Even tourists spoiled by hotel service do not refuse the adventure offered by tour operators in Kazakhstan. Guests have the opportunity to enjoy all the delights of nomadic life - live in a Kazakh yurt, spend the evening by the fire listening to the songs of the local akyn (poet) and taste National dishes Kazakh cuisine.
After sitting in a yurt for an hour or two with a bowl of hot tea with milk, watching the stars through the slightly open shanyrak (dome), you feel the living space. In a tourist tent you don’t feel the feeling of cozy security at home, and in a city apartment you don’t feel the openness of Kazakhstan’s open spaces.
General view of the Kazakh yurt
Amazing in its simplicity, the yurt can be assembled and disassembled in just an hour. Moving across the steppe in search of better pastures, a nomad could easily transport a yurt from place to place with the help of one camel and two horses. In the summer heat, the lower felt is raised to a height of up to 1 meter for better ventilation of the yurt, and in the cold season the camp house protects its owner from rain and winds. An additional layer of insulation is provided by a lining made of chiya (steppe reed), which protects the home from dust. Today, yurts have not lost their former popularity among shepherds who spend the summer on high mountain pastures.
History of the yurt
The prototype of the yurt was a tent on wheels, woven from twigs and covered with felt. Similar houses, transported by a team of camels, appeared in the Late Bronze Age. In the Middle Ages, enormous tents traveling across the expanses of the Central Asian steppes amazed the imagination of contemporaries.
Yurt frame
At the beginning of the 16th century, the scholar-historian Fazlallah ibn Ruzbikhan described mobile dwellings as follows: “I was surprised by the extraordinary structure of the houses, erected as if in airspace. I saw huge tents with windows covered with felt curtains. The whole headquarters is filled with these magnificent houses, so that the mind is amazed at the beauty, craftsmanship and grace.” Dwellings on carts, inconvenient for mountainous areas, fell out of use by the 18th - 19th centuries and were replaced by felt yurts.
Design and symbolism of the yurt
The Kazakh yurt consists of a wooden frame and a felt cover. The basis of its walls are sliding sections (kerege), consisting of individual links (ropes). After the birth of children in the family, the living space is expanded by adding sections. When constructing a yurt, the door frame is first placed and the door frame is hung, symbolizing the border between two worlds - human and “wild”, undeveloped. At the entrance to the yurt amulets are hung in the form thorny plants, scaring away evil forces, and the doors are painted with security signs. Ropes of curved sticks connected with rawhide straps are tied to the door frame, which, when pulled, form a circular wall of the yurt.
View from inside the yurt
Then one of the men raises the light-smoke hole that crowns the yurt - shanyrak - on a pole, securing it with poles. The lower ends of the poles are tied to the walls with ropes. At the junction of the kerege and the poles, the dwelling is covered with baskur - a wide woven strip with floral or geometric patterns. On the outside, the lattice walls of the frame are covered with chiev mats and pieces of felt. For a nomad, a yurt is like a smaller copy of the Universe. The spherical dome of the home symbolizes the vault of heaven, which has no beginning and end, and also denotes the connection of generations. Ribbons with fringes and tassels, representing the stars and the Milky Way, hang from the shanyrak. The interior walls and floor of the yurt are decorated with felt patterned carpets, symbolizing rich pastures. In the center of the dwelling, a hearth is built from stones and clay, on which a metal stand is installed to support a cast-iron cauldron intended for preparing lamb and tea with milk. To the right of the hearth is the men's half, where cattle breeding and hunting equipment and weapons are stored. The owners' bed is also located here. On the left (eastern) side, called the female side, there is a bed of an unmarried woman, daughter or sister of the owner.
Settlement of Kazakh yurts
Immediately at the entrance to the yurt you can see a cabinet with kitchen utensils and food, buckets for milking livestock. The free space near the fireplace is occupied by a low table and several chairs for guests. The owners themselves arrange meals on the floor.
A wooden frame and felt covering are the main parts of a Kazakh yurt. Production of wooden parts of the yurt (withүyek) were carried out by special masters (үishі). The main requirements for a wooden structure are the lightness and strength of the material, therefore for the manufacture Willow, birch, and poplar wood was used. Willow, or as it is popularly called, tal, has long been recognized as the best. This is a hard, lightweight material that has the ability to bend, taking the desired shape, under the influence of simple technical techniques, and it is also accessible - thickets of it were found in many regions of Kazakhstan.
The skeleton of the yurt consists of the main elements: sliding lattice base - kerege, dome poles - yқ, hemispherical top – shanyra қ, door – esik.
Kerege yurt is made up of several separate sections - қ anat ( "wing"). In the poles that form rope, at the crossing points along the diagonal axis, holes were made for fastening straps. These are narrow strips of camel, cowhide or horsehide, fastened into a knot and reminding us of a nail with a stake in a pack. The lattice, fastened with elastic material, easily moved and moved apart; not a single nail was used in the wooden structure. The bulk of the Kazakh population was content with six-rope yurts, the felt covering of which was made of dark gray tones of wool.
Prosperous Kazakhs have a number There were up to eight or more ropes in the keg. The felt cover was made from light wool.
Shanyraқ , unlike other yurt parts manufactured from tala, was created from birch. Making shanyr ka is the most labor-intensive and responsible work, so the master chose the necessary workpiece himself. For this purpose, a birch tree with a curvature of the trunk was selected. It was cut no later than mid-summer, when the tree was full of sap. Pos After sanding in the raw state, processing immediately began - they were bent to the required dimensions, the necessary cuts were made and two semicircles were connected in a fastening.
Into the shanyr hole As smoke came out of the open fireplace, it It also served as a window to illuminate the home, and at night it was covered with a felt covering - tundik (t undik).
Shanyrak among the Kazakhs was a family heirloom, a sign of continuation of the family and was passed down from generation to generation, from father to youngest son (kenzhe). This yurt was considered by relatives to be the elder big house ( ulken үy), the home of a black, smoky shanyrak (kara sha ңyra қ), which really became so from centuries-old smoke. The older children, having separated from their father’s house, brought to the big house “the share of the spirits of their ancestors” (arua qt y ңsyba gasy) from the slaughtered cattle, and the daughters-in-law brought part of their dowry, despite the fact that the owner of the yurt was the younger brother. It was believed that shanyrak represented strength and patronage ancestral spirits.
The outer covering of the yurt was felt, consisting of three types of fabrics, different in size: tuyrlyқ – base covering, үзік – dome covering, tүndіk – roof covering. The felt covering was made from the best varieties of autumn sheared sheep wool, which was easy to process , and the felt turned out to be very dense, was not loose and did not wear out for a long time.
The felt covering protects from wind and frost in winter, and from sun, rain and dust in summer.
An indispensable attribute of the yurt is shimshi, a patterned chiya mat, 
placed between the kerege and the felt. The material for the mats was chiy (shi), a type of steppe reed, as well as multi-colored wool yarn, which was used to wrap the stems of chiy in a certain order, creating a holistic ornamental pattern. The mat served as the background for the interior of the yurt and women attached great importance to its weaving. The housewife's inability to weave mats was considered shameful and condemned.
Shym shi is not only an attribute of beauty, but also serves as protection from cold winter winds, retaining heat, and at the same time allows light and fresh air to pass through in the summer, when the bottom of the felt covering is raised above the ground.
Esik or sy
qyrlauy q(when opening and closing the doors make a creaking sound, hence their name) - the yurt door consists of three parts: a jamb, wooden doors and a felt cape with a sewn patterned mat. There were pine boards on the jamb and door ( kara ғ ah). The door was decorated with carved ornaments or colorful patterns.
To the inside of the felt cape of the yurt door 
a patterned mat was sewn on - shym esik.
The yurt is the result of the interaction of almost all types of domestic production: woodworkers created various parts of the frame; craftswomen felted felt from sheep's wool to cover a wooden frame; It is impossible to imagine a traditional Kazakh yurt without interior decoration items, and craftsmen in the manufacture of felt and woven items, embroidery and weaving, leather and wood processing participated in their production.
The enviable properties of the yurt: retaining heat, compactness during transportation, ease of installation and disassembly - were used during the First World War, during the Great Patriotic War, during the 1988 earthquake in Armenia, when hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless.
It is difficult to overestimate the merits of the yurt, a unique masterpiece of the centuries-old culture of the Kazakh people; it is given fair recognition as the best portable, environmentally friendly type of housing.
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One of the greatest inventions given to the world by nomads is a camping house - a yurt.
The first mobile dwellings on wheels appeared already in the Bronze Age. These were prototypes of the future yurt - tents and huts, rigidly mounted on two- and four-wheeled carts.
However, dwellings on carts, convenient for the plains, were not suitable for mountainous, rugged areas; Therefore, a dwelling was required that could be dismantled and transported by pack animals.
The earliest images of such dwellings are recorded in the painting on the wall of the Anthesteria crypt in Crimea (1st century BC) and among the petroglyphs of the Boyarskaya Pisanitsa in Southern Siberia.
NOMADS COMPASS
The door of the yurt always faces east. She is always waiting for the dawn of Life. For a nomad, the sun is the first and main guest in this world.
A good daughter-in-law is the first to greet the morning and hurries to slightly open the felt headdress of the yurt, tundk- a blanket of the night to let the first rays of the sun into the house.
The sun, as befits an honored guest, rises on the ter - the most honorable place in the yurt. Everything that is located left hand from him, personifies the constancy of the world, which is favored by the God of nature. This side is feminine, life-affirming. Everything that is on the right hand personifies the Path-Road, the eternal change of day and night, the vanity of the world. This side is masculine, unpredictable, full of anxiety and trials. Here a person feels like a guest in this world.
The western side of the yurt - sunset - is the most forbidden and mysterious. It is like an all-consuming black hole into which all living things are thrown, and therefore it is curtained with the most luxurious carpets and filled with chests with all the acquired goods of a nomad.
And, like 99 layers of Heaven, lush blankets and pillows are laid on the chests.
INSTALLATION OF YURTA
In Kazakh folklore there is such a riddle: “One carpet is fleecy / And the other is bald. / In addition to them / A nightmare upon a nightmare. / “Oops!” - I exclaimed and ascended into the heavens, / Twisted, walked, / Established the earthly firmament!”
The fluffy carpet is the grass cover of the earth, and the bald carpet is the firmament. Between them are clouds, into which the dome of the yurt is raised on a horn-shaped cormorant, a circular lattice is placed, and carpets are laid.
This cosmogonic riddle is evidence of the ancient idea of a nomad: the world is a large yurt, where the dome is the sky, shanyrak- the sun, the floor under your feet is earth, and kerege- cardinal directions. And in this sense, assembling a yurt models the picture of the Creation of the world.
Assembling a yurt begins with installing the door. The door is the face of the yurt; it is decorated with patterned carvings and painted paints.
A\fosaga (Sacred threshold) - this is the poetic name of the border between the external world and the human world. Rising to his full height, Man remembered God - he raised the dome of his house and made the ceiling a window into Heaven.
Shanyrak(Wheel of the Sun) is a symbol of Life, which has grown into a symbol of procreation. Shanyrak darkened over time from the smoke of the hearth, but the darker and older it was, the more it was revered by all household members. Kara shanyrak, is what the Kazakhs call their father’s house. He is inherited by the youngest in the family.
Anyone who enters a house, if he has not come to visit but on business, must show respect shatsyraku- bend the knee. Even if the matter is very urgent, do not share it while standing, sit down for at least a minute. The ignorant may point out: “It was not you who brought the fire into the house, bend the knee!”
THE GOLDEN FLEECE
Kazakhs call it a yurt kuiz y — felt house . And indeed, he seems to be entirely woven from golden fleece. It is not for nothing that in Chinese chronicles the nomads are called “felt people.”
Sheep wool, sheared in the fall, was pulled with their hands, whipped with meadowsweet rods, turning it into soft, weightless fluff, laid in layers, given boiling water, wrapped in mats, rolled on the ground with their feet, crushed with their elbows, pulled in all directions to get, in the end, tightly knitted felt.
Having gone through this entire grueling process, the steppe carpet became the most valuable product in the everyday life of the nomads; it covered the yurt and protected the household from wind, sun and moisture, insulated and decorated the floor, and turned the walls into a gallery of carpet painting.
YURTA INTERIOR
From the inside, the structure of the steppe house is strengthened with narrow strips Gelbau- in case of strong wind, they turn into anchor ropes to which a heavy load is tied.
The floor of a nomadic house is insulated tekemetami— felt carpets with slightly blurred colorful patterns.
Quilted carpets syrmak, covered the floor and walls of the yurt. An ornamental pattern of two or three colors is quilted with woolen thread and stretches like an endless path. Most famous species syrmatsa that's what it's called: bitpes- inexhaustible. It symbolized the idea of the infinity of the world.
Alasha, another type of Kazakh carpet, sewn from woven strips, translated means “motley”, “striped”.
Pictures of nature, the landscape of their native places are encoded by Kazakh needlewomen in pile and lint-free woven carpets - kelem.
The most bright decoration yurt is musky- wall carpet. In wealthy families, it is decorated with precious fabrics and expensive inserts, and decorated with rich embroidery.
1. The sacred center is the hearth-dastarkhan, a symbol of family happiness.
2. The place of honor for guests is ter, the personification of fame and wealth.
3. A place for guests is a symbol of the new and transitory.
4. The bedchamber is a symbol of the family nest.
5. Husband’s “office” - symbols of hunting, prey, and good luck are stored here.
6. Housewife's corner - symbols of the guardians of the good.
7. Threshold - bosaga, the sacred border of the home and the outside world.
On the women's side, in the very top corner, there was a wooden bed for the owners. The owners' bed - blankets and pillows - are covered with a curtain. No matter how respected the guest may be, he will never be offered to spend the night in the host's bed. Not a single object - not the owner's blankets, not pillows - should come into contact with a stranger, otherwise, the Kazakhs believed, happiness would leave the owners.
A cradle for a newborn was also installed here. A premature baby was nursed in a winter hat Tymak, hanging it over the bed.
Closer to the entrance is the utility area. There was a cupboard with dishes here - Assadal or kebezhe where the dried meat was stored, Kurt(dried salted cottage cheese), packs of tea. On kerege hung saddlebags for storing and transporting dishes. A huge wineskin for kumiss was placed under them - saba.
On the men's side, closer to the ter, the place of honor, there was adalba. The owner's outerwear was hung on it. Further, poor owners could have the bed of a married son who had not yet separated from his parents, or a daughter’s maiden bed, decorated with a silk curtain - Shymyldyk,.
In general, this half is the guest half. After all, the sons, having matured, will raise their yurts, the youngest will take the place of his father. The daughter is also a guest: if she gets married, she will go to another house. The body of the deceased owner was also transferred here; from now on he is a “guest” who sets off on a long journey, to another world.
Closer to the threshold was the equipment of the horse, the lifelong companion of the nomad - a saddle, harness. Installed here tugyr— a stand for a bird of prey, a golden eagle or a falcon.
In the center of the yurt there was a cauldron on a tripod. It is never left open or empty. Food is a symbol of Good. Even if there is even a spoonful of oil at the bottom, there will definitely be in the cauldron - it is important that it is not empty.
FIRE
Before setting off, the nomads lit fires on both sides of the road, and the kesh passed between them. This is also a ritual of cleansing and protection from evil forces.
The fate of the wanderer is not easy, and his desires are simple: to warm up by the fire, eat and drink something hot, relax under a dry roof, far from predatory animals, forget all the fears and anxieties that beset him along the way.
That is why for the Kazakh nomad the Hearth is the heart of his nomadic home, the Fire is sacred to him. And where Evil and Disease have settled, the Kazakh necessarily lights a Fire. Not only predatory animals are afraid of fire, but also evil spirits, he believed.
The first commandment of the Kazakhs: “Honor the Fire, do not desecrate it, it is sacred!” Pouring water on a fire is the same as wishing harm on this house and its owners. Even accidentally spilled water can lead to disaster.
HOUSE
When familiar people meet, after greeting they will definitely ask: “How is home, is everyone alive and well?”
The yurt has no windows, that is, eyes, and therefore it listens to the steppe. Having heard that the horseman has dismounted at a distance, the owners sitting in the yurt know that a peaceful guest has arrived. If the hooves continue to sound, and the rider reaches the threshold, then either he is a black messenger (the messenger of war and death), or this guest wants to insult the owners.
SACRED THRESHOLD
The attitude of the owners towards you depends on how you cross the threshold. If you cross it right foot, bowing your head low, it means you are full of respect for the owners. To do the opposite is the same as insulting the honor and dignity of this house, the owner, and his entire family. And to prevent this from happening due to absent-mindedness and carelessness, the threshold is deliberately made high and the door lintel low.
Having crossed the threshold, you need to say hello, even if there is no one in the yurt, and wish: “May light be shed on your home!” The greeting should be loud enough. When entering the house in the evening and at dusk, you must say: “Good evening!”
Wise and practical steppe dwellers invented a comfortable and cozy mobile home - a yurt. Even today, this faithful companion of the nomad is not only an interesting example of material culture, but also a comfortable home. We'll tell you what the inside of a yurt consists of and what types there are.
Kazakh yurt inside
The steppe is wide and vast. Sometimes it seems that it has no end or edge. A tired traveler will find the only reliable shelter in the steppe - a yurt, where he will not only be allowed to rest, but will also be provided with safety, fed and entertained with songs.
What does the yurt consist of inside? The decoration of the yurt reflected the people’s specific idea of the universe. All interior items of the yurt had symbolic and magical meaning. The arrangement of such a dwelling testified to the wealth of the family and its place in the tribe.
For the most part, modern Kazakhs - owners of such nomadic structures - strive to preserve the authenticity of the interior decoration.
Let's look at what a yurt looks like inside to get an idea of the traditions and customs of the Kazakhs:
- The walls of the yurt were covered with carpets.
- Where the kerege (a special lattice structure of sections) and the shanyrak (top) meet, a strip of fabric was laid on which Kazakh geometric patterns were embossed. It's called baskur. Those who find themselves in the middle of the yurt immediately pay attention to this motley and bright strip of fabric.
- Special cotton blankets and rugs (tekemet and korpeshe) were placed on the floor. For the comfort of guests, they offered pillows: hard ones (zherzhastyk) for visitors of humble origin and pillows stuffed with feathers (kuszhastyk, kopshik) for honored guests.
- Along the edges there were chests on which mountains of pillows and blankets were laid out.
- To the right of the entrance there was a chest or collapsible cabinet, which served as a buffet. Tableware and tea utensils were stored on it: a samovar, tobacco - a dish for meat, basins, a vessel with a thin spout for water - kumgan, charu. Torsuks were hung above it, containing the life-giving drinks of the steppe inhabitants - kumiss and ayran.
- To the left of the entrance, clothes, traveling bags, horse harness, and hunting weapons were placed on the walls. There were also various personal items: jewelry, women's clothing, towels. In addition, to the left of the entrance there was a place for birds of prey.
- A fireplace was installed in the center of the yurt. Here a cauldron was hung on a tripod, under which a fire was lit and food was prepared in this way. The smoke came out directly into the shanyrak hole.
- Along the walls in yurts, as described by researchers of the 19th century, there were wooden loungers - beds. Occasionally there were even iron ones. The owners' bed was placed to the right of the hearth, and unmarried daughters and sisters were placed to the left.
- Ribbons and tassels - shashak bau - hung from the shanyrak. They personified stars and constellations, drove away evil spirits and attracted good ones.
Kazakh yurt: types
The white yurt in the green grass of the steppe is a special symbol of Kazakhstan. Tourists, in search of a special unity with nature, trying to learn more about the culture of the Kazakhs, are happy to stay overnight in such exotic houses of nomads.
At the same time, a yurt in the steppe is also a modern home for shepherds and geologists. The Kazakh yurt is a special type of mobile home. Thanks to its design, it is easy to assemble and disassemble, and can be easily transported across the steppe on camels or horses. The yurt can be assembled at any time to shelter from the scorching sun or to warm up on a cold autumn or winter day.
This design, its modifications and interior decoration are signs of the high level of material culture of the Kazakhs, their ideas about the world and man.
Yurts are an old invention of nomads. Their prototypes are covered carts, tents on wheels, which moved across the steppe, accompanying the transitions of nomads who were looking for new pastures, or trade caravans.
In the process of many years of operation of such mobile homes, certain types of yurts have been formed, which are classified according to the main principle - according to their purpose.
There are the following main types of yurts:
- Housing. They are built according to the type of Kipchak yurts, which, unlike Mongolian tents, had a higher dome. It was more resistant to snow drifts, strong winds, hurricanes and storms.
- Festive or ceremonial(an үy, an horda, boz үy, otau үy) - a large yurt consisting of more than 10 lattice sections. It was distinguished by the fact that snow-white felt was used in its equipment; the design details were decorated with carvings and woven felt flies with patterns.
- Pokhodnaya was the smallest - 3-4 sections. It had a cone-shaped appearance, which was created by poles tied at the top. At the bottom they were also tied with a rope and dug into the ground.
In addition, there are special mobile structures that perform auxiliary functions:
- necessary things and supplies are stored in warehouse yurts;
- Food is prepared in camp kitchens.
There is such a riddle in Kazakh folklore:
One fleecy carpet
In addition to them there is felt.
Oops! - I exclaimed
And ascended to heaven,
Twisted, walked,
He established the firmament of the earth!
It presents cosmogonic ideas about the world, which is identified with the yurt. Therefore, all its components had magical meaning.
The yurt inside is the embodiment of creative potential, craving for beauty, and mystical ideas of Kazakhs about the world. Everything about it is functional and designed for transition. This is a cozy and comfortable home where guests are always welcome.
during the school year in a self-built yurt. In England, summer wedding celebrations in designer yurts have become fashionable. And recently it became known that Leonardo DiCaprio paid 95 thousand dollars for the opportunity to live in a yurt. He purchased a certificate for an extreme ten-day survival journey through Mongolia. The tour program includes horseback riding, falconry, trips with nomadic families and overnight stays in yurts. The Hollywood celebrity will be accompanied by Swedish explorer and traveler Johan Ernst Nilsson. “When I organize these trips, I take people out of their usual comfort zone and force them to do something they would never do. It turns into a journey within themselves,” The Telegraph quotes Nilsson.
Where did the name "yurt" come from?
The word "yurt" came into Russian from the Turkic jurt. Initially it was translated as “people”; later, the dwellings of nomadic people, pastures and even ancestral lands began to be called this. The Kyrgyz language has the word “ata-zhurt” - fatherland or homeland, but literally this phrase was translated as “father’s house”.
There is a word similar in sound to yurt in the Mongolian language - ger, here it is also a synonym for house. It turns out that from the languages of many nomadic peoples, “yurt” is translated simply as “house” or “dwelling,” which emphasizes its importance and significance.
When did the yurt appear?
Scientists, historians and art critics are still arguing about this. The most common two versions: XII-IX or VIII-V centuries BC. The first version suggests that yurts are the dwellings of the Andronovo people who lived in the Urals, Siberia and Central Asia back in the Bronze Age. But their versions of the yurt are similar to log cabins, that is, not quite the same as they are known today.
But the dwellings of the nomads who lived on the same territory in the 8th-5th centuries are almost the same as the yurts we know today. It is reliably known that yurts were used by the Huns, Turks, Mongols, Kazakhs and Turkmens, but each people had their own options.
Why is the yurt round?
It would seem a simple question, the one most often asked by children. But the answer is not so easy. Today there is a lot of talk about the sacred meaning of the circle and the significant division of the internal area. But all these thoughts appeared much later than the usual form. Scientists claim that the nomads who lived in the steppes chose a round shape due to the fact that it has the least resistance to the wind, which blows constantly. It was these houses that could withstand any hurricane.
Much later, physicists and builders proved that round buildings are also the most stable, and also much more spacious than their rectangular counterparts.
What peoples use yurts?
Many peoples of Central Asia, Mongolia and Siberia had yurt-type dwellings, for whom nomadic and semi-nomadic cattle breeding was the main occupation. The Kazakhs, Karakalpaks, Turkmens, Nogais, Bashkirs, Altaians, Kalmyks, and Mongols have yurts.
Are Kyrgyz yurts different?
Yes, the Kyrgyz yurt is original, although its design has much in common with the design of yurts of other nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, Southern Siberia and the Mongols. But the greatest closeness exists with the Kazakh yurt. However, our yurt is higher.
Kyrgyz yurts also vary. The main difference comes down to the shape of the dome. In the north of Kyrgyzstan (with the exception of the Talas Valley), the shape of the yurt dome approaches cone-shaped. In the south of Kyrgyzstan, in the Talas and Chatkal valleys, the dome is flatter and has a hemispherical shape due to the greater bending of the lower part of the dome poles.
What parts does a Kyrgyz yurt consist of?
The yurt consists of many parts, each of which has its own name. Let's list only the main ones:
sliding walls of the yurt - kerege;
dome poles - uuk;
wooden round rim, support for the roof of the yurt - tunduk;
the poles fixed above the door - eshik uuk (there are 3-4 of them) - are shorter than the others, since one end of them was fixed on the upper crossbar of the door frame (bash barefoot), located above the walls of the yurt;
pole with a fork (cormorant). These poles support the cover of the smoke circle, which protects the fireplace from heavy rain and snow;
felt for covering a yurt - tuurduk.
Are there rules for the interior decoration of a yurt?
The interior decoration of the yurt strictly complies with national canons. The right side of the yurt was called "epchi zhak" - the female half, where the "ashkan chiy" was placed, a screen covering the utility part. The left half is “er jacq” - the men’s part, where horse accessories, crafts and hunting items were placed. This is also the place where the master himself worked - “mouth”. Opposite the entrance is the “toor” - a place for guests where the “juk” was cleaned, dividing it into male and female halves. This was evident from the layout: on the right side of the “juk” there hung a “tekche”, in which the women’s headdress “elechek” was kept. And on the left side of the “juka” there was placed “ala bakan” - a pole beautifully decorated with silver, inlaid with expensive stones, on which men’s rich sheepskin coats made of marten, fox, brocade and velvet fur were hung. “Kolomto” is the sacred place of the hearth, located closer to the exit.
Did one family use one yurt?
It depended on wealth. Wealthy Kyrgyz, in addition to the main one, also had yurts for cooking and food. There were also temporary yurts - living rooms (meiman uyu), which were erected on the occasion of major holidays, funerals or wakes.
Rich Kyrgyz, giving their daughters in marriage, set up wedding yurts (erge), which were considered the main part of the dowry.
How to behave in a yurt
There is strict etiquette associated with a yurt. For example, a rider should approach the yurt from the rear. A guest is not allowed to enter the yurt with a whip in his hand or, for example, with his mouth full. Anyone who enters a yurt must definitely taste the food there.
In a yurt, you cannot sit with your back resting on anything, because this is the position of a sick person; it is also not recommended to squat or stretch your legs forward.
Who uses a yurt now?
Until now, the yurt is used by cattle breeders in Altai, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and Turkmenistan. Also, a mobile home is popular among fishermen, hunters, beekeepers and tourists. In Mongolia, yurts are the most popular summer cottages, because in the summer they are much more comfortable than ordinary ones brick buildings. In addition, yurts are very popular in the tourism industry - they house restaurants and hotels.
