Tuvan Psalms audio recording released
October 7, 2016

The book of Psalms in the Tuvan language was first published in 2005, and a revised version was included in the full Tuvan Bible (2011). The audio version of this book was recorded in summer 2015 in Kyzyl, the capital city of Tuva, and has now been made available on CD and as a free download online.

The male voice for the Tuvan Psalms was provided by Omak Natpit-ool, a professional actor who already had experience recording the Tuvan New Testament (2012) and Children’s Bible (2014). The female voices were provided by Tuvan Christians from churches in Kyzyl.  One of them, Elena Samba, observed:  "The Tuvan people loves its language and hasn't forgotten it.  Maybe that's why we were one of the first peoples of Russia to receive a full translation of the Bible. Tuvans are a very poetic people, and that's why the Psalms are very close to our culture."

The audio recording team chose to have Tuvan instrumental music play in the background as the text was read in order to make the recording attractive to listeners. The music was recorded specifically for this audio project by the world-renowned Tuvan music group Huun-Huur-Tu, and was coordinated by Dr. Ulyana Mongush, who wrote her dissertation on Tuvan music. Some of the instruments that are heard in this recording are the limbi (flute), chadagan (plucked zither), doshpuluur (two-stringed lute), and khomus (jaw-harp).

The audio recording team will begin recording other books of the Tuvan Old Testament in late 2016.