Yurt
Portable round tent of Inner Asian nomads
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A yurt, also called a ger, is a portable round tent traditionally used by nomadic groups in Inner Asia, with a wooden lattice wall, roof ribs, and a crown.[1] In modern contexts, yurts are also used as cafés, museums, and souvenir shops, and are seen as a national symbol among many Central Asian groups.[2] Camels or yaks are used to transport the disassembled parts of a yurt, and setting it up fully requires about two hours.[3]
Quick Facts
- Type
- Portable dwelling
- Region
- Inner Asia (steppes and mountains)
- Primary users
- Several distinct nomadic groups
- Construction time
- 30 minutes to 3 hours
- Occupancy
- 5–15 people
- Materials
- Wood or bamboo lattice
- felt
- skins
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
The Old Turkic word yurt may have been derived from the Old Turkic verb ur- with the suffix +Ut.[4] Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian, provided the earliest known written account of a yurt being used as a home.[5] In present-day Turkish and Uzbek, yurt means either 'homeland' or 'dormitory'.[4] Among old Kazakh communities, the shangyrak—the wooden crown of a yurt—was kept intact and transferred from a father to his son after the father died.[6]
The soot and smoke stains that built up on the shangyrak over many decades served as a way to gauge how long a family had lived in that yurt.[6]
What the cited sources add
The yurt is considered not only the center of the universe but also a microcosm, and the veil of the sky is reflected in the arched form of the interior of the yurt's roof.[7] Movement inside the yurt is conducted “sunwise,” in the sense of a clock, with each person moving in the direction of the sun.[7] The west side of the yurt, on the left hand when entering the front door, is the side reserved for men, while the east side is reserved for women.[7] The crown of the yurt symbolizes the gateway to the upper world, and in some shamanic rituals a tree is erected from the fire through the crown to portray the shaman's journey.[7]
That three-story structure, which opened on November 27, 2015, measures 35 meters tall and 70 meters across, and contains a café, offices, VIP apartments, and a 3,000-seat auditorium.[2] "A white yurt is a symbol of an age-old, distinctive historical-cultural legacy, a sign of preservation of our roots and origins," stated the Turkmenistan state news agency.[2]
References
- Wikipedia, "Yurt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kingsley, "Nomads no more: why Mongolian herders are moving to the city", The Guardian, 2017-01-05 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Yurt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Turkmenistan's Latest Folly: Humongous Yurt", 3 November 2015; "Концерт мастеров искусств тюркоязычных стран прошел в 'Türkmeniň ak öýi'", 28 November 2015 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Yurt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Best Yurt Tent", 22 March 2022 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Yurt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Yurt", Nişanyan Sözlük (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Yurt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: King, "A complete guide to making a Mongolian Ger", Southgate Publishers (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Yurt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Peoples of Western Asia", Marshall Cavendish, September 1, 2006, p. 254 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- van der Haegan, "Mongolian ger decoration", Boston Star Consulting. facts only, no text reused. yurt-ger-yourte.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Yurt (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Yurt (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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