The summit of the park, Karatas, at 1,774 meters high (5,820 feet), is one of a series of peaks in the park. Throughout history, Ida was known as a holy mountain. It is the birthplace of Zeus and, according to mythology, the first beauty contest between Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena was held on this mountain. Paris, the Trojan king's son, renowned for his appreciation of beauty, is said to have headed the jury, which awarded Aphrodite with the highly coveted prize of first place. There is an annual beauty contest in the park in memory of the first contest. Another big event is held the third week of August every year. At this time, visitors flock to Sarikiz (Golden Maiden) Tomb on the Sarikiz peak of Mount Ida. All the Turcoman visitors to this open tomb light candles, write in the tomb's notebook, or collect small stones around the tomb to make a wish. You can listen a variety of stories about Sarikiz (the golden maiden) from the village people
The park offers numerous hiking trails, canyons, waterfalls, natural springs, indigenous fir trees, and a uniquely-preserved flora. Some of the canyons and cliffs require special equipment or experience, so eco-tourism guides are available to accompany outdoor enthusiasts. Permission from the Akçay National Park Engineering Centre near the coast is essential for these hikes. Some of the established trails will take you through Turcoman villages along the way that will give you a glimpse of traditional lifestyles. Following the Kızılkeçili Stream will bring you to the Sütüven Waterfall which is 17 m high, where there is a designated picnic area. Just 500 meters away are the rocks of Hasanboğuldu (“Hasan drowned”).
Vegetation in Mount Ida
| ||
  |
Visitors should not leave without checking out the ethnographic museum in the Turcoman village of Tahtakuslar.
TAHTAKUŞLAR VILLAGE WHICH HAS BEEN BUILT INTO AN ART AND CULTURAL CENTERY BY A MODEST VILLAGE FAMILY, IS 17 Km AWAY FROM EDREMIT 5 Km FROM AKÇAY AND 2 Km FROM E-24 BALIKESIR, CANAKKALE HIGHWAY, LOCATED IN AN ARCADIA OF NATURAL BEAUTY, OUR PRETTY, VILLAGE HAS 130 HOUSES AND A POPULATION OF 600. THE VILLAGE WHICH ( TO BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE ) HOUSES THE FIRST PRIVATE MUSEUM OF ETNOGRAPHY AND AN ART GALLERY OPENED IN 1991 AND 1992 RESPECTIVELY,IS PROUD OF BEING THE ONLY AND FIRST ONE AMONG OTHER VILLAGES TÜRKIYE. THE INTERESTING AND ORIGINAL CULTURAL ARTIFACTS, CLOTHING,UTENSILS TOOLS, CARPET AND HOUSING OF TURKISH NOMADIC PEOPLE WHO MIGRATED FROM CENTRAL ASIA TO TÜRKIYE ARE EXHIBITED IN THE'ETNOGRAPHIG MUSEUM AND ALL KINDS OF CULTURAL AND ARTISTIC OBJECTS DISPLAYED IN THE ART GALLERY THE YEAR AROUND. IF YOU INTEND TO RETURN HOME WITH INTERESTING MEMORIES OF YOUR VACATION YOU MUST PAY A VISIT TO OUR VILLAGE AND THE GALLERY WHICH HAS CAINED INTERNATIONAL ACCLAIM WE WILL BE DELIGHTED TO WELCOME YOU HERE TO EXPERIMENT THE ORIGINAL CULTURE OF NOMADIC PEOPLE AS WELL AS THE TO LEARN THE LEGEND OF NEARBY IDAMOUNTAIN ( KAZDAĞI) AND HISTORY, WE RECOMMEND YOU TO VISIT WE WILL BE SO HAPPY TO ENTERTAIN TO YOU HERE.
Tahtakuşlar Ethnographical Museum |
| Situated on the slopes of mythological Mount lda,Tahtakuşlar Ethnographical Museum is a UNESCO award-winning venue exhibiting the art and culture of the Turkmens. From AKGÜN AKOVA |
| If's the 40th day after the spring equinox and the village of Tahtakuşlar on Kaz Dağı, a mountain in southwestern Turkey, is celebrating the arrival of spring. Everyone was up early that morning. Women and girls donned their traditional costumes for the walk to the cemetery, bearing cheese, olives, bundles and votive offerings. Decorating their ancestors' graves with flowers, the people then lit a fire there and cooked their food. Everyone exchanged warm holiday greetings, old disagreements were forgotten, votive offerings distributed. Even the olive trees witnessed the spectacle with joy. Clouds, sky, all of nature bore witness to the celebration. Among them there was also a little girl, her dress covered with blue beads to ward off the evil eye. Her mother had dressed her that morning with loving care and whispered in her ear, "May no malice come your way and may all your cares and sorrows melt away." The little girl lit up at her mother's words. |
WOODCUTTER TURKMENS
|
|---|
| What that little girl didn't know but her mother did is that Anatolia is a land of migratory nomads. Consequently the village's story begins back in Central Asia. Fleeing Mongol pressure in the 13th century, one of the Oghuz tribes, the 'Men of the Tree', migrated to north of the Caspian Sea. The story of their migration, which led them first into Khorasan and then Iraq, culminated in the Taurus Mountains. Master woodcutters by profession, they were called the 'Woodcutter Turkmens' or 'Tahtacilar' for short. When Mehmed the Conqueror got it into his head to take Istanbul, he ordered lumber from the trees on Mt Ida to be cut and worked into the ships and runners he would use for the conquest. When it was realized that the experts in this business lived in the Taurus, a new migration route was soon in store for the Tahtaci Turkmens. Loading up their camels upon a decree from the sultan, they set out for Mt Ida, where, in addition to building the 67 ships used in putting down a rebellion on the island of Mytilene, they fashioned many other items out of wood. Abandoning the area at the time of the conquest, they founded villages where they kept up their native Turkmen traditions. Stories are told of the abundance of wild game and fowl in the region before the majestic trees of Kaz Dağı were decimated by great fires. The Turkmens, who were sedentarized in the 1860s, therefore called this area 'Kuslar Bayin' or 'Bird Hill, renaming it 'Tahtakuşlar' ('wooden birds') in 1948 in honor of their traditions and the trees that provided their livelihood. |
AN OPEN AIR MUSEUM, EVEN AT MIDNIGHT
|
| Tahtakuşlar today is not only the name of the village but also of a museum. The founder of the museum is Alibey Kudar, a benefactor who wants to promote Turkmen culture before it is lost. Together with his sons Oman and Selim, he opened the museum in 1991 as a 'Utopian' enterprise. Besides exhibiting examples of Turkmen art, it also hosts regular painting and handicraft shows. The Kudar family further enriched their museum with the Selim Turan Gallery in 1992 and a library in 1994. The first fruit of the Kudar family's labors was the UNESCO Support Award given to the museum in 1994. The museum, which has since earned more awards, is open daily, its hours the hours of 'sunlight'. But the Kudars do their job so gladly that they will even open the museum's doors to someone who wakes them in the middle of the night. As a result of this 'quixotic' approach, visitors to the region can't leave without stopping off at Tahtakuşlar. |
BELTS AND BRAIDS
|
| Among the items on display are traditional Turkmen costumes, large woollen sacks, coin purses with a goose foot motif, saddle bags, children's vests and the traditional 'terlik' or skullcaps. Alibey Kudar never tires of regaling every arriving guest with explanations of how the evil eye amulet in the shape of a crescent moon is made from one of the back teeth, called a 'calak', in the lower jaw of a male wild boar; how the first hair cut from a child's head is traditionally saved; and how the goose foot motif is found on the tombstones of the Oghuz Turks. At the museum you may see belts decorated with seashells that the Turkmens collected from the Red Sea on their migration, the evil eye amulets made from harmal seeds, almonds, figs and cloves, pine cones from the Kaz Dag/ firs, and the braids worn like a wig by young girls with short hair. One of the intriguing items in the museum is the frame of a Turkmen tent. These tents, which were used until the 1950s, were generally made of juniper wood although the one in the museum is of poplar. This tent, few examples of which are left today since they were discarded earlier, was made by the last master, Ali Tuzla, in the village of Haciaslanlar in Edremit. The birds in the museum logo derive from the name of the village, while the goose foot motif symbolizes the continuation of the Oghuz Turks, the closed door life in the mountains, and the heart love, friendship and peace. Everyone remembers the legend of the 'Sankiz' or 'Blonde Maiden', the beautiful blond-haired gooseherd. A victim of malicious slander and the evil eye, Sankiz was abandoned by her father on the mountain and grew up there among the local people. If you're lucky, you'll hear her story as well as told by Alibey Kudar. |
LIKE AN HERBALIST'S SHOP
|
| A number of authentic items from evil eye beads to saddle bags are sold at the museum entrance. Plants and therapeutic herbs grown on Kaz Dagi come a/ready packaged, among them Sankiz tea—good for the cardiovascular system, the purple oregano used in place of mothballs, aromatic ivy leaves, olive grass, wormwood —believed to promote mental health, mountain mint—good for tummy ache, lavender— from which tea is made, and bay leaves—used for incense. You can also pick up mentholated sage tea, rosemary, sumac and linden here. When the scent of the herbs has made you dizzy, you'll suddenly feel like climbing the mountain. And when you go outside, you'll see the olive trees. I put my arms around one of them that was more than a thousand years old and said: "You might be on the outside, but you're still one of the museum's most valuable pieces!" n |
Turkey’s Kaz Dağları
Delve into them from Altınoluk or Avcılar, from Tahtakuşlar, Güre or Zeytinli, and let the waters, forests and clouds take you back to all the things you have forgotten.
THE CALL OF THE WILD
Follow the salt waters of Edremit Bay and plunge directly into the Kaz Dağları (Goose Mountains), if, that is, you’re not barrelling non-stop down the divided highway between Altınoluk and Akçay. Dive in from Altınoluk if you like, or from Avcılar, Tahtakuşlar, Güre or Zeytinli. Make a brief stop at the first coffeehouse. Try to put out of your mind the rampant construction boom that is encroaching even on the sea, and follow the call of the wild.
When you come back to reality, raise your head slightly. Take it from me, the mountains are going to call you. If you can catch a glimpse of the sky from between the firs, the beeches and the British oaks, the white pines and black pines, the plane trees, the sloe trees and the lindens, it means you’ve already been hopelessly smitten with nature. Believe me, the sweet william, the meadow fescue, the wild roses and the cardoon, the nettles, the thyme, the rosehip and the jujube, not to mention the sage, sumac, coriander and canary bellflower and, beyond that, all those you can’t even identify in nature, are going to clinch your love of life.
But let’s drive a little further up the mountain roads. You can’t see the sky for the trees in any case! Keep your eyes to the ground instead and you’ll spot wild orchids, foxglove and wall pepper, which was surely the flower of Sarıkız or the Fair Maiden of legend. The courtyard where she vanished into the clouds is a bed of soft greenery with clumps of purple flowers. A natural feast whose attraction is not immediately evident, that does not give itself away readily.
Without slowing your pace, go on up to the peaks, following the flowers to the top of the mountain! On these mountain roads you will discover a host of streams and waterfalls such as Şahinderesi, Çifteşelale, Kızılkeçili Çayı, Hasanboğuldu, Sutüven Şelalesi, Yeşilgöl, Ismailoluğu and Manastır Çayı with evocative names like Falcon Stream, Red Goat Stream, Hasan Drowned and Green Lake. You may lose your way in the canyons, or fall under the spell of Mount Ida and the Kaz Dağları and be engulfed by the mystery of the waterfalls and of the trees that rise from the rivers and embrace the rocks in their arms. Promise that you won’t get lost in the wild forest cover of the canyon with its white petalled flowers! To tell the truth, your promise wouldn’t hold water! Even we, while we were shooting a documentary entitled ‘Green Peace’ for Ankara State Television, made many such promises to our director and our guides. But it wouldn’t have done for us not to lose our way amid the flowers along Şahinderesi in the National Park’s forest of firs, especially when our point was to conjure up the spell of nature and of Mt Ida and Sarıkız. And especially when it was Homer himself who described Zeus as the great god who ruled from Mt Ida.
Follow the salt waters of Edremit Bay and plunge directly into the Kaz Dağları (Goose Mountains), if, that is, you’re not barrelling non-stop down the divided highway between Altınoluk and Akçay. Dive in from Altınoluk if you like, or from Avcılar, Tahtakuşlar, Güre or Zeytinli. Make a brief stop at the first coffeehouse. Try to put out of your mind the rampant construction boom that is encroaching even on the sea, and follow the call of the wild.
When you come back to reality, raise your head slightly. Take it from me, the mountains are going to call you. If you can catch a glimpse of the sky from between the firs, the beeches and the British oaks, the white pines and black pines, the plane trees, the sloe trees and the lindens, it means you’ve already been hopelessly smitten with nature. Believe me, the sweet william, the meadow fescue, the wild roses and the cardoon, the nettles, the thyme, the rosehip and the jujube, not to mention the sage, sumac, coriander and canary bellflower and, beyond that, all those you can’t even identify in nature, are going to clinch your love of life.
But let’s drive a little further up the mountain roads. You can’t see the sky for the trees in any case! Keep your eyes to the ground instead and you’ll spot wild orchids, foxglove and wall pepper, which was surely the flower of Sarıkız or the Fair Maiden of legend. The courtyard where she vanished into the clouds is a bed of soft greenery with clumps of purple flowers. A natural feast whose attraction is not immediately evident, that does not give itself away readily.
Without slowing your pace, go on up to the peaks, following the flowers to the top of the mountain! On these mountain roads you will discover a host of streams and waterfalls such as Şahinderesi, Çifteşelale, Kızılkeçili Çayı, Hasanboğuldu, Sutüven Şelalesi, Yeşilgöl, Ismailoluğu and Manastır Çayı with evocative names like Falcon Stream, Red Goat Stream, Hasan Drowned and Green Lake. You may lose your way in the canyons, or fall under the spell of Mount Ida and the Kaz Dağları and be engulfed by the mystery of the waterfalls and of the trees that rise from the rivers and embrace the rocks in their arms. Promise that you won’t get lost in the wild forest cover of the canyon with its white petalled flowers! To tell the truth, your promise wouldn’t hold water! Even we, while we were shooting a documentary entitled ‘Green Peace’ for Ankara State Television, made many such promises to our director and our guides. But it wouldn’t have done for us not to lose our way amid the flowers along Şahinderesi in the National Park’s forest of firs, especially when our point was to conjure up the spell of nature and of Mt Ida and Sarıkız. And especially when it was Homer himself who described Zeus as the great god who ruled from Mt Ida.
SARIKIZ AND HER GEESE
There once was a shepherd called Father Çılbak, who was widowed. Taking his daughter (Sarıkız) with him, he went first to Güre and from there to the village of Kavurmacılar, where he settled down and found work as a shepherd. Wintering at Kavurmacılar, he spent the spring and summer in the mountains. Unwilling to entrust his daughter to anyone, they went up into the mountains together. He bought twelve geese for her to play with so she wouldn’t get bored. Mount Ida, a peak covered in firs, purple-blossomed wall pepper and greying clouds in the azure, became the courtyard of Sarıkız and her geese. Meanwhile, when a snake wound itself around the ram’s horns, Father Çılbak realized it was time to come back down from the mountain. But under the sky the geese were restless on the mountain and in the endless valleys. One day they wandered down to Bayramiç Plain where they made the fields their playground. And Father Çılbak warned his daughter: pile up stones one by one and build a great courtyard so the geese cannot escape.
Soon Sarıkız was no longer a child but a beautiful young woman. And Father Çılbak an old man, who went on the pilgrimage to Mecca, leaving his daughter behind in the care of a neighbor. Sarıkız was popular with the young men of the village, who followed her everywhere and would not give up. Although she gave them no encouragement, the village was soon crawling with rumors. Tongues will wag; unkind words will be spoken. Returning from the pilgrimage, Father Çılbak found the situation intolerable and headed back to the mountains. So our story goes. Until, that is, dark clouds begin to descend on the mountains. Until death lies in wait for Father Çılbak on another peak. And Sarıkız, taking her twelve geese with her, withdraws to her father’s courtyard and a white cloud comes and settles over the mountain. One of these two peaks in the Kaz Dağları is known today as Baba Tepe or ‘Father Peak’. If you continue on through the courtyard of the geese right up to the edge of the slope, you will see another summit in the distance, overlooking Edremit Bay and Baba Tepe. It is a bald, sacred mountain, covered with stones and steeped in solitude, standing between the sky and the salt sea. Perhaps Sarıkız vanished into the clouds from this peak, escaping into the land of dreams on the wings of her geese.
There once was a shepherd called Father Çılbak, who was widowed. Taking his daughter (Sarıkız) with him, he went first to Güre and from there to the village of Kavurmacılar, where he settled down and found work as a shepherd. Wintering at Kavurmacılar, he spent the spring and summer in the mountains. Unwilling to entrust his daughter to anyone, they went up into the mountains together. He bought twelve geese for her to play with so she wouldn’t get bored. Mount Ida, a peak covered in firs, purple-blossomed wall pepper and greying clouds in the azure, became the courtyard of Sarıkız and her geese. Meanwhile, when a snake wound itself around the ram’s horns, Father Çılbak realized it was time to come back down from the mountain. But under the sky the geese were restless on the mountain and in the endless valleys. One day they wandered down to Bayramiç Plain where they made the fields their playground. And Father Çılbak warned his daughter: pile up stones one by one and build a great courtyard so the geese cannot escape.
Soon Sarıkız was no longer a child but a beautiful young woman. And Father Çılbak an old man, who went on the pilgrimage to Mecca, leaving his daughter behind in the care of a neighbor. Sarıkız was popular with the young men of the village, who followed her everywhere and would not give up. Although she gave them no encouragement, the village was soon crawling with rumors. Tongues will wag; unkind words will be spoken. Returning from the pilgrimage, Father Çılbak found the situation intolerable and headed back to the mountains. So our story goes. Until, that is, dark clouds begin to descend on the mountains. Until death lies in wait for Father Çılbak on another peak. And Sarıkız, taking her twelve geese with her, withdraws to her father’s courtyard and a white cloud comes and settles over the mountain. One of these two peaks in the Kaz Dağları is known today as Baba Tepe or ‘Father Peak’. If you continue on through the courtyard of the geese right up to the edge of the slope, you will see another summit in the distance, overlooking Edremit Bay and Baba Tepe. It is a bald, sacred mountain, covered with stones and steeped in solitude, standing between the sky and the salt sea. Perhaps Sarıkız vanished into the clouds from this peak, escaping into the land of dreams on the wings of her geese.
PASSION, MELANCHOLY, TRADITIONS
Zeus, Minoan Crete, Troy and Mount Ida, the mother goddess Cybele, Central Asia, migrations, the nomadic Turkmens who came here from the Taurus. The seven mansions of Sarıkız. The symbols of the goosefoot and the three-layered skirt. Pir Sultan Abdal, the 16th century mystical poet who said, “I saw an altar between her brows.”
The triangles that symbolize fertility and the evil eye. The jewelry, the colors. The great tradition that does not turn death into a tired lament, but sees life and death on a single continuum. And the Turkmens, who preserve this tradition with their love and passion. Who gaily dance and sing amidst the clouds, the firs, the wild tulips and poppies. Who sweeten daily existence with their poetry and good deeds. Everything was created out of nature’s endless bounty. Like the mountain peak that blooms of its own accord in Sarıkız’s courtyard every spring.
For the true owners of Kaz Dağları, who keep this great legend alive today and have preserved its honored place in the Anatolian landscape uninterrupted for hundreds of years, let us turn now to the minstrel poet Aşık Nesimi: “There is a kind of sheep, it is everywhere / It wanders in the sky and on the earth / In summer it gives birth to lambs, it suckles them in autumn / Do you know the fair saint who is called Sarıkız?”
Zeus, Minoan Crete, Troy and Mount Ida, the mother goddess Cybele, Central Asia, migrations, the nomadic Turkmens who came here from the Taurus. The seven mansions of Sarıkız. The symbols of the goosefoot and the three-layered skirt. Pir Sultan Abdal, the 16th century mystical poet who said, “I saw an altar between her brows.”
The triangles that symbolize fertility and the evil eye. The jewelry, the colors. The great tradition that does not turn death into a tired lament, but sees life and death on a single continuum. And the Turkmens, who preserve this tradition with their love and passion. Who gaily dance and sing amidst the clouds, the firs, the wild tulips and poppies. Who sweeten daily existence with their poetry and good deeds. Everything was created out of nature’s endless bounty. Like the mountain peak that blooms of its own accord in Sarıkız’s courtyard every spring.
For the true owners of Kaz Dağları, who keep this great legend alive today and have preserved its honored place in the Anatolian landscape uninterrupted for hundreds of years, let us turn now to the minstrel poet Aşık Nesimi: “There is a kind of sheep, it is everywhere / It wanders in the sky and on the earth / In summer it gives birth to lambs, it suckles them in autumn / Do you know the fair saint who is called Sarıkız?”
No comments:
Post a Comment