In order to understand what the Kazakh pattern is and what the Kazakh ornament is, it is necessary to clarify what the pattern and ornament in general and how they differ from each other. A pattern is a specific pattern that is created by a combination of colors and lines. An ornament is the same pattern or its elements repeating in a certain order. That is, these two concepts are very intertwined and interconnected.
An integral element of arts and crafts
Each nation has its own distinctive culture, the elements of which are patterns and ornaments. Among them there are very rare, which came from ancient times, these masterpieces of decorative art are kept in ethnographic museums.
The Kazakh pattern is unique, like any other. Despite the fact that the term “ornament” is translated from Latin as decoration, scientists come to the conclusion that some information is stored in each national pattern. No wonder quite often the ornament is associated with the origin of writing.
Magic letters
They connect him with magic. Ethnographic scholars suggest that the ornaments contain an idea of ancient peoples about the surrounding reality and the structure of the world. Each people has their own ornamental style, and the Kazakh pattern can be easily distinguished from drawings of other ethnic groups. The lifestyle of the people is reflected in the national applied art. Kazakhs have their roots in ancient cattle breeding tribes, the ancestors of this people were the Turks and Huns, Saks and Kangles, Kipchaks and Usuns. The ancients believed that the painted symbols serve as amulets, and painted what, in their opinion, could save and help in everyday life.
The main group of motifs of Kazakh patterns
It is not surprising that zoomorphic motifs prevail in the Kazakh ornament. The animal ornament repeats the images of real and fantastic animals in whole or in fragments. The Kazakh pattern contains images of domestic animals - a horse, a camel or a ram - and the steppe, wild - an eagle, a wolf, a falcon.
Very often, an ornament consists of individual parts of animals - heads, hooves, ears and so on. There are specific names for such patterns - “bugu muyiz” or “koshkar muyiz” (“deer horn” or “ram’s horn”, respectively), “at bass” is translated as “horse’s head”. But not only animal motifs exist in the folk arts of Kazakhstan, although this is the most extensive group of motifs.
Another of the four is cosmogonic.
National ornaments are conditionally divided into cosmogonic, zoomorphic, floral and geometric, already mentioned above. The patterns of many peoples contain these motifs. From the name "cosmogonic" it is easy to imagine that the ornament contains an image of some luminary. In the Kazakh version, this is a crescent, or aishik ghul. "Au ghul" ("moon flower") is an ancient ornament. Each element of this pattern can be a crescent of a certain size and direction. There are also solar motives - “sunrise” (“shikkan kun”), “eye of the sunlit” (“kun kozi”) and “rays of the sun” (“kun saulesi”). There are also stellar motifs, which mainly embroider outerwear - “Zhuldyz Gul”, “Zhuldyz Ornek”, “Top Zhuldyz” and the complex motif “Segiz kyrly Ornek”. It is a star enclosed in an octagonal socket.
Floral and geometric motifs
Kazakh patterns and ornaments abound in floral motifs, although, as already noted, zoomorphic are dominant. The sacred water for cattle breeders, represented by a wavy line and called "su", serves to frame ornaments, or intervals. The symbol of the earth, which is reflected in the nine hills ornament (Togyz Tobe), is the oldest and is found on artifacts of the Huns and Sarmatians. Geometric Kazakh patterns and ornaments are characterized by a variety of all kinds of lines - wavy and spiral, straight lines of different thicknesses and cords, chains of different shapes are also found. Characteristic of Kazakh geometric patterns is the proportional division of figures and the observance of a clear balance between the individual elements. It should be noted that in almost every group of ornaments there are basic motifs and derivatives. The oldest motif of the geometric group is the image resembling a comma - “alshi”. The motive called "alshim bar" serves as a symbol of good luck, prosperity, happiness.
Peculiar and wonderful
Kazakh national patterns are often rightly called letters from the past, because even household items are reflected in them, from them, as from a book, you can draw information about the life of distant ancestors. The most common in antiquity from this group of ornaments was “heel” and “broken heel” (“oksha ghul” and “sonar oksha”, respectively). In a short article it is impossible to even list the names of motifs of ornaments, and even to indicate their meaning and indicate why this or that pattern was used. It can be noted that they are unusually beautiful, the clothes decorated with them are magnificent. A striking example is the form of Kazakh Olympians and accompanying team at the Olympic Games in Sochi. Examining patterns, motifs, ornaments, you immerse yourself in an amazing, original, bright fairy-tale world. But, as the proverb advises, "it is better to see once." Above are a few of the gigantic number of patterns of Kazakh patterns.