Crown “Tilla Kash” (Kyrgyzstan)
This is the story of how my family managed to pass from generation to generation an interesting artefact of matrilineal heritage. This is a crown of my great-grandmother who was born at the beginning of the 20thcentury in Alay, which was then a part Turkestan Governor-Generalship of the Russian Empire. This bridal crown, commonly known as tilla kash kyrgak (translated as “golden brow” because the crown as worn above the eye- brows) symbolizes her youth and her wedding which coincided with the time when Soviets were brutally establishing their rule in Central Asia. Her entire life spans through the Soviet period. And she even outlived the Soviet Union. As a child I was fascinated by her crown. I thought my great-grandmother was a princess. But I could not understand why she would, as a Kyrgyz woman wear tilla kash crown which is traditionally worn by Uzbeks and Tajiks.
My great grandmother, Günkü Kulbakova, was a daughter of Kulbak mingbashi (a military title equivalent to colonel, head of thousand soldiers, “ming”- thousand, “bash”-head). She was born around 1900s. Her mother whose name was Satkyn was a Kyrgyz woman. In this regard it is important to mention that polygamy was a widely spread practice in pre-Soviet period. In fact, my ancestor Kulbak mingbashi had multiple wives. One of them was a woman from Osh, allegedly Uzbek whose father was a Farsi-speaking soodager (merchant). Although she was not a real mother of my great-grandmother, they had good relations and she added the bridal crown to the wedding outfit of her Kyrgyz step-daughter.
The wedding took place somewhere between 20s-30s of the XX century. In 1931 my great- grandmother gave birth to my grandmother, Jöjü Sarbasheva. My grandmother Jöjü barely remembers her grandfather Kulbak because in the middle of 1930s he was persecuted by the Soviet authorities for being an old elite and so called “anti-Soviet element”. Kulbak mingbashi persecuted by the Soviets fled to Eastern Turkestan (China) together with all his male relatives and sons, including his infant son from his Uzbek wife in Osh. Why would he take with himself only his male relatives and sons and leave his female relatives in Kyrgyzstan? Because in case of danger Kyrgyz families had to save only their male offspring as in Kyrgyz tribal structures only males could continue patriarchal-family lineage.
My mother told me a story that followed escape of Kulbak mingbashi. His house was searched by Soviet military. There were only women left in his house. They had developed a master plan on saving the gold the family possessed. They put the gold in buckets and poured milk to disguise the contents of the buckets. One of the female relatives of my great-grandmother was supposed to sneak away from house with the bucketsful of milk and gold. However, she failed to accomplish her mission because of the fear, she stumbled at the doorstep and spilled the milk. The Soviets confiscated the gold.
In China Kulbak mingbashi got married again and had other children from that marriage. However, he was shot dead during prayer in a mosque by a Soviet NKVD officer (intelligence).
My mother remembers that great grandmother kept military epaulets of her father in her sandyk (dower chest) together with her crown. Later, my grandmother kept the crown in her chiffonnier. Currently, my mother, Anara Pazylova, keeps this crown. My mom told me that in her childhood (in 1950s) she would wear this crown as Snegurochka (Russian female character) for New Year festivities in her school.
My family story is valuable because it sheds some light on some dark pages in the history of Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia, in particular the period of 1920-30s known for Soviet polices of repression, surges, persecution and collectivization. At the same time, this story symbolizes multiculturalism of Fergana Valley, artificial and social construction of Soviet idea of nation-building and division policy along ethnic-territorial lines. The story also gives insights into a different type of patriarchal polygamic multi-ethnic families that existed among Kyrgyz in pre-Soviet period.
Mingul Seitkazieva is currently pursuing an MBA degree in Sustainable Development at Vienna Modul University and writing a thesis on peacebuilding and local culture in Ferghana Valley.