ATDTDA (1): Tungus reindeer herders

[Tim Strzechowski]

"Tungus reindeer herders stood gesturing up at a gigantic sign reading SPECIAL REINDEER SHOW, and calling out in their native tongue to the tip gathered in front, while a pair of young women in quite revealing costumes [...] (p. 23).

The reindeer, known as caribou when wild in North America, is an Arctic and Subarctic-dwelling deer (Rangifer tarandus).
[...]
Domesticated reindeer are mostly found in Northern Scandinavia and Russia, and wild reindeer are mostly found in North America, Greenland and Iceland (introduced by humans in the 18th century). The last wild reindeer in Europe are found in habitats in southern Norway. Its natural occurrence is approximately bounded within the 62° latitude. [...]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reindeer

For thousands of years, reindeer herders have roamed the taiga of northern Mongolia, a hauntingly beautiful wilderness of mountains, forest, rock and ice which straddles the country's border with Siberia. The herders, known as the Tsaschin, or Dukha, rely on their animals for transportation, and for the staples of their diet: milk, cheese, yogurt and dried milk curds. [...]
http://homelands.org/worlds/mongolia.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4188225

****  SPOILER ALERT re: p.784 ****




This passage foreshadows the Tunguska Event of 1908, which makes its appearance on p. 784.
The Tunguska event was an explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya (Under Rock) Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai of Russia, at 7:17 AM on June 30, 1908. The event is sometimes referred to as the Great Siberian Explosion. [...]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event
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