After the establishment of direct relationships between the countries of South Asia and the USSR in 1950es, it was still not easy for ethnologists to go to the regions of interest, but unusual options for the field research arose. The author tells how at her young age she started fieldwork just in Leningrad, meeting students from India and Ceylon. There was a great need for mutual contacts. Students from South Asia at that time were still deeply connected with the norms and traditions of their own culture, and they contributed for the author’s observations, generously sharing their knowledge as first sponsors, the long-term correspondence included. These interactions became mutually important for all partners as the first live contact with representatives of different cultures. After 1979, Academy of Sciences of the USSR supported the author’s field work in Sri Lanka, which largely relied on the assistance of local families, friends and new acquaintances – colleagues, religious ministers, artists. Ethnographic data could be gathered partly spontaneously, in accordance with every day and technical possibilities; it was very important to get a general idea of the Sri Lankan language and culture, although to study specific topics. At the third stage, already in the 21st century, thanks to amplification and wider expansion of contacts with the local scientific community, it was possible to carry out three more planned trips with predetermined goals and programs to the selected regions. In her fieldwork, the author from the very beginning used mixed methods: direct and indirect surveys, participant observation, etc. The support of friends and sympathizers from the local environment was invaluable in achieving the necessary results.
Russian Science Foundation Project ?23-29-00962 «Polymorphism of Russian scientific expeditions on the Eve of the First World War: interdisciplinary character (typology) of anthropological expeditions to South Asia and South America».
