Саха Сирэ — Land of the Sakha

I was born in Sakha (Yakutia), in northeastern Siberia. It is an immense land of more than three million square kilometres, 6 times greater than France, but with population less than a million: great rivers, taiga, tundra, mountains and permafrost. Nearly forty per cent of the territory lies north of the Arctic Circle. 

The name Саха Сирэ means “the land of the Sakha," people of this land. For climbers' paradise: The Lena Pillars, near the Lena River, an immense stone wall. 

Winter

Winter temperatures fall below −60°C. We do not merely survive. We build families, schools, towns, art, great movies and humour, and learn to treat conditions that appear impossible elsewhere as ordinary. Yakutia’s continental climate can range from roughly −60°C in winter to around +40°C in summer.

The Other Extreme: Light, Heat and Mosquitoes

Summer arrives quickly. The same land becomes green, bright and unexpectedly hot. Rivers open, hay is cut, families travel, and the short season acquires an intensity of its own.

Ysyakh, the Sakha summer festival, marks renewal and the beginning of a new annual cycle after the long winter. It brings together ceremony, traditional dress, music, horses, food and the osuokhai circle dance. Then come the mosquitoes—sometimes in clouds—and the northern summer stops looking gentle. The contrast is part of Yakutia’s attraction: deep winter silence, intense summer light, and very little moderation between them