ABSTRACT

Setting The Altai is a mountainous region located in the core of the Eurasian continent. It includes the highest mountain of the region (Mt Belukha, 4506m) and a vast glaciated area. The region is identified as one of World Wildlife Fund’s 200 major world ecoregions (Altai-Sayan), which is of crucial importance for understanding the history of Asian ecosystems during the Holocene era. Run-off from the Altai Mountains endows two of the major Asian rivers: the Ob and the Irtysh. In 1998, UNESCO acknowledged the global significance of the region by including three Altai clusters in the world natural heritage list. This small landscape of about 15,000ha is

located at the junction of the borders of four countries: Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and Russia, and forms the so-called Altai Knot (Figure 9.1). Before the demise of the USSR in 1991, large herds totalling over 500,000 animals (primarily sheep and goats) were shepherded

across this territory from Mongolia through the Ukok Upland Plateau, which is a world heritage site, to slaughtering and meat processing plants in eastern Kazakhstan. Currently, the border between Mongolia and Kazakhstan is interrupted by 67km of Russian territory (the Altai Republic), and this channel of economic and cultural connection has been lost. Altai is a crossroads of the world’s major

cultures and religions: Buddhism, Islam, Christ - ianity (Orthodox) and Shamanism. Followers of Russian theosophist and artist Nikolas Roerich believe that the Altai Mountains shelter the mystical Shambala – sacred Buddhist country. Altai is world renowned for its archaeological findings made in the last half of the 20th century and especially in the early 1990s: human mummies 2000-2500 years old with well-preserved fragments of skin and tattoos were discovered in permafrost layers in burial mounds on the Ukok Plateau. Pieces of silk cloth and other artefacts found there and in other burial mounds in the Altai point to the existence of active cultural and humanitarian connections in the region since ancient times. Frozen tombs have been located in a broad area in the Altai (in all four countries).