We have reached an interesting entry this weekend. I will admit, I only chose to book a trip to Tamgaly Tas and City of Nomads because we ran out things to do nearby Almaty, and I had to pacify my need of doing something every weekend. However in retrospect, both have an intriguing back story.
About City of Nomads
First off, the City of Nomads is not a real historical site. It is a man-made setting for filming purposes, built originally for the 2005 movie “Nomads”, but since then a few period Kazakh films have also been shot here. My personal favourites are “Kazakh Khanate: The Diamond Sword” and “Myn Bala”; both full movies with English subtitles are on YouTube. Most of these epics were extravagantly funded by the Kazakh government, so just be discerning about portrayal of certain people groups in them. Otherwise, they provide a great insight into the history and nomadic culture of Kazakhstan pre-Soviet times.
Different parts of the set were built to replicate different time periods and regions, for instance Afghanistan or during the time of the Kazakh-Dzungar wars. Now however, people just come here to take Instagram photos. You can pretend to be Aladdin or Jasmine here and claim to be more factually accurate than Disney’s version. Did you know that the original Aladdin was from a city in China, probably East Turkestan, so a Central Asian setting would be more appropriate than an Arabian one? The more you know. But don’t quote me on this.
Getting to City of Nomads
The drive to the City of Nomads is two to three hours from Almaty city, which towards the end turned into extreme off-roading, worse than that to Kaindy Lake. When there was still a road, it was so pothole ridden, that we had to swerve left and right on a straight pathway to avoid plunging the car into the depressions. For those who watched the Land Rover commercial in the Sharyn Canyon entry, the path afterwards was like the part when the car was going up a 60 degree incline up the side of a cliff. However what truly was impressive, was how film companies transported hundreds of actors and extras, props and animals to the set.
Getting to Tamgaly Tas
The City of Nomads was built on the banks of Ili river, and Tamgaly Tas is literally a boat ride across it. Sadly, the boat was not in operation the day we went, so we had to make a huge detour to find the nearest bridge across Ili river, which was an hour away at Kapchagay reservoir.
In the summer, this place becomes a popular beach destination for locals. It is also around the midpoint of the Ili river, which flows from the Eastern Tien Shan in China to Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan further north from here.
About Tamgaly Tas
Tamgaly Tas is famous for its petroglyphs that depict Buddhist rock paintings which date back to the 17th century. I am in no way qualified to explain the long and complex history of the Central Asian steppe region, which involved many different people groups (Turkic, Mongolic, Iranic), who further subdivided themselves (Kazakhs, Uighurs, Oirat, etc.), and at different periods of time were conquered by various empires, each advancing the sphere of influence of their state religion. Yet I will try:
Whilst Kazakhstan is currently a predominantly Muslim nation, Buddhism reached its shores very early on. The silk road transmission of Buddhism to Central Asia occurred in the first century, before Islam took over as state religion in the eighth century with the arrival of the Arabs. Guess who came next? THE MONGOLS!! No history lesson is complete without a mention of the Mongols. In the 17th century, the Mongolic people of the Dzungar Khanate, who practised Tibetan Buddhism, expanded westwards, attacking the Kazakh Khanate. Hence the eastern area of Kazakhstan saw a short revival of Buddhism, with present day Tamgaly Tas being the site of many of the Tibetan inscriptions and Buddha drawings.
Sadly many of the carvings are becoming fainter by the day, and vandals have spray painted their own art on the rocks. If they had any real appreciation for art at all they should leave places of history and culture alone.
Ili River
And there you have it, Tamgaly Tas and City of Nomads, on the opposite banks of this river. Only in Kazakhstan can you find attractions in the middle of nowhere. To not end on a sour note, here is us admiring Ili river at the end of the day, wondering if the Dzungars saw the same serenity as we did while they were working their magic on the rocks.
Hi! I am Joey, a University student from Singapore, attempting to show my appreciation for the world’s most powerful passport by literally milking its visa-free benefits one country at a time. I describe my travel budget as shoestring and travel style as audacious.
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