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REGIONAL AND ETHNIC CHARACTERISTICS IN THE TRADITIONAL
DWELLINGS OF THE POPULATION OF THE NORTHERN SURKHAN OASIS
O.A.Abdigapparov
teacher, JDPU
Annotatsiya:
Shimoliy Surxon vohasining tog‘li hududlarida ham mavsumiy va vaqtinchalik
turarjoylar qurilgan. Vohaning ko‘pchilik chorva mollarini boqish uchun tog‘ ustidagi yaylovga
chiqib mavsumiy uylardan bo‘lgan qora uy, o‘tovlarqurib yashaganlar.
Kalit so‘zi:
Shimoliy Surxon vohasi, Tog‘li hudud, Sho‘rchi tumani, Obodon, To‘la qishloq,
Oltinsoy tumani Ipoq, Qumpaykal, Qarluq, Chep qishloq.
Аннотация:
В горных районах Северо-Сурханского оазиса также строятся сезонные и
временные поселения. Большинство жителей оазиса выходили на пастбища на горе пасти
скот и жили в черных домах, которые были сезонными.
Ключевые слова:
Северный Сурханский оазис, Горная местность, Шорчинский район,
Абадон, село Тола, Алтынсойский район, Ипок, Кумпайкал, Карлук, село Чеп.
Abstract:
Seasonal and temporary settlements are also built in the mountainous regions of the
Northern Surkhan oasis. Most of the people of the oasis went to the pasture on the mountain to
graze their cattle and lived in black houses, which were seasonal houses.
Key word:
Northern Surkhan oasis, Mountainous area, Shorchi district, Abadon, Tola village,
Altinsoy district, Ipoq, Kumpaykal, Qarluq, Chep village.
The formation, development, and advancement of material culture are of great
importance in studying the ethnogenesis and ethnic history of the Uzbek people. It is known
from historical and ethnographic literature that, based on the sources of material culture, we can
learn about the lifestyle of our ancestors of the past, their place in economic and cultural
development, and their worthy contribution to the history of world civilization. The construction
of houses on the territory of Uzbekistan has an ancient history, and ancient settlements in the
Northern Surkhan oasis were built taking into account natural conditions. Also, the benefits of
using each constructed building were fully taken into account in the construction of it. The
Eastern thinker Abu Nasir Farobiy noted that housing construction is divided into many
geometric styles, among which there is "the art of creating a history of the architectural
monument being built." Abu Ali ibn Sino also emphasizes the need to consider the location of
the house to be built, its relationship to the wind direction, the composition of the water flowing
past the house to be built, and the presence of sources in the vicinity that could negatively affect
living conditions. In Central Asia, the architecture of each city and residence developed based on
the influence of the natural conditions of the place, weather, and the economic and social life of
the people.
In the construction layout, design, and architectural compositions of the traditional
dwellings of the inhabitants of the Northern Surkhan oasis, we can observe traces of the
construction traditions of cultural and household structures built in the late Middle Ages.
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According to D. Nozilov, a unique Tokharistan (Bactrian) architectural school was formed here
in the Middle Ages [1.b.144]. In particular, we can cite the Sayid Otaliq madrasah, built in two
floors in the 16th century in the center of Denov in the Northern Surkhan oasis, and the mosque
built in 1713 by the saint and poet Sufi Olloyor in the village of Katta Vakhshivor. The mosque
consists of a khanaqoh, an aivan on both sides, and adjoining rooms. The roof of the khanaqoh
and aivan is covered with beams and is made of fine pakhsa. The northeastern side is luxurious,
with mehrab-like arcades. The mihrab porch in the khanaqoh is quite deep, and the four porches
on both sides are decorated with relief lines. Such decorations are also found on the wall of the
southwestern porch. The seventh pillar in the porch and the sixth pillar in the khanaqoh are
decorated with carved and colored patterns. We can see that the construction styles in such
structures were reflected in the construction of houses in the beklik centers such as Denov,
Yurchi, and in villages with a settled population such as Vakhshivor, Sina, and Sangardak. The
roof of the permanent residence of the population consisted of pakhsa, raw brick, guvala, i.e.
"borikalla", shapati, and in mountainous areas, sinch devar, stone wall. Initially, one-room, two-
room houses began to appear at the beginning of the 20th century, "khorjin tom", "bomi tom",
"obdovli tom" and houses with a balcony.
In mountainous regions, permanent settlements were mainly built along streams and rivers, and
the natural and geographical features of the area were taken into account when building houses.
In particular, attention was paid to issues such as the degree of sunlight falling on the area where
the houses were built, protection from cold winds passing through the gorge, rapid flow of rain
and mud into the stream, building houses closer to water and agricultural areas, and protection
from natural disasters.[2.b.68]
In the oasis, local building materials were mainly used in house construction. Since the upper
part of the mountainous regions was covered with forests, the sinch wall was widely used in this
area instead of the pakhsa wall. The sinch wall was distinguished by its great convenience and
strength. It was convenient to install a shelf and a takhmon on the sinch wall. The inhabitants of
the mountainous regions built stone walls or double sinch walls on the windward and floodward
sides. Also, the rooms of houses with sinch walls were spacious and high. The sinch wall
consisted of parts such as tagshinch, kallak, ustun, zabarrav, ustungosha, kalama, hovanda,
pushtak, and bachki. In addition to the sinch wall, in the mountainous regions of the oasis, kesak,
i.e. guvala walls were also used. We can observe this situation in the foothill villages of the oasis.
During the period under study, the main dwellings of the semi-sedentary pastoralist population
of the North Surkhan oasis were seasonal and temporary, consisting of a hut, a hut, a chum, a
tent, a yurt The hut was introduced to the Oghuz at the end of the first millennium. In the work
"Hudud al-Olam" of an unknown author, referring to the Kalmyks living on the banks of the
Irtysh, it is said: "In winter and summer, people live in black houses, moving in search of pasture
and water." [4.p.184] Therefore, the hut, as the main means of housing for nomadic peoples,
appeared in the middle of the first millennium AD. The huts of the inhabitants of different
regions of Uzbekistan have been studied by some scholars of folklore[5.b.29]. However, the huts
of the inhabitants of the Northern Surkhanokh region are distinguished by their own
characteristics.
The “black house” - huts of the inhabitants of the oasis consisted of two parts; a) a keraga, uvuk
and khan'arok, made of willow (yellow willow)[6.b.355] branches, which are called the bones of
this house; b) the equipment covering the roof of the house - torlik, uzuk and tyunuk. The fence
of the house was divided into keragas, and the keragas were from 48 to 74 heads. Basically, one
hut was divided into four keragas, each of which occupied a quarter of the house and was called
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a “wing”. The place where the wings met was called “jafsar”. The jafsars were driven into the
jafsars with a height of six and a half to eight and a half kurs and were fastened to the jafsars
with jafsar ropes (bows). Four kuras were combined to form the fence of the hut. The fence cells
formed by the kuras were called "kozanaks". There were wide types of kozanaks, i.e. "el
kozanaks" and "tor kozanaks", and the sedentary farmers of the North Surkhan oasis mainly built
houses with narrow cells. The semi-sedentary residents of the oasis built houses with wide cells.
Because houses with wide cells were relatively light and compact, there was only a small space
for the pack animal (camel, horse or donkey) during migration. If each wing had 12 “chinok”,
that is, “kuloq”, the hut was called a “48-head” hut, and if there were 16 “chinok”, it was called a
“64-head” hut134. The keraga fences were tied with “keraga ko‘ki”, that is, specially made
straps made of ox or camel skin. The keraga ko‘ki was also used as the “ashiq-moshig” of the
black house. In the villages of Kho‘jamulki, Shaldiraq, and Obodon, the keragas formed fences
7-8 kurich high when spread out, while in the villages of Kumpaykal and Qarluq they formed 6
kurich. When folded, they formed 12-14 kurich high and 3-4 kurich wide[7.b.95].
In the Northern Surkhan oasis, the uvuks of the black house were made of willow branches, and
in the villages of Obodon and Tola in the Shorchi district, and in the village of Chakar in the
Uzun district, they were from ten to fourteen kurichs long, while in the villages of Ipok,
Kumpaykal, Qarluq, and Chep in the Oltinsoy district, they were eight to nine kurichs long, and
their diameter was one and a half to two joints of the middle finger. The bent part of the uvuk
was fastened to the "chinok" (ears) of the door. The number of uvuks depended on how many
heads the house had, so if the black house had 52 heads, there were 52 uvuks, or if it had 74
heads, there were 74 uvuks. Of course, orphan uvuks were not included in this. Orphan uvuks
referred to the upper threshold, that is, the five uvuks installed above the door. Because the bent
part of the orphan uvuks was shorter, not more than one scythe. The ends were inserted into the
holes of the scythe138. The “scythe” of the black house was made of willow in the form of a
circle, its circumference was 8-9 scythes, and its thickness was one scythe. This was called the
“kasqog”. The upper part of the scythe’s scythe was made of willow sticks bent in the form of a
dome and inserted into the first row of holes carved from the top of the scythe. The sticks were
crossed in the form of a cross, and the middle part was tied with a strap made of camel or ox hide
(skin). A red thread (bow) called “scythe solm” was wound along the base of the scythe[8.b.357].
The upper part of the hut was covered with two “rings” made of felt and four “cords”141. In
this case, the upper part of the house was covered with two rings from the roof to the rafters. The
upper part of the ring was cut in a circle to fit the rafters. The front one was pulled to the back
with 6-8 red ropes with a cap. The back ring was pulled over the holes towards the front of the
house with 8-10 ropes and was tied to the roof of the house with the front part of the ring
intersecting with each other. The white rope of the ring was one inch wide. It also had 38 to 64
white tags, which were half an inch wide. These tags were pulled down and fastened to the roof
of the house. The tags were important in making the house look beautiful and white. One of the
ancient dwellings was the kurgans, and even in the 19th and early 20th centuries, since a certain
part of the people did not have the opportunity to build luxurious houses, they built artificially
made kurgans from natural hills on the sides of the kurgans to protect themselves from cold,
storms and rain, and they lived on the kurgans with mud. According to the informants, even in
the 50s-80s of the 20th century, herders collected fodder and lived in kurgans to protect
themselves from rain and snow in remote pastures [9.b.99].
Seasonal and temporary settlements were also built in the mountainous regions of the North
Surkhan oasis. In most villages of the oasis, two to three people from each household went to the
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pasture on the mountain to graze their livestock, built black houses, huts, which were seasonal
houses, and lived there for 3-4 months. Of course, they rested in the huts, cooked hot meals, and
kept personal belongings. Such villages were called pastures. Each village had its own pasture,
and they went to their pastures every year. In some regions of Uzbekistan, the places where
shepherds built their huts were called “double pastures” or “double pastures”. In general, at the
end of this section, it can be noted as a conclusion that the formation of traditional settlements of
the North Surkhan oasis was associated with ethnic, socio-economic, and partly political factors.
In other words, the traditional dwellings of the region's population also showed the general
development of the material culture of the peoples of Uzbekistan. The general directions of
socio-economic and political development of Uzbekistan over many centuries have led to the
formation of the economic types, lifestyles and local natural conditions of the population of the
region. In this regard, the traditional dwellings of the oasis population, along with having many
similarities with other regions of Uzbekistan, have also acquired their own local traditional
features. This uniqueness is primarily associated with the specific natural and geographical
conditions and economic, cultural and ethnic characteristics of this region. In particular, the
permanent dwellings of the semi-sedentary pastoralists, kung'irats, uyz, dorons, kenagas in the
oasis differed in their structure and interior from those of the sedentary - chigatai, khojas,
harduris and Tajiks.
To summarize, in the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, ethnosocial processes also
influenced the development of the dwellings of the inhabitants of the Northern Surkhan oasis.
These processes were primarily associated with the socio-economic changes that took place in
the country. It was precisely socio-economic changes that caused a specific transformation of the
traditional dwellings of the oasis inhabitants. Transformation processes were more reflected in
the dwellings of the wealthy strata of the population. The dwellings of the pastoral population
also took on a special appearance under the influence of the culture of the settled population, that
is, the construction, equipment and architecture of the house were influenced by the culture of
the settled population. The change in the lifestyle of semi-nomadic peoples, the destruction of
the traditional economic sphere, led to a very rapid change in dwellings. The process of
settlement initially began among poor pastoralists.
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6. Прошлое Казахстана в источниках и материалах. –Алма-Ата, 1935. –С. 29.
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Х.И.
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