Since childhood, Alla Alagizova has been learning to weave the national belt of the Teleuts, an indigenous Russian people. She regards herself as the only one who still can weave the Teleut belts and sing the old ethnic songs. The Teleuts have not escaped the ever-present changes. Where there used to be a field and a pasture is now a coal pit, and the shamanistic rituals have given way to Orthodox Christian ceremonies. But the songs of their fathers, their language and their kind nature remain carefully preserved.
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