Kurums (places of worship)

Kurums (ancient Turkic gorum ) ^[1] - “pile of stones”, - a religious building in some areas of Central Asia ; artificial pyramid , made of stones manually by people, in which religious rituals are usually performed ; The term that defines such a structure.

Geographical distribution of the term

“Kurum” in the meaning of cult anthropogenic burial has a narrow geographical location. According to modern data, the term "kurum" as a burial burial is used in the Ferghana Valley and surrounding areas, and, apparently, exists only in the Tajik and Uzbek languages. In other areas of Asia, the term “kurum" refers to an undivided daytime surface composed of coarse stone material.

Origin of Kurums - places of worship

Kurum may be a grave where the remains of a person are buried or an "empty" religious structure. Kurum in Central Asia has several functional features. In areas of Asia where land cover is widespread with a large number of freely lying cameos of natural origin, there is a custom to manually remove stones from a path or road and, sometimes, stack them in piles of a pyramidal shape.

Sometimes kurum is piled over the remains of a deceased or deceased person.

Kurum Tamerlane

There is a legend that when Tamerlan went on a difficult and dangerous military campaign, he ordered each soldier, passing by the tent of the lord, leave one stone. Within three days, a giant kurum was built up, the number of stones in which exactly corresponded to the number of soldiers who went on a campaign. At the end of the campaign, returning home, the surviving warriors took one stone from the kurum. Thus, Tamerlan determined how many soldiers of his army did not return to their homeland after fierce battles.

Kurum Burial

A stone pyramid was placed over the remains of a deceased or dead person so that they were not eaten by animals; then kurum became a grave marked on the ground. Usually he got a proper name. Religious ceremonies could be performed at Kurum, and thus the Kurum grave became a religious building, which was included in the cultural, ethical and historical sphere of man.

Tajik historian Bobojan Gafurov in 1989 writes: ^[2]

... in the Ferghana Valley [this] ... funerary monuments located in the Kuramin ridge ... There are many burial grounds here from the village of Kuruk-sai to Ashta and Pangaz ... which the local population calls Kurums, which means "a cluster of stones "Or [also calls the burial grounds] Mutkhon -" the house of the mugs "

Kurum Pyramid

Kurum pyramid could be folded in an arbitrarily chosen location. But more often, the kumum was piled up with a very definite purpose: to mark a pass on a locality, turn a path or road, mark a branching path, indicate the location of a ford or a crossing over a stream or river, and more.

Kurums - gradually increased in volume and height and thus became a very noticeable anthropogenic element of the landscape. Kurum began to fulfill several extremely important functions:

• utilitarian and cultural function: a reminder that everyone who passes must do a good deed - to remove a stone from a path or road
• ethical meaning: a person is not alone, here is a kurum composed by people; - identification of the traveler with the world of people, which gives him hope along the way and strengthens his spirit; - this is a reminder of the mortality of the world, when the person who put the stone in the kurum is gone; - but I, having put “my” stone in the Kurum, will leave a memory of myself
• a fixed point on the ground from which you can confidently track the track in time intervals or in the national measurement system; for example in chakrams
• a well-visible object on the ground that serves as a guide for general and inclement weather or in conditions of poor visibility
• a road sign where you need to stop and rest for yourself and pack and saddled animals: donkeys, horses, camels and others; a point fixed in oral tradition that can be confidently indicated in the transfer of information to another person about the path that he will go

Human Skull Kurum Pyramid

To intimidate tribes and peoples, the Kurums in Asia were sometimes made up of human skulls. Chronicles and oral traditions connect this historical phenomenon with the activities of Tamerlane or the despot Kashgar - Valikhan-tor. Russian artist, writer and traveler Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin (1842-1904) painted the famous painting “The Apotheosis of War. Oil on canvas ” in 1871 . Dedicated to all the great conquerors - past, present and future ” with the image of a kurum of human skulls in Asia.

Kurum-ob

Some kurums eventually become a cult place for a mandatory stop on the way and the performance of a religious ceremony. Usually - to offer prayers to Allah, Buddha, heaven, river, mountains and other objects of worship with the hope of the well-being of the future path.

Kurum Inversion

Apparently there is an inversion or change over time of the status of the Kurums in the national tradition:

1. genuine grave - a human burial site turns into an ordinary pyramid of stones, when information about a former event is erased in historical memory
2. and vice versa: the pyramid of stones in folk or official mythology acquires the status of a “grave” - the legendary “burial” of human remains

Kurums as a cultural phenomenon of the peoples of Central Asia

Kurums as utilitarian roadside structures artificially created by man or religious buildings - in the culture of the peoples of Central Asia are a very ancient and integral element of organic culture. This is a matter of legitimate pride for the Central Asian peoples; - cultural, ethical, philosophical and historical phenomenon. Kurums are a subject of study in the history of engineering and road construction, science, art, ethics and philosophy.

Some Kurums gained fame in certain regions of Central Asia and firmly entered the culture of the peoples living here.