Russian Turkestan. History, people, customs. Cheerful and diverse khulja Find the city of khulja in china

Upon arrival in Western China in 1931, my parents ended up in the city of Ghulja, Xinjiang Province, and the subsequent years of their stay there lived both in the city itself and in its environs.

The population of the city and its environs was multinational, but the vast majority of it consisted of Uighurs. But among the Uighur population also lived Tatars, Uzbeks, Russians, Shibins, Dungans* and Chinese. Moreover, there were few purely Chinese population, and therefore the Chinese had to know the universal Turkic language with its various dialects. I must say that many Chinese, in addition, spoke broken Russian. People of different nationalities lived peacefully and amicably among themselves. Very often people had friends of other nationalities, but such closeness as getting married or getting married was not allowed, and if it happened, which was very rare, then everyone generally treated this phenomenon negatively.

As for the terrain, I am afraid that I do not have enough skill and words to present the real picture to the imagination.

The Ili River originates in the Tien Shan Mountains and flows along a fairly wide lowland, crossing the Russian-Chinese border. Then she carries her waters across Russian land and pours them into Lake Balkhash. Like all rivers, its beginning is small, but since each gorge supplies it with a stream of water, it soon turns into a full-flowing, powerful river. On the east side to the south, and then along the south to the west, the Tien Shan mountains stretched along the lowlands, and on the north side, from east to west, there were also high mountains with the Dzungarian Alatau ridge, which divided the Ili Territory into northern and southern regions. From the main ridge along the southern, that is, the sunny side, a lot of large gorges scattered, which, accommodating countless small ones, curving, evenly descended to the Ili River. Not only nomadic peoples - Kirghiz, Kazakhs, Mongols, but also Russians lived in these picturesque places, forming large settlements and villages in some places. Such large villages even had their own Russian schools with their own teaching staff. The names of Russian villages better known to me are Dashagur, Shashagur, Tolki, Kunes, Tekes, Ken-Sau, Kara-Su, Nilki, Butkhana. Each of these mountainous areas had its own natural features and its own beauty. No wonder the Chinese call these places "Xinjiang Ganzhou", comparing them with the picturesque Ganzhou of inland China. The Ili River cuts through the intermountain valley along its northern part closer to the northern mountains. Almost at the foot of the northern mountains on the banks of the Ili River, immersed in greenery, stands our city of Ghulja, with which all my memories of China are connected. Between the river and the southern mountains stretched a waterless desert, which we crossed more than once in the carriage both from north to south and in the opposite direction. Due to the fact that the air was dry and clean there, far beyond the valley to the south, the Tien Shan mountains covered with a gentle blue were visible. On the southern bank of the Ili there were, as it were, deliberately placed fortresses, called locally Sumuls: Sumul the First, Sumul the Second, etc. Approximately at a distance of two hours by car west of Gulja there was another town called Suidun, already known to the reader, in which Dutov's army stood after it crossed the border of China. In Suidun, as in Ghulja, the population mainly consisted of Uighurs, but peoples of other nationalities also lived there.

The main city of those places was the city of Ghulja, which was surrounded by many large and small villages. Both in Ghulja and in the surrounding villages there were many gardens, and consequently, there were many fruits in the summer. A variety of fruits grew there: apples, both garden varieties of many varieties, and wild ones, apricots, apricots, pears, plums, cherries, sweet cherries, peaches, grapes, etc. Since the city was located between the valley and the mountains, in summer the temperature in it was more or less temperate, while it was cool in the mountains and very hot in the valley. On both sides of the river, the temperature in summer was very favorable for growing watermelons, so there used to be a lot of melons on which both different varieties of watermelons and melons were grown. At least that was the case before communism came, and under it no one had the right to work for themselves. Huge trees grew in a row on both sides of the streets in the city, and behind them, along their lines, irrigation canals flowed through all the streets, which we called "ditches". In the summer, anyone who wanted to use their water could use it to water the vegetable gardens, flowers and gardens that grew in the yards. Behind the ditches, at the very walls of buildings and yards, sidewalks stretched, and wide bridges were thrown into each yard, serving the entry of carts. The walls of the yards were usually high with large wooden gates. One wall of the house with windows always faced the street, and the windows were, as a rule, with shutters, which were closed at night and locked from the inside. Life in the city usually proceeded calmly: there were no robberies or murders, although this very rarely happened. Before communism, the streets were watered every evening in the summer, often swept, and in the fall, leaves falling from trees were raked into heaps and then set on fire. Near each house on the street there were wooden benches, on which people rested in the evenings in the summer. Summer evenings there were usually pleasant, warm and quiet. Both the streets themselves and the sidewalks were unpaved, and therefore mud was kneaded on them in spring and autumn. Returning from the street, each person had to wash their shoes and then dry them by the stove. It was said that when the Russians ran to Gulja, it was even worse in spring and autumn, when huge pits were knocked out along the street roads, where there was a lot of traffic, which, in turn, were filled with liquid or thick mud, and in such pits, it happened , donkeys drowned. It was very crowded to pass along the paths where people walked, and it often happened then, as the elders said, when two people walked towards them, the Uyghurs, having caught up, purposely pushed the Russians into the mud.

In winter it was cold there, and therefore the snow lay white until spring and did not even melt along the roads. Occasionally, but there were such frosts that the birds fell down in flight, like a stone, frozen. The temperature sometimes reached minus forty degrees Celsius and even lower. Schools were usually closed on such frosty days, and I don't remember how the students found out about this. Probably without suspecting anything, everyone came to the school, found its doors closed, which they were always extremely happy about. The schoolchildren were not particularly afraid of the frost, on the contrary, they also had time to frolic on the road, and knock down the beautiful white snow formed from the frost on themselves from the branches of trees.

Spring was a particularly pleasant time of the year, with many clear days. If there were clouds, they floated like clouds, and between them a blue-blue sky appeared and then disappeared, and with it a pure sun peeped out, directing its warm, cheerful rays to the earth. It got warmer and warmer every day, and by April no one was wearing a coat. The sun, clouds and revived nature had such a beneficial effect on people that, it seems to me, in the springtime, many sorrows were quickly forgotten.

On the other hand, the weeping autumn in the second half of September and early October was very unpleasant: there were often cloudy days, it became colder and colder, small long rains lasted for several days.

In summer, a person did not need a coat, or a jacket, or a knitted light sweatshirt, and if summer had already come, then it was pleasant in one dress both day and night. And how many clear, cheerful days there were! It often rained, but they were fleeting: a cloud would come, it would pour, and again the sun would shine, rejoicing the soul, and one could freely save oneself from the rain under a branchy tree.

I had to travel around the world, I was in many countries, but nowhere did I manage to meet such spring and summer weather and our beauty of nature with its clean, fast mountain rivers running along clean pebbles sparkling in the sun between, as if on purpose, laid out river shores. The water in them was clear, like a teardrop, and it rushed, hitting large and small stones brought in the flood, randomly scattered along the banks and the channel. I have never met anywhere such majestic, untouched by anyone, snowy and rocky, sheer as a wall, or gently sloping, interspersed with deep, always with a river, gorges. Infinitely green in summer, peculiar mountains with many different colors and crystal-clear air, were visible in a fresh blue color so well that one could distinguish snow mounds and forest thickets on their slopes.

There were no paved or paved streets in the city, so dust was raised from the movement of wagons in the summer, and from a distance one could see the air of a different color, rising like a hat over the city. The villagers, whose faces were distinguished by freshness and blush, said of the townspeople that they were pale and unhealthy in comparison with those who lived outside the city.

Rural residents constantly came to the city for various needs: to sell something, buy or have a little fun and go to church. They came in the summer in carts, on walkers, and in the winter on wooden sledges. They stayed with relatives, if there were any, but not with friends, acquaintances, or with their children who studied in the city.

Before communism, people had their own horses, cows, chickens. In the summer, every morning, the city shepherds gathered and drove the cows to pasture, and in the evening they drove them. Basically, people in the city kept only one cow for milk and fed it with purchased hay in winter. People had houses with sheds, barns and yards: the best were built of brick, with simple wooden or painted floors, with electric lighting; the worst, the walls of which were beaten from ordinary earth, with earthen floors and no electricity. The roofs were smeared with earthen composition, although rich houses often had iron ones.

Russian families most often occupied two or three rooms. A Russian stove was installed in one of them, and often a large Russian stove, and the room served as a winter kitchen and a bedroom (there was a table with chairs or benches and a bed, sometimes with a curtain). One of the next rooms served as both a living room and a bedroom. The beds were neatly cleaned and dressed up every day. Every Saturday at the stove and in general, where required, they whitewashed with lime, washed the floors, wiped the benches, cleaned and tinted shoes for the Sunday holiday. On Sundays we always went to church and celebrated, in any case, this is how we spent Sunday.

In the yards, almost everyone had cattle, dogs, chickens, carts. No one had dogs in their houses, but cats were allowed into the houses in winter. Often there was a well in the courtyard, and if not, then they went for water to the city wells that were on the streets, or to some river, if one flowed nearby. There were no water pipes or sewers. Water was carried in buckets and then in buckets it stood in the kitchen, although sometimes wooden tubs were also used for this purpose. In winter, a washbasin was installed in the first room at the entrance, and a basin was placed under it on a stool.

Everyone's yards were clean, all kinds of flowers grew in them, and vines, pumpkins and egg-pods entwined the sheds, under which the kitchen was often arranged in the summer, and sometimes the Russians also had beds there. However, the summer kitchen more often served as a separate room in the courtyard, where a Russian stove was built, but if there was no such room, then the stove was laid out in the open. Everyone had their own bread, and each housewife baked it to her own taste. Bread was usually baked once a week and linen was washed once a week. They washed by hand on washboards in long metal or wooden troughs, which were installed for this purpose on benches. Laundry itself was very hard work, and in addition, even before it began, the hostess had to apply a sufficient amount of water, and then take the already dirty water out into the street. Often the front room, where the kitchen was located, was already small, and when a trough was still placed in the middle of it, it was difficult to pass. But in the summer it was good to wash on the street, especially those who lived outside the city, when they could rinse clothes in the river.

Of course, no one had bathrooms, so there was simply nowhere to wash. It was good for those who had their own baths, the rest had to wash in the city baths for a fee or remain dirty. Surprisingly, but a person gets used to everything, so he gets used to not washing. But on holidays, everyone liked to dress well, that is, in the best that they had, which made everyone feel festive and cheerful.

Russians in those parts, for the most part, lived in abundance, but there were many who lived from penny to penny.

People did what they could. The townspeople worked in their specialties: engineers, doctors, school teachers, librarians, tailors, etc. Some opened their own workshops, tailoring, hairdressing, confectionery, photographic studios, forges, etc. Outside the city and in the villages, people were engaged in arable farming, cattle breeding, and beekeeping. , gardening, fishing. Here we must again recall that this was only before communism, and after the change of power, and communism came, everything changed beyond recognition. 1 Baindai - the outskirts of the city of Gulja.

The upland pastures of the Ili Valley have long attracted nomadic peoples. The name "Kulja" first appears in the era of the Turkic Khaganate.

When the Uyghur tribes led by Pen Tekin left to the west, part of the Yaglakar tribe, which were part of the Uyghur tribal union, also left with them.

Chagatai, the son of Genghis Khan, placed the capital of his possessions here. These lands came under the authority of Beijing after an armed clash with the Dzungars in 1755-57.

With the spread of Russian influence in Semirechye in the middle of the 19th century. Ghulja becomes an important trade center between Russia and China. In 1851, an agreement was signed here that legalized trade between the subjects of the two empires in this region.

The city underwent significant destruction in 1864-66. during the Uighur-Dungan uprising. Kulja, and the entire Ili region was occupied by Russian troops in 1871; returned to China in 1881, after which many Ili Uighurs (about 45 thousand people) and Dungans (about 4.6 thousand) moved to Russian possessions (present-day southeastern Kazakhstan and northern Kyrgyzstan).

In Russian literature of the XIX century. the city of Ghulja (Yining) sometimes appears under the name "old Ghulja" or "Taranchin Ghulja", while the city of Suiding (Chinese 绥定; also spelled Suidong), located 40 km to the northwest, was called "new Ghulja" or "Chinese Kulja". At that time, the "Taranchinskaya Ghulja" (that is, the city of Taranchi - Uighurs) was the center of trade, and the "Chinese Ghulja", founded in 1762 and located closer to the border, was a fortress and the center of Chinese administration in the region.

In 1965, Suiding was renamed to its politically acceptable name Shuiding (水定), with 水 (water) instead of 绥 (pacify). Shuiding is currently the seat of neighboring Huocheng County (霍城县).

Population

Administratively, the city of Ghulja and the surrounding area (with a total area of ​​521 sq. km) form a “county-level city”, with a total population of 370 thousand people (2002). east of the country. In the vicinity of the city there are settlements of the Manchus (sibo) and the Mongols, who are engaged in cattle breeding. During the 19th and 20th centuries in Ghulja there was a strong influence of the Tatar intelligentsia and merchants who left the Russian Empire in connection with the October Revolution of 1917. According to some data, up to a third of the city's population in the first half of the 20th century. were Tatars. The Tatars also created the first new method school in Ghulja, which later became the forerunner of the Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Uighur schools.

Many Uighur cities have epithets. If Yarkand is called sad, then Ghulja for some reason is called cheerful. Probably, for the temperament of its inhabitants, who are distinguished by their cheerfulness and optimism. And Gulja, like no other Uighur city, has absorbed the traditions of different cultures and peoples.

From the depths of centuries

The city of Gulja is located one hundred kilometers from the Kazakh-Chinese border on the banks of the Ili River. The word "Kulja" in translation from the Uighur language means an adult male wild sheep. This city has been known since the time of the Turkic Khaganate. Genghis Khan's son Chagatai made it the capital of his state. In the middle of the 18th century, the Ili region became part of China, and Ghulja became the administrative center of the region.

In the 60s of the 18th century, Gulja was rebuilt by the Uighur settlers, who were forcibly resettled from Kashgar to this region by the conquerors. Most of the Uighurs of the Ili region are the descendants of those settlers. Having moved to the banks of the Ili, the Uyghurs, in addition to the city, built hundreds of villages where hard-working dekhkans and artisans lived. The inhabitants of not only the Ili region, but also Altai, Tarbagatai and Urumchi ate bread grown by local peasants.

In the middle of the 19th century, the importance of the city increased; located near the border, it becomes an important commercial center. In the 60s of the XIX century, during the Uighur uprising, it was the capital of the Ili Sultanate. In 1871, after a series of popular uprisings in China, the tsarist government of Russia, being wary of the spread of national liberation ideas on the territory of Semirechie, sent its troops into the Ili region. The temporary occupation lasted 10 years. After the region was transferred to China in 1881, part of the inhabitants, and this is 45 thousand Uighurs, fearing reprisal for participating in the anti-Qing uprising, moved to Semirechye. From 1944 to 1949, Gulja was the capital of the East Turkestan Republic.

For many years, Ghulja has been one of the cultural capitals of the Uighurs. This city is different from Kashgar and other cities in the south. Not only Uighurs lived here, but also Tatars, Kazakhs, Russians, Uzbeks. Each of these peoples contributed to the development of the city. Many representatives of these peoples ended up in Ghulja after the Russian Civil War. People of different ethnic groups lived together and helped each other. Former tsarist officers taught young Uyghurs military affairs, Tatars worked as teachers, priests

ministers, Uzbeks - merchants. In those years, schools with the Russian language of instruction were opened in Ghulja. Representatives of different peoples, including Uyghur children, studied there, newspapers and magazines in different languages ​​were published in the city, and theaters worked. As a result, Ghulja became the cultural center of the entire region.

Poetry and freedom

I started my acquaintance with the city from the ancient Baitulla mosque, which resembles a Chinese pagoda. Next to the remains of the old building, a modern mosque was built, where the features of Uyghur architecture are immediately discernible. In the past, a madrasah probably also operated here. Many locals call this building a madrasah. The Baitulla Mosque is one of the national shrines of the Uighurs of the Ili region. In this mosque, many great sons of the Uighur people prayed. A farewell prayer was also performed here by the Uyghurs before the mass move to Semirechye in 1882.

The Uighurs left the Ili region with tears in their eyes and hoped that they would find a second home in Semirechye. Among them was the famous Uyghur poet Seyid Mohammed Kashi, who in his poem "Sharqi Shikaste" described the resettlement of the Uighurs in Semirechye. This work was first published by the Russian scientist N. N. Pantusov in the book “Samples of Taranchin Literature”, published in Kazan in 1909.

When it comes to Ghulja, I first of all remember the wonderful poetess, the national heroine of the Uighur people, the beautiful Nazugum. There is probably no such Uighur in Semirechye who has not visited a cave in the Ketmen mountains, where a courageous woman was hiding from enemies. She and her two fellow poets - Sadyr Palvan and Bilal Nazim - became symbols of the freedom-loving Kulja.

Sadyr Palvan was the most popular person in the Ili region in the second half of the 19th century. One of the leaders of the anti-Qing uprising in the 60s, he was distinguished by the talent of a commander, heroism and wisdom. Completely illiterate, like the great Kazakh akyn Zhambyl Zhabayev, thanks to his extraordinary poetic gift, he created poems and songs that forever entered the golden fund of the Uighur culture. He composed not only poetry, but also music for them, and he himself performed his songs.

The great son of Kulja was also the wonderful Uighur poet Bilal Nazim. A highly educated man, public figure, clergyman, he took an active part in the uprising. We, the Uighurs, should be grateful to the famous Russian Turkologist N. N. Pantusov, who in 1881 published the works of Bilal Nazim in Kazan. Thanks to these publications, many of the poet's works have survived to this day. We should not forget the outstanding Uighur literary scholar, poet Murat Khamraev, who translated many of the poet's poems into Russian. Thanks to these translations, the poetic heritage of the Uighur classic became the property of not only Russian, but also world culture.

I wandered the streets of Kulja, remembering these great poets, whose work has been familiar to me since childhood.

Liki Kulji

Can Ghulja be compared to Kashgar? Of course not. Two-thousand-year-old Kashgar is an ancient Uyghur capital, the cradle of Uyghur culture and statehood. Ghulja is Uighur Petersburg, the gate to Europe, Russia, Kazakhstan. And Kulja still performs this role.

If in the remarkable architectural structures of Kashgar, Turfan, Yarkend, Khotan, Kagalyk and other ancient cities built by Uighur architects, the national style is immediately guessed, then Ghulja is diverse. Remaining a Uighur city, Ghulja acquired the features of other peoples.

Already approaching Ghulja, I saw one-story houses, similar to the buildings that are being built here. They are called "Russian" houses here. In general, there are similarities between Ghulja and Almaty. The old European buildings of Gulja, which, however, have survived very little, resemble the city of Verny of the second half of the 19th century. And looking at the modern Ghulja, you remember the urban landscape of our southern capital.

The impression was intensified when, while making a trip on a city bus, I heard not only Uyghur, but also Kazakh speech. I missed the Kazakh language and immediately entered into a conversation with my fellow travelers - local Kazakh girls. They were friendly, and when they found out that I was from Kazakhstan, they began to eagerly ask me about life in their historical homeland.

But back to the architecture of Kulja. There were also houses with flat roofs in the city, for example, next to the People's Park, they took me back to ancient Kashgar or Khotan.

It was impossible to walk indifferently past the Kazanchi district, where artisans live: potters, blacksmiths, chasers, jewelers, cabinetmakers and others. In this area, you can get acquainted with the creations of local artisans, take an excursion to the places where they live and work.

The Dungan mosque, reminiscent of religious buildings in China, was adjacent to houses built in the Kashgar or European style. And this is all Ghulja - diverse and beautiful.

... On our last day, we decided to just wander through the streets of Kulja. It was raining heavily. Surprisingly, on this July day, the air temperature dropped to 12 degrees Celsius. However, I was not cold, I did not want to leave the streets of this beautiful city. Already soaked, I peered at the friendly faces of the residents for a long time, stopped passers-by, started conversations with them, and questioned them. They looked at me in surprise, but, having learned where I came from, they answered my questions with pleasure.

Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, seat of the People's Government of the Autonomous Region.

City county within the Ili-Kazakh Autonomous Okrug
Kulja
Uig. غۇلجا , gulҗa
43°55′00″ s. sh. 81°19′00″ E d. HGIOL
A country	China China
autonomous region	Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Okrug	Ili-Kazakh
History and geography
Square	521 km²
Timezone	UTC+08:00
Population
Population	526 745 people ( )
Digital IDs
Telephone code	0999
Postal codes	835000
Auto code rooms	新F
Official site
Media files at Wikimedia Commons

Geography

It is located on the northern bank of the Ili River, approximately 100 km east of the Chinese border with the Almaty region of Kazakhstan, on the so-called Kuldzha Plain. Here - the highest humidity of the predominantly arid region of Xinjiang.

To the east of Gulja City County is Gulja County, to the west is Huocheng County, and to the south is Chapchal-Sibo Autonomous County.

About the name

The name itself, translated from Uighur, means "adult male wild mountain sheep."

In Russian literature of the 19th century, the city of Gulja (Yining) sometimes appears under the name "old Gulja" or "Taranchinskaya Gulja", while the city of Huiyuan, located 30 kilometers to the northwest, was called "new Gulja" or "Chinese Gulja". At that time, the "Taranchinskaya Ghulja" (that is, the city of Taranchi - Uyghur farmers) was the center of trade, and the "Chinese Ghulja", founded in 1762 and located closer to the border, was a fortress and the center of Chinese administration in the region.

Story

The upland pastures of the Ili Valley have long attracted nomadic peoples. The name "Kulja" first appears in the era of the Turkic Khaganate.

When the Uyghur tribes led by Pen Tekin went west, part of the Yaglakar tribe, which was part of the Uyghur tribal union, also left with them.

In 1884, the Qing government created the province of Xinjiang, the area around Kulja became Ningyuan County (宁远县). After the Xinhai Revolution in 1913, Ningyuan County was renamed Yining County (伊宁县). In 1944, after the Ili uprising, Ghulja became the capital

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Nearest hotels (hotels, hostels, apartments, guest houses)

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Shown above are the five nearest hotels. Among them there are both ordinary hotels and hotels with several stars, as well as cheap accommodation - hostels, apartments and guest houses. These are usually private mini-hotels of economy class. The hostel is a modern hostel. An apartment is a private apartment with daily rent, and a guest house is a large private house, where the owners themselves usually live and rent rooms for guests. You can rent a guest house with an all-inclusive service, a sauna and other attributes of a good rest. Check with the owners here.

Usually hotels are located closer to the city center, including inexpensive ones, near the metro or train station. But if this is a resort area, then the best mini-hotels, on the contrary, are located away from the center - on the coast of the sea or river.