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Costume sketches for the opera by E. Brusilovsky “Er-Targyn" - Gulfairus Ismailova

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Gagauz: The Descendants of the Wolves

"In the south of the Republic of Moldova lies the small autonomous region of Gagauzia. Here lives a largely unknown people with old traditions and customs: the Gagauz, a minority of ethnic Turks with Christian Orthodox faith, the descendants of the Wolves.

According to legend, after an enemy raid, a she-wolf discovered a little boy who had miraculously survived in the forest and took care of him. This boy became the ancestor of the Gagauz people.

But very few young people decide to stay in the land of their ancestors. Older people proudly try to preserve their identity, their traditions and, above all, their language in order to continue on the path to the independence they long for."

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Albanian folk musician and artist Kristian Zefi

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Tajik Suzani

"Suzani is a type of embroidered and decorative tribal textile made in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries. Suzanis are rather delicate and extremely few examples survive from before the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They belong, however, to a very ancient tradition. Suzanis were traditionally made by Central Asian brides as part of their dowry, and were presented to the groom on the wedding day."

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A reconstruction of a wooden 17th century synagogue once located in Gwozdziec, a formerly Polish town in Ukraine, at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

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Girl dressed as a Motanka - Oksana Onysko

The Motanka is a traditional doll used as an amulet in Ukrainian culture, dating back thousands of years possibly to the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture. It represents the unity between ones family and ancestors - once also believed to be a vessel of the ancestors of the person who possessed it. It was also viewed as a tool that helped protect a person from the evil eye and curses, and that the person creating it could project powers into it based on what they were thinking at the time. The Motanka is created faceless with a cross covering its head, as Ukrainian folk belief claimed that etching a face onto it could drain a living spirit into it.

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Russian folk group «Комонь»

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Malá morská víla (The Little Mermaid | Karel Kachyna | 1976)

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Women at Dračevo Slava celebration, ca. June 1954

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Woman’s costume of the first half of the 19th century. Mishar Tatars.

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Historical Armenian clothing

[Top: Cilician Bride; Bottom: Woman from the Bagratid Dynasty between the 9th and 13th century]

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Photos of villagers in Transcarpathia (Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukraine), taken by a Hungarian soldier, Pál Berkó, in 1939. More precise location not specified.

Berkó Pál / Fortepan

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Kazakh Girl

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Ethnic Poles of Gagauzia, Moldova - Jana Mai

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Nikah by Bashkir Russian artist Alina Bugleeva

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Adelheid (1970)

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Eryza Girl from Russia