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Terisakkan Spring Festival of Horse Breeders: Biye Baylau

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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

LIST

EE00001336 Biye baylau (‘tethering mares’) -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’. ‘Biye baylau’ (literally, ‘tethering mares’), the ancient 'first milking'; rite encompassing the separation of mares and foals from herds, tethering them, greasing ropes and pegs, milking mares, greasing and smoking vessels for koumiss, fermenting the first-day milk, and celebrating with songs, dances and games. 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

DI00001350 The Revival of Local Koumyss Festivals in Kazakhstan: Safeguarding Traditions and Contributing to Sustainable Development Goals
A triad of spring festive rites—biye baylau, ayghyr kosu, and kymyz muryndyk, identified and documented in Terisakkan village in the northern outskirts of Ulytau province of central Kazakhstan—were inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List in 2018. The annual festive event starts in early May with new grass, flowers, and foals, opening a year-round cycle of reproduction and a new season of making koumiss, an ancient sacred drink. It had become the case that only the community in Ulytau province conducted this local festival from an earlier time. Now the tradition is being revived in several areas of Kazakhstan, and there is a strong interest in other countries with nomadic cultures.

Balgyn Salykova, Zhanerke Shaigozova, Baktiyor Kozhakhmetov 2023