Hair-style and headache band competitions at the Teleut holidays of the Kemerovo region

The article discusses the modern festive culture of Teleuts - one of the indigenous people from the Kemerovo region and its role in ethnic identity’s preservation. Nowadays various competitions of the ethnic costumes and hairstyles have become an important part of holiday scripts. During the first Regional Teleut holiday of Unity «Tele Caan» this competition called «Tyaryash Kys» - «The cute for all girl». Its purpose is to choose the best female hairstyle among contestants from each of the Teleut delegations. The article characterizes the general scheme of the competition and evaluation criteria of the winner. Similar competitions are widespread among many Turkic peoples of southern Siberia, as one of preservation and transmission mechanisms of ethnicity. They are included in the set of symbols of Teleuts ethnic culture.