Maral Farm.
Visiting of maral-breeding farms. Traditional trade of Russian Old Believers

To the south from Rakhmanovskie Klyuchi region there are some maral-breeding farms - so called maral nurseries. You may visit one of them.

A few hundred of marals or noble deer are kept on a large half-wild territory behind high fence. The park for marals is located in a beautiful place with alpine meadows and islands of cedar, fur and larch forests that reach significant size here and there. There are a lot of wild berries such as currant and honeysuckle.

Domestic center where they cut marals' horns and polish them with the special equipment is quite exotic and picturesque. Maral-raising business is a unique sample of traditional farms - maral-nurseries. It originated in Altai in 18 century from the first

Christian Old Believers migrated here from Russia. This kind of production is very rare. The main product of maral-breeding is young marals' horns consisting of very useful substance - pantocrine. Pantocrine is a powerful biostimulant which has beneficial effect on the organism and gives strength and youth.

This quality of marals' horns is known for a long time. In South-East Asian countries it is used in different fields. The legends say that Chingiskhan's warriors cured their wounds in pantocrine baths in these places.

Maral breeding is

interesting from different points. In culture and cognitive direction it can be compared with the open Zoo where it is possible to have walking and riding tours on the territory of the park watching the marals in natural environment . In spring and the beginning of summer you can acquaint with the process of cutting, polishing, and drying of marals' horns.

You can't but agree that it is rather exotic sight, especially the cutting when marals are driven into the pen and their young horns are cut manually. And their blood is drunken right here by the natives.

If you want there is an opportunity to take bath made of horn decoction. It is a well known way of invigoration and rejuvenation in the regions of south-east Asia. It should be noted that our president take health-improving course of such baths.

Thus, the combination of ethno program, kumiss therapy and pantocrine therapy mixed with excellent local honey and alpine meadow herb tincture is the perfect program covering scientific, cultural, cognitive and medicinal issues.

As maral nurseries are situated in remote region they are visited only by the farmers and it is in some way rather positive factor.

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