Timur Zhalsarayn

Timur Ukhinovich Zhalsarayn (1928, Suduntui village, Aginsky district – 1991, Kusocha village, Mogoytuisky district) was a Transbaikalian teacher, local historian, researcher.

Biography
Timur Zhalsarayn was born in 1928 in the village of Suduntui, Aginsky District, to Polon Ukhin, a poor shepherd. He was the thirteenth child in a large family. Timur began his education in 1936 at a local school and later attended the Aginsky Pedagogical College. After graduating from school in 1946, he continued his education in geography at a higher educational institution in Irkutsk. In the early 1950s, Timur Ukhinovich started his teaching career at Aginsky secondary school, where he worked for many years. He also worked in other schools in the Aginsky District.

Research
Т.U. Zhalsarayn identified thirty watershed points of triple watersheds between the most significant rivers. Of these, he described four of the most unique ones.

In 1977, T.U. Zhalsarayn highlighted the distinctiveness of the triple watershed of the river systems of the Yenisey, Lena and Amur – some of the largest river systems globally. In 1979, he stated that no other location in the world has any pair of great river systems that are either undefined or form a watershed point with a third river artery similar to itself. Analysing geographical maps, T.U. Zhalsarayn identified and indicated the geographical location of the confluence of the Yenisey, Lena and Amur river systems on the Yablonovy Mountains in Transbaikalia Krai near the city of Chita. Based on this geographical fact, in 1977 T.U. Zhalsarayn spoke about the unique geographical location of the Chita Oblast in the catchment areas of the three largest rivers in the world.

T.U. Zhalsarayn described the watershed points between various river systems and oceans and seas, including the Amur-Leno-Yenisei junction, the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, the Baltic, Caspian and Black Seas, and the Ganges, Indus and Brahmaputra river systems.

Pedagogical skills
During the scientific-practical conference Timur Ukhinovich Zhalsarayn - Pedagogue, Geographer, Local Historian, Researcher held in April 2010 in Aginsky, it was stated that Timur Ukhinovich Zhalsarayn's name deserves to be mentioned alongside other great pedagogues such as Zankov and Amonashvili. He was a visionary educator who was ahead of his time by several decades. In the 1960s and 1970s, Zhalsarain introduced teaching based on the technology of logical reference notes (LOC or LOS - sheets of reference signals). This was particularly important in national schools where children had a strong command of their native language but not always the same level of Russian.

Persecution
The teacher's programme did not comply with the guidelines, which led to persecution and harassment by education officials. Subsequently, multiple inspections were conducted.

Interests
During the 1960s, he directed passionately in a folk theatre. He studied Archimedes' works on numbers and regular polyhedrons. In the 1980s, he wrote several articles on onomastics, numerology, and fiction stories.

Scientific community's support
The ideas of T.U. Zhalsarayn were supported by F.P. Krendelev, Director of Chita Institute of Natural Resources SB AS USSR. Recognising the scientific significance of Zhalsarayn's discovery, the Zabaykalsky branch of the Russian Geographical Society recommended the creation of a natural monument called Watershed Mountain on the Yablonovy Ridge. In 1983, the Chita Executive Committee of People's Deputies of the USSR created the natural monument. In 2012, the Transbaikal Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society named the watershed mountain on the Yablonovy Ridge Pallas Mountain. According to the chairmen of Trans-Baikal Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society, Doctor of Historical Sciences A.V. Konstantinov (since 2010) and Y.T. Rudenko (before 2010), Pallas Mountain should become a kind of "Mecca" in cognitive tourism.

The ideas of T.U. Zhalsarayn have piqued the interest of Mongolian geographers and American researchers at the Glacier National Park research centre. The American Geographical Society took an interest in the research of T.U. Zhalsarayn. They offered to publish articles about him and his concept in American geographical journals. Every year, members of the Trans-Baikal Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society provide information about T.U. Zhalsarayn during mass ascents to Mount Pallas.

In the book published in 2020 by the Russian Geographical Society, called ''Modern Russia: geographical description of our Fatherland. Siberia'', the "Apple Ridge – the great watershed of the two world oceans and the three largest rivers of the planet: Lena, Amur and Yenisei" was selected as the signature landmark of the Transbaikal Territory. It is important to note that the business card of the Zabaikalsky Krai is approved by the responsible editors of the publication, who are well-known Russian geographers. These include Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences V.M. Kotlyakov and Doctor of Geographical Sciences L.M. Korytny, as well as its reviewers - Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences V.A. Kryukov and Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences V.A. Snytko.

Brands of the Zabaykalsky Krai
The research of T.U. Zhalsarayn served as the foundation for the brands of Zabaykalsky Krai, proposed by the Chairman of the Transbaikal Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society Y.T. Rudenko, archaeologist and bard K.O. Shlyamov, and hydrobiologist P.V. Matafonov.

Awards

 * "Excellent Worker of Public Education of the RSFSR." («Отличник народного просвещения РСФСР»)

Conferences in memory of Timur Zhalsarayn
In 2010 the first conference Timur Ukhinovich Zhalsarayn - teacher, geographer, local historian, researcher was held in Aginskoye settlement.

In 2013, the Aginsky National Museum named after Gombozhab Tsybykov hosted the second scientific and practical conference titled Timur Ukhinovich Zhalsarayn - Teacher-Innovator, Researcher, Local Historian, which was dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the birth of the man who discovered the watershed on the Yablonovy Ridge.

In 2018, a conference was held to celebrate the 90th anniversary of T.U. Zhalsarayn.

In 2021, the 5th interregional scientific-practical conference Zhalsaraynovsky Readings-2021 took place in Aginskoye settlement.

In fiction
Timur Ukhinovich served as the prototype for the teacher in Zhamyan Baldanzhabon's book The Secrets of Alkhanai, which is part of the Buryat literature curriculum for secondary school.

Publications

 * Zhalsarayn T.U. The point of the great watershed (Точка великого водораздела) // Забайкальский рабочий. 1977.
 * Zhalsarayn Т.U. Four points on the planet (Четыре точки на планете) // Агинская правда. № 67. — 1979.