Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 728 The Tribes of Siberia

In the blink of an eye, a few weeks had passed, and Peter soon became occupied with the Maslenitsa Festival.

Maslenitsa Festival is a week-long festival celebrated mostly in the Tsarist Russian Empire and its surrounding Slavic countries, especially in the popular regions with Orthodox Christian cultural influence.

It is a festival celebrated right before the coming of Great Lent, which is another special event where Eastern Orthodox Christians observe a 40-day fasting period leading up to Easter. It is a time of spiritual reflection, prayer, repentance, and self-denial.

It was the second day of the Maslenitsa Festival, and Peter, looking at the people playing football in front of him, was very excited. If not for the fact that he was an Archduke and had to maintain his demeanour, he would jump up and scream for his favourite team in his heart.

With the invention of football, cricket, and Rugby in the Bharatiya Empire, they have become quite popular in Europe, especially since it is one of those few games meant for the common people and not exclusive to the nobles. While the nobles still disdain these games that the commoners play all the time, there are still some people like Peter who find them interesting, fun, and just a joy to participate in.

Peter was just happy that he would be seeing these games for the next five days. Even though the Maslenitsa Festival is more than just playing—since there are other important things as well, but, growing up, Peter or many young boys only cared about the second day.

Maslenitsa Festival is divided into seven different events. For the first day, Monday, it's the Day of Meeting. This is a day when people start making BLINI—a delicious pancake made especially for the festival. The second day, Tuesday, is the Play Day, where outdoor games and contests begin. Wednesday is Sweet Tooth Day, where families visit for sweet treats and pancakes, kind of like Halloween celebrated in the future. Thursday is called Broad Maslenitsa, where sleigh rides, fistfights, and dancing start in full swing. Friday, called the Mother-in-law's Evening, is a day where sons-in-law host their mothers-in-law for pancakes. Saturday called the Sister-in-law's Gathering, is a day when young wives invite their sisters-in-law for a feast. Finally, Sunday, called Forgiveness Sunday, is when people ask for forgiveness and burn the Maslenitsa effigy.

"Goal!"

"Haha, Ivanovich, nice one! Nice goal."

"Ivan, come marry my daughter!"

"Suka Blayat! Who would marry your 100kg daughter? Ivan, come marry my niece."

"Ivanovich, I forgive you for not paying back the debt—just beat those East City scumbags black and blue."

Peter, hearing the screams and shouts coming from the excited and enthusiastic spectators, shook his head in amusement. 'To think that this festival originated from pagan traditions, who would have thought?' After being influenced by the Bharatiya Empire and getting more accustomed to using his maternally inherited army of the Cossack, Yakuts, Buryats, and Tatars, he came to know that the tribes under his control celebrate something similar as well, like the Solstice Celebrations or the Shamanistic Practices.

People say when having fun, time flows by quickly—Peter experienced it firsthand. In the blink of an eye, the festival ended, and the fasting officially started.

These days were not too lively to Peter, and he simply observed them due to traditions and nothing else. But fortunately, he received good news from his butler.

"Your Highness, the regiment generals are here to meet you."

Peter was overjoyed. "Is that so? Bring them to meet me immediately," he said with an eager expression, as he was looking forward to knowing in much more detail what the tribals of Siberia are like.

"Right away, sire."

Soon, four burly middle-aged men awkwardly walked into the Royal Palace with a respectful expression on their faces. The four of them were the leaders of the four new regiments that Peter had created just after returning from the Bharatiya Empire.

The Cossack Regiment is commanded by General Ivan Timofeyevich Korchagin.

The Yakut Regiment is commanded by General Künney Mongush Ugor. Read latest stories on novelbuddy

The Buryat Regiment is commanded by General Baldan Dorzhievich Tseren.

The Tatar Regiment is commanded by General Nurali Batyr-Uly Khasanov.

All four of them command regiments of their own tribes, but Peter still remembers the words of Vijay, and he kept in mind not to make things too exclusive in the regiment.

So, according to Vijay's way of forming regiments in the Bharatiya Empire, he asked the regiments to choose their own specialities. Due to these specialities, even though a certain tribe would be very good at them, there is still a certain quota for outsiders to come in, and this is how he would control the regiment.

Looking at his generals who were kneeling down, Peter was very satisfied. He motioned them to get up and was about to ask about the results of their investigation, but suddenly he remembered that there were still some people who were listening to the conversation.

"Guards, go inspect the defence perimeter," he ordered.

Most of the guards, hearing the order, simply left the palace, but there were still a few who had a glint in their eyes as they looked back at the backs of the tribal generals with a hint of curiosity.

With all the potential spies and informants leaving the vicinity, Peter finally felt satisfied. "Alright, what are the results? Have you got the information I asked for?" He looked forward with interest. The four regiments had to collect information from four different regions of Siberia— the Yakut Regiment at the western side of North Siberia, the Buryat Regiment at the western side of South Siberia, the Tatar Regiment at the eastern side of North Siberia, and finally, the Cossack Regiment, with the most number of people, tasked to collect information at the eastern side of South Siberia.

General Künney Mongush Ugor took out a piece of paper from his arms and read it out loud—he had prepared a lot for this in front of a mirror. "Your Highness, we realized that the tribal arrangement in Siberia is spread in four stages—Western Siberia, Central Siberia, Eastern Siberia, and finally, Far East Siberia."

"So, being in Western Siberia, General Baldan Dorzhievich Tseren and my data are combined together," he said, handing over the paper.

"Generally, there are three major tribes in Western Siberia. The first is called the Khanty or Ostyaks Tribe. Believing in animism and shamanism, they worship nature spirits like forests and rivers and ancestral spirits. Their shamans are called Kham."

"The second is called the Mansi or the Voguls Tribe. They similarly believe in animism and shamanism but worship the Great Bear Spirit and other animal guardians."

"And the third is called the Selkup Tribe. It is another tribe with a similar religious system, but they believe in sky gods and spirit masters of natural elements like water and trees. They believe the shamans guide their souls to the afterlife and protect the community from evil spirits."

With a sigh of relief, as if he had just finished vomiting out his part in a class presentation, General Künney Mongush Ugor stopped while General Baldan Dorzhievich Tseren took over. "Central Siberia also has three major tribes, first called the Evenks or Tungus Tribe, who worship celestial spirits and forest deities; second called the Kets Tribe, who worship animal totems and a sky deity, with their mythology including stories of shapeshifters and the duality between light and dark spirits; and finally, the Tofa or the Tofalar Tribe, where they practice animal spirit worship and spiritual rituals for reindeer herding."

General Nurali Batyr-Uly Khasanov continued, "There are only two major tribes in Eastern Siberia, and surprisingly, both tribes we are very familiar with. There exists a tribe of Buryats quite different from the one Chief Baldan Dorzhievich Tseren is from. This tribe, although following a form of shamanism, is tinged with a hint of Buddhist influences. They believe in the revered Tengri, the Sky God, but Tibetan Buddhism has begun to spread, blending with these shamanic practices."

"Secondly, there exists a Yakut tribe that can be seen in its original form, primarily practising shamanism, worshipping Aiyy, benevolent sky spirits, and Ab Aasy, evil underworld spirits, with shamans performing life cycle rituals—birth, marriage, death—and seasonal ceremonies for fertility and hunting."

Generals Künney Mongush Ugor and Baldan Dorzhievich Tseren were both not surprised by this development since they already knew where their people originated from, but they just didn't contact each other since they had split apart too long ago, and they had already become completely different cultures.

General Ivan Timofeyevich Korchagin finally entered the report by giving the details of the Russian Far East. "Your Highness, information on the Russian Far East was a bit limited, so I had to investigate with tribes in the Eastern Siberian region and even some tribals in the Manchurian region. In the end, I can confirm that at least four tribes live in the area—

The Nanai, Udege, Chukchi, and finally, the Koryak—with all the tribes practising a form of animism or shamanism."

"Overall, our estimation is that there are at least 2.5 million tribals in the vast stretch of Siberia."

Hearing this, Peter's eyes lit up. "This is enough," he clapped with a smile. 800,000 people were a bit too little for him to do anything, but with two million people—he could do a lot of things. Especially with a new trade route with the Bharatiya Empire, there are chances that in a short span of time, he could actually perform better than some of the largest cities of Russia in terms of economy.

"Very good!"

"The journey will be much simpler with these tribals' help. They should know the local area much better than us, so all of you, are you ready for this long voyage?"

All four generals immediately shouted, "Ready, Your Highness!"

"Very good. Set off as the ice on the river begins to melt."

Unknown to Vijay, he had already taken the Russian Empire in a completely different direction from what was remotely possible in his previous life.

P.S. A bit info dump maybe, but what did u expect, u came this far

P.S. Thank you tarrat, for Ice cola

P.S. Thank you Lucifer_6671, for the Inspiration capsule u rock, (IDK y im not able to reply to u in my gift dashboard )

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