By Nikolay Shetnikov
Surely everyone living in Kyrgyzstan or traveling through its territory has at one time or another wondered about the deeper meaning of the many mystical and colorful shreds of fabric tied to branches or wooden beams, the piled up stones along the wayside, mysterious rock inscriptions rock formation shaped like large animals from a certain angle They all are connected with numerous legends remaining us about events of the ancient past.

People of ancient societies commonly shared a deeply spiritual attitude to the world around them and believed in the strong ties between the spirital and their own world. Mother Nature was the divine force and the skies epitomized her powers. Elements of nature played a strong role both in the traditions and culture of the tribes and people who once inhabited the territory of modern Kyrgyzstan, the ancestors of modern Kyrgyzs. The ancestors who worshipped the cult of the Earth and Water, Sky and Universe at first nomades. They would get their bearings by marking passes, mountain tracks and water sources with "oboos", mounds of piled up stones. Being exposed not only to the beautiful but also to the rage of nature, the sites of such "oboos" would be worshipped as dwelling places of deieties. In time they became sacred sites.

Later, the settlers around these sites would tie multicolored shreds of fabrics, rams horns or yak's tales to poles fixed close to the site. With the introduction of Islam, legends ranked around these so-called "Mazar's" and individual names were found for each.

Actually the "oboos" mounted on passes symbolized the end of the ascent, which was always dreaded and once the "oboo" was reached, thankful prayers to the Heavens and the Earth were uttered with wishes for a successful journey onward.

Early travel writers, monks and explorers first described the way local's payed special respect to certain trees, groves, springs, reservoirs, boulders etc. At these "Mazar's".

Thus on epy San-Tash pass near Lake Issyk-Kul you will come across huge mounds compiled from round washed river stones. At this "Mazar", so the legend goes, Tamerlane, on a campaign leading him through the area, ordered all his warriors to put one stone onto the pile on their way to the battle and upon their return pick a stone off the pile. This allowed him to deduct how many warriors he had lost in the battle. A stone barrow as a tomb to the lost, which they themselves had constructed with their own hands.

The most beautiful of all Tien-Shan peaks, majestic Khan-Tengry peak was considered the most esteemed sacred site. Its name translated from Chinese, means "Lord of the Heavens" putting it on equal footing with the ancient Greek Olympus. And seemingly acknowledging this fact the Kyrgyz epos "Manas" tells us that ...the land of Kyrgyzs begins from headstreams of an iron river, namely Temir-Suu glacier starting below Khan-Tengry peak.

"Suleyman Mountain" in Osh in ancient times served as a lighthouse for travelers on their difficult and dangerous crossing from China over the Tien -Shan Mountains.

The caravans traveling back and forth had the Prophed. Suleyman as their patron saint. In honor of Suleiman, the pass was named after him and later a famous mosque was erected on this place of worship.

"Tamga -Tash" stone that is situated not far from the settlement of the same name on the bank of Issyk-Kul river is also one of the important evidences of the connection between peoples and times. This bouleder is cracked in two halves, inscribed in ancient Tibetan script "Om Mani Padme Hum". It is through here that Buddhism found its way from India via Central Asia to China and Japan and many a Buddhist monk on his travels along the Taklamakan desert, must have expressed these very words upon reaching the shores of the river, where precious water flowed to quench his thirst. By the local legend the stone was cracked with the stroke of Manas's sabre and the stone remains an evidence of his famed power.

Chokan Valikhanov, after visiting Issyk-Kul in 1856 wrote in his diary that behind Kurmenti on the Ishan-Ata River there was an aspen grove where Kyrgyzs had seen a divine image and thereupon declared it a sacred site.
All branches of trees in this grove were decorated with rags of fabrics and horsehair. It appeared to be the site of a battle between Sarbagish and Bugus tribes with the Sarbagish emerging victorious. The Bugus claimed that since the Sarbagish aul (Kyrgyz village) lay next to the sacred grove, the Bugus' defeat had been somewhat predetermined.

The saint mountain "Kochkor-Ata" as Valikhanov writes, helped the Kyrgyzs to repulse the attack of the Kazakh Sultan Baraka in 1779 " He became so careless and proud of his power that he dared to desecrate the relic of wild Kyrgyzs...". The Kyrgyzs attacked Baraca's camp and chased his troops away, under sacred patronage, as the Kyrgyzs thought. Research by modern scholars brought new evidence, so as the 1974 findings of a weil-known Kyrgyz geographer, Sadibakas Umurzakov, who in his thesis on toponymies states that the word "Issyk" as in Lake Issyk-Kul is deducted from the Turk word "idik" meaning "sacred".

The Mazars are witnesses to the evolution of man. The legends surrounding them are the expression of man's deepest fears, deepest wish, deepest hope and deepest joy. The connection between times and peoples, to this very day and forever.