Abstract
THE "TASTAR ATA" KURGAN IN KYRGYZSTAN AS A CULT PHENOMENON
"Taştar Ata" is one of the sacred places located in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyz-stan. Taştar Ata is also a kurgan where stone balbals, oboos, votive trees, petro-glyphs, traditional Kyrgyz house Boz Üy, are located, where traces of old Turkish folk beliefs blended with Islam and new forms of old Turkish folk beliefs are seen, where worship and rituals are held for various purposes. Kyrgyz Turks often visit places they consider sacred, ancestral graves and such places to pray to the souls of their ancestors, pay their respects to them, sacrifice, wish health, children, money, work, etc., and to ask for protection from ancestral spirits. During these visits, several cult mountains, stones, ancestors, the dead, fire, trees, etc., inter-twined in religious practices and rituals, are revealed. In this study, other inter-twined cults, especially the cult of ancestors that reached from animist period to Islamic period in Taştar Ata, is sacred for the Kyrgyz Turks, were examined and evaluated in terms of visits to sacred places and their functions. In addition, the use of treatment based on the conversion of substance abuse and mental prob-lems into stone for the purpose of treatment and rehabilitation at Taştar Ata, is carried out by physicians within the medical center of substance-alcohol depend-ent people, “Lapidopycoterapy” (LPT], has been discussed.
Keywords
Taştar Ata, kurgan, cult, therapy, rehabilitation, Kyrgyzstan.
