Village Iza. Basket weaving. Deer farm.

The village Iza is one of the attractive places in Khust area of Transcarpathia. It is known all over Ukraine and also in neighboring countries as a local center for “basket weaving”. The basket weaving, according to historical data, originated in the late 19th century. In the early twentieth century, almost all residents of the village Iza were engaged in this craft. They make baskets, desks, chairs, rocking chairs, tables, bookcases, lamp shades, vases, boxes, bottles, souvenirs etc.The vine should be sowed in spring, spaded in summer, and "collected" in autumn. This is an ideal, if there is enough land, where you can put it. If there is not enough land, one has to travel to neighboring areas, Ivano-Frankivsk, for instance, where the vine is particularly good. In Transcarpathia, they say, recent floods have destroyed the quality of wild growing vine. After the vine is collected, it has to scald for a few hours. The whole village scald the vine together in a large vat on the field. After scalding the vine is being cleaned, dried and sorted. Then it is left like this for several months. The process of weaving starts and continues in winter. Finished products are being embellished and lacquered in order to serve longer. Regardless of the simplicity of technology, the craft of weaving has its own secrets, which, by the way, are strictly kept and passed on only to close relatives. At present approximately 7,000 people are engaged in “basket weaving” in the village.

In the village Iza, by the way, Holy Iov Ugolsky (the real name: Ivan Georgiyovych Kundrya), a famous healer, monk and Archimandrite was born in 1902. He was canonized in 2007-2008, after his relics had been found incorrupt. It was he who founded the Holy Trinity mountain men Orthodox monastery (in the name of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity) in the tract Gorodilov (sometimes called Gorodilovo) on the outskirts of the town Khust.

But Iza is known not only due to the products (mostly furniture) from the vine. On the outskirts of the village there is an old farm for the breeding of spotted deer. Back in 1985, when this farm was named after Michurin, the first 360 species of spotted deer were brought here from Kaliningrad region of Russia. The territory of the farm is 57 hectares, enclosed with a huge three meters high fence. Here are the two lakes with streams flowing into them, also the area with high grass for seasoning, the underbrush, where the deer hide from prying human eyes, folds and mounds… Everything on this farm was established in order to make life more comfortable for its inhabitants. There were 115 deer lodging on the farm at the time of our visit. Earlier there was a time when the fence was 1 meter lower than at present, and two dozen of deer once jumped over it and disappeared in the surrounding woods. I remember, it was the scandal then. Local environmentalists urged to prevent the pairing of “spotted” deer with “noble Carpathian” deer. They attracted a lot of people and managed to return almost all deer to the farm. Rangers in our and neighboring areas, by the way, are allowed to shoot at spotted deer, if such are found in the wild.

We arrived and put the car on a small parking, at which the buses with tourists stop. The complete silence and nobody around... One cannot help wondering, where the deer are. Suddenly, behind a fence about ten meters away from us we noticed some movement. The deer turned out to be staring at us for already two minutes, and we did not notice it. The deer was really phlegmatic. It stood and stared at one spot. The color of its wool was blending with withered grass.



We go further and see another one on the hill. This deer shows no emotions as well. Neither joy, nor any fear of the man.



We knocked on the fence and persuaded the guard to arrange a tour. We passed into the territory and the first thing we saw was a haycock under the shed, and a drinking bowl next to it. The observation tower and the utility room of the farm are situated a little aside from the fence. The lighting rods can be seen throughout the huge territory of the farm. Near one of them the two deer from the next photo were standing and looking somewhere to the side. They showed complete indifference to us.



But we had marveled at this phenomenon for not a long time. The bus with tourists appeared out of the hill. It stopped on the parking and several dozen of tourists came out of it. Everyone was carrying a loaf of bread and a pack of biscuits in the hands. Oh, the clever deer were revived very quickly. A few dozen of horned heads appeared in the tall grass. The deer stood up, and quickly approached to the fence. In addition to the deer several sheep, which had been dozing peacefully under the bushes, also stood up and hastened to the fence. The tourists only entered the territory, and the sheep had already blocked the road, begging for the food. If you do not give them food or you try to go further – then you discover the hoof on your chest, and immediately the compassionate eyes of the sheep could be seen better. Tourists chuckle and give half of the food, prepared for deer, to the sheep.



This is a young deer. The antlers were cut off and passed as a raw material to the plant in the town of Ternopil to produce medicines - Pantocrinum. One kilogram of antlers, by the way, costs about $1,000.



The tourists have fun and feed the deer. Suddenly a roar is heard somewhere out of the distant hill. All other deer startled up and began moving back along the sides. The alpha male appeared out of the hill, roaring every 10 steps. In the photo he had just demonstrated his fierce roar.



The “chief” came up, got his portion of food, looked at the females, standing aside, and went away. The younger males quickly appeared on the lawn. Some photographers took the courage and climbed into the enclosure to have a direct contact with the inmates.



What beautiful creatures! I’m looking at this picture and do not understand how the hunters can raise the weapon on them?!... Personally, I would have never pulled the trigger.



Traditionally, it is impossible to tear the children away from the cell. Such a huge forest animal, which you have previously seen only in books of fairy tales and on the Discovery Channel, is now standing behind the fence and eating from your hand... It’s fantastic!



And in 10 minutes a mare with a colt appeared out of the hill.



I stared, and saw the wound and the thickened blood on the coat on the foal’s left side. I looked at the young deer protruding near the grid and tourists, and saw that one of them had the blood on the tip of its horn. We called the guard. He looked at all this, and then suddenly kicked the mare in the stomach. The mare looked at him sadly, and went away. The colt ran after her. “How many times I told her not to stick here”, said the guard. “She doesn’t understand”.

That’s how it looks, the deer farm in the village Iza.

30.03.2010. 14:39

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