Mongush Kenin-Lopsan

Mongush Kenin-Lopsan studied at Faculty of Oriental Studies of the St. Petersburg University. The recorded working language is Russian and Tuvan. The field of work recorded is creative and professional writing, poetry and history. Distinctions recorded are Order of Friendship of Peoples, Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 2nd class without swords, Jubilee Medal "65 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" and Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin".

Kenin-Lopsan was born on 10 April 1925, at Chash-Tal, Tuva, Chöön-Khemtchik district to a family of Bora-Khöö. His grandparents/parents were nomads, cattle breeders, herders, blacksmiths as well as storytellers and shamans. Kenin-Lopsan was educated at ground school in Chadan, later on colleges in Kyzyl. He studied philology at Leningrad (today St. Petersburg) University and received a master's degree in 'Eastern Sciences'. Being back in Tuva, he served as a teacher of Tuvan as well as of Russian language and literature besides working as an editor for a publishing company in Tuva. Among his first books was The Big Way (1956) as well as other novels like The Currents of the Big River (1965), Dance of Capricorn and The Yurt of the Horse Herder. He won several Russian and Tuvan prizes. Throughout his whole life, he collected stories from his kinsmen, storytellers, shamans, workers, herders and poets. For his research on shamanism, he was persecuted during Soviet times. His grandmother shamaness Kuular Khandyshap died after being imprisoned by Gulag for 15 years. Kenin-Lopsan died on 10 February 2022, at the age of 96.