Materials
nomadism
ICH Materials 176
Photos
(154)-
Traditional craftsmanship of Ger and its rituals
The Ger is a traditional dwelling of the nomadic mongols. Ger is not only housing but is also model of the Universe and a symbol of national identity. Generally, it consists of a wooden framework, a felt cover and ropes. Ger is portable, light, compact and ecological home. It comprises all types of traditional arts.
Mongolia -
Salbuurunchu with golden eagle
Kyrgyzstan -
Process of cutting the leather
Kyrgyzstan -
Process of boiling the meat for _Gulazyk_
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Kyrgyzstan -
Traditional knowledge and skills in making Kyrgyz and Kazakh yurts (Turkic nomadic dwellings)
Yurt production includes knowledge and skills in creating a portable dwelling traditionally used by Kazakh and Kyrgyz people. Yurt has a dismountable wooden circular frame covered with felt and braided with ropes. Yurts can be easily set up and dismantled within a short period of time. Yurts are basically characterized as easily transportable, compact, ecological and practical dwellings.\nBearers of yurt-making traditional knowledge are craftspeople (men and women), producing yurts and yurts’ interior decorations.\nMen and their apprentices make yurts’ wooden frames, traditionally by hand using special devices and instruments. Men also make wooden, leather, bone and metal details for yurts and household items. Women make yurt coverings and interior decorations. As a rule, they work in community-based groups supervised by experienced skilled women-artisans. Women-artisans use weaving, spinning, braiding, felting, embroidering, sewing, winding and other traditional handicraft technologies. Women’s work- process is usually accompanied by their singing, joking, telling stories about famous masters of the past and treating traditional meals.
Kazakhstan -
Terisakkan Spring Festival of Horse Breeders: Folk Sport Games
Ulytau local communities participate in the annual festive events, enjoying adults and children playing various traditional sport games.\nTraditional 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.
Kazakhstan -
Terisakkan Spring Festival of Horse Breeders: First Milking
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.\nTraditional 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.
Kazakhstan -
Mongol Tuuli, Mongolian Epic
Mongol Tuuli is an oral tradition comprising heroic epics that run from hundreds to thousands of lines and combine benedictions, eulogies, spells, idiomatic phrases, fairy tales, myths and folk songs. They are regarded as a living encyclopedia of Mongolian oral traditions and immortalize the heroic history of the Mongols. Epic performers are distinguished by their prodigious memory and skills, combining singing, vocal improvisation and musical composition coupled with theatrical elements. Epic lyrics are performed to musical accompaniment on instruments such as morin khuur and tovshuur. Epics are performed during social and public events, including state affairs, weddings, a child’s first haircut, naadam and worship of sacred sites. Epics evolved over many centuries, and reflect nomadic lifestyles, social behaviors, religion, mentalities and imagination. Epic performers cultivate epic traditions from generation to generation, learning, performing and transmitting techniques within kinship circles, from fathers to sons.
Mongolia -
Mongol Biyelgee, Mongolian traditional folk dance
Mongolian traditional folk dance “Bii Biyelgee” is an outstanding form among traditional performing arts of Mongolia, and unique and distinguished art expression which has embodied and originated from the nomadic living style of Mongols. Bii Biyelgee expresses the customs, traditions and spiritual practices through dancing elements, and its movements are typically confided to small space inside the Nomad’s dwelling-ger. Biyelgee is performed while half sitting or cross-legged sitting, coupled with fist and hand opening and waving, stiff and swift movements of chest and shoulders, shrugging and shaking them, crossing legs, steps and walks, as well as flexible body movements involved in prevalence. In doing so, biyelgee performers imitate the expressions of their lifestyle, household activities, courage, love, prides and livestock to the accompaniment of morin khuur, ikel khuur, tovshuur, tsuur, coupled with ethnic costumes.
Mongolia -
Mongolian art of singing Khoomei
Khöömei is a wonder of culture created by nomadic Mongols, a unique phenomenon of Mongolian traditional music, an ancient art, the highest form of independent art of speaking organs and artistic discovery contributed by the Mongols to the music art of the world. Mongol khöömei lies in producing two or more pitches simultaneously, of which one is a fundamental pitch from the chest and the other is a higher pitch resonating to the hard palate or whistling khöömei. The melodies of khöömei are the music that only Mongol khöömei can describe as well as the sound of nature, mountain, water, wind, animal calls, correlation between nature and human and the inner world of human soul. khöömei is divided into two basic categories of “Kharkhiraa” or bass, fundamental pitch and “Isgeree or shingen” or “whistling or high pitch”.
Mongolia -
Traditional technique of preparing the dairy products
Mongolian traditional food is adjusted to the condition of the nomadic way of life. It is divided into milk or white products, meat or red products, and vegetable or green products. During summer and autumns, Mongols prefer to consume various different dairy products from milk of five livestock animals. Dairy products are generally produced by boiling, fermenting, distilling, brewing, extracting, separating or drying. Traditional food is dairy products, meat and green food or grain. Mongols do “Airag” from the mare’s milk, and do milk skim, youghurt, aaruul (oblong), with and orange eezgii, tsagaan tos (derived from the skim), tsorom by milk from sheep, goat and khoormog and aaruul from camel milk. Additionally, smoking, drying and preserving the meat from goat, cow and camel for making borts and shuuz. In addition, khorkhog, boodog, buuz and khuushuur and various different meals are made from sheep, goat and meat from hunting.
Mongolia -
Mongol garment
Mongol deel is a long gown with diagonal or square lapels that can be affixed on both sides. It is the main costume of the Mongol nations and it has lost neither its fundamental design nor style even after centuries of use. The ancientness of the design of the deel is suggested by the appearance of pre-historic people wearing sheep skin coats in ancient petroglyphs. The deel has developed to be compatible with the health, physiological characteristics, and daily life of the pastoral nomads of Mongolia. This garment is also uniquely suited to the harsh weather condition to which the Mongolian lifestyle has adapted. The accessories to the deel also serve many purposes: the long cuff at the end of the sleeves can be used as a glove or liner and the wide belt worn with the deel is designed for protection against kidney disease and back aches, while also serving as a blanket or pillow on long journeys.
Mongolia