The BBC features an article about a woman inadvertently becoming a hermit, called by the report “hermit queen.” “The woman who swapped home for a hut near Chechnya” relates the life of Devi Asmadiredja, of Indonesian descent, who lived in Germany as a nondescript housewife until her husband, of Chechen descent, evicted her from her home and his life, though at first pretending that she could study the Chechen language and return to teach it to him and their three children. She first went to Tbilisi, Georgia, then to remoter villages southward, without contacts or money. She quickly learned Georgian and Chechen. She lived alone in mountain huts and caves. But the people she encountered were often welcoming, and she was given a camera and now can sell her photos, and was invited to serve as a tourist guide, so that she is able to maintain herself.
