Abstract
Altai and Tian Shan Mountains are very important and sacred in Turkish history. These sacred regions, which witnessed the arrival of the Turks on the stage of history, became home to our ancestors and became synonymous with the Turkish name. The Altai-Tian Shan Mountains, which are the subject of the Tureyıs epics of the Turks, have been considered sacred by the Turks throughout history and have been the place of their beliefs, ancestor cultures and customs. The fact that the Turks adopted the steppe lifestyle before the Uighurs and lived in a scattered geography made it difficult to reach the historical works written about them. In the light of the information obtained about Turkish history spread over a long time, and when historical documents written by other nations and archaeological findings are combined, detailed information about Turkish history can be reached. The mysterious stone monuments left by the Turks in the Altai-Tian Shan Mountains have been the subject of research. It has been a matter of curiosity about which beliefs and traditions the stone monuments, balbals and tombstones, which are important for Turkish history, were made, what they were used for and what they represented. Stone works, balbals and tombstones, which are frequently encountered in the Turkish cultural geography, provide information about Turks by carrying the cultural traces of them. The purpose and importance of this article is to try to enlighten the characteristics of the signs and cultural traces they bear by determining the shapes on these materials as a result of examining the stone monuments, balbals and tombstones in the Turkish cultural geography. During the research, qualitative data collection method from Chinese and Turkish sources and historical concept skill method were used and the data obtained from these methods were opened to discussion.
Supporting Institution
Northwest University China