Belgian falls for Buryat dumplings and traditions to marry his Zabaykalye love

Saryunay Garmayeva, a native of the village of Mogoytuy, married Belgian Romain Draden in a wedding following Buryat traditions. Their love story was reported on January 28 by the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda — Irkutsk.

Saryunay and Romain met in Moscow when the girl from Zabaykalye wanted to improve her English and the young man wanted to brush up on his Russian. He was born in Kemerovo but grew up and studied abroad. His mother is Russian, his father is half Italian and half Belgian. When the boy was one year old, his parents moved to Belgium. He understood Russian but spoke it poorly.

Romain proposed after two years of dating; the couple has now been together for 5 years. A lama set their wedding date. The matchmaking ritual called «khadag tabikha» was observed: the groom«s parents lit a fire at the Garmayev family»s home altar, exchanged traditional gifts, and asked for Saryunay«s hand from her mother and father.

The Draden family now lives in Brussels. Romain has fallen in love with buuzy (Buryat dumplings) and taught himself to make them, following the traditional technique of 33 pleats.