In Buryatia there are representatives of over 60 nationalities. The most numerous among them are Russians and Buryats, a small share is made up of Ukrainiaus, Tatars, Byelorussians, Evenks.
      The interactions of the two cultures, those of the East and the West is the peculiar feature of this region, the object of persisting interest on the part of home and foreign investigators and travelers.
      Close up to the XVII century the culture of Buryats was a typical folk culture of nomads of the Central Asian region. The spiritual culture of the Buryat tribes found its expression in the folk knowledge and craft, mythology, folklore, art, symbolic, ecology, rituals. One of the brightest spheres of the spiritual culture of the Buryats was folklore, i.e. the epic, myths, legends, tales, proverbs, sayings, riddles, songs and neigers –heroic stories. The masterpiece of the epical work of Buryats is the national heroic epic of Geser which stands in own row with the masterpieces of world significance. At present over 20 volumes of the pieces of the buryat folklore have been published by scholars and collectors.

      The life and household of Buryats since ancient times conditioned the emergence of fine arts to decorate their dwelling, clothes, armour, horse harness and various kinds of utensils. An indispensable attribute of the Buryat yard was a tethering post – serge which presented a post dug in the ground, it was about 1,7-1,9m high, the upper part of it was decorated with carved ornament. The serge was an object of worship, it was the symbol of prosperity and well-being of Buryats. The yurts were made of felt and wood. The traditional dishes and utensils were made of the material which would not get broken, i.e. of leather, wood, feet.

The interior was no more than a platform, small tables, bedding and icons or orgons. The yurt was traditionally divided into the mall(right) and the female (left) parts. In the mall part there was the harness, instruments and weapons, in the female part there were utensils and food. The northern part, i.e. the Khoimor was considered to be the most honorable and was meant for receiving guests. In the centre of the yurt there was the fire or the hearth and above it a hole for removing the smoke. The hearth was taken to be sacral, various rituals and prohibitions were associated with it.
      The traditional Buryats were shamanists and the shamanic view penetrated the cultural and ideological ideas.
      Since the XVII century along with the wide spread of lamaism the buddhist culture of the East paved its way to Buryatia. Together with buddhism the mongolian and tibetan scripts, knowledge and science, literature, art, medicine, architecture and building, new ritual complexes and new moral foundations came to Buryats. Temples and pagodas were erected, icon painting and sculpture began to develop on the territory of Transbaikalia and Cis –Baikalia.
      In the middle of the XVII century Buryatia was joined to Russia. The Russians began to settle on the territory, they brought their culture and relision, i.e. the Christianity. The influence of the Russian culture is felt in the temple and civil architecture, in wide spread of items of industrial production.

      Very peculiar is the history of settling of the Russian old-believers (since the second half of the XVII century) who got the name “semeiskiye” for they arrived at the new place of their settlement in big families (semiya). The economic activity of the semeiskiye was the constant object for admiration on the part of travelers, scholars for they brought along with them the high agrarian culture, diligence and peculiar, truly russian working way of living. The old believers quickly became the main body of agrarians of Transbaikalia and turned this land into the most rich grain – producing area of East Siberia. It was them who brought the potato and many other vegetables, used hotbeds.

      The old believers had long attracted attention by the strict observance of the old customs and adherence to various old prohibitions. For a long time old believers observed the rule according to which no one from outside could ever touch their plates and dishes or eat from them.
      Owing to their devotion to old traditions and religious ideas many taboos, customs, old fashion of national costume have been preserved by them up to the present.
      Age – old neighborhood, contacts of the indigenous peoples with the russion population were quite fruitful for their development. Russian peasants were the prompters of the agrarian culture and settled way of life. They brought to Buryatia new agrarian cultures, new crafts and the rudiments of industry. The influence of russians found its expression in borrowing by Buryats and Evenks of crafts, skill and instruments, in closer ties among the peoples, emergence of the first schools, penetration of the russian language and education. However Buryats did not merely copy the innovations introduced by Russians, they further adapted them to their own conditions, to their ownway of life. In the like manner the Russians also borrowed from indigenous people their age-old experience of coexistence with local nature.

      Buddhism and christianity proved to have ousted shamanism after all. Buddhism has been firmly established in Transbaikalia whereas christianity in West Buryatia. Each of these two world religions presenting two cultural “poles”, i.e. West and East propagated and introduced their spiritual values and traditions, influenced not only the traditional culture but the whole way of life and nature of the people, played an ethno–differentiating part, particularly in division of the Buryats into two groups – western and eastern.       At present the peoples are reviving their early spiritual entities, building and reconstructing christian and buddhist temples, monasteries.

      Now the Republic of Buryatia is the centre of buddhism in Russia and New Independent States (commonwealth of Independent states).

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