26 articles
Customs & Pastimes
Feasts, music, hunting, sport and games of the steppe peoples.
- Culture of the Turkic Peoples Overview of the customs of the steppe peoples from the Xiongnu to the Kirghiz: feasts, songs, the hunt, food, dress, the felt tent, marriage, burial, writing and names.
- Er At The man's name won by a deed, er at in Old Turkic. Kül Tegin gets it by his mother's Kut, and Yenisei epitaphs put it before the dead man's name. Some scholars take the pair in the stone to mean an army.
- Falconry minimal Hunting with falcons among the Turkic peoples. In the Irk Bitig a falcon hunts river birds; in al-Kashgari's dictionary a rider sets out with a sacer falcon in his hand.
- Feasts in Kashgari's Dictionary Feasts of the Turkic peoples as Kashgari recorded them in the 1070s. Küdän is the wedding feast, soγdič a winter feast held in turn, kästäm a feast for drinkers who came unasked.
- Fourteen (Köčürmä Oyun) minimal Game drawn on the ground and played with hazelnuts, called köčürmä oyun and glossed 'Fourteen' in Kashgari's dictionary of the 1070s. Four lines make the fortress and ten more the gates.
- Funeral Games of the Caucasian Huns Rites at the graves of the Huns north of the Caucasus, as Bishop Israyēl found them in 681 to 682: drums, cuts on the cheek, sword fights between troops, wrestling and galloping horsemen.
- Göktürk Games The pastimes the Chinese histories ascribe to the Göktürks: a men's game called chupu in Chinese and a ball game of the women. In 599 two refugees from the steppe played chupu at the Sui court.
- Horse and Camel Races at the Xiongnu Sacrifices Running of horses and camels at the three yearly sacrifices of the Southern Xiongnu, in the first, fifth and ninth month. The Hou Han Shu says the tribes ran them for pleasure after the council.
- Hunting among the Göktürks Hunting as a livelihood and a pastime of the Göktürks. The Zhou Shu names it beside herding, and the Tonyukuk inscription has the first Göktürks of the restored khaganate living on game.
- Kirghiz Entertainments Four shows that the Xin Tang Shu lists for the Kirghiz of the upper Yenisei: tricks with camels, a lion performance, feats on horseback and rope skills. Their instruments included flutes and drums.
- Knucklebones minimal Game played with the astragali of animals. Bones scratched with tamga-like signs come from Xiongnu graves, and Kashgari's dictionary has the word said when a bone falls on its underside.
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Mounted Archery Shooting from horseback, the skill of the Xiongnu, the Göktürks, the Tiele and the Uyghurs in the Chinese histories. Xiongnu boys began on sheep. The courts of Wei, Sui and Tang had it shown. - Polo minimal Polo as Kashgari's dictionary records it in the 1070s: the stick čögän, the goal-rope talas, the boundary tasal and a match played for a pair of trousers.
- Seating at the Feast Order of rank among the guests at the feasts and audiences of the steppe rulers and at the Tang court. A guest's place showed his standing, and rival envoys quarrelled over it.
- Stakes and Wagers Stakes in Turkic play: words for wagering in Kashgari's dictionary of the 1070s, and an omen of the Irk Bitig about a man who stakes his sons and women, whose reading is disputed.
- The Battue Ring hunt in which people surround a stretch of country and drive the game together. The Wei emperor used the beaten Gaoche as the ring in 399; the Irk Bitig and al-Kashgari name the battue.
- The Chile Song Song of the Chile, the people the Wei Shu calls Gaoche. The Chile general Hulü Jin sang it before the sick Gao Huan after the failed siege of Yubi in 546; its words survive in a Song anthology.
- The Gaoche Wedding Marriage custom of the Gaoche as the Wei Shu records it. The bride's kin rode the groom's horses bareback out of a pen to win them, and both families feasted on mare's milk and meat.
- The Göktürk Feast Feasting at the khans' courts as foreign guests saw it, from the Roman embassy to Istemi in 569 to Tong Yabgu's court at Suyab: drink and music, meat, rows of guests, silence while the khan spoke.
- The New Year on the Steppe The beginning of the year on the steppe. The Xiongnu chiefs met in the first month. In 741 Tengri Khan sent the Tang emperor New Year wishes. The Kirghiz named their years after twelve animals.
- The Three Xiongnu Assemblies Yearly gatherings of the Xiongnu chiefs. The Shiji names three: at the chanyu's court in the first month, at Longcheng in the fifth, at Dailin in autumn. Kings at odds with the chanyu stayed away.
- The Xianbei Spring Assembly Great assembly of the Xianbei in the last month of spring, on the Raole river. The people drank and feasted there, and marriages were made at it.
- Turkic Songs at the Tang Court Göktürk songs at the Tang court, sung by Wu Yanxiu, whom Kapgan Khan held from 698 to 705. He came back knowing their language. Before him a Göktürk troupe had played at the Sui court.
- Wooden Horses Skis as the Chinese histories describe them: boards bound under the feet and a staff in the hand, for running down deer on snow and ice. Seven peoples of the northern forests are named as users.
- Wrestling minimal Contest of strength between two men. Kashgari's dictionary of the 1070s has the Turkic word čališ, and an Armenian history has Huns wrestling at their graves in 682.
- Wuhuan Funeral Songs Funeral custom of the Wuhuan. They wept at a death and saw the dead off with song and dance at the burial, and a fattened dog was to guard his spirit on the way to the Red Mountain.
Image credits
- Mounted Archery: Silver plate with a Sasanian king hunting rams from horseback, Iran, mid-fifth to mid-sixth century. The rider turns in the saddle and draws the bow at full gallop. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 34.33, Fletcher Fund, 1934. Open Access, public domain (CC0).
