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Terisakkan Spring Festival of Horse Breeders: Ayghyr kosu
  • Manage No PI00001854
    Country Kazakhstan
    Year 2011-05-02
    ICH Domain Social practices, rituals, festive events, Knowledge and practices about nature and the universe
Description Ayghyr kosu is a rite succeeding the milking. Young men lead stallions (ayghyr’s) out and keep them in check until women take milk away with them. Then the bridles are taken off and the stallions join their herds. Traditional spring festive rites of the Kazakh horse breeders – taking place in Terisakkan Village – mark the end of the previous and the beginning of the new yearly horse-breeding cycle. Rooted in traditional knowledge about nature and the age-old relations between man and horse, the rites involve skills inherited from nomadic ancestors, adapted to present-day reality. The rites take around three weeks in total, until the koumiss sharing ceremonies, which take place in every household, are over. The rites open a new yearly cycle of reproduction and manifest traditional Kazakh hospitality. Faced with the forced transition in the twentieth century from a nomadic way of life to a settled one, bearers have adapted the traditional form of horse breeding to meet present-day conditions to ensure its continued viability.
Photographer Emma Usmanova (Mrs)
Place Terisakkan, Ulytau District, Karaganda Province File Size 1.58 MB
Definition 2000 x 1333 File Format jpg
Copyright Emma Usmanova; Kazakhstan ICH Committee Copyright
Keyword
Information source
Kazakhstan National Committee for Intangible Cultural Heritage

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