Glossary
The encyclopedia of the tourist
B
Baetova.
The center of the Ak-Talaa region - 120 km from Naryn,
Baetova lies on the road between Lake Son-Kul and Tash-Rabat
- but the road is difficult and really needs a 4WD vehicle.
Top
Balykchi.
At the extreme Western end of Lake Issyk-Kul.
Once known as
Kutmaldy, the Russians named the town Riybachiye -
after the fishing industry that was based here - Ryba is
Russian for fish. After independence it was renamed Issyk-Kul
- but this caused confusion and the name was changed in 1992
to Balykchi (which is the Kyrgyz equivalent of Riybachiye -
balyk is Kyrgyz for fish). It is mainly important now as a terminus
for the railroad from Bishkek and junction of the road to China
and those going along the Northern and Southern shores.Top
Bar-Bulak.
At the Western end of the Kongur-Olun valley archaeologists
have discovered a complex of ancient ruins dating
from the 10th to the 12th century. Bar-Bulak is also the
name of a mineral water from the village of Ton.Top
Barskoon. Barskoon and Tamga are twin Kyrgyz
and Russian villages at the mouth of the Barskoon valley - which has an impressive
waterfall and is a good centre for trekking and horsering.
The 11th century scholar Mahumud al-Kashgari (also known as Barskhani)
was a native of this area. He is best known as the author of the first Turkic
languages comparative dictionary which he wrote whilst living in Baghdad
in 1072-1074. His map of the then known world has Barskoon at the centre of
the world. His tomb is South of Kashgar - on the road to Pakistan.
The road from Barskoon which passes up the Barskoon valley, (the A364)
used to be one of the routes of the Silk Road, passing over the Bedel Pass
(4284 m) into China.
It is now the main road leading to the Kumtor Gold mine - hence it is
well maintained and there is a reasonable amount of traffic - including
lorries making their way up to the mine and back.
There are two interesting along the road - a Soviet lorry mounted on a
plinth and a bust of Yuri Gagarin, who holidayed on the South shore of Issyk
Kul after his historic first manned space flight.
In the mountains to the East is a region known as Sytyr - an «alpine cold
desert».
In Soviet times the road turned East along the upper Naryn River and looped
round over the Yshtyk Pass (3689 m) to Ak Shyrak, Enilchek and eventually
back to the city of Karakol. Unfortunately, some of the bridges are now down
and the road, (never an easy route), is no longer passable. Top
Batken, region. Batken
is situated in the extreme South West of the Republic, and consists
of four mountainous regions, with altitudes ranging from 400
to 5621 m asl.
The oblast was created in 1999 after incursions
by armed militants of the Islamic Movement for Uzbekistan seeking
to cross Kyrgyz territory between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The administrative center is the town of Batken.
The oblast includes a number of enclaves belonging to Tajikistan
and Uzbekistan, created when the borders of the republics were
settled by a commission of the Soviet Union in the time of Joseph Stalin.
There are seven enclaves altogether - some very small, not much more
than the size of a farm. The largest is the Sokh enclave which belongs
to Uzbekistan.
The region is not very well known - there is
not a lot of information available, even in the Republic itself
- and most tourists tend to come from within Kyrgyzstan itself or
the surrounding republics - and there are a number of tour-bases around
the oblast, (notably the «Pyramida-dolina» in the Batken region, Ak-Suu,
and Ozgorush in the Laylak region, and Dugaba in the Kadamjaiski region)
which have been host to a number of international mountaineering expeditions.
There have also been attempts to develop skiing and caving in the region.
There are a number of sites of antiquity scattered
throughout the region. Top
Bedel,
pass. The road from Barskoon which passes up
the Barskoon valley, (the A364) used to be one of the routes
of the Silk Road, passing over the Bedel Pass (4284 m) into
China.Top
Bel
Saz, jailoo. The Bel-Saz jailoo lies in the Kegety
valley and can be the base for various treks and horseriding.
Top
Besh-Tash. To
the south of Talas, lies the valley of Besh-Tash («five stones»).
The road climbs slowly at first and follows the Besh-Tash river
to a height of 2997 meters as, where there are some mountain lakes.
Constantly changing, wild, spectacular mountain.Top
Beshkent.
In the centre of the village, archaeologists have found
evidence of an ancient settlement.Top
Bishkek.
Late Stone age implements have been found in the Alamedin
valley. Bronze age artifacts have been found within the
city boundaries and there is archaeological evidence of early settlement
in the area was by: the Saks - an iron age nomadic people herding
livestock; the Usans - who combined nomadic herding with settled
agriculture; the Turks - arriving from Siberia, they beat the Huns
in a battle at Talas and established a Khanate; the Sogd - based on
Samarkand and Bukhara, the Sogdians were Indo-European traders and
farmers whose cities became centres on the Great Silk Road; the Samanids
- a sedentary Muslim people; the Karakhanids («Black Khans») who established
a capital at Balasugan (Burana - near Tokmok); the Mongols and Tartars
- under Genghis Khan and the Kyrgyz themselves- first mentioned in Chinese
chronicles in the 2nd century BC, they arrived from the upper Yenisei
River Valley in the 10th century, became firmly established in the
region by the 15th century.
There have been four major settlements
on the site that is now occupied by Bishkek: Jul - 6th-12th
century; Pishpek - 1825-1926; Frunze - 1926-1991; Bishkek
- 1991 to the present.
Jul - a Sogdian
city on the Great Silk Road - 6th-12th century. Although
archaeological excavations have recovered artifacts, all
traces of this city have now disappeared. A walled quadrangle,
It occupied an area between the modern streets Orozbekova,
Lenigradskaya and Kirova. A varied population included Zoroastianists,
Buddhists, Nestorian and Manichean Christians. The Mongols
and Tartars under Genghis Khan destroyed it.
Pishpek - one of 35
fortresses built in the region by Khokand to extend control
over the Chu valley. Built in 1825, it occupied approximately
250 sq. m. It had high clay walls and two concentric perimeters
and contained living quarters, a guardhouse, armoury, workshops,
mosque and treasury. About 150 soldiers were garrisoned here,
and hostages of the local population also lived here as a «peace
pledge». A settlement grew up around the fortress populated
mainly by Sarts, (Uzbeks). Conquered by a detachment of 600 Russians
from Vernoe, (present day Almaty) in 1860 in a 7-day assault, it
was abandoned, although a stronger fortress was later built by Kokand.
In 1862, local Kyrgyz and Kazakh chiefs appealed for Russian aid
in overthrowing Kokand domination and succeeded in destroying Pishpek
once again. According to local legend the commandant of the fortress
was invited to a feast and then he and his detachment were killed
on their return journey. A siege began and with the help of 1400
Russian troops from Vernoe and after 10 days of quite vigorous fighting
the fortress finally fell. In 1864 the site became an important Cossack
base and it became a regular relay point for the imperial mail service.
Increasing numbers of Russian settlers began to arrive, mostly freed
serfs, who enjoyed tax breaks, cash incentives and free wood to help
build new homes. At this time the Russians administered the region from
their base at Tokmok, but a flood in Tokmok 1877, led to the adoption
of a plan to develop Pishpek. Army engineers planned a rectangular
grid of streets, which survives to this day and was elaborated in the Soviet
period. The city occupied the area between the modern streets Jibek Joly,
Togolok-Moldo, Engels and the Alamedin River - an area of about 5 sq. km.
In the first official census in 1882, there were 2135 inhabitants, mostly
Sarts, Tartars, Dungans, Russians and Ukranians - there were 6 Kyrgyz.
The Dungans were probably refugees from the Uprising in Xinjiang
- given subsidies by the authorities and assigned a plot of land
to the West of the town rubbish dump. By the end of the century there
were over 752 houses, mostly simple thatched roofed brick shacks, two
schools (for Europeans), one three-bed hospital, and a small industrial
sector with flourmills and leather works. The city elected its first
mayor in 1895 - Ilya Terentev. By 1914 the city was home to some 20,000
inhabitants. There was a cinema, a newspaper, two orthodox churches,
several mosques, a Russian high school for boys, a horticultural
school as well as several other schools for the local population, a
brewery, a distillery, flour mills and other small plants and at least
one automobile. (The brewery made 10 times more money than the other
18 enterprises combined). There were over 500 shops, a weekly market
and an annual fair. A new one with 14 beds had replaced the hospital,
the ambulance was a sledge pulled by a camel. In the uprising of 1916
- Pishpek was left alone although neighbouring villages were raided.
After a New Year's party on
1st January 1918, a group of Bolsheviks armed themselves
and «arrested» the garrison command, releasing the prisoners
held in the local jail. Over the next few months, they established
control over the region, but in December they faced a counter-revolution.
In the village of Belovodsk, about 30km west of Bishkek, the post
office was seized by a curious group of anti-Bolsheviks who managed
to take control of large parts of both Pishkek and Djambul regions.
Within a week they were marching on Pishkek itself. The battle
for the city lasted 8 days, but the defenders (commanded by Logvinenko
- who hurried here with reinforcements from Almaty) - managed to overcome
the attackers and the counter-revolution was defeated. The soldiers
who died in the fight defending the revolution were buried and
a memorial erected in Oak Park, near where the Russian Theatre now
stands. Logvinenko became a hero and had a street named after him.
(When he died in the 1930 he joined the «Martyrs» in their communal
grave). This ended the counter revolution in the North of the country,
but during the civil war the Bolsheviks were threatened by the Basmachi
movement which even «liberated», for a time, the Parmir district in
the South.
In 1924 Pishpek became the political
and administrative centre of the Kyrgyz Autonomous Region.
Frunze - The city was
named in honour of MV Frunze, a famous Communist leader
and Soviet hero who was born in the city then called Pishpek
in 1885 - the son of a Moldovian doctor«s assistant. His statue
stands opposite the railway station at the top of Prospect Erkindik
- and there is a museum dedicated to him on Frunze Street. In the
museum a small house is preserved that, so it is claimed, is the
one in which he was born (although it is now thought that they preserved
the wrong one!). After a tempestuous youth in Moscow, (and numerous
arrests for revolutionary activity), he ended up commanding
the Red Guards who occupied the Kremlin in October 1917. He was
a major character in the Civil War directing the defeat of the White
Army in Siberia and the campaign in the Caucasus. Frunze led the Bolshevik
forces that seized Khiva and Bukhara after the uprising of 1920, and
pushed the Basmachi rebels out of the Ferghana valley. He replaced
Trotsky as Commissar for War, introduced compulsory universal conscription
and helped shape the Red Army into a formidable force. After Lenin»s
death he survived several mysterious car accidents, but in 1925 he
was told he was ill and that he had to undergo a stomach operation -
not by a doctor but by the Central Presidium! He died as a result of the
Operation.
Faced with the disastrous winter
of 1921, Lenin issued a appeal to the workers of the world
to come and help build Socialism. A group of Czech socialists
answered the call and arrived by train 1925. They built themselves
workshops and a small village (Rabochy Gorodok = The worker«s
village), which still exists. They then set about constructing
schools, hospitals, the town»s first bank, government house and other
major public works.
The population did not escape
the repression of the Stalinist regime. A short distance
outside the city is Chon-Tash - now a popular tourist resort
for people from the city. 1991 saw the televised excavation
of a mass grave of some of the victims of Stalinist repression. Diggers
discovered a 4×4 × 4 chamber, 40 cm below ground, containing
some 137 (or 138 according to some sources) skeletons, some complete
with personal effects/papers - It is thought that the entire Supreme
Soviet Central Committee of the Republic of 1937 - plus a few other
important individuals including Torokul Aitmatov (father of the
Kyrgyz author Chinghiz Aitmatov) were murdered here by the KGB over
two nights. The bodies have since been moved 100m to the «Ata Beyit»
cemetery («The cemetery of the fathers»). Chinghiz Aitmatov paid
for the transfer. The discovery was made because, although the KGB
swore the caretaker to secrecy, he told his daughter on his deathbed
in the 1980s. After independence she came forward to tell the story.
During WWII - Frunze developed
as a major city. Several key factories, (including the
Lenin works on Prospect Mira) were evacuated to the city
away from the approaching German armies. Whole populations of
Russian Germans and Koreans were forcibly repatriated here. Kyrgyz
soldiers fought in the Red Army and number some 7 «Heroes of the
Soviet Union» among their ranks. Busts of these heroes can be
found on Molodaya Gvardia (Avenue of the Young Guards).
Following the war there was
a planned expansion of the city with the development
of the micro regions (like suburbs) with numerous apartment
blocks being built, and many public buildings. During the 1970«s
and 1980»s there was again a massive building progamme and many
of the impressive, white marble faced government and public buildings
were erected.
In 1967, Bishkek saw one of
the rare popular «uprisings» of the Soviet period. The
central market at that time was on the site now occupied by
Victory Park. A group of policemen on patrol stopped and beat
unconscious a drunken soldier. Shoppers, believing the soldier
to be dead turned upon the police, encircling them - and a
riot ensued. The city«s main police headquarters were actually
stormed and ransacked, and others were attacked. Patrolmen
were dragged from their cars. A mass demonstration led to a march
on the KGB headquarters, which was broken up by troops.
Bishkek - The city
was renamed Bishkek in April 1991. There are several
versions of what the name means - but the most common version
is that is from the name of an implement used by Kyrgyz women
to beat milk in a churn to make kumiz (a fermented drink made
from mare"s milk). There is a legend that the Khan»s wife forgot
her bishkek and as it was very precious, being studded with jewels,
the khan was very angry and sent 40 men to search for it. Unable
to find it, and afraid to return - they settled down to a life in
exile and called their encampment Bishkek. Another legend refers
to five knights who found the land so beautiful the fought over it.
In the Kyrgyz language «Besh» means five and «kek» means «chief». A
third links the name to the grave of a busy craftsman whose nickname
was «Bishbek» - because he was always busy, like a Bishkek making Kumiz.
Yet another links it to the Kazakh words «Bes biik» which means «five
peaks». The «official» version recorded in the «Atlas of the Kirghiz
SSR» - suggests that it is a corruption of the ancient Sogdian term
pishagakh — which means «place below the mountains»
The city saw troops moved onto
the streets between the city and the airport hours before
the August 1991 coup in Moscow. No one seems certain who ordered
them to marshall there. On the day regular television and
radio programmes were replaced by broadcasts of Swan Lake,
and eventually President Askar Akaev announced to the nation what
had happened.
The city continues to grow and
develop. The skyline sees new building designs (in an
«individualistic» style), which are a deliberate break with
the Soviet Block architectural style. New, western style, café
and shop fronts have been erected, in summer time a large number
of open-air cafes appear in the parks and on streets, advertising
hoardings have spring up and the volume of traffic has grown. In short
- Bishkek is developing into a modern, western style city. Top
Bokonbaevo.
The town of Bokonbaevo is about half way between Balykchi
and Karakol on the Southern shore of the lake. It is
named after a famous Kyrgyz poet.
Once a thriving
town - it has suffered from the economic downturn after
independence, but many people are returning to traditional
farming, hunting (e. g. with birds) and crafts - and
it is now a local centre for these. There is also a local museum
with a collection of paintings by local artists. To the west
is the gumbez (mausoleum) of Tara-Suu.
It lies at the
foot of several valleys, including the Kongur-Olun valley
- which runs for some distance parallel to the road on the
other side of the mountain ridge. Nearby are some radon hot
water springs, the ancient settlement of Khan Debe and the Tuuara
Suu barrows (burial mounds) dating from the 6th to the 5th centuries
BC.Top
Boom
gorge. At the eastern end of the Kyrgyz Range
- converging together through this narrow canyon are a highway,
a railway, and the Chu River. Most people simply drive through
and don«t stop - passing over «Red Bridge», which crosses
the Chu river at the mid-point of the Gorge and onto Issyk Kul.
To the west from here you can see the Konorchek canyons.
The road is lined
with statues of Snow Leopards Eagles and Stags and
an occasional «pioneer». The Bishkek - Balykchi railway also
travels through the gorge - rising high above the road, There
are walls designed to prevent landslides cascading down
onto the road below - but despite these, occasionally landslips
do manage to close the road for a time.
The gorge offers
plenty of opportunities for rafting, camping and
trekking. It also offers possibilities for White Water Rafting.
Top
Bosteri.
A village to the East of Cholpon-Ata - center for a
number of Sanatroia and resorts.Top
Bozuchuk.
A village, South of Novovoznesenovka, (on the road
from Karakol to Enilchek), which has springs which are
supposed to have curative properties.Top
