Khakasian people are unique people, grown up in unusual natural conditions and in a close connection to it. Their traditions and way of life amaze everyone who meets these people.

The basis of everything is home. The house of the khakasian people in the 18-19^th centuries was a yurt. It can be easily assembled during half an hour. This fact is very important for the people who live the nomadic way of life. A yurt was made for one family only; traditionally the head of a family was a man. He was in charge of all possessions and arranged all agricultural works.

But his exclusive rights did not concern women's duties and occupations. The khakasian people usually married in the age of 17-22 years. There were several forms of marriage. The most widespread is stealing of a girl (tuthyn). Very often a girl agreed to be stolen and a man had to pay bride-money.

Sometimes the children were asked in marriage by their parents in the age of 3-5 years. This form of a "cradle" marriage did not require paying bride-money, but a boy's parents sent precious gifts to a girl's parents 2 or 3 times a year.

Poor people usually got married making a labor-rent. A bride's parents allowed a poor boy to live in their house who then worked for a bride's father for several years. A man had a right to assemble his own yurt only after several years of such labor-rent.

A woman depended on a man and was subjected to a man all her life. At first she was subjected to her father and then to her husband. A man had a right to marry the second and the third wife if the first wife was not able to bear a son. The second and the third wife had a separate yurt.

Khakasian clothes can be differentiated according to age, style and overcoat peculiarities. The main part of the clothes is a wide long shirt made of colorful fabric. The upper part of the shirt had several folds. A man's garment had a belt with metal plates, leather sheath and quiver. Summer pants were made of thick fabric, winter pants - from sheepskin (fur inside) or from suede. Summer clothes are a wide broadcloth jacket (sikpen), winter clothes is a sheepskin fur coat with a big collar. There were several types of a fur coat. A woman's fur coat was especially beautiful. Women usually put on a sleeveless jacket on a fur coat. A festive women's hat was a small round hat with a tassel and fox fur. Another part of women's clothes was "pogo" - an oval breast-plate decorated with buttons, shells and beads.

Traditional winter food for khakasian people is meat, summer food include mostly milk dishes. Different soups and broths with meat were widespread. Blood-pudding was considered to be a special festive dish. A lot of dishes were made of milk, but fresh milk was drunk only by children. An original kind of cheese - hurut - was extremely popular. This cheese could stay fresh for several years. It was made of ayran (a kind of a milk drink) and eaten with a soup.

Food distribution was strictly conducted during a meal. There were numerous interesting traditions and customs connected with meals.

Khakasian folk art was unique too. Things made of stone, wood, fabric and birch bark were decorated with paintings and ornaments. Leather paintings were made with the help of stamping technique, fabric paintings were usually embroidered. Clothes, tobacco pouches, felt carpets, wooden boxes, musical instruments, dishes and tether - everything was decorated with paintings.

The most interesting and widespread form of folklore was heroic epos. The central place in khakasian literature is taken by a powerful athlete, ghosts of the land and natural phenomena. Story tellers were respected people, they were invited to different places throughout Khakasia. Sometimes they did not pay duties. Khakasian traditional musical instruments can strike your imagination by the sounds they make and by timbre characteristics. The most wide known instruments include chathan, homys, hobyrah, syylas and iih.