Yakut National Arts
Written by Nurguyana N. Pavlova

WOOD CARVING

All Yakut ritual crockery and utensils are made for the summer holiday Ysyakh , which is celebrated in the honour of the Light Gods – Yurung Ayii .

The central place among all the crockery is held by choron – a goblet for koumiss . A sacred vessel of our ancestors – choron – has come to us from time immemorial. And today the Sakha people take choron filled with invigorating drink koumiss with deep respect and trepidation.

The most popular chorons are the single legged ones. In the 19 th century three legged chorons appeared. To drink koumiss from such a vessel, the tips of legs of which are carved in the form of horse hoofs, is to take the power of the sacred clan animal, to touch its godly essence.

The composition of ornamentation, the number of ornamental belts and the place where they were carved – all had a special ritual and symbolic meaning.

According to A.P.Okladnikov, “chorons are an exceptional heritage of the material culture of the Yakuts”. At present no other people of the world have such a vessel.

Masters also made everyday house items: kytyia , plates, dishes, salt-cellars, calendars, candlesticks etc.

ARTISTIC TREATMENT OF BIRCH BARK

Birch bark played an important role in the everyday life of the Yakut people. It was used to cover the summer house – urasa . It was used to make happakhchi (partition for a girl's bed), boats, chests, crockery. It was used to make a real variety of items: from a small box for needlework to a huge hollogos , which could hold several buckets of liquid.

As the Yakuts were a cattle-breeding people, most of the birch bark crockery was used to hold milk products.

Mallah ihit – a box for the items of women embroidery was richly decorated. This box was part of the bride's dowry.

JEWELLERY

The art of jewellery is one of the oldest types of human artistic activities distinguished by the continuity of ethnic traditions. The presence of such an ancient and difficult type of art not only defines the level of culture development in general, but also characterises the rich and complex ethnic history of its bearers. Central Yakutia is known in the history of Siberia as one of the developed ethnic centres of artistic metal working traditions of which are rooted deep in the ethnic history of the Sakha people.

Jewellery, like blacksmithing, has been a hereditary craft for a long time for the Yakut people. It was passed on from father to son along with instruments and secrets.

The Yakut jewellery art has had the most development in the production of women's decorations and horse harnesses.

The Yakut people wanted to dress their wives, daughters and horses as richly as possible. For example the marriage dress of a well-off Yakut woman in the 19 th century consisted of a silver or a silk belt, begeh silver bracelet, ytarga – silver or gold earrings, mooy simege necklace, bastinga with a chain that ended with a round silver metal plate kun . Kelin kebiser back decoration was worn on the back, and ilin kebiser chest decoration was worn on the front.

BLACKSMITHING

Master blacksmith was a skilful and creative person with an inquisitive and acute mind, physically well developed, with a worthy firm spirit and morals. That is why blacksmiths were deeply respected and honoured by the people everywhere, no less than the great shamans.

During the Soviet times many secrets of jewellery and blacksmithing were lost. Making of jewellery, that is their handicraft production, was strictly forbidden by the authorities and the infringers were persecuted by law. Old masters were forgotten, taking with them their secret technologies.

NATIONAL CLOTHING

The especially expressive women's clothing constituted a single ensemble made up of head-dress, free style outer clothing, soft leather footwear with a sharp toe, and jewellery.

Traditional women's clothing combined many artistic crafts: fur and leather dressing and treating, sewing, embroidery, appliqué, and, undoubtedly, jewellery.

Up until the 18 th century Yakut clothing remained traditional. During that period the connection of clothing with religion and religious rites and ceremonies was especially strong: horned head-dresses, fur coats with eagles, tanalay sleeveless jackets.

Starting in the middle of the 18 th century the clothing style had underwent some radical changes. European clothing elements appeared more and more: collars, pockets, puffs and cuffs. The tanalay fur coat and uraa hat were replaced by buuktah son and djabaka hat. All stitches of the buuktah son were traditionally decorated by edgings made out of silver plates, bead stripes, and fur trimming.

Clothing for the Yakut people was not only means of protection from the elements and expression of artistic flair, but also had the sacral function of a mascot. Its patterns and totem decorations were meant to protect the wearer.

NATIONAL SEWING

Sewing, embroidery, traditional clothing and other types of Yakut applied arts reflected the ideas of the people about beauty and everyday life in the harsh Siberian land. Rich patterns decorated fur coats, dresses, torbas , mittens, hats, purses, and horse decorations – shabracks, kychyms , lepse . This embroidery was placed on religious, ceremonial and holiday items. A rich collection of such items in museums shows the remarkable skill and excellent taste of embroiderers. Their works were carefully preserved and passed on from generation to generation.

HORSEHAIR WEAVING

In the past, highly developed horse breeding gave the Sakha people an excellent material – horsehair, using which the masters could weave usefule everyday items and goods.

White hair was used to make nets and seines. Black horsehair was used to make everyday items – mats, hats, chains for watches, deybiir mosquito waving tails, ropes – sitii for cattle, fishnets – ilim , kuyuur , seines – munkha . Horsehair was also used to make charapchi horse eye covers, sieves, ropes, reins, girths, bridles – all woven manually by hand. Horsehair was also widely used to make musical instruments, different birch bark crockery, doors – happakhchi djele .

Horsehair, especially the white horsehair, played an important role in performing different ceremonies and rites. During prayers, purification rituals and initiation of Ayii Oyuun white horse tails or a bunch of white horsehair from the tail and mane was usually used.

Before the Revolution the most widespread craft out of all the traditional crafts was the weaving of mats from horsehair ( syerye ).

In recent years horsehair weaving is being revived and developed in the republic as part of applied arts.

A number of regions have families that made horsehair weaving their family craft. A Churapcha region weaving of mats is quite well known, practiced by the several generations of the people's master E.A.Pinigina. In Halbakinskaya secondary school in Vilyuy region a “Sutukcheen” studio is working, headed by the people's master Borisova S.D. Works of these well known masters of the republic are distinguished by high quality with strict adherence to all the traditional treatment methods.

Decorative and applied art of the peoples of our republic has deep roots. Each item in the past had its own perfect form and a unique decoration, and was handed down from generation to generation. These items seamlessly combined functional and decorative qualities, and as such formed the aesthetic style of the people, its understanding of beauty and elegance.

35 cities and regions of the republic are proud of their people's master craftsmen that are also bearers of the mastery secrets. Artistic heritage created by them is the main basis of many republican and regional museums. However, the number of immediate bearers of the original material culture in the republic is less and less with each passing year. Their experience and knowledge is the experience of many generations worth developing and preserving.

Unique samples of Yakutian decorative and applied art are stored in the arts museums of England , US, Germany , Russia , and other countries. These items express an extraordinary simplicity, strictness, discretion of artistic means that come from the people's philosophy, experience and wisdom.

HORSE DECORATION

According to Sakha people horses have their own patron-god – Kun Djesegey, in the honour of who Ysyakh spring festivals were held.

The evidence to the special attention paid towards horses is the rich variety of horse decorations. Harnesses were lavishly decorated with silver, non-ferrous metals and many-coloured beads. Horse was an essential part of a brides' dowry.

The central place in horse decoration is rightly taken by saddle. Decorated saddle with a silver pommel was supplemented with an excellently embroidered shabrack that covered the horse croup from behind, and two no less excellently embroidered kychyms that hanged on both sides of the saddle.

The only continuator to the tradition of horse decoration is Prokopyev Anisim Grogoryevitch, born in 1925, the Veteran of the Great Patriotic War.