CHALPON ATA
Chalpon Ata is the largest town (village) on the Northern shore
of the lake, about half way along, some 250 kilometers from
Bishkek. Summer always saw large numbers of tourists descend with
their vouchers for a saty in one of the nearby sanatoria
or tour resorts (Chalpon Ata boasts one of the two Presidential
residences on the lake), and Soviet athletes used to come here
to train at altitude. Although there are still large numbers
of summer visitors, the region has lost some of it"s appeal
as it has failed to keep pace with the competion.
There is a small market for everyday necessities, a yacht
club, (it is possible to take boat trips on the lake),
a hippodrome and a major stud farm. There is a museum
displaying archaeological finds from around the region and the Chui valley,
musical instruements, traditional craftwork, exhibitions devoted to the
Manas Epic, Akaev and Chinghiz Aitmatov. The town also hosts a museum
dedicated to the Kazakh writer Auezov.
Just to the North of the town lies an «open air
art gallery» — containing a fine display of petroglyphs
which date from the sixth to the first century BC.
In the Canyon above the town are forests, the Kyzyl Beirel waterfall,
the Chon Koi canyon Suu.
As well as the sanatoria, accommodation is possible in a number
of homestays.
A little offshore is the sunken village of Chengu —
«red valley» — the capital of the ancient Usun
State in the second century B. C. — and as the waters
of the lake receded it is thought that the village will
soon emerge from the depths. Referred to by early Russian explorers
to the region, diving expeditions were undertaken in 1956. The
divers found several baked bricks, fragments of ceramic dishes, a piece
of a ceramic pipe (which suggests a high level of local
civilization), bronze arrowheads, iron knives, and the bones of both
people and animals. Offshore, opposite the villages of Korumdy and
Temirovka and near the Grigoryevskaya harbor, archaeologists found fragments
of ancient pots dating back to the Bronze Age. Unfortunately,
only a few of such articles are preserved because most of them
were taken by local residents and tourists as souvenirs. The
knife handles are topped with large figures of horses or sheep.
The horses look very realistic: with large heads, long tails, and well-developed
leg muscles — typical of steppe horses. One of the
most interesting finds from the bottom of Issyk-Kul is a sacrificial
table of almost square shape. It has four legs shaped like a woman’s body,
22 cm high. These figures are well preserved: slant eyes, wide
nose, oval chin, and a short and strong neck and scholars think these
figures can suggest how ancient residents of the Issyk-Kul region
looked.
Another find was a large hemispheric sacrificial pot with two horizontal
handles and a relief tamga (the seal of the master) resembling
a crescent with the points directed downwards. Such pots were widespread
in this region in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium and
more than 10 such pots have been found at Issyk-Kul —
but this pot was the largest. Ut is thought that such pots were
used only on holidays and special occasions. The large size of these
pots testify to big feasts of ancient cattle breeders in honour
of their gods.
There is a legend associated with Chalpon Ata which is often
quoted by locals as their favourite of the
Kyrgyz legends:
 Once
upon a time, a long time — so long
ago that the people have forgotten exactly when it was —
under a high mountain there was a city. Above
the city towered the fortress of powerful khan. The
khan was famous for his riches, but more than that —
for his cruelty. Each day, some citizen was killed and his
body thrown into the ground.
The old khan was lecherorous and he heard that one poor peasant
had daughter of inexpressible beauty. The Khan decided that he must
have thus beautiful girl.
The girl and her father lived in small village, un a velley
in the mountains, on a coast of the river. A lot
of the young men from all around (Dzhigits) tried to win her
hear, but she did not pay any of them any attention. To offers
of love and marrtuage, from even the most courageous Dzhigits, she
always answered, that she loved another.
Who was this beloved? — nobody knew, and she did not know either
…
It came to pass — one day, when the sun peeped over
the top of mountains, a Dzhigit on white steed came and
together they rode pff into the sky. A whirlwind blew-up and took
them to to mountain top covered with eternal snow. The strong
Dzhigit embraced her, kissed her, then removed from his hand a ring
andgave it to her. Placing it on her finger, he said:
«I will soon return! Never remove this ring, and unhappiness
will not touch you!»
Many days have passed, but the Dzhigit did not come back.
When the Khan«s matchmakers arrived to the girl village
wuth gifts and offers — she rejected them allm saying: "I love
another and I shall not be another"s wife!»
The girl went up into the mountains, hoping to find once more
the Dzhigit. In vain she called his name, only the echo of her
own voice returned to her. The girl began to cry and started
to make her way back home. She had not reached her villagem when
when she was surrounded, seized, tied up and blindfolded by a gang
of youths. When she was released and the blindfold removed she realized
what had happened, that she was held prisoner in the Khan«s fortress,
from which it was impossible to escape. It is better
to die, she decided, than to become the wife of the Khan.
Her beauty and youth surprised the old Khan. He showered gifts upon
her. But no gifts could win her over and make her change her mind.
«I love another and I shall never be yours!»,
was always her answer.
This «stubborness» displeased the Khan, and he decided
to take by force what he could not win with gifts. He again
came to the girl, promising her love, everything, … even freedom.
«I love another!» — she repeated. The Khan
rushed at her like a wild animal and she ran to a window.
«I shall not be yours!», she cried and threw herself
from the window onto the ground below.
From where she fell at the foot of the high and might walls
of the fortress, opened up caves and water gushed from them.
From them flowed the waters light-blue, pure, clean, crystal clear,
and as hot as the maiden heart, which formed the mountain
lake, which the people called Issyk Kul.
It is said that if you stand on the
shore at Chalpon Ata («Chalpon's Father«)
you can see in the mountains opposite the face of the
girl»s father who's tears flow down the
mountainside to add to the salt waters of the
lake as he weeps for his beautiful daughter ho threw
herself from the window high in the Khan's citadel,
rather than succumb to his evil advances and betray
her true beloved. And, on quiet summer evenings, when
the sun sets, the ruins of a fortress appear under
the water and the voice of the girl can be heard.
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