User:Idashyn/Тамгалы-Тас

Coordinates 44°3′43.18″N 77°0′2.62″E

Buddha's image in Tamgaly-Tas tract

Buddha's image on stone

Tamgaly-Tás (“stones with signs / written stones”) is a tract near the Ili River, 120 km north of the city of Almaty, where many petroglyphs, images of mysterious deities, and late Buddhist inscriptions are preserved on the rocks. Among the petroglyphs, there are about a thousand rock images, among which the most famous are the images of the Buddha Shakyamuni, the Buddha of Limitless Light Amitabha and the bodhisattva of Infinite Sympathy Avalokiteshvara. In addition to Buddhist drawings and inscriptions there is a stone with ancient Türkic runic inscriptions of the 8th-9th centuries, supposedly left by the Kipchaks. Tamgaly-Tas is protected by the Government of Kazakhstan as a cultural monument and is an open-air Buddhist temple, as evidenced by the sign at the entrance to the tract.

History

There is a legend that in the 10th century, when one of the Buddhist missions stopped on the banks of the Ili River during a campaign in Semirechye, an earthquake occurred and a large piece of rock fell to the ground, which was regarded as a sign of the need to return to India. The prediction on this stone says that there will be 3 world. On the breakaway piece of rock, they carved three images of Buddha. Scientists have solved the riddle of all the runes on it, it says that in 2004, on March 6, a prophet will be born. On the adjacent rocks you can find his other images, pikey was killed there.

According to another version, the inscriptions were made by Kalmyks on the “Todorha noyn bichig” (“clear literary letter”), which was created by Zaya Pandita Ogtorguyn in 1648 and was used by more than three centuries Mongol nomads who carved Buddha images.

Studies of stones in Tamgaly-Tas began at the end of the XIX century. In 1875, Chokan Valikhanov made sketches of the area, in 1899, Mongolian Alexei Pozdneev in the “Notes” of the Russian Geographical Society gave a detailed description of the inscriptions and drawings

Nikolay Pantusov, who studied the area in 1897, wrote:

Киргизы, кочующие в этой местности, говорят только, что они из рассказов своих предков знают, что начерченные изображения и надписи на камнях были сделаны калмыками ещё до прихода на эти места киргизов. Кочующие здесь киргизы прибыли сюда лет двадцать тому назад с рек Каратал и Коксу; раньше их здесь жили дулаты, которые ушли в Верненский уезд. О Тамгалы Тас киргизы эти имеют весьма недостаточные сведения. Местность Тамгалы Тас получила своё название уже от киргизов и означает «камень со знаками».

Renato Sala, an Italian archaeologist, characterized this place:   Tamgaly Tas - is a very rare monument. This is the sacred temple of Buddhism, which was used for prayers and meditation. Images similar to Tamgaly Tas were discovered in Kyrgyzstan, China, India, Pakistan and the homeland of Buddhism, Tibet

Transfer to private hands

On April 14, 2016, the public state territory of the Tamgaly-Tas gorge with an area of 255 hectares along the Ili River was transferred to a long-term lease to a private company (Exim Commerce Group LLP), which is engaged in retail trade.

Sources

[[Category:Rock art in Asia]] [[Category:Almaty Region]]