57’E longitude. It is about 636 km long and about 80 km wide. Its broadest point is located between the villages of Onguryon on the Western shore and Ust-Barguzin on the eastern shore, and its narrowest point is between the Selenga River Delta and the opposite Western shore. The length of the coastline is about 2,100 km. There are 30 rocky islands on the lake, the biggest one being Olkhon Island which is more than 130 km2 in area. Legend has it that Olkhon Island is the birthplace of Mongolian ruler Genghis Khan.

Olkhon Island.   Mid-way on the northern shore of Baikal is an area considered to be the most sacred. It is here, about eight miles from the north shore that we find Olkhon, named by the Buryats for the forests which cover the island. Olkhon is the biggest island on Baikal extending more than 70 km. (60 miles) in length and up to 20 km. (15 miles) in width. Its terrain is varied with sweeping prairies, steep rocks, dry valleys overgrown with berry bushes and small, shallow bays with sandy beaches and warm water. The island's steep sides cut into the aquamarine sea-lake and its capes are like characters out of ancient Siberian folk-tales guarding the island's peace. The most beautiful of these capes, Burchan, bears the name of the Buryats' primary god. The bank closest to Burchan has a cave which cuts through the rock. The entrance is on the eastern side and the exit on the western one. Native people considered the cave a sacred place, a dwelling of shamans. The cave is, however, now inscribed with Buddhist prayers, remnants of seventeenth century arrival of Tibetan Lamaist Buddhism. The new religion partly absorbed the native shamanistic traditions and partially replaced them. The first words of one prayer read, "Ou, Burchan, Tingiri!", invoking the Buryat-Lamaist's god and heaven.

The mystery of how the Nerpa came to Baikal still baffles scientists. Apart from being a freshwater reservoir, Lake Baikal is hundreds of miles from any other sea or ocean. Most believe that thousands of years ago, the salt water of the Arctic Ocean stretched into the lower reaches of the Yenisey up to the mouth of the Angara. Many scientists agree that the seal belongs to the Tertiary fauna, and most likely migrated to the region during the early stages of the period when the Baikal Depression formed. It is thought that in search for food, the seals gradually migrated deeper into the mainland. There have been years when scientists have counted nearly one hundred thousand nerpa in and around the lake. Valued for their soft, warm pelts and fat, the seals have been hunted for thousands of years. For centuries ethnic Buryats living around the lake have hunted seals, venturing out on the treacherous ice in the spring just after the pups, known as kumutkans, were born. It is a tradition that has been passed from father to son. The meat was eaten or preserved for the long winters ahead. Skins were used to cover canoes and the fur for clothing. Nothing was wasted, and the catch was small enough that the seal population was not threatened…

 The Baikalo-Lensky  Nature reserve was found in 1986 on the western shore of the lake Baikal, opposite the Bargusinsky Nature Reserve. It includes the upper basin of the River Lena and its tributaries - the Kirenga, the Tongoda, the Maly Anoy and Bolshoy Anoy. All these rivers begin in the Baikal Mountain Range. The nature reservestretches along the Lake Baikal bank for 100 km. The mountain tundras with high mountain meadows are successed with krummholz thickets of cedar pine woodlands. In the lower belt light coniferous taiga is construed of  pine and larch, with the poplar and Chosenia growing in the valleys. Cedar, fir, larch and spruce prevail in the tree flora on the western slopes of the Baikalsky mountain range and in the lower dark coniferous forests.The pride of zapovednik is brown bear. In June, several animals can be observed simultaneously on the Baikal shore (therefore, this nature reserve is often called "the coast of brown bears"). Another reserve's inhabitants are: roebuck, reindeer, black-capped marmot and Baikal seal. Bird species of special concern include osprey, white-tailed sea-eagle, golden eagle, peregrine falcon, Chinese scrub warbler and Eastern solitary snipe. One can meet various fish species (Arctic grayling, taimen, round and Siberian whitefishes) in the rivers and streams of the Reserve.

 Baikal Amur Mainline

The Baikal-Amur Mainline (Russian Baikal Amur Magistral, BAM) is a railway line in Russia. Traversing Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East, the 4,234 km (2,305 m.) long BAM runs about 380 to 480 miles north of and parallel with the Trans-Siberian railway. The route of the present-day BAM was first considered in the 1880s as an option for the eastern section of the Trans-Siberian railway. BAM departs from the Trans-Siberian railway at Taishet (Tayshet), then crosses Angara at Bratsk, crosses Lena, proceeds past Severobaikalsk on the northern tip of Lake Baikal, past Tynda and Khani, crosses the Amur River at Komsomolsk-na-Amure and finally reaches the Pacific Ocean at Sovetskaya Gavan.  BAM was built as a strategic alternative route to the Trans-Siberian Railway, especially to the vulnerable sections which are close to the border with China. The section from Tayshet to Bratsk was built in the 1930s. Most of the Eastern section was built during the years 1944-1946, mainly by the gulag prisoners, including German and Japanese prisoners of war, of whom possibly as many as 150,000 died. In 1953, following Stalin's death, virtually all construction work on the BAM stopped and the line was abandoned to the elements for more than twenty years. In March 1974, Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev stated that a new BAM project would become a huge Komsomol undertaking. In September 1984, a "golden spike", akin to one used in Utah in 1867, was hammered into place, connecting the eastern and western sections of the BAM. No Western media were invited to attend this historic event as Soviet officials did not want any questions asked about the line's operational status and working conditions of the construction workers. In reality, only one third of the BAM's track was fully operational at the time of opening, and the forced labor was still widely used. BAM was finally declared complete in 1991.  ( from Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia)