Vera Kuklina is from the Buryat people, born in the small village of Kuyta in the Ust-Ordynsky Buryat region, now part of Irkutsk region in Siberia. Her village of roughly 500 people is home to eight different Buryat tribes—a reflection of  centuries of migration and mixing under colonization. Her father’s  ancestors originally lived far to the northwest, travelling almost a  thousand miles eastward over three centuries, some journeying as far as  Mongolia before returning. On her grandmother’s side, the family belongs  to the Olzai tribe, long rooted in the valley where the village stands.

Vera’s  grandmother, born in 1906 before the Soviet era, was a deeply respected  knowledge holder, elder, and storyteller in the village. She possessed traditional clothing from her pre-Soviet childhood—garments adorned  with silver threads and coral beads. Coral was a powerful symbol of  wealth among the Buryat: a single coral bead could cost as much as a  head of cattle, and wearing beautiful strands of coral signaled that a woman was well-regarded. The grandmother was also  extraordinarily skilled with her hands, able to make clothing and tools  from local materials. She would spin wool from sheep into yarn for socks  and mittens, and she taught Vera the painstaking craft of separating sinew from cattle—strong, natural  threads used for sewing hides. A full day could be spent preparing a  single thread, but the results were remarkably durable. In winters  reaching minus forty degrees, these handmade sheepskin mittens and boots  provided protection that no manufactured clothing could match.

For these images, Vera wears a combination of traditional and modern clothing. Her dress, purchased in Mongolia, is of a style specifically sold during the Buddhist Lunar New Year—known as Sagaalgan in Buryat, Tsagaan Sar in Mongolian—and traditionally worn throughout the month-long celebration. The cuffs of the dress feature a design representing the hooves of animals, a motif rooted in the central importance of cattle to Buryat livelihood and identity. The dress is further  decorated with an ornamental pattern known as the “goes up” symbol,  which represents connection and mobility and is widespread across the cultures of Tuva,  Mongolia, and the Sakha people. The same motif appears on Vera’s  earrings. She also wears a silver pendant with the Ulzy (Buryat for knots) on a white gold chain, with a geometric, interweaving design symbolizing connectivities.

Vera’s red vest was specially commissioned from a family friend of her mother—a  craftswoman who creates traditional garments for many Buryat people in  the village. There is no commercial production system for traditional  Buryat clothing; each piece is made individually, by hand, connecting  the wearer to a personal network of craft and community. This way of  making has persisted through generations, even as the broader context  around it has shifted.

Trade  has long been an essential part of Buryat culture, with connections  stretching to Russia, Mongolia, China, and beyond—across Lake Baikal,  going both west and east. Horse breeding, cattle herding, and sheep  husbandry formed the backbone of daily life, and movement was central to  identity. Vera’s grandmother’s coral beads, silk, and silver needles were themselves traces of these ancient trading networks linking the Buryat to India, China, and the wider world.

The  wearing of traditional Buryat clothing has experienced waves of  revival. Vera’s grandmother kept her pre-Soviet garments throughout her  life and, after the end of the Soviet period in the early 1990s, ordered  new traditional clothing to be made. Interest dipped again for a time, but in recent  years a renewed revitalization has taken hold. Vera’s mother has been a  driving force in this, actively promoting traditional culture in the  community. Today, children and young people are increasingly interested,  and it has become common for people to seek out traditional dress for  New Year celebrations and summer festivals. Vera herself did not own  traditional clothing during her childhood or her years in Russia; the  red vest she wears was commissioned as an adult.

Beyond  clothing, traditional games play a vital role in Buryat cultural life.  Vera’s mother was instrumental in gaining official recognition for Shagai - the knuckle bone game—a traditional pastime shared by nomadic peoples across the region—establishing formal tournaments throughout the area. The three great traditional  Buryat and Mongolian competitions—wrestling, archery, and horse  racing—remained popular even through the Soviet period, a testament to  their deep roots. Men have been particularly drawn to these games as  expressions of strength and skill, though women are generally more active in the broader cultural revitalization, especially around clothing and craftsmanship.

The Buryat language, classified as endangered by UNESCO, remains alive in Vera’s family—she speaks it at home with her parents. Her  grandmother never spoke Russian, which was itself a powerful motivation  to maintain the language across generations. However, the path has not been  straightforward: a standardized Buryat language was introduced into  schools based on the dialect of a single eastern tribe, and for Vera’s  western community the differences were significant enough to create a  disconnect with formal instruction.

Buryat knowledge is important to understanding the broader circumpolar world. Vera leads a research project on frozen commons—landscapes of snow, ice, and  permafrost that are collectively governed by Indigenous peoples and  local communities. Her work has mapped the territories where these  frozen landscapes play a central role in livelihoods and cultures, extending from the recognized Arctic into  northern Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and China. Under Russian law, the Buryat  are not classified as an officially recognized Indigenous small-numbered  people because their population exceeds 50,000—a threshold Vera finds  arbitrary. Nevertheless, she sees the knowledge held by Buryat and other  subarctic peoples as essential for mutual understanding across the  region.

Vera  is based at the University of Maryland, where her work spans the  intersection of geography and social science. Trained in human  geography, she brings an Indigenous perspective to Western academic  frameworks—an approach she describes as yielding a far more holistic  understanding of the world. Through her research and students’  supervision, she seeks to bridge diverse ways of knowing, connecting the knowledge she carries  from her Buryat upbringing with the landscapes and communities she encounters in her work across the Arctic and subarctic.