A Yurt is Born!
(Left) Peter
Scotto, associate professor of Russian and Eurasian studies, lays
down a slat for the yurt being built as part of the class Nomads
Steppes and Cities. Students putting final touches on slats are Emily
Hunter '01 (left) and Sarah Farquhar '03. The preliminary yurt work
was done at the home of politics professor Chris Pyle. Yurt
constuction will be completed during an hour-long building session
October 25 on the main green at 4 PM. The yurt will stand through
Sunday, October 31.
During the week of October 24, Mount Holyoke's Russian and Eurasian studies department's focus on Central Asia will be highlighted when the ambassador of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan speaks on Wednesday, October 27, and a yurt is constructed on the College's main green on Monday, October 25. The yurt installation is expected to take about an hour. After its construction on October 25, at 4 PM, the yurt will stand through Sunday, October 31.
Yurts are portable wood-framed tents that are still home to many nomads on the Central Asian steppe. Built with canvas and cedar wood, the nomadic structure on the Mount Holyoke green will be sixteen feet in diameter and nine-feet high. Its wooden lathe and rafters will be prepared ahead of time in politics professor Chris Pyle's home workshop. The yurt will be erected by the students of the Mount Holyoke class Nomads, Steppes, and Cities: An Introduction to the Peoples and Cultures of Russia and Eurasia. Cotaught and developed by Stephen Jones and Peter Scotto, associate professors of Russian and Eurasian studies, the course examines the cultural and geopolitical diversity of the newly independent states of the former USSR. According to Edwina J. Cruise, chair of the College's Russian and Eurasian studies department, the nomads course is "one of the very few at an American undergraduate institution that is devoted entirely to this rapidly growing and little-known area of the Eurasian continent."
The yurt will coincide with the visit to Mount Holyoke of the ambassador to the United States from Kyrgyzstan. His excellency Baktybek Abdrisaev will discuss "The Kyrgz Republic: On the Way to Building a Democratic Society." The lecture will be held in the Morrison Room in the Willits-Hallowell Center. A reception will follow. Kyrgyzstan borders on China and is located south of Kazakhstan. Its estimated population in 1992 was about 5 million.
Ambassador Abdrisaev will be the fifth ambassador from the newly independent states to visit Mount Holyoke since the breakup of the Soviet Union. The Department of Russian and Eurasian Studies has previously hosted Tedo Japaridze (Georgia, 1993), Ruben Shugaryan (Armenia, 1994), Hafiz Pashayev (Azerbaijan), and Bolat N. Nurgaliyev (Kazakhstan, 1997).
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