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Terisakkan Spring Festival of Horse Breeders: Bata

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Manage No	PI00006615
Country	Kazakhstan
Year	2011-05-02
ICH Domain	Social practices, rituals, festive events, Knowledge and practices about nature and the universe

Description	All preparations for milking are over. The villagers' worship near their horses, and the elder man gives his blessing (bata) to them. From the early morning, on round tables or just on the earth near tethered horses, the families serve a ritual food for regaling villagers and visitors. Presenting the images of ancestors, famous horse breeders, is a new tradition. 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	2.92 MB
Definition	3456 x 2304	File Format	jpg
Copyright	Emma Usmanova; Kazakhstan ICH Committee

LIST

EE00002031 Traditional spring festive rites of the Kazakh horse breeders
Kazakh spring horse-breeding rites mark the end of the old and the beginning of the new yearly horse-breeding cycle. Rooted in the traditional knowledge of nature and in the millennia-aged close relations between man and horse, these rites involve skills inherited from the nomadic ancestors and adapted to the present day reality. The festive rites compiles of the triade: (1) .‘Biye baylau’; (2) ‘Ayghyr kosu’; and (3) ‘Kymyz muryndyk’. ‘Kymyz muryndyk’ (metaphorically, ‘initiation of koumiss’) is the 'first koumiss sharing' rite, opening a season of its making and drinking. The preparations go all year round (cutting wool and horse hair, getting good stallions for herds, weaving ropes and foal slips, repairing ware, cutting juniper for smoking vessels, cooking ritual food). Blessed by the elders, the ‘first milking’ day comes in early May, when mares have foaled and grass grown. In total the rites take about 3 weeks until the koumiss sharing ceremonies, taking place in every house of the village, are over.

Kazakhstan 2018