EE00002302

Elechek is a traditional Kyrgyz female headwear. It consists of topucha (a hair cap) and kezdeme - a long piece of white fabric up to 40 meters long, which is wrapped in many layers in a turban-like fashion. After being wrapped, the elechek is ordained with embroidery, ribbons or jewelry. Women wear the elechek for the first time during the wedding ceremony. Wrapping of elechek is an integral part of the traditional marriage ceremony. A ritual of wrapping the bride’s first elechek is conducted at the bride’s family house before she leaves with the groom. The wrapping of elechek considered as a rite of passage as it marks a significant transition in a woman’s life. The process of wrapping is accompanied with the elders uttering blessing chants. These rhyming chants reflect the spiritual symbolism: there are references to the Creator, Mother Earth, Umai Ene; traditional epithets inspired by local environments: wishing a new coupe to have a long life like the juniper branches or pure intentions as flowing water, and worldviews and values of local communities. Exclusively women conduct the ritual. A married woman may wear the elechek at all significant occasions of her life, changing its styles accordingly. Many communities across Kyrgyzstan have developed own styles of wrapping the elechek and related rituals. The diversity of the element as well as accompanying rituals demonstrate that this living heritage has been evolving for many generations.

EE00000066

Traditional felt carpets represent one of the identity codes of the Kyrgyz people, and their recognizable, ethnographic features are an integral part of Kyrgyz cultural heritage. Kyrgyz people traditionally produce two types of felt carpets: Ala-kiyiz and Shyrdaks. Knowledge, skills, diversity, the semantics of ornaments, and the ceremonies of creating carpets, are all important cultural components. They provide Kyrgyz people with a sense of identity and continuity. Both types of felt carpets are included into the set of a traditional bride’s dowry. Shyrdaks sometimes are gifted for house-warming parties. The making of Kyrgyz felt carpets is inseparably linked with the everyday lifestyle of nomads, who used felt carpets to warm and decorate their homes. Ala-kiyiz are usually placed in the kitchen and the entrance area of the house. Shyrdaks are more complicated to produce and are more expensive, thus they are placed at the honourable part of the dwelling. The felt carpets ornaments reflect their creators’ outlooks and ideas about the Earth, water, mountains, celestial bodies and fertility.

EE00000432

Historically, livestock herding has been one of the main livelihoods of the Kyrgyz people. That is why leather crafting has become an important craft and many household items are made out of leather. The skin of such domestic and wild animals as cows, horses, camels, yaks, sheep, goats, foxes, otters, mountain goats and deer is used for leathercraft. Sheep and goat skin is most widely used due to their accessibility. Sheep leather is used for making shoes and cloths. In the context of nomadic and pastoral lifestyle, dishes made out of leather are still popular. The vessels for milk products such as sabaa, kookor, konok, konochok were made out of processed camel of cow skin. The vessels are smoked with juniper or pine branches before use. Cattle skin is used to make leather for some household items such as wooden chests for dishes and utensils, horse tack (stirrups, various strips, reigns and whips), etc. Both women and men are engaged in leather work. At the same time there is a clear separation in labor. E.g. only men slaughter and skin animals. Men also process leather for horse tack and other large things. Women process skin of smaller animals such as sheep and goats. Women make such household items as vessels for milk products, various bags, sacks and cup-holders. Kyrgyz people tried to decorate leather items just like any other household item. There were many ways to decorate leather items. E.g. cup-holders were decorated with silver clips or patterns were craved right on the surface of leather. Leather items were made in different shapes. E.g. kookor, a vessel for kymyz, was made in a shape of an anchor, cup holders were cylindrical or semi-spherical. Carving or stamping patterns on the leather surface looks very good because it livens up the monotonous surface and makes it more pleasing to eye.

EE00000429

Art metal processing works made by masters found in museum funds of Kyrgyzstan and those that are passed from generation to generation shows that the Kyrgyz possessed metal processing techniques from the ancient times. The Kyrgyz metalwork masters are named as ‘usta’ or ‘zergher’. Distinct features of different techniques of metalworking can be observed in the works of the Kyrgyz masters, such as forging, molding, appliqueing, notching metal with silver, engraving, minting, pattern plating, pelleting, fretwork and black finishing. Silver is the most common metal used by the Kyrgyz. Masterpieces distinct to the Kyrgyz jewelry making have been created with a help of simple tools used in metalworking. The kit of jeweler’s main instruments included an anvil, hammers for different purposes, dies, stamps, chisels, puncheons, mandrels, cutters, poin-tools, etc. Motives of the ornaments used in jewelry and metal works are very diverse. Of a particular interest are the Kyrgyz traditions of metalworking expressed in details of the horse equipment. They are richly decorated with metal braces covering joints of belts made by embossing technique and notching. Kyrgyz jewelers broadly used the technique of denting, that is coating notched iron plates with silver. Such coated plates of different size and forms were then used to embellish harness elements, man’s belts, knives, fire stones, trunks, cases for dishes, etc. Quite often jewelry articles were framed with granules. This technique was primarily used in woman’s adornments, such as ear-rings, rings, seal-rings, bracelets, and etc. Like formerly, granulation was combined with filigreeing and incrustation. Community of craftspeople metalworking was a purely masculine craft, but women zergers are also known.

EE00000430

Wood carving and wood product manufacture among the Kyrgyz originated in ancient times. An example is the manufacture of wooden parts of the yurt, komuz, which have become the pinnacle of the handicraft creativity of the people. Modern travelers are very familiar with the Kyrgyz yurt, construction of which is made only of wood by the true masters. Wood items decorated with carvings and paintings have been harmoniously fit into the complex of interior of the yurt. These are chests ‘sandyk’, wooden bases on which felt mats, carpets and bedding items are placed; coffrets for food, cloth and horse gear hangers ‘ala bakan’; boxes for dishes, stirrer for kymyz ‘pishkek’, biler for drinks and other liquids, wooden blocks for lamps – ‘chirak paya’. Woodworks are done by the men named as ‘jygach usta’. Materials used for different woodworks depend on elasticity or firmness of the wooden species: birch, cottonwood, sump-weed, juniper or nut-tree. They are cut easily and flexible enough to get desired shape. Instruments used in woodworks are: saw, adze, single bitted axe, knife, hewing with blade in the form of groove, hatchet with plane, wood auger, strop used to make walls of the yurt.

EE00000431

Acknowledgment of the role of a horse is expressed in traditional horse equipment, which is divided into protective equipment and items that provide comfortable and safe position of the rider. Significant attention was also paid to an artistic decoration of details. Items of the horse equipment are made of metal, leather and wood, and decorated with stylized plant and animal motifs. Soft types of wood are used to make a saddle. Pine, poplar and beech timber possess suppleness; they do not crack or break easily. Peculiarity of the Kyrgyz saddle is a long front pommel (kash). This detail serves to tie the bridle. A good saddle is necessarily covered with leather and decorated. Stirrups for saddle can be made of leather or metal. Horse girth represents a wide durable leather belt. Metallic parts of the harness are also richly decorated. Kamchy (horsewhip) is composed of elegant handle and whip made of tightly intertwined leather.

EE00002305

The Kyrgyz people’s clothes are characterized by many peculiar features typical of the nomads’ clothes. The climate of a high-mountainous country with its sharp fluctuations in the temperature, which is quite severe in some places, leaves a big imprint on the character of the Kyrgyz clothes. This causes the need for various types of warm clothing, which are sometimes even used in the summer season. The perfect example of such clothes is chapan – a long coat similar to a dressing gown, can be both with and without a standing collar, unbuttoned, like most of the Kyrgyz people’s clothes. Chapan is worn by both men and women. Chapan is sewn on a wadding or a camel wool with a cotton lining and is most often quilted. Women's chapans are sewn from the best fabric, which is significantly lighter. They are also often decorated with silver jewellery. There are several variants of this clothing, depending on the region: naigut chapan - a wide tunic-shaped robe, sleeves with a gusset, sewn at a straight angle; kaptama chapan - loose fit, sewn-in sleeves with a rounded armhole; and a straight, narrow chapan with side slits. The hem and sleeves are usually sheathed with a colourful lining. In the south, it is customary to gird the chapan with a large scarf folded diagonally (charchy).

EE00002306

Beldemchi is a Kyrgyz women's clothing, which is a short hip swing skirt sewn to a wide belt. It is typically worn over the dress. Beldemchi had several variations in the past. Like so, in the North of Kyrgyzstan, beldemchi was sewn from black velvet with lush gathers at the waist and was decorated with embroidery. On the contrary, in the South, beldemchi was made of coloured velvet or semi-silk fabric without embroidery, sewn from several slanted wedges, without gathers. Beldemchi was worn by married women. After the childbirth, women put on a beldemchi, which thoroughly protected the body of young mothers from the cold, while not restricting their movements. Depending on the purpose, it was made of homespun cloth or expensive materials. If it was a festive clothing, it was sewn from silk, leather, velvet, decorated with elements of fur, embroidery, silver and beads. However, there was no embroidery or other decorations on casual beldemchi, which was worn by women daily.

EE00002304

Needle grass (called chiy in Kyrgyz) is used for traditional handicrafts. Needle grass grows in all regions of Kyrgyzstan. Needle grass is harvested when it is ripe between 15 of August and 15 of September. If harvested too early, needle grass become fragile, if harvested too late, it becomes too stiff at the bottom. Needle grass is harvested with roots because the bottom part is the most durable and looks like a knot that prevents chiy from falling apart. Making such mats requires mastery and patience because a craftswoman needs to wrap every stem of thatch with different woolen thread. The threads must make a pattern at the end. This makes needle grass mat making especially challenging. • When harvested, needle grass is cleared of leafs and outer layer and then dried on a sun. Depending on a size of a future mat, needle grass is cut accordingly. • Mats can be prepared manually or by using a special machine. Self-made weaving machine consist of two vertical poles with a hanger at the top. One perpendicular pole is put on top of those hangers. • The perpendicular pole has notches to hang threads. Then, weaving threads are wrapped around two equally heavy stones. • Stones are hang in such a way that they are located on a different side in relation to a perpendicular pole. • Needle grass stems are a placed in such a way that top of one stem lies next to the bottom of another stem. A craftswomen takes stones and moves them back and forth in such a way that threads wrap each stem creating a pattern. • When weaving is done, the fluffy edges of needle grass are cut even. The bottom part of the mat is not cut. The edges of mats are strengthened by a zigzag weaving. There are needle grass mats both with and without ornament.