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Elechek, the Kyrgyz female headwear: traditional knowledge and rituals
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  • Manage No, Sortation, Country, Writer ,Date, Copyright
    Manage No EE00002302
    Country Kyrgyzstan
    ICH Domain Social practices, rituals, festive events Traditional craft skills
    Address
    In all regions of the Kyrgyz Republic.
    Year of Designation 2013
Description Elechek is a traditional Kyrgyz female headwear. It consists of topucha (a hair cap) and kezdeme - a long piece of white fabric up to 40 meters long, which is wrapped in many layers in a turban-like fashion. After being wrapped, the elechek is ordained with embroidery, ribbons or jewelry. Women wear the elechek for the first time during the wedding ceremony. Wrapping of elechek is an integral part of the traditional marriage ceremony. A ritual of wrapping the bride’s first elechek is conducted at the bride’s family house before she leaves with the groom. The wrapping of elechek considered as a rite of passage as it marks a significant transition in a woman’s life. The process of wrapping is accompanied with the elders uttering blessing chants. These rhyming chants reflect the spiritual symbolism: there are references to the Creator, Mother Earth, Umai Ene; traditional epithets inspired by local environments: wishing a new coupe to have a long life like the juniper branches or pure intentions as flowing water, and worldviews and values of local communities. Exclusively women conduct the ritual. A married woman may wear the elechek at all significant occasions of her life, changing its styles accordingly. Many communities across Kyrgyzstan have developed own styles of wrapping the elechek and related rituals. The diversity of the element as well as accompanying rituals demonstrate that this living heritage has been evolving for many generations.
Social and cultural significance The element performs several social functions: Building local identity: the elechek styles and related knowledge have been passed on in the communities from generation to generation. The performance of the ceremony of wrapping elechek builds and strengthen the connection between an individual woman and her community and contributes to forming of a shared cultural identity; Communication: the styles and wearing of elechek is the way of traditional communication, when information (age, social and marital status) is delivered without words. A widow can be identified by the untied lower part of the elechek; Promoting diversity: different communities have developed their own styles, which resulted in the diversity of knowledge and skills associated with the element. Such a diversity provides grounds for enriching and mutually respectful cultural communication between various communities; Women empowerment: since the element has been performed and transmitted mostly by women from generation to generation, the women often take pride in having exclusively female ceremony within a larger wedding ceremony. The element strengthens the ties between the community’s women of different generations and conveys the ideas of solidarity, mutual support, and empowerment. Safeguarding and transmitting related complex of cultural heritage. This element creates a cultural space contributing to the safeguarding many other elements as blessing, purification, healing rituals etc. Fostering the artistic expression: the blessing of the bride is an integral part of the ceremony of wrapping elechek. These blessings can be seen as a genre of local oral tradition and an example of artistic expression, especially, among women.
Transmission method The knowledge and skills related to the elechek are mostly transmitted informally from mothers to daughters and from communities’ female elders to the younger women. The women internalize the knowledge and learn the skills related to elechek through participation in the ceremony of wrapping the elechek at the weddings and other celebrations of their relatives and friends. In the last years, self-organized groups of women started working on transmitting knowledge and skills related to elechek in new ways. Local communities in the Tong district of the Ysyk-Kol province organized Kiyiz Duino Festivals, where the local women held workshops and demonstrations on various styles of wrapping elechek and performing rituals associated with the element. Moreover, some bearer communities created video lessons in Kyrgyz, Russian and English languages dedicated to showing the elechek styles as well as traditional knowledge and skills associated with it.
Community The various types of Elechek as well as traditional knowledge and rituals associated with Elechek are widespread and practiced throughout the country. Communities of women from rural areas of the Batken, Ysyk-Kol, Osh, Naryn, Talas, Jalalabad, and Chui regions are the bearers, practitioners and custodians of the element. Many NGOs and informal groups such as the Kiyiz Duino Public Foundation, Institute for Sustainable Development strategies, National Craftsperons’ Union, Ak Elechek Ayimdar, and Supara. They contribute greatly to the safeguarding, transmission and promotion of the element. The prominent element practitioners include Aidai Asangulova, Zamira Musuralieva, Asel Kalkanova, Nurjamal Asangulova, Burul Ismantayeva, Asel Sakeyeva, Aiperi Asygalieva, Gulsana Akmatova.
Keyword
Information source
National Commission of the Kyrgyz Republic for UNESCO
https://en.unesco.org/countries/kyrgyzstan/information
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