Wooden Products of the Kyrgyz in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries
Wooden Products
Wooden products have long been widely used in everyday life. Wood craftsmen (жыгач уста) valued poplar (терек), willow (тал), juniper (арча), birch (кайын), black wood (кайрагач, кара жыгач), apricot (врук), walnut (жангак), apple (алма жыгач), and other trees. They primarily worked on orders, and each craftsman had their own specialization (Burkovsky, 1954, p. 96; Antipina, 1962, p. 144; Cherkasova, 1968, pp. 132, 133; Kapalbaev, 2007). From local wood species, they made the frame of the yurt (кереге, уук), its doors and door frames, as well as household items: stands for the yurt's felt (секичек), low cabinets with sliding doors (жаван), chests (сандык), bread bins for storing flatbreads (уквк), saddles (ээр, эгер), including children's ones (айырмач), cradles (бешик), containers for dishes (чыны кап, чайнек кап), stirrers for kumis (пишкек), poles for hanging (ала бакан), etc., often decorated with carvings and paintings, as well as cups, dishes, large bowls, ladles, spoons, containers with lids, buckets, lamp stands, mortars, troughs, sieves, and other household utensils, parts of looms, spindles, sharpening machines, agricultural tools, including those for tilling the soil (омач), shovels (бель), forks (бешилик, аиры), sleds (чийне, чигина), etc. Sometimes woodworking skills were combined with blacksmithing and jewelry making.
In some regions of the country, there are still masters who carve wooden spoons (кашык) and ladles (чомуч). In the south, wooden buckets (челек) for water and dairy products were commonly made from juniper. An essential attribute of nomadic life was a cylindrical or goblet-shaped mortar (соку) made of hard wood with a wooden or stone pestle. The vessel for churning butter (куу, гуу) was carved or burned from a solid log or made from planks fastened with an iron hoop; the latter, more recent method was likely borrowed from the Russians. In the western regions of southern Kyrgyzstan, a churn (тарткы) is also used, where butter is obtained by rotating it with belts, a method widely spread among Tajiks (Peshchereva, 1959, pp. 302-304; Andreev, 1958, p. 141).
Tools included: a small chisel (керш, теше, аталгы), a cutter (кескич), a wooden mallet (жыгач балка), a knife with a curved blade (ийги), a plane (кыргы, тарткы), a bow drill (ушку), and a chisel (козвёч). When making the frame of the yurt, particularly the uni (уук), grids (береге), and the upper rim (тундук), they used a device for bending poles (тез). The Kyrgyz borrowed axes, saws, planes, drills, and other tools from Russian settlers, which allowed them to make simple furniture: low tables, cabinets, stands, etc. Products were decorated with relief (predominantly in most regions), flat-relief (in southern regions and only on small items), and two-plane (in certain southern regions) carvings, sometimes accompanied by painting. The main elements of the ornament are circles, horn-shaped curls, swirling rosettes, diamonds, triangles, and other geometric motifs; occasionally, there are plant motifs.
A common element of the pattern is the kun (sun) or burama (swirling rosette). The solar sign was often placed as a talisman on the upper part of the yurt door leaf or on the bosom (the upper crossbar or frame of the door), on carved wooden cases (чыны кап), and the front arch of children's saddles (айырмач).
Carving is sometimes combined with painting and decoration, with red, blue, white, and black colors predominating. Paint was obtained by mixing colored clay, chalk, and glue. Painting is most characteristic of the javan cabinet, with its front part covered in a multicolored pattern that includes a wide variety of motifs. This technique is not typical for the Kyrgyz and was likely borrowed from the Uzbeks, as was the javan itself. Wood painting is significantly less common in Kyrgyzstan than carving.
The masters of кырмачы worked on a lathe, the spindle of which was rotated by belts driven by hand.
Details were processed using a hook-shaped, double-edged knife (кыргыч) with a wooden handle.
On the lathe, they made cups (аяк, кесе), children's thin cups (ЧОЧЁK) from wild cherry root (чийе), dishes (тавак), bowls (чара), and in the southern regions - vessels (тогорочо, курма) with a lid and a strap handle.
The Kyrgyz of the noigut group made "илеген" (Uzbek-Tajik ляган; Peshchereva 1959, p. 247) - two flat plates from one piece of wood, one placed above the other. They also turned small cylindrical containers for storing salt, resembling vessels found in the Kara-Bulak burial mound from the Hunnic era (Batkinskiy district of Batken region) (Baruzdin, 1956, pp. 64, 65; Baruzdin, 1957, pp. 29, 30). This similarity suggests a continuity of some elements of household culture in southern Kyrgyzstan from ancient times.
The dishes were either smoked or dipped in boiling oil.
The Kyrgyz did not engage in basket weaving before, but in recent years they have learned from Uzbeks and Tajiks to make baskets of various shapes for storage and drying of fruits.
From juniper and apricot wood, they also made musical instruments: the stringed komuz, the bowed кыяк (“кыжак”), and the flute “чоор.” The widely spread pastime with the toy goat так теке - a marionette operated by playing the качузе is fading into the past.
Comparing the techniques of making and the assortment of wooden products among southern and northern Kyrgyz allows us to conclude that, despite some peculiarities, all groups of Kyrgyz have common forms that trace back to ancient times. This is evidenced by archaeological finds in the territory of modern Kyrgyzstan and Altai (Burkovsky, 1954, pp. 86, 87; Bernshtam, 1940, pp. 18-31; Rudenko, 1948, pp. 20-24, 57).
In our time, mass construction has led to the emergence of new professions in villages - carpenters and joiners.
Craftsmen in artistic wood processing are creating new forms of products on a traditional basis: boxes, souvenirs, various crafts, including turned items.
Embroidery and patterned mats made from chiy
