The broad and full-flowing Ili River carries its waters to Lake Balkhash, taking in numerous tributaries along its 800-kilometer course and dividing Semirechye into eastern and western, left-bank and right-bank halves. For many centuries the Ili was a difficult obstacle on the migration routes of tribes and peoples and served as the natural boundary of their settlement in the lands of Southeastern Kazakhstan. The nomads, having mastered the horse for riding, overcame the water element and made the Ili passable, and the fords and crossings that connected its banks in the middle reaches then acquired great importance in the economic, cultural, political and military history of the region. Possession of them ensured dominion over the main highways that ran through Semirechye to the oases of Central Asia, to the Issyk-Kul region and the Inner Tien Shan, to China and Central Asia. At the approach to the Taukum, Moyinkum and Saryesik-Atyrau sands surrounding the Ili delta, where the riverbed forms a deep and narrow rocky canyon — the kapshagai — the three main crossings of the western part of Semirechye are concentrated, known since the 19th century under the names Usharal, Tamgaly-Otkel and Kyz-Otkel (the Ili Crossing). In the central part of the canyon, in the Tamgalytas tract, which lies below the ford of the same name, at the very foot of the Tamgalyzhar cliff towering on the right bank of the river, there is a remarkable monument of monumental art and epigraphy of the 17th-18th centuries — Tamgalytas (Tamgaly-Tas, or Tamgaly-Tash). The history of its discovery and study goes back more than a hundred years.
One of the first mentions in Russian sources of the historic locality of Tamgalytas is contained in a document of 1848 relating to the correspondence of the sultans and biys of the Middle and Senior Zhuz with the administration of the Ayaguz Outer District and the officer attached to the Kyrgyz (Kazakhs) of the Great Horde. Defending the rights of the Kazakhs of the Middle Zhuz to their summer and winter pastures on the right-bank side of the Ili, the stewards of the Naiman clan divisions advanced their proofs: “On the Ili stands the well-known stone Tamgaly-Tash, on which Ablai Khan and Sultan Abulfeiz placed a tamga (a signature mark, or a mark used in place of a brand) in attestation that that side (the left bank — auth.) must belong to the Uysuns, and this side to the Naiman volosts.” Unfortunately, the signs or inscriptions on the rocks of Tamgalytas mentioned in the document have not yet been discovered, but the very fact of such an early mention of the locality as a noteworthy place well known among the Kazakhs of Semirechye deserves attention. It is no accident that the first scholar to visit Tamgalytas for a scientific purpose, in 1856, was Ch. Ch. Valikhanov, whose oral accounts and sketches of individual inscriptions with images subsequently prompted P. P. Semyonov to make a trip to the Ili Kapshagai in 1857 before setting out on his second journey to the Tien Shan. The drawings of Ch. Ch. Valikhanov and of the artist P. M. Kosharov, made more than 150 years ago, captured the landscapes of the Ili Kapshagai at the Tamgalytas ford and convey the appearance of the monument at the moment of its discovery.
In the second half of the 19th century Tamgalytas was repeatedly visited by various travelers, scholars and Semirechye local historians. The most valuable information about the monument is contained in the manuscript notes of K. A. Larionov and in the short articles of F. V. Poyarkov, N. N. Pantusov and the well-known Russian Mongolist A. M. Pozdneyev. The survey of Tamgalytas was carried out by N. N. Pantusov in 1897 on the instructions of the Imperial Archaeological Commission; the materials he passed on to St. Petersburg (photographs and paper copies) were subsequently studied by A. M. Pozdneyev, who for the first time translated most of the inscriptions and explained the Buddhist images. Thanks to this reading of the texts, in one of which the name of the 4th Panchen Lama Lobsang Choiji Jalsan (1570–1662) is mentioned, the attribution of Tamgalytas to the monuments of Tibetan Buddhism and its relatively late dating — no earlier than the mid-17th century — were established. However, the reasons for its emergence and the history of the Lamaist cult complex remained unclarified until quite recently. Only in 2008-2009 did an expedition of the KazNII PKNN (led by I. V. Yerofeyeva, B. Zh. Aubekerov, A. E. Rogozhinsky), with the participation of the Mongolist N. S. Yakhontova (Institute of Oriental Studies of the RAS) and the art historian Yu. I. Yelikhina (the State Hermitage), carry out a comprehensive (historical, archaeological, geographic and geomorphological, historical-toponymic, art-historical and linguistic) study of Tamgalytas, thanks to which it proved possible to reveal the historical context of the emergence and long functioning of the Lamaist complex at the Ili Kapshagai.
The earliest mention of the Khabtsagai/Kapshagai tract on the Ili River is contained in the “Biography of Zaya Pandita” by Radnabhadra, in its account of the events of the internecine war between the Oirat rulers Ochirtu-Tsetsen Khan and Galdan Khuntaiji in 1676–1677. In the historical and geographical writings of Chinese authors of the mid-18th – first half of the 19th century, the Ili Kapshagai, as a locality on the northeastern edge of Sharabel (the Sarytaukum sands on the left bank of the Ili), was designated by the Mongolian toponym “Tamga” (Temukha, or Tamukha).
The history of the formation of the Tamgalytas complex is closely connected with the epoch of the highest military-political power and cultural flourishing of the Dzungar Khanate (1635-1757), which was accompanied by the intensive spread of the Lamaist form of Buddhism among the Western Mongolian tribes — the Oirats.
The decisive role in the choice of the site and in the organization of the space of the cult complex was played by the natural landscape of the tract, whose dominant feature is a rocky massif at the foot of which, on 15 separate boulders, images and inscriptions of different periods are concentrated. Judging by the iconographic features of the depicted figures, the paleography of the texts and the technique of their execution, four stages in the formation of the complex can be distinguished.
At the first stage an ensemble was created that included images of Buddha Shakyamuni and of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara in the form of a “one-faced and four-armed” deity, and of the Buddha Bhaisajyaguru with accompanying Tibetan inscriptions on the central panel (plane No. 4), a figure of the Buddha Nageshvararaja (No. 2), as well as various prayer texts, including two mantras of the Buddha Manjushri, whose image is absent from the monument, an address to the Panchen Lama Choiji Zhalsan (No. 11) and four six-syllable mantras “om mani padme hum” carved on different boulders along the periphery of the rockfall (Nos. 1, 5, 13, 16).
The second stage in the formation of the cult complex is associated with the creation of ten uniform texts of the six-syllable mantra executed in the Oirat “clear script” (Nos. 10, 13–15, 17). Simultaneously, or slightly earlier, the pictorial series of the sanctuary was supplemented with an image of the Buddha Amitabha (No. 10), around which a new cycle of Tibetan epigraphy later took shape.
At the third stage, next to the image of Amitabha, a mantra dedicated to him appeared, and on different facets of the nearby boulders — a series of Tibetan inscriptions, including the six-syllable mantra repeated three times (Nos. 7, 9, 10), an inscription “…Praise be to the lama of good mind… knowledge and mercy…” addressed to Buddha Shakyamuni (No. 8), and two mantras of Manjushri on the southern periphery of the sacred area (No. 17).
The concluding, fourth stage of the formation of the complex was the creation of the longest text in Tamgalytas, reproduced in 11 lines in cursive “clear script” (No. 11); in the modern translation by N. S. Yakhontova the text contains words of gratitude to the Buddhas and the bodhisattva depicted here for “deliverance from danger [ranging] from illness to famine” (Oirat. zud; Kaz.zhut) and a wish to attain “in this land beautiful tranquility, lasting and unbroken”.
The most probable date for the appearance of the early images and inscriptions in Tamgalytas is the period from December 1676 to March 1677 — the time when the nomadic headquarters (the urg) of Galdan Khuntaiji (1644–1697) stayed in the Ili Kapshagai, after his actual establishment of sole power in Dzungaria and on the eve of his official bestowal by the Dalai Lama Lobsang Gyatso, on June 30, 1678, of the title Galdan Tenzin Boshogtu Khan(“Khan blessed by the faith, support of the teaching”). The personal involvement of the new Dzungar ruler in the creation of the sanctuary is confirmed by the presence here of an image of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, whose emanation, from 1660 onwards, was considered to be the Great Fifth Dalai Lama (1635-1682), as well as by a dedicatory inscription bearing the name of the high-ranking Tibetan hierarch Choiji Zhalsan — the spiritual mentor of Galdan, under whose guidance he received his theological education in Tibet over the course of 12 years. The establishment in Tibetan iconography of the image of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara-Shadakshari in the form of a “one-faced and four-armed” deity, as represented in Tamgalytas, dates to the 1660s; in the territory of the Dzungar Khanate this canonical image began to be reproduced in painting, sculpture and monumental art no earlier than the last quarter of the 17th century, with the establishment of Lamaism among the Oirats.
Galdan’s creation, on the riverside cliffs of the Ili, of an impressive panorama uniting the images of the most venerated deities of the Tibetan pantheon had the significance of a political declaration of unswerving loyalty to the teaching of Tsongkhapa and of readiness for its active dissemination in the northwestern part of Central Asia. The choice of the site for the Buddhist sanctuary was determined by the expressive features of the picturesque landscape and by its location near one of the principal river crossings of the Ili Kapshagai.
The pictorial series of the Tamgalytas sanctuary took its final shape during the first two stages, no later than the first half of the 1680s. In this period the Kapshagai tract, with its three river crossings of the Ili, acquired special significance in connection with the large-scale campaigns of conquest undertaken by the Dzungar rulers in Southern Kazakhstan and Central Asia. For more than half a century the area of the Ili Kapshagai remained a nodal point in the interregional communications of the Oirats, and the fords across the Ili played an important role in the political consolidation of the Oirat tribes and in the spread of the Buddhist teaching across the territory of the Dzungar Khanate.
The veneration of the Buddhist Oirats continued in the next stage of the sanctuary’s functioning, which covers the reigns of Khuntaiji Tsewang Rabtan (1698–1727), Galdan Tseren (1727–1745) and their successors, marked by the undivided dominance of the Gelugpa school in the religious and spiritual life of the nomadic Oirats and by the wide spread among them of their own script, the “todo bichig” (clear script). The series of prayer inscriptions, executed with varying skill and addressed to the Buddhas Shakyamuni, Amitabha and Manjushri, records a stage of active visitation of the cult site. The same period should also include the appearance in the oral lexicon of the Oirats of Semirechye of the Mongolian toponym Tamga, which came to designate the locality where the sanctuary founded by Galdan Boshogtu Khan stood, as well as the adjacent territory, including the nearby ford across the Ili. The visitation of the sanctuary by the Lamaists ceased around 1758, after the fall of the Dzungar Khanate under the blows of the troops of Qing China and the return of Kazakh and Kyrgyz clans to the lands of Semirechye.
The concluding stage in the creation of the cult epigraphy of the Tamgalytas sanctuary is connected with the culminating episode of the “last great migration” of the Volga Kalmyk-Torguts under Khan Ubashi in 1771 from the confines of Russia to the lands of the former Dzungar Khanate. Having crossed the Yaik in mid-January 1771, the Kalmyks advanced across the lands of Kazakhstan for six months, almost continuously fighting off attacks by the military detachments of the Kazakhs of the Junior Zhuz and then of the united militia of the three Zhuzes headed by Khan Nuraly and by the Sultans Ablai and Abulfeiz. After the decisive battle near the western shore of Balkhash, in which the Kalmyks lost up to 15 thousand men killed and taken prisoner, Ubashi attempted to lead the remnants of his people to the Ili crossings along the foothills of the Chu-Ili Mountains, but this route proved to be blocked by detachments of Kyrgyz. Avoiding an encounter with them, Ubashi chose the most arduous route, through the Sarytaukum desert, crossing in midsummer “a sandy steppe in which for a thousand li around there is neither grass nor water… People were forced to drink the blood of their horses and cattle, whence a terrible pestilence arose…..After ten days, with the greatest difficulty, they emerged from the sandy steppes” (Chun Yuan, “Xiyu zongzhi” — “Survey of the Western Region”, 1773). Moving on, and descending along the Kurt River to the Ili Kapshagai, the Kalmyks reached the Tamga tract, near which they encountered Chinese border detachments; after short negotiations, Khan Ubashi, with the remnants of his people, was forced to recognize subjection to China. The lengthy inscription hastily carved in cursive on the rock at Tamgalytas lists, in a remarkably succinct and historically faithful manner, the misfortunes and hardships the Volga Kalmyks had to endure on their arduous journey to the promised land, and expresses the universal hope of finding in the new places “lasting unbroken tranquility” under the protection of “the great compassionate lord” Avalokiteshvara and the almighty Buddhas.
More than 20 monuments of Tibetan Buddhism of the 17th – mid-18th century are known in the territory of Kazakhstan, and among them modest sanctuaries predominate, such as the Kegen arasan, Taigak and others, with the uniformly replicated prayer formula “om mani padme hum”. Objects of monumental art, such as the suburgan stone Kelenshiktas in the town of Tekeli, are rare in Semirechye and Eastern Kazakhstan. The image of Amitabha and the early inscriptions of Tamgalytas reveal similarities with certain monuments of Northern Kyrgyzstan (Yssyk-Ata, Tamga), which are likewise connected with the early period of the spread of Tibetan Buddhism among the Oirat tribes. However, neither in the composition of the figures of the Tibetan pantheon represented in Tamgalytas, nor in the number of texts — different in content and language — does the monument in the Ili Kapshagai have any analogues in the western part of Central Asia. Tamgalytas stands out markedly for its artistic representativeness, the diversity of its epigraphic texts and the length of the period of their creation, which reflects the special significance of the sanctuary on the bank of the Ili River in the epoch of its emergence and functioning.
I. V. Yerofeyeva, A. E. Rogozhinsky
Literature: Yerofeyeva I. V. The history of the formation of the Tamgalytas cult complex (1677-1771) // The Role of Nomads in the Formation of the Cultural Heritage of Kazakhstan. Academic readings in memory of N. E. Masanov: Collection of materials of the research-to-practice conference. Almaty, 2010. Pp. 490–530; Rogozhinsky A. E. The history of the study and new research on the Tamgalytas cult complex on the Ili River (the Ili Kapshagai) // Ibid. Pp. 474–489.
