Reflections & wisdom from a Central Asian yurt manufacturer...

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From time to time I post in this thread statements and reflections of a yurt manufacturer from the Central Asian region.

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Today I start with the following text:


URAL'S HOUSE

✋The most important type of dwelling in the Urals in the 18th and early 19th centuries was the yurt (kiz uy). It was very similar to the yurts of the Central Asian peoples and differed only in a few details. It consists of a wooden frame and a felt covering.The base of the walls is ...
Latticework made of talus (bush willow). The number of lattice links determines the size of the yurt: a large yurt has up to 8-10 of them, a small one consists of 4-5. A door frame with a double-leaf wooden door is stretched between two of them. The dome-shaped part of the yurt - shanyrak - is formed by a rim of two bent birch trunks and poles of talus bent in the lower part. The poles are inserted into the holes in the rim and tied to the upper forks of the wooden lattice at the bottom.

There is a place for a fireplace in the middle of the yurt. The entire floor, with the exception of the fireplace and a small area near the door, is covered with felt. Opposite the door, behind the fireplace on the wall, there was a zhyuk - chests, felt blankets and bales of household items, spare felts stacked on top of each other. The place in front of the yurt was considered the most honorable in the yurt. The part of the yurt to the right of the entrance was considered the female half. Near the entrance they kept household goods and utensils, a sack for koumiss, a cupboard for the most valuable products. This part was usually separated by a screen.

Then there was the place of the master and mistress of the house. Here they made a bed of felt, blankets and pillows for the night, which was placed in the zhyuk during the day; often there was a wooden bed, which was quite common at the end of the XIX - beginning of the XX century. To the left of the entrance was the place for the younger members of the family. To the left of the door the harness was hung, a saddle was placed, hunters placed a golden eagle or a falcon here. In cold weather, sick and weak animals were brought here. During the hikes, the yurt was dismantled into parts. Dismantling the yurt, loading the yurt and all the utensils was women's work, as was setting up the yurt in a new location.
⏰ It took an hour to set up the yurt