ALTAI culture - Tuva - In memory of Kül Tegin - Külteginin Hiygizi

Official orcherstra of the tuvan ministry of culture. The song is dedicated to Kul Tigin (Kül (Köl, Gül, Göl) Tigin (Tegin)[Prince Kul] Khan Bengü İnançu Apa Tarkan) 闕特勒 (685 - 731 or 732 CE) was a famous general of the Second Kaganate of “Kök Türük“. He was a second son of legendary Ilterish Shad (Kutlugh) and the younger brother of Bilge Kagan. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kül-Tigin Monument translation of the stele (found in Mongolia) in memory of Kül Tigin, which included inscriptions in both the Turkic and Chinese, erected to his memory. Here an example of the inscription: Eastern face When the blue sky above and the dark earth below were created, between the two were created the sons of men. Above the sons of men were upraised my ancestors Boumin kagan and Istemi kagan. Having become masters, they governed and established the empire and the institutions of the Turkic people. In the four corners of the world they had many enemies, but making expeditions with armies, they submitted and pacified many peoples in the four corners of the world; they made them bow their heads and bend their knees; they made them settle in front (i.e., towards the east) as far as the forest of Kadirkan, and in the rear (i.e., to the west) as far as the Iron Gate. So far between these two (farthest points) the Blue Turks extended themselves as sovereigns. They were wise kagans, they were vigilant kagans; all their officers were wise, were vigilant; all their nobles, their entire people, were just. That is why they were able to govern such a great empire and, in governing the empire, provide laws. They in turn passed away. Crying and lamenting came from the front, from the direction of the rising sun, the powerful peoples of the desert (i.e., foreigners?), the Chinese, the Tibetans, the Apar and Apourim, the Kirghiz, the Three-Kourikans, the Thirty-Tatars, the Kitai, the Tatabi-all these peoples came to lament and cry: so vigilant had been these kagans. After this their younger brothers became kagans, and their sons became kagans; but then the younger brothers were not made like their older brothers, the sons were not made like their fathers. Kagans without wisdom, weak kagans came to the throne; their officers were all without wisdom, were weak. And as their nobles and their people were [?], and because of (the amenity and the charm?) of the Chinese people, and of (its insinuation?), and as the (partisans of?) the younger brothers and the (partisans of?) the older brothers organised plots against one another, and that those who supported the nobles and those who supported the people experienced quarrels against one another, the Turkic people brought about the dissolution of its empire, which had become its empire, and brought about the ruin of its kagan, which had become its kagan. The sons of the nobles became slaves of the Chinese people, their pure daughters became their serfs. The nobles of the Turks abandoned their Turkic titles and, bearing the chinese titles of the dignitaries of China , submitted themselves to the chinese kagan and promised him for fifty years their labour and their force. In front, towards the rising sun, they made expeditions as far as the mighty kagan; behind (i.e., towards the west) they made expeditions as far as the Iron Gate ; but to the chinese kagan they delivered their empire and their institutions. But collectively the tiny Turkic people spoke thus: ’I have been a people with its own empire; where (now) is the glory(?) of my empire? To whom will I win an empire?’-thus they spoke. ’I have been a people that had its own kagan; where (now) is my kagan? To which kagan will I promise my labour and my force?’-thus they spoke. Thus speaking they made themselves the enemies of the Chinese kagan. Having become their enemies, they took up anew the hope of confederating and organising themselves. But as all of these no longer thought of promising them their work and their force, they (i.e., the Chinese) said: ’I wish to kill the Turkic people and will render it without posterity’, and they set off to annihilate them. But the god of the Turks above in the sky and the spirit saints of the earth and the water of the Turks did as follows: so that the Turkic people should not be annihilated, and so that they could again become a people, they raised by father the kagan Elteres and my mother the katan Ilbilge, holding them at the peak of the sky. My father the kagan set off with twenty-seven men, and hearing the sound that he has come out and is moving forward, those who had been in the towns, went up into the mountains, and those who had been in the mountains descended, and having been reunited, they were seventy men. As the sky was giving them power, the army of my father was like wolves, and its enemies were like ewes. #