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Terisakkan Spring Festival of Horse Breeders: Biye Baylau
  • Manage No PI00006626
    Country Kazakhstan
    Year 2016-05-02
    ICH Domain Social practices, rituals, festive events, Knowledge and practices about nature and the universe
Description First milking' - this is the rite and a part of the Terisakkan Spring Festival of Horse Breeders. On the day of biye baylau, the first milking is always performed by women. Men assist them, bringing foals, one by one, to mares for suckling and then taking them back to allow for milking. 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 Alexey Kamenskiy (Mr)
Place Terisakkan, Ulytau District, Karaganda Province File Size 5.28
Definition 3729 x 2074 File Format jpg
Copyright Alexey Kamenskiy; Kazakhstan ICH Committee Copyright
Keyword
Information source
Kazakhstan National Committee for Intangible Cultural Heritage

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