Exhibits that have no price. Tatar national costume DIY Tatar jewelry

The national clothes of any nation are always bright and elegant things, with their own rich history. Now we want to talk about women's Tatar costumes and accessories, which represent a unique complex of folk crafts. Their peculiarity was that it is not so important how beautiful the dress is, how important it is to have a large number of decorations. It could be all kinds of beads, brooches, collar fasteners and raisins. Why this was needed and what it symbolized will be told by the history of the ethnic group.

Tatar women's national clothing

Since ancient times, it has been customary in Tatar families to teach girls to sew. This was considered a mandatory skill, like writing and reading. Therefore, when making things for herself, the woman put all her skill into them. A woman's costume would be ordinary and inconspicuous if it were not so embroidered with patterns and jewels.

It necessarily included:

Wide long shirt with sleeves;
On top they put on a swing vest made of velvet;
A headdress (kalfak), which determines the girl’s age and her marital status. White was worn by unmarried women, other colors were used depending on clan affiliation;
A scarf or shawl over a kalfak.

Of course, today you rarely see a woman dressed this way. But on holidays, many Tatars dress up in national dresses to pay tribute to traditions.

Jewelry as part of a folk costume complex

Tatar men and women hung various kinds of items on themselves in large numbers. Average weight of all accessories at one time could reach 6 kg. The main materials were gold, silver, turquoise and amber.

Turquoise is generally considered a special stone among the Tatars. They believe that this mineral is a symbol of a happy family life. There is a legend about this. She says that turquoise is the bones of ancestors who preserved all the best.

So, Tatar women wore the following jewelry:

Nakosniki- a hairpin in the form of a pendant with a cord, which was woven into a braid. Local girls usually had several types of them made of silver, gold and, of course, turquoise;
Earrings. They were inserted into little girls aged 3 and wore them until old age. Usually these are large products, richly decorated with stones and ornate patterns;
All kinds of neck and chest fasteners. They were used to fasten a deep cut on a shirt, but were decorated as richly as other accessories;
Forged necklaces from beads, beads and coins;
Fabric bibs- raisin (izu).

Richer girls allowed themselves to make a sling - “hashita” in the form of a wide ribbon decorated with all kinds of stones, metal medallions, and coins. It was also a talisman; it protected the young wife when she first entered her husband’s house.

Izyu - why did Tatar women wear it?

Separately, I would like to talk about raisins. Few people know this detail of clothing. And you rarely see the name anywhere.

This is a woman's chest decoration, which the mistress usually made with her own hands. It was sewn from a wide ribbon, and the edges were trimmed with coins, ribbons, and beads.

Like all other components of the costumes, raisins had their own purpose. Them married girls covered the slit of their dress or shirt. Something like a chest apron. In addition, by looking at him, one could determine how rich the lady was. After all, they decorated the iz with everything that was in the house.

Headdresses of Tatar girls

The girl wore a headdress only depending on her marital status. Muslim peoples have always been sensitive to the status of the weaker sex, clearly dividing between married and unmarried. Therefore, free Tatar women wore hats. At the same time, they braided their hair into two braids and let them out at the back.

Married women could choose more colorful and original headdresses. But they always hid their hair, neck and shoulders. Their headdresses had hair, or a shawl or scarf was thrown over top.

Today these traditions are rarely followed. The Tatars became closer to the Europeans and adopted their customs. But they do not forget their culture. Much depends on place of residence. In villages, people still dress in the old fashioned way. In cities, you rarely see a person dressed like this.

History of Tatar clothing

Over the centuries-old history of the ethnic group, the national costume has changed more than once, reflecting the features of the territory in which they lived and the peculiarities of their way of life. Tatar national clothing cannot be confused with another. But meanwhile, its design was influenced by peoples living nearby. Mainly Bashkirs, Udmurts and Mari.

For example, Siberian subgroups used furs to make things. They decorated sleeveless vests and hats with them. You will not find such a feature among the peoples living in the south of our country, in the Astrakhan region. Here, light clothing in the form of long shirts to protect from the scorching sun and skull caps prevailed.

However, all Tatars loved a large number of decorations. Heavy necklaces, earrings and jeweled clasps are ubiquitous.

People of any nationality have folk costumes. Their features evolved over time, in the process of historical changes. With every era, innovations appear that reflect its essence. For the Tatars, these are some types of jewelry, hats and raisins. Why were they made, what was their meaning? It would seem, dress in fashion and that’s it? These are cultural traditions passed down through generations; they determine the uniqueness of a given ethnic group and preserve its history.

Video about Tatar culture

In this video, journalist Oleg Morozov will tell you what other national elements of clothing Tatar girls wear:

Tatar jewelry and costume have retained their originality and differ from the traditions of their closest neighbors. Tatarstan is located in the Middle Volga region, it is surrounded by the Udmurt Republic, Mari El, Chuvashia, Bashkortostan, and further to the south - Kazakhstan. The territory of Tatarstan was home to the Bulgarian kingdom from the 8th century until the 1230s, before its conquest by Batu Khan and the Golden Horde. It is believed that the Kipchaks had a great influence on the ethnonym and material culture of the Tatars. After the collapse of the Mongol Empire from 1438 to 1552, there was an independent Kazan Khanate, conquered by the Russian Empire. Since then, the Tatar costume, at least the costume of the Kazan Tatars, which will be discussed, has changed little.

Queen Syuyumbike

This copy from an unsurvived 17th century painting by an unknown artist depicts Queen Syuyumbike with her son.

Illustration from Gustav Theodor Pauli’s 1862 album “Ethnographic Description of the Peoples of Russia,” published for the millennium of the Russian state. Pauli recruited prominent scientists and artists of his time, publication contains ethnographic essays and equipped with 63 chromolithographs. The drawings are made from life.

The Tatar costume differs from the Finno-Ugric ones and is more similar to the costumes of Central Asia. The basis of the costume is a dress made of colored, often very rich fabrics; only the details of the cut and frill have changed over time. The costume included bloomers, which were not visible under the dress, and a vest, the length of which varied from hip to knee. The Tatar vest spread widely throughout Eastern Europe.

A distinctive decoration of the Tatar costume is the chest baldric of the Hasit (Khesite), which was decorated with jewelry that began to be collected from the very birth of the girl. This is not a simple decoration, it is both a talisman and a woman’s personal property. Surahs from the Koran were sewn into special boxes and pockets, cowrie shells and even unusual-looking buttons were also sewn on. The value of the jewelry depended on the wealth of the girl’s family. The hasita was worn by women of all ages, worn over the left shoulder under the right arm

16th century reconstruction

Another characteristic decoration: Yak Chilbyr - incollar clasp with 5 chains ending with precious stones.

The collar fastener “yak chilbyry” was also worn on the bib

Izu - breastplate covered the slit in the front of the shirt, was decorated with ribbons, lace, embroidery, and also precious stones

Tatar jewelry is widely represented in the Special Storeroom of the State Ethnographic Museum in St. Petersburg. In addition to bandages and collar fasteners, earrings, braids, and beads were common. necklaces, belt buckles, fasteners. Jewelry was made mainly from silver, less often from gold.

The jewelry art of the Kazan Tatars reached a special flowering in the 19th century; gilding, chasing, casting, engraving, and filigree were used. The most common stones were dark carnelian and bluish-green turquoise, which were credited with special magical powers. Smoky topazes, amethysts, rock crystal, malachite, agate were often found, and colored glass inserts were used.

Pectoral: fabric, coral, 21 coins, metal

Belyazeki - bracelets late 19th - early 20th centuries. Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan. The bracelet was a mandatory element of the Tatar costume. Married women wore paired bracelets on both hands, girls wore one or more bracelets on one hand.

Alka - earrings

Chulpa (yoke) - crown, 19th century. This decoration was also attributed magical significance. The braids were decorated with ringing pendants and coins that ward off evil spirits.

And this curious costume is worn by women from the Bulgarian village of Pirin to perform rituals that clearly have ancient roots, on the holiday of Lazarus - “Lazaruvane”. Photo

What kind of jewelry did Tatar women wear a hundred years ago?

Photo: V.G. Khudyakov. Kazan Tatar, 1869

Today it is almost impossible to meet a woman who does not wear earrings, rings, bracelets, chains, beads and other things. And the desire for ladies to decorate themselves with some expensive accessory has appeared since time immemorial. Kazan ethnographer and columnist for Realnoe Vremya Dina Gatina-Shafikova devoted today’s column in our online newspaper to the jewelry that Tatar women have long worn. As today, elements that complement women's clothing were a very expensive pleasure.

Dear Tatar woman

Today in the lives of the fair sex, the final note of the entire look is brooches, rings, necklaces, sometimes very large, and sometimes small, but almost always attracting attention. However, these are not fashion trends of recent years.

Revealing the features of a traditional costume, it is impossible to tell about the nuances of only the clothing itself. When recreating the picture of the entire image, it becomes obligatory to talk about the jewelry, which is an obligatory part of the entire set. Tatar women have always loved them, wearing them both at home and when going out. Moreover, it should be noted that jewelry was made not only from metal, but also from fabric, decorated with various stripes, ribbons, fringe and jewelry plaques.

An interesting point was noted by K.F. Fuchs. Talking about the clothes and jewelry of Kazan Tatar women, he not only described what they wore, but also told the price so that the reader would understand that Tatar men did not skimp on such feminine joys. “Earrings made of silver, gilded, approximately worth 35 rubles; a necklace of gilded silver, with stones, especially turquoise, with gilded ruble coins, portraits facing the body, valued at 60 rubles; bracelets made of gilded silver with inscriptions, with stones, especially carnelians and turquoise, behind it are strung Dutch chervonets and several threads of red coral, or pearls, worth 3,000 rubles; The rich have a ring on each finger, made of gilded silver, with turquoise, with amethysts and pearls. All these ten rings cost 500 rubles; a sling over the left shoulder with stones, pearls and imperials. Such a sling costs up to 3,000 rubles.”

Ethnographer N.I. Vorobyov, in his book regarding the period of the second half - the end of the 19th century, noted that Tatar women “rich townspeople wear a large amount of jewelry made of gilded silver and even gold, and they use the best examples of jewelry. Poor peasant and city women wear fewer jewelry. Jewelry made of copper or low-grade silver is often used, decorated more poorly, mainly with chasing rather than filigree. The types of jewelry remain the same... However, new jewelry of European origin is beginning to wedge itself into the life of the rich, while the poor either wear the old, typical type, or don’t wear it at all.”

Applicable to the jewelry itself is the famous researcher and art critic P.M. Dulsky wrote “the original jewelry of the Tatars includes bracelets, plaques, buckles, clasps, rings, massive earrings, rings, necklaces, buttons, bracelets, amulets and many other interesting trinkets, made with great love and taste. In terms of their production, all these jewelry items were made by Kazan Tatars, some were brought from Bukhara, the Caucasus and Constantinople, while the worst ones, worked exclusively for the poor, were made in Rybnaya Sloboda by Russian artisans, and these products cannot be recognized as artistic.”

Tastars, chulpas and earrings

So, the jewelry of Tatar women was varied, made from various materials, and moreover, they were not only for a specific part of the body. Accordingly, when talking about such beautiful and telling details of the costume, it is necessary to talk about their main types and types.

Head decorations include headbands, which were usually not used independently, most often as part of a headdress. The bandage could be either fabric, with gold fringe, or in the form of a metal chain with plaques attached to the side of the face. Temporal decorations, like forehead decorations, were not worn separately. Moreover, they were also made of fabric, in the form of thick headphones, being an integral part of the headdress, widespread among baptized Tatars. Metal ones consisted of chains and coin pendants. Usually used for pinning tastars - a towel-shaped head cover (used by the Mishars, Kasimov Tatars and Kryashens).

K.F. Goon, 1862

Recognizable and widespread among the Turkic peoples are braided decorations. Among the Tatars, these are chulpas, consisting of narrow ribbons with noisy pendants woven into braids. There were also coin coins (the most common), cast ones and woven ones made from wires. They also used completely covering the braid in the form of one or several rectangular strips of fabric connected by a jumper - tezmә, chәch tәnkәse, richly decorated with coins, various plaques and beads.

Tatar women of all ages loved to wear earrings - sirga, alka. Moreover, they were of different sizes and variations of execution. As noted by Kazan ethnographer and researcher S.V. Suslova, despite the abundance of various forms and borrowing the most popular designs from other peoples, the almond-shaped shape of the earring was specific and characteristic of the Tatars.

Covering the neck and chest

Another type of jewelry is temporopectoral (attached to the temples and descended as a decorative element onto the chest). For example, the “Golden Pantry” exhibition at the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan presents an ancient decoration that was attached to a headdress and, going down, adorned the neck and chest. It went out of use quite early. It is more typical for the early forms of the costume complex.

Neck and chest were used not only as a decorative element, but were also used to cover the chest slit of the shirt. One of the most famous and recognizable decorations of this type is a collar clasp or chain - yak chalbyry, which is a metal or fabric base attached to the neck, with pendants descending from the chest.

Bibs as a decorative element were of two types - the lower ones, which were of a utilitarian nature, but the upper ones belonged more to the festive version. They were of different shapes, decorated with braids, stripes, embroidery, as well as jewelry plaques, coins and beads.

The hasito baldric has become practically a calling card among the variety of jewelry worn by Tatar women. A special feature of this decoration was that the sling could also be made of fabric, lovingly decorated by the hostess herself (the most common option, preserved until the second half of the 19th century among older women). But there are also hasitә made of metal, made by professional jewelers (earlier examples of urban Tatar culture that went out of existence early). However, there was a small detail that distinguished it from the mass of other jewelry. On this occasion K.F. Fuchs wrote: “At the bottom of this sling on the right side there is a kormanets sewn into it, where a finely written alkoran is placed,” which was noted later by N.I. Vorobyov, “various items of amulet significance are also sewn onto the hasito,” accordingly, this is not only a decorative element, but also has the underlying character of a talisman. S.V. Suslova writes regarding this decoration: “the sling as a whole is an accessory of a woman’s costume and the initial putting on of it is often associated with the young woman’s entry into the groom’s house.”

Necklaces were also popular among Tatar women. If we talk about earlier variations, then these decorations are more likely to be girlish, but already from the second half of the 19th century, when traditional fabric bibs, especially in urban environments, gradually went out of use, they began to spread everywhere among women. Brooches were also used as a decorative and utilitarian item to fasten the chest section of a shirt.

Ladies' accessories

Bracelets for Tatar women were an invariable decoration of the hands, and besides, they were worn in pairs, since it was believed that in this way good relations would be maintained in the married couple. Moreover, the bracelets were decorated with engraving, chasing, filigree and inlaid with various stones.

Rings and rings were worn by both Tatar women and Tatar men. On this occasion N.I. Vorobyov noted “rings are usually of the European type and are worn relatively less frequently than rings, and mainly by men. Men's rings, decorated with a signet made of the same material, on which the owner's name is carved, and decorated with enamel or precious stones... Men wear fewer rings, 1-2, rarely 3, and women, even peasant women, wear 2-3 rings constantly, but On holidays, rich Tatar women, when going on a visit, wear rings on all their fingers, several for each, so that the fingers almost lose the ability to bend.” Turkologist and professor N.F. Katanov, in his article “A few words about Russian and Tatar rings” from 1904, noticed an interesting fact that “Tatar (men) rings are usually worn on the index or ring fingers, but are never found on the middle.”

Thus, this column became only a slightly open door to the world of Tatar jewelry. In the exhibitions of the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan and the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan it is possible to get acquainted with the jewelry with your own eyes. Researchers S.V. Suslova and L.N. Donina is working not only to record the types of jewelry and the technique of their production, the territory of distribution, but also reveals the history of their appearance, interaction and mutual influence of peoples on the development of Tatar jewelry.

Dina Gatina-Shafikova, photos provided by the author

Reference

Dina Gatina-Shafikova- Researcher at the Department of Ethnological Research at the Institute of History. Sh. Marjani AN RT.

In 2010 she graduated from the Faculty of History, Department of Archeology at the Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University.
In 2014, she completed her postgraduate studies at the Institute of History. Sh. Marjani AN RT.
From 2010 to 2013 - employee of the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan.
Research interests: visual anthropology, Tatar costume, history of the Volga-Ural Tatars.
Author of a number of popular science and research publications. Columnist of Realnoe Vremya.

XVIII century "Butimar" sling. Nizhny Novgorod province Canvas, silk thread, silver, paste, coral, braid, reinforced thread, mastic, mother-of-pearl, glass, cotton thread. The sling was put on the left shoulder under the right arm. A bag or pocket was sewn to the lower edge of the sling under the right arm, where a prayer or spell was placed. There is an assumption that such a bandage arose under the influence of the Muslim custom of wearing special amulets or bags with a protective prayer or text from the Koran sewn into them.

Here is a photo of the decoration hasite from the website of the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan

The exhibition presents a special “Tatar Gold Pantry”, where a unique collection of Tatar jewelry of the 17th-19th centuries is on display. According to their purpose, they are divided into categories: head jewelry, neck and chest jewelry, and wrist jewelry. The set of decorations is varied - chest belt (hasite), fasteners (yak chylbyry), braids (chulpa), etc. Jewelry plaques were widely used in Tatar jewelry, which served not only as decoration, but also had the meaning of amulets and amulets. Some of the jewelry is presented in combination with traditional men's and women's clothing of the Kazan Tatars. A separate group consists of cases for miniature Korans.

The main materials for making jewelry were silver and gold. Jewelry was inlaid with precious and semi-precious stones: topazes and amethysts, turquoise and carnelians, aquamarines and crystal. Tatar jewelers mastered numerous techniques for making and decorating items. The greatest development was achieved in embossing, casting, engraving, notching, inlay and niello.

The most skilled craftsmen mastered filigree techniques - flat, applied and lumpy. Lumpy filigree was the highest achievement of the jewelry technology of Kazan craftsmen. It differs from a flat one in that the curl of the ornament rises above the plane, ending with a curl of wire laid in the form of a low cone. Traditional motifs of ornaments were floral and geometric patterns; inscriptions made in Arabic script.

Tatar jewelry reached its peak in the 18th - mid-19th centuries. The oldest and largest center of jewelry making was the Novotatarskaya Sloboda in Kazan, where entire neighborhoods with jewelry workshops were located, and the districts of Zakazan (Laishevsky, Sabinsky, Mamadyshsky, Rybno-Slobodsky). The most elegant and technically complex jewelry was often made by women.

Jewelers mastered the entire technological process of making jewelry. The main material was silver: low-grade for the bulk of the population and high-grade with gilding for the upper class. Gold, bronze and copper were used extremely rarely. The jeweler's tools were very simple. It consisted of an anvil, files, a vice, pliers, chisels, drawing boards, punches, scissors, a hammer, etc. The predominant place in the decoration of jewelry belonged to floral and plant patterns, less often to geometric ones. Even less common were zoomorphic, highly stylized motifs, which was associated with the dogmas of Islam, which prohibited the depiction of living beings.

Since ancient times, the greatest development in jewelry was chasing - chuka, casting - koyu, engraving - choku. Using coining, jewelers made mainly plaques - components of women's jewelry, as well as bracelets and clasps. Casting was used in the manufacture of tokens, pendants for jewelry, and also plaques. Casting from cheap metals imitated ancient “Catherine” and “Elizabethan” rubles and small coins, which, like plaques, were used as components of jewelry for Tatar women. The engraving technique was often used in the decorative design of bracelets, and often on plaques. The engraving motif often included benevolent inscriptions associated with Eastern traditions, made in Arabic script, i.e. a decorative script in which the letters are connected in a continuous and uniform pattern. The text often merged with the floral pattern into a single ornamental composition. Engraving on products was often accompanied by niello - karalta, or less often - by notching or inlay from another metal.

The most qualified craftsmen also mastered the filigree technique - cheltarly. Kazan is the only city in the Volga region where filigree art was highly developed, and it had a special character here. Thus, in Russia, filigree patterns were colored with enamel. Tatar filigree is an exception; its curls produce purely graphic designs of complex small patterns. From a technical point of view, researchers associate Tatar filigree with Central Asian or Greek filigree rather than with Russian. The highest achievement of Tatar jewelers was lumpy filigree - kalkytyp cheltәү, when each curl of the filigree ornament rises volumetrically above the plane of the product. Lumpy filigree was used to make jewelry for upper-class women. The heyday of filigree art occurred in the mid-18th - early 19th centuries. The filigree items of this period are characterized by the microscopic density and precision of the filigree filling and the cleanliness of the filigree ornament. Granulation associated with filigree was also widespread: small metal balls soldered onto filigree ornaments. Precious and semi-precious stones were often topazes, aquamarines, amethyst, jasper, carnelian and turquoise, which were usually located on the surface of the product in the form of rosettes.

Muensa - women's chest decoration

Chulpas - women's braided jewelry

more photos at

The neck and chest decorations of Tatar women, in addition to their decorative function, also served a utilitarian role: they fastened or covered with their decorative details the traditionally deep cut of a woman’s shirt.

Collar fastener “Yak kaptyrmasy”XIXcentury

Silver, gilding, carnelian, turquoise, embossing, inlay

For example, the collar fasteners “yak kaptyrmasy” consisted of two buckle fasteners.

Collar fastener “Yak kaptyrmasy” XIX century

Silver, gilding, filigree, granulation

These are, first of all, fabric bibs (“raisins”), differing in shape and decorative decoration.

Women's chest decoration "raisin"

Braided tape, velvet, silk, linen canvas,

jewelry plaques, cutting, sewing

Among the Kazan, Siberian, and Astrakhan Tatars in the upper class, probably close to the khan’s entourage, there were precious jewelry analogues of similar jewelry. They were made from chased gilded plates in the shape of a moon (aychyk), inlaid with precious stones and semi-precious stones.

Lunnitsa (aichyk)

A particularly spectacular and original neck and chest decoration of Kazan Tatar women, which in the 19th century was also widespread among other ethnic groups, was a collar fastener with pendants (yaka chylbyry).

Women's neck and chest decoration “Yak chylbyry” XIX century

Silver, topaz, turquoise, rock crystal, filigree, casting

Necklaces (“muensa”) beads made of beads, coins, multi-colored stones.

Metal, silver, glass, forging

"Muenza" necklace. Early 20th century

Silver, gilding, turquoise, filigree

“Hasite” slings are a wide cloth ribbon over the right shoulder, completely studded with metal decorations, on which hang: buckles, brooches, medallions, various pendants, coins, etc. The initial putting on of the sling is associated with the young woman’s entry into her husband’s house, protecting against evil strength and meant wishing her fertility and wealth.

Chest decoration "Hasite"

Due to its originality, this decoration is noted by all authors who at least briefly touched on the Tatar costume “The Meshcheryaks... wear a wide ribbon over their shoulder with silver and local patterns, lined with interlacing,” wrote I. G. Georgi.

Chest decoration "Hasite"

Silver, cotton fabric, jewelry and ornamental stone,

rock crystal, mother of pearl

Chest decoration "Hasite"

Cotton fabric, braid, glass, turquoise, filigree