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Tyva or Tuva, republic in south central Siberia, in southeastern Russia. It is north of the Republic of Mongolia. Tyva covers a total land area of 170,500 sq km (65,830 sq mi). Kyzyl is the administrative center. High mountain ranges encircle the Tuva and Todza basins, which lie in the central part of the republic. Tyva has extremely cold winters and warm summers.

Tyva has a population of 306,300 (1994 estimate). Tyvans represent nearly two-thirds of inhabitants, and Russians account for nearly one-third. The Tyvans speak a Turkic language. The traditional religions of Tyva are Tibetan Buddhism and shamanism. Agriculture in the republic consists mainly of livestock raising, hunting, and some grain farming. The chief industries are mining, woodworking, food processing, and light manufacturing. Tyva is administered by a president and legislative assembly. One of the 21 Russian republics, it has three seats in the Russian Federal Assembly.

Formed by the mixing of Mongolian, Turkic, Uygur, and Kyrgyz tribes, the Tyvans were ruled at various times by the Mongols, the Chinese, and the Altyn khans. The territory became a Russian protectorate in 1914. During the Russian Civil War (1918-1921), the Tyvans declared independence. In 1926 the republic became a semi-independent state under Soviet authority, and in 1944 it was incorporated into Soviet Russia. In 1991, after the breakup of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Tyva became part of newly independent Russia.

• Tuvan Throat Singers

Richard Feynman, quantum physicist

The Republic of Tuva, a country in central Asia, first caught Feynman's attention because of his interest in stamp collecting. In the 1930's, the country, in what has been described as a "philatelic orgy," issued a number of off-the-wall stamps in odd shapes (triangles, diamonds, etc.) showing odd scenes (men on camels racing trains, men on horseback hunting with airplanes above them, etc.). In1977, Feynman asked, "Whatever happened to Tannu Tuva?" His friend and collaborator Ralph Leighton helped turn the quest for information on Tuva into an adventure (as chronicled in Leighton's book, _Tuva or Bust_.)

In traditional Tuvan culture, music has been both an art and a technology. It is an expressive medium as well as a systematic means of achieving a practical end, for example, calming herd animals during the process of domestication or attracting wild animals during a hunt. It is through music that Tuvan herders traditionally expressed their sense of place in the natural world and venerated the spirits of the places and beings (both human and equine) that they most cherished. Khoomei or throat singing, the music for which Tuva is best known, comprises a kind of stylized musical onomatopoeia in which singers mimetically represent a variety of natural sounds: birds, flowing water, the jingle of stirrups or a galloping horse. In all cases, the principle of khoomei is one and the same. Singers produce two, and occasionally three, distinct notes simultaneously by precise movements of the lips, tongue, jaw, velum, and larynx, that selectively intensifyharmonics naturally present in the voice.

• 604 track _Alash (When I Graz My Beautiful Sheep)_ MP3 by Juno Reactor off of _Ethnotechno_ promo compilation 12"x2 on TVT/Wax Trax (1994) samples Tuvan Throat Singing
• industrial track _Touch (Groovin' With The Tuvan)_ MP3 (160k) by Horizon 222
• acid jazz breaks track _Tuvan Tube Top_ MP3 (vK) by Ben Wa off of _Disciples Of Retro-Tech_ on Stray (2001)

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