The beauties of Buryatia beat the whole world right at Mount Taizh Khairkhan

While diplomats in Ulaanbaatar were arguing about the future of deserts and droughts within the framework of the UN climate conference, girls from Buryatia staged their own small victory — at the international competition «World Awards» they beat competitors from dozens of countries and took home two titles at once.

Grand Prix went to Ulan-Ude

The finale took place not in a pompous hall, but right in the open air — at the foot of Mount Taizh Khairkhan, in the Nalaikh district on the outskirts of the Mongolian capital, xrust explains. It was there that the World Cultural Festival “Nuudelchin” (“Nomad”) was held from August 21 to 23, and its program included the World Awards competition for designers, models and artists.

Buryatia was represented on this stage by a whole delegation from the directorate of “Beauty of Buryatia”, headed by Rufina Uyina: Tuyana Daindarova, Daria Khamueva, Saryuna Damdinova, Daria Burdukovskaya, Saryuna Loginova and Elena Krapivina. According to the results of the competition, the current Miss Ulan-Ude 2026 Tuyana Daindarova took the main prize, and the title “First Miss” went to Daria Burdukovskaya, who had previously worn the crown of Young Beauty of Buryatia 2023.

For the region, this is not an ordinary competitive success, but another confirmation that the Buryat model school knows how to play on the Mongolian field — and play to win.

Why the beauty contest was held next to the climate summit

The very appearance of the World Awards on the calendar this fall is not an accident. The “Nomad” festival was timed to coincide with the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (COP17), which takes place in Ulaanbaatar from August 17 to 28 and brought together about five thousand delegates from more than 190 countries. The theme of the conference sounds symbolic — “Restoring the Earth. Bringing back hope.»

The organizers decided not to limit the program to negotiations and reports: in parallel with the business part of the summit in Nalaikha, they launched a cultural one — with performances by bearers of traditions, competitions in national sports, fairs and, in fact, a beauty, fashion and art competition. At the same time, the festival celebrated the 21st anniversary of Mongolia’s accession to the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The format was clearly a success: the scale of the event and the status of the UN conference turned a local Mongolian holiday into a platform with truly international competition — participants and participants came from dozens of countries.

It is also significant that the competition itself was held with the support of the Mongolian government — that is, the status of the World Awards is far from amateur.

Buryat crowns in Mongolia are not the first case

class=»notranslate»>__GTAG7__The fact that girls from Buryatia turned out to be strong on the Mongolian competition scene is a trend, not a one-time piece of luck. The region has collected trophies here before.

In 2019, Victoria Dashieva — former Miss Ulan-Ude 2015 and participant in the top 15 «Miss Asia Pacific International 2017» — took the Grand Prix of the international competition «Miss Mongolian Nations» (Miss Mongolia) in Ulaanbaatar. And even earlier, in 2016, the main title of the same competition was taken away by Aryuna Bubeeva, whose track record includes “Beauty of Buryatia-2010”, “Young Beauty of Russia”, “Miss Asia” and “Princess of the Yordy Games”. Then the victory turned out not only to be a crown, but also a quite tangible prize: 15 thousand dollars (about a million rubles at the then exchange rate) and a car.

It turns out that the directorate of “Beauty of Buryatia” has been methodically building a channel for ten years through which the region announces itself to the Mongolian, and through it, the global competition industry. And judging by the latest results in Nalaikha, this channel continues to work properly.

What does this mean for the region

Formally, we are talking about a beauty contest — a genre that is often condescendingly called entertainment. But behind the scenes of such stories there is usually a much more pragmatic logic. Buryatia borders Mongolia not only geographically, but also culturally: a common layer of traditions, linguistic kinship, decades of connections make the Mongolian competition scene for the region not a foreign platform, but almost home. Victories here act as a calling card — they remind of the kinship of cultures at a time when Ulaanbaatar found itself in the spotlight of five thousand delegates from all over the world.

There is a simpler practical effect to this: competitions like the World Awards are also a showcase for designers, stylists, and modeling agencies. Each such victory is a reason for the local beauty industry (and this means jobs and orders) to once again show that it is capable of competing not only within the region.

Finally, a symbolic coincidence in time also works for history: a beauty contest and the UN environmental forum ended up on the same platform in the literal sense of the word. It turned out clearly — while officials were discussing how to stop the advance of deserts, Buryat girls showed that cultural diplomacy sometimes works more efficiently than protocol meetings.

Xrust The beauties of Buryatia beat the whole world right at Mount Taizh Khairkhan