Sun-god in the steppes - Petroglyphs within the Archaeological Landscape of Tambaly 1145; Traditional knowledge and skills in making Kyrgyz and Kazakh yurts (Turkic nomadic dwellings) 00998; Flatbread making and sharing culture: Lavash, Katyrma, Jupka, Yufka 01181
What and Why
My diplomatic works have taken me to the steppes of Kazakhstan in Tanbaly (Kazakh: Таңбалы), and one find in a rock valley 5,000 rock-carvings depicting the culture and myths of the area that dates back 4,000 years ago. These petroglyphs show dances, animals, gods, kings, hunting, you name it. No one could have imagined graffiti 4,000 years ago would have a profound importance to human civilisation!
One of the most famous images is that of an anthropomorphic sun-headed deity (the sun-god), as above, with a mysterious halo.
By the way, this should not be confused with a similarly named area called Tamgaly Tas (Тамғалы Тас), meaning 'stones with signs', which depicts rock carvings of Buddha, along part of the Silk Road. That is 120 km north of Almaty (Алматы). This one, which is a UNESCO WHS, is 170 km north-west of Almaty.
Toponymy
The area means 'a marked area' in Kazakh. The area was formerly known as Tamgaly (Тамғалы).
See
After a reasonbly comfortable 2-hour drive, one will reach the compound, which you need to pay an entrance fee of KZT 1,500 ₸ (tenge (теңге)) to enter the site. You enter a traditional tent to get your guide. One is prohibited to enter the site without a guide. Look at the steppes behind the tent!
This tent is called a yurt (киіз үй, kıiz úy) and is portable to suit the nomadic lifestyle of Central Asians. The yurt is usually covered with animal skins or felt to retain heat and insulate the microclimate within from the adverse outdoor weathers.
The yurt construction is quite ingenious and consists of an angled assembly of bamboo for the circular walls and a door frame. The circular roof structure is often self-supporting wheel-shaped structure, but large yurts may have interior posts supporting the crown. The top of the wall of self-supporting yurts is prevented from spreading by means of a tension band which opposes the force of the roof ribs, which honestly involves all the structural mechanics knowledge we know, and yet this construction has been there for more than 3,000 years! Such is the ingenuity that its construction is an ICH.
The area is well managed with good signs explaining the features around the area.
Animals: presumably antelopes and horses.
Horse-riding?
Animal herding.
One cannot distinct this with a mammoth or a long-horn bull.
Dance or rituals.
This one is very distinct in which the carving is comparatively deep. The horse (?) is being prepared by warriors. This particular carving is important as later it was shown that it was carved over different stages or periods. The deeper parts showed an ox, and later on it evolved to become a horse. What it shows is that in the earlier age, ox was the dominant animal and later the area was ruled by horsemen, and hence the carvings eventually evolved!
Animal herding with various shepherds on the animal back, again showing partial evolution of these petroglyphs.
This one is probably one of the more significant as once can see the 'sun-god', a demi-deity / king of the region being worshipped or anointed. This has been researched and described as a cultic icon and was quite powerful in the region.
Reading the history and the signages, it shows that in their culture the numbers three and seven had special mystical significance. For the ancients three times seven must have had infinite power, for at the cultic site of Tamgaly twenty-one sun gods are represented on the slate cliffs.
Above the images on the crest of the same cliffs, a solar sign was etched into the stone. The symbol is indicated by three crossed lines with dots at the end of each of these lines. Evidence seems to indicate the sign was used to predict the solstice. The sun-god also reinforces this idea that there was some form of solar-worship in the region and culture.
More sun gods and people dancing or worshipping the deities, upon some sacrificial rituals. By the way the rocks are all hard granite slate so it is quite a feat for the carving.
Eat and Drink
Kazakh cuisine (Қазақтың ұлттық тағамдары)
One cannot stop by Kazakhstan without trying the traditional Kazakh cuisine (Қазақтың ұлттық тағамдары, Qazaqtıñ ulttıq tağamdarı). Kazakh food features the four meats (төрт түлiк мал, tort tulik mal): horse-meat, mutton, camel-meat and beef, plus plenty of their dairies; and their preparation shows quite a bit of their nomadic life-style, usually grill. There are various horse-meat and apparently I was told that the horse were treated like royalties and are fed so fat that they could not move! The horse-milk is also quite an experience.
I was treated a very local dinner inside a yurt in this restaurant called Tarym (Тарим).
Flour has been introduced into Kazakh cuisine through the Silk Road, and as in other parts of Central Asia or Middle East, they are usually prepared in the form of flatbread. In particular in Almaty the form of flatbread is katlama (қаттама, qattama), which the texture is somewhere between a naan (Persian: نان, nān) and paratha (Hindi: परांठा). The word katlama comes from old Turkish meaning 'to fold'. Incredibly this humble flatbread launches itself into the inscription of ICH as it transpires the nomadic and communal cultures across the Silk Road.
Getting There and Around
From the map, you can see you are literally in the middle of nowhere, in fact you are in the middle of the Kazakh steppes, one of the most remote area on Earth, and possibly one of the furthest away from the sea.
Tamgaly is 150 km away from Almaty, and you can hire a taxi for a day-trip. Otherwise one have to join some local tour. It cost me around 15,000 ₸ (around USD $40). Not bad.
UNESCO Inscriptions
Set around the lush Tamgaly Gorge, amidst the vast, arid Chu-Ili mountains, is a remarkable concentration of some 5,000 petroglyphs (rock carvings) dating from the second half of the second millennium BC to the beginning of the 20th century. Distributed among 48 complexes with associated settlements and burial grounds, they are testimonies to the husbandry, social organization and rituals of pastoral peoples. Human settlements in the site are often multilayered and show occupation through the ages. A huge number of ancient tombs are also to be found including stone enclosures with boxes and cists (middle and late Bronze Age), and mounds (kurgans) of stone and earth (early Iron Age to the present). The central canyon contains the densest concentration of engravings and what are believed to be altars, suggesting that these places were used for sacrificial offerings.
The yurt is a nomadic dwelling used among the Kazakh and Kyrgyz peoples. It has a wooden circular frame covered with felt and braided with ropes, and can be easily assembled and dismantled within a short period of time. The bearers of yurt-making knowledge are craftspeople, both men and women, who produce yurts and their interior decorations. Yurts are made from natural and renewable raw materials. Men and their apprentices make the wooden frames by hand, along with wooden, leather, bone and metal details. Women make the interior decorations and exterior coverings, ornamented with traditional zoomorphic, vegetative or geometric patterns. As a rule, they work in community-based groups supervised by experienced women artisans, and employ weaving, spinning, braiding, felting, embroidering, sewing and other traditional handicraft techniques. Yurt creation involves the whole community of craftspeople, and fosters common human values, constructive cooperation and creative imagination. Traditionally, knowledge and skills are transmitted within families or from teachers to apprentices. All festivities, ceremonies, births, weddings and funeral rituals are held in a yurt. As such, the yurt remains a symbol of family and traditional hospitality, fundamental to the identity of the Kazakh and Kyrgyz peoples.
The culture of making and sharing flatbread in communities of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey carries social functions that have enabled it to continue as a widely-practised tradition. Making the bread (lavash, katyrma, jupka or yufka) involves at least three people, often family members, with each having a role in its preparation and baking. In rural areas, neighbours participate in the process together. Traditional bakeries also make the bread. It is baked using a tandyr/tanūr (an earth or stone oven in the ground), sāj (a metal plate) or kazan (a cauldron). Besides regular meals, flatbread is shared at weddings, births, funerals, various holidays and during prayers. In Azerbaijan and Iran, it is put on the bride’s shoulders or crumbled over her head to wish the couple prosperity while in Turkey it is given to the couple’s neighbours. At funerals in Kazakhstan it is believed the bread should be prepared to protect the deceased while a decision is made from God and in Kyrgyzstan sharing the bread provides a better afterlife for the deceased. The practice, transmitted by participation within families and from master to apprentice, expresses hospitality, solidarity and certain beliefs that symbolize common cultural roots reinforcing community belonging.
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