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Cholpan Ata / Kyrgyzstan
Many articles have been written on the Turkish sculptural tradition. Since there are countless examples but the meaning of its name is not well emphasized, the question “What actually is Balbal?” was the most important question that made us think. Let’s try to reach the real answer based on this question.

“Ibn Fadlan”, which is also included in Chinese culture; Let’s remember what he said was a “Turkish tradition” by saying, “The works of people who will serve the deceased in the next life are made in proportion to the number of people he killed during his lifetime.”

Feridun Ağasıoğlu stated that balbal was actually misjudged, that all person structures thought to be balbal were products of bediz (sculptures) and that they were called “taşbaba, Taşata, Taşnene, etc.” He says that they should be remembered with names and that each of them has a grave title. In reality, he thinks that the so-called Balbals are thousands of in number and are placed on the ground in the form of obelisks, and that their contents are for service purposes in the other life, as Ibn Fadlan said.

It is not right to say that these definitions and analogies are completely wrong.

Bilge Kagan Benggüstone, one of nearly 300 stones with Turkish inscriptions / Mongolia
The first written descriptions in which the name Balbal is mentioned are large or small objects that deceased Turkish important people “such as Kagan, Yabgu, Kumandan, Tigin, Begi” killed while they were alive and said they “planted or made” in the name of their important enemies like themselves.

Below you can see sample spellings of the word Balbal in other Turkish rock inscriptions, especially the Orkun Benggüstones. Writing BALBAL in Turkish Script (Gokturkish):
Bilge Kagan Benggütaş:
KANGİM: KaGaNKA: BAŞLAYU: BAZ: KaGaNİG: BaLBaL: TİKMİŞ
(My father placed a balbal on the head of the kagan.)d13
eÇİM: KaGaN: UCA: BARDI: BAŞLayU: KIRKIZ: KaGaNİG: BaLBaL: TIKDIM
(My uncle the khagan died.

I placed the Kırkız kagan on his head.)d20
aLP: ERIN: DIE: BALBaL: KILU: BIRTiM
(I killed the Alpine soldier and gave him balbal hair.)g7
ULUG: OGLUM: aGRIP: NONE: BOLÇA: KUG: SENGÜNÜG: BALBaL: TIKE: BİRTiM:
(When my eldest son got sick and disappeared, I gave Kuğ sengüyü balbal stitch.)g9
Kül Tigin Benggütaş iteration:
KANGİM: KaGaNKA: BAŞLAYU: BAZ: KaGaNİG: BaLBaL: TİKMİŞ
(My father placed a balbal on the head of the kagan.)d16
eÇİM: KaGaN: UCA: BARDI: BAŞLayU: KIRKIZ: KaGaNİG: BaLBaL: TIKDIM
(My uncle the khagan died.

I placed the Kırkız kagan on his head.)d25
Definitions of Historians and Linguists on Balbal:
According to Kazakevitch, the word “Balbal” is related to the Mongolian word “balbala”, which means to tear into pieces. Pelliot also approves of this relationship. (Namepil’nie statui v Darigange, Leningard, 1930, p 451)
Pelliot also approves this expansion he read.

(Le terme kereksür, tp, 1931, p 168)
Yudahin puts forward the word “balbil” meaning “flaming object”. (Kir. Söz. 1, p. 83)
Barthold tries to find its source in “Chinese culture”. (Historie de Turcs, p. 549)
Von Gabain says that this is an unknown. (Inhalt und mag., p. 549)
Radloff describes it as “a stone depiction erected as a monument to a dead person”.

(Wörth, IV, p. 1507)
Ziya Gökalp’s interpretation of balbal is that “the people who came for the Khagan Yuğu (funeral ceremony) chose one of the friendly khans as “Balbal” and made him the mourning chief.”

(Ziya Gökalp – History of Turkish Civilization)
Hüseyin Namık Orkun (Ancient Turkish inscriptions) For Balbal: “the stone erected in the name of the slain enemy of the dead” – p 46
Talat Tekin (Orkhon Inscriptions Research) For Balbal: “the statue of the slain enemy.” – p 125
Muharrem Ergin (Orhun Monuments) did not provide an explanation, but used the names “Sculpture and Balbal” separately.

pp. 8-10
Balbal: Human statues carved from stone (Orkun) – Origin of Turkish Words in Turkey Turkish. Tuncer Gülensoy. [TTTSKBS], p 108
Tuncer Gülensoy (Vocabulary of Old Turkish Inscriptions and Some Reading Problems) says about Balbal: “Balbal is a marble or granite stone statue carved in the human form, erected around the grave or some kurgans of the Old Turks to commemorate the person.”

The person underlines that they are well-built and called balbal. With a detailed look, Kotwicz says, “It is the enemy who has become a balbal and who is obliged to fulfill certain duties with this conviction.” He writes that it was a depiction of the enemies that this person had killed, placed on the tomb of the victor after his death.

(Les Tombeaux dits kereksur en Mongolie, RO, VI, 1982, p. 2)
While Roux thinks about all this, he says, “maybe the balbal was the dead man himself.” It continues the questioning: it brings to mind the questions “whether the person who becomes balbal is deprived of another life and whether he ascends to heaven?”

It supports Hubert and Mauss’s idea of ”the soul that resides both in the afterlife and in the corpse” and Levy Bruhl’s view that “ancestors can be found both in the depictions that are the point of life in this world and in other worlds” in the understanding of totemism in Australia.

Also Roux says; “Such depictions, idols, heroes, totems can connect a living person to a dead leader, as well as a dead person to a living person, and this depiction of the dead can also be fixed. There can be mutual worship.” (J.P.Roux, Death in Altai Turks, Paris, 1999, p. 165-166)

Esik Kurgan / Kazakhstan (Example of early Turkish Kurgan structure)
Pusats, clothes, valuable objects and horses in the kurgans are placed with the idea that they will help the deceased and continue their use after his death. They will go on a journey with him. The person will wear these clothes and his stroller and move forward in his new life with his horse.

From time to time, he will feel the need to use his valuable objects, and will meet his post-death needs with whatever he takes with him. The fact that all these things are buried next to the dead is an idea that cannot be explained only by “appreciating them while they are alive”. Moreover, the idea of using the items in the burial after death is included in the death journey of many cultures around the world.

We observe these intensely in many cultures and beliefs, especially in China, Egypt and Anatolia, traces of which survive today. It would be correct to think that the numerous balbals found in kurgans and monumental burial sites constitute an element in this entire belief structure. From Pazyryk Turkish Kurgans / Altai (Examples of early Kurgan artefacts)
We see two different ideas as effective for the objects used in burials.

The first is for the things placed in the burial to meet the needs of the deceased in the other life and to go on this journey with him, and the second is for the things placed outside the burial to provide information to the deceased’s survivors and future generations. The more respected the deceased was, the larger and more ostentatious the burial had to be.

The planned magnificence of the burial site is a job that requires power, wealth, time and skill, and only someone who can afford such a magnificence can achieve it. The burial area and the value of the buried person are equally proportional. The words of the deceased are conveyed to the living on benggütaş from the mouth of the deceased through the hands of his relatives. The call on inscribed stones continues to live on today’s Turkish burial stones. “I couldn’t get enough of my father and my people.

“I left my wife in my bosom.” – Barık IV inscription / Tıva / Reading: S.E.Malov
“I was a rose, I faded before blooming. “I was put in the grave before I had enough of this world. Don’t cry, mother, I came to the afterlife.” – From today’s anonymous grave sayings.

TokmokKyrgyzstan (Burana Tower road)
These examples can be multiplied. In short, those located outside the burial are directly related to the dead and are indicators of his words, his power, and the place where his body will live forever. It is also necessary for him to be recognized, introduced, not forgotten and as a sign of his burial. In this sense, personal-made stones are non-burial structures and should be interpreted as such.

It is unlikely that the person-made stone will be the servant of the deceased person after death. If that were the case, it would be in the burial. Moreover, partly the Turks, and generally the Chinese, “have such objects that they put in burials.” These are objects made of clay depicting a person or a horseman, and they most likely carry the idea of serving the deceased after death.

While in Turkish burials these are small and only descriptive, in Chinese burials they are found in real or close size. If the structures that are depicted as “the enemy’s honeymoon” in our inscriptions have a “service idea” feature, it is conceivable that this would be included in the burials and among the examples I gave above.

If it is not related to a “service idea” and the aim is to show respect for the killed Alpine enemy and the power of killing him, it would be more appropriate for these stones to be placed on the burial and show themselves to the society.

Small statues of people in the Turkish Kagan Kurgan. Bulgan / Mongolia

Clay soldiers and horses located in Chinese Han tombs. / Qin Shi Huang tomb / China
The Turks, in the state administration and under their command, blamed and “planted” the enemies they killed behind the back of the dead family members under their command, but they did not clearly write down the reason for this. They did not clearly reveal which stones these were.

Judging by the inscriptions, not hundreds or thousands of enemies, but the “most important enemy” balbal was erected after each death. This shows that the “flat cut stones”, which are frequently found around kurgans, are unlikely to be balbals. Moreover, there is no need to leave traces for enemies and bury them in sacred areas.

It would be more appropriate to think that these numerous flat-cut stones are flat burial stones, similar to today’s tombstones, found around the burial and complex areas of important people and Turks who died in wars. When we examine the burial sites in every period, the burial stones are used in flat structures because there is no stonemason, there is no skill or time, and for many other reasons.

The burial area is surrounded or covered with the idea of marking the place of the burial. It is protected from wild creatures and its security is ensured. It is intended to exist for a long time, to be found when you come back and not to be forgotten. This thought is the necessity of the burial work. Flat-cut stones have been the most frequently used burial capitals from past to future.

For those who are masters, have the skill or the means, more spectacular stones fill this place and are not left out. Each burial stone offers great clues about the buried person, life after death and all this connection. I will share my thoughts about the burial stones, their diversity, and what they tell, under another topic. Formal Review

Bishkek / Kyrgyzstan
When we look at the “person-shaped burial stones” (burial stones depicting men and women), that is, “balbals” by some and “stone fathers” by others, we see a Turkish facial structure in each of them. There is no resemblance to the facial structure of any other nation in any of the stones. You won’t see a depiction of a Chinese person, especially with his face and stance.

Based on this result, it would not be realistic to put forward the idea that the Turks only started wars within themselves and only bullied each other.

There are a few conclusions about who the person-shaped burial stones belong to and by whom they were made: “There is a Turkish face type and posture.” “Each of the stones is the formal production of a Turkish-specific understanding.” “The meanings in formal production are equally proportional to Turkish dreams and beliefs.” “All of them are in areas where Turks live densely, and they have reached everywhere they migrated with the same and similar structure.” “From small burial sites where Turks are known to have been buried, to large mounded mounds, stones made by people are encountered.” “Just as there are stones with Turkish inscriptions and Turkish tribe stamps, there are also burial stones with Turkish inscriptions located within the social complex areas.”

Therefore, all the burial stones belong to the Turks.

Hentii province / Mongolia (Man-made stone has become a sacred and votive structure.)
The unity of the eyebrows and nose is like the “ER” stamp and indicates personality, vitality, virility, power and existence. Although facial structures vary from stone to stone, the “ER” integrity is not missing in any of them. It is carved with care and attention. Contrary to Chinese and partly Mongolian traditions, the mustaches are sparse in places but have a scimitar-like appearance. The ends are curved upwards.

This mustache structure has never lost the appreciation and interest of Turks. It is a mustache structure that Turks frequently sported until the last periods of the Ottoman Empire. We see that the current Turkmen Alevi grandfathers also grow longer and similar mustaches. I see that it attracted the attention of the West for a while and that they used it, and I think it may be a reflection of the interest in our traditions from past to present.

One hand of the person-shaped stone is usually on his belt, on his bayonet, or in the same line under his abdomen. The other arm reaches to the middle of his chest and he often holds a “glass” called “Tolu” (nowadays Full). While these glasses can be ordinary, they range from the thin and oval structure resembling today’s glasses to the elongated “horn glass” structure of the earliest period.

The fact that they hold the bayonet below and the tolu above brings to mind the idea of ”the earth below, the sky above – Tengri”, which is frequently repeated in our inscriptions. The earth is put in order with the bayonet, life and death are ensured by its use. This is the same for the dead person. He clung to life and died with the trust and use of that which signified the entire ambush and was shown only as a bayonet. The entire pusat was placed in the kurgan and started its journey with the deceased.

“What is necessary after death?” It is the day to decide whether the countless oaths given to Tengri and his Nation during their lifetime have been fulfilled and whether the promises have been kept. Tolu is also the oath cup. It means taking an oath. It’s a promise. The biggest indicator of blood brotherhood and loyalty is “oath” and the object that symbolizes this is “tolu”. This oath binds the person while he is alive and also binds him after death.

Women also take an oath and carry the binding weight of the oath. Especially in Kipchak – Cuman sculptures, the importance of female depiction increases, all men and women hold Tolu with both hands and only.

Scythian-Kun kurgan and stone areas located between the Crimean Mountains and thought to date back to between 700 and 300 BC. There are many elements of Turkish culture in this region, which is protected as open space museums. As in blood brotherhood, “Tolu” is a sign of devotion to Tengri.

It is a sign of promises made and taken and the honor of fulfilling them, such as “taking an oath”, it is a sign of respect, such as “raising a glass”, and it reveals the new journey of the deceased, such as “tasting death”. There are traces of the beginning of the new journey in the roots of these words used by the Turks after Islam, such as “the sherbet of death”, “the sherbet of death” and “the sherbet of martyrdom”.

We understand from these values and their intricacies engraved on personalized stones that the stones depict the deceased and display the Turks’ ties between life and death, as well as the subtleties of their traditions and dreams. Stones are not the enemies of the Turk. He describes his own death journeys, alludes to his burial and describes his body. “Heroism means drinking from the bitter stone of death.”
It means rushing forward and then not turning back.”
– Hüseyin Nihal Atsız

Image from the script “Unknown Mongolia” (London), published in 1914. It is said in a legend that “the owner of the stones is Babal.” This stone is very old and hangs around the neck of every Turk. This situation is similar to a family tree. The owner of Babal hangs the stone he has allocated around everyone’s neck, and since Babal touches this stone, the stone cannot be seen and has no weight. When the person dies, this stone dissolves and falls. The one who finds and keeps this stone will have a long life and knowledge.

(Azerbaijani Folklore Anthology. Book 8, Ağbaba folklore, Baku, 2003, p.56) Here, the sound similarity of the name “Babal” to “balbal”, which I am trying to explain, is important. The second similarity is that they are both stones. The third important issue is that “at the time of death, this stone falls to the ground, is now visible and stands in the middle as its weight.”

There may be a myth arising from the fact that there are balbals and burial stones on or at the head of every burial. It is not known whether the practice of stones on burials, which dates back to very early times, is a reflection of this myth, or whether these myths were put forward by those who moved away from this tradition in uncertain periods and regions and forgot but saw it publicly and heard the name balbal.

In this respect, it can be thought that it has become an unknown legend (mythology). The Balbal narrative in this legend reconciles Turkish and person-shaped burial stones in an abstract sense and brings us one step closer to the truth.
Handmade Yabgu Benggüstone:
aLP: erİN: BaLBaL: KIS[L]DI
(He made the Alpine man balbal.)
eSBAR: TARKAN: BALBALI
(Es bar Tarkan Balbalı)

The text “Esbar Tarkan Balbalı” was written on a tall stone with length stamps on it, found in the El Etmiş Yabgu benggütaş area. This is the only writing on it. The full name of the person in the article is actually “Bilge Esbara Tamgan Tarkan” (also known as Işbara or İşbara) and this name is included in the “Handed Yabgu Benggütaşı”, which is named after his father.

Bilge Işbara’s name, mentioned in this article, is also very important as he gave his name to the stone. Because it is very clear that this stone is a stone depicting the Wise Ishbara, and it may indicate that Balbal was made for the deceased himself (Ishbara) rather than being made for the enemy. If this is the truth, the situation arises that the stones called “Balbal” can be erected not only in the name of the enemy but also for the deceased.

The opposing view may be that “this stone is actually an important enemy of Bilge Işbara, whom he killed but whose name is not included in the inscription, and instead of the name of the enemy, the name of Tarkan, who killed him, was written on the stone and they wanted to indicate that Balbal was his enemy. I think this idea would be far-fetched.”

The Çoyr inscription is also very important in this context. There is no word “balbal” in this inscription. But the text is not written on a flat stone or rock, but on a human-made stone. There is no mention of a dead enemy in the inscription and making him balbal. The inscription is erected in memory of two deceased people named Tun Yegen Erkin and Tun Bilge and wishes the living through their words.

He informs them of when they died, their sadness at separation, and advises those left behind that they should be loyal to İlteriş Kagan. But there is a stone with writing on it and a person’s face. It is clear that this stone depicts two dead people. It is easy to multiply these examples, but what is the solution to the problem that arises?

If the stones called balbal and erected in the name of the enemy are “person-made” stones, how can the “person-made” stones belonging to Tun Yegen Erkin and Tun Bilge be called balbal? How should stones similar to this one, clearly depicting the deceased, be evaluated? If the stones called Balbal and erected in the name of the enemy are flat and abundant, why is “balbal” written on the “Esbar Tarkan stone”? Is it possible to make the enemy use his own Alp Er as a balbal?

How is the “stone father” called balbal here? Is it possible to think that Kipchak female stones (stone mother) were placed as balbals and enemy women were killed and service was expected from them? If we add the correct meaning to the word “balbal”, there will not be the slightest problem.

Khustain Nuruu / Mongolia (Smooth and personalized stones mixed)
One of the words meaning statue in Mongolian is Barimal. Talat Tekin thinks that the word Balbal is related to Barimal. Mr. According to Tekin, Balbal means “sculpture” and has changed from Barimal > Barmal > Balbal. Gerhard Doerfer (ktb. Turkish Language Studies) says, just like Tekin, that the word “Balbal” comes from “Barimal”.

These thoughts popularized the idea that the word “Balbal” is a word of foreign (Mongolian) origin. On the contrary, it is not a word of foreign origin, but a pure Turkish word. It must be one of the earliest words in Turkish. If there really is a unity between these two words, it would be correct to think that it could have passed from Turkish to Mongolian.

Because the fact that the word Balbal is Turkish will be revealed through the study of the origin of the word Balbal. This situation, which Khakassian Turkologist Leonid Kızlasov examined in his article titled Balbal in 1966, is the closest to clarity about what Balbal is.

While each researcher takes information from Mr. Kızlasov’s work that is useful to fill in the words balbal and Taşbaba, they ignore something about the origin of the word. This is the explanation that “The word balbal is a word from the Old Turkish language and means bal + bal, that is, to hit, to hit, to hit” and this is what needs to be emphasized. (Кызласов Л.Р. О значении термина «балбал» древнетюркских надписей // ТюркС., 1966; ДТС.

М.-Л, 1969)
Nowadays it is called “erecting a statue”. The word “planting balbal” was also used in the past. Likewise, it is called “making (the person) balbal”. This is a word with the same structure as making the person balbal and describing the person as balbal; “to render” means “to do”. It is clear with these words; “balbal is erected like a statue and can be made and depicted like a person”

Balbal, which was found off the Tungur road during a nature trip and is said to have been seen for the first time. It was erected with support rock pieces. – Altai Turkish Region
Words created using the sounds made by creatures in nature are called onomatopoeic words. The repetition of these words to reinforce the meaning is called reduplication.

This reinforcement; It can be achieved by repeating the words “similar, similar, opposite, meaningful, meaningless, reflection”, as well as by repeating the same words. For example, “running, running, deep, morning, morning, evening, evening, night, night, fast, fast, slowly, beautifully, loudly”. If we go back to the past, we will see that there are many onomatopoeias and reduplications in Turkish. This is also an indication of the abundance of deep-rooted and natural words in our language.

We find many words of reduplication and reflection in the Dictionary of Mahmud of Kashgar (11th century).

To give an example:
Badar Badar : “badar badar marched : He ran with that noise [making such a sound].” p 166 (Nowadays, we also use the words ‘bang, blag, blag’.)
Buldur Buldur: “The stone fell into the well and caused such a sound.” p 205
Pee Pee: “The word used by women to make the baby (or child) pee.

At the same time, after the horse is run, the rider uses this expression to relax the horse.” – Divanü Lugati’t Türk, Mahmud el-Kaşgari, 1074, publication 2007, Kabalcı, p. 238 (Nowadays, we also use the sound “ş” as it is, by lengthening it)
Tsar Çur: “become a waste of waste: He ate everything he found, leaving nothing behind.” p 223 (Nowadays, the phrase “wasting money” and its reflection have a similar meaning.)
Tsar Chars : “he wasted the moment : He hit him in such a way that it made such a noise.

Similarly, it is also said that the tars tars urdi: it struck him all over.” p 223 (Nowadays, it also uses ‘çak cha’ and ‘çak çut’.)
Çur Çur: “The reflection of the sound made by the milk flowing from the animal’s udder into the milking bowl. This expression is also used to understand why any liquid makes a similar sound.” p 244 (Nowadays it is also called çır şır, şır şır, şar şar.)
Şar Shur: “An expression that reflects the sound of a heavy and noisy downpour.

This expression is also used to describe any liquid making such a sound. The “ş” in this word has transformed from “ç”. p 520 (Thus, we understand the transformations of the Çur Çur reflection above.)
Slap smack : “he smacked the moment smack smack : she slapped him in such a way that it made such a sound.

Ol kagğnug ate smack smack: he ate melon while smacking his lips.” s 520 (Nowadays, smack, sup and shapur spur are also used.)
Taqır Taqır: “the horse made a noise like this: The horses’ hooves made such a sound.

The expression “ticking” can also be used, it means the same thing. p 533
Toq Toq : “toq toq did : Something solid made a sound like a stone hitting another stone” p579
Tang Tong: “tang tong did: a heavy object made such a sound when it fell on a solid object” p 529 (Nowadays it is also called dang dung.)
Dang Dong: “dang dong dang neng: The object dan dun dang. It made such a sound.

This is similar to the expression tang tong.” p 246 (Predicts the T-D change by revealing that they are derived from each other)
Trick Trt : “Anig Tönin T T T T R T T R T T R A T T T T R A T : He tore her clothes carelessly, so as to make such a noise.” p 565 (Nowadays, we also use the words cart cart, cart curt.)
Tus Tus: “The reflection of the sound made when striking something soft, such as fabric or felt.” p 582
Zap Zap: “A reflexive preposition that refers to taking quick steps.

Zap zap bargıl: Hurry up.” p 720 (Nowadays, we also say jumping and running and jumping. We also use the reflections quickly, quickly, quickly.)
Zaq Zaq: “A provocative expression used to encourage coaches to hit the bullseye.” p 720 (Nowadays it is also called tos tos.)
Kurd Kurdish: “The horse ate the barley in a hearty manner: The horse ate the barley in a crunchy manner.

This word is also used to describe a person who munches on cucumbers or cucumber-like things.” p 336 (The examples of crackling and crunching reflections are also used today.)
Let’s go further into the past. Reduplications date back to the Benngüstones of Orkun. Seeing the reduplications in our early inscriptions proves how deep-rooted and strong our language is.

Moreover, knowing that these reduplications you will read are used unchanged today, gives us self-confidence and shows us the value we attach to our language and the strong impact our language has on us. Examples of these doublings:
Labor: Labor (BK d8 – d9)
Eb Bark : Ev bark (BK d32 – d34)
Carry for: Inside and out (KT g12)
Arkış Tirkiş: Caravan group (KT g8)
Tünli Künli: Day and night (BK d1)

It is one of the flat-shaped bengüstones around Salbik Kurgan, Khakassia. We see many flat stones lining or scattered around the kurgans. The reflection “Toq Toq” in Kaşgarlı’s dictionary has a second importance related to our subject. “A stone hitting another stone” makes a sound similar to this. A deep voice. Moreover, the name of the sound is “toq”.

Again, stones and heavy objects hitting each other give a “full” sound, as in the reflections of “Tang Tung, Dank Dong, Buldur Buldur”. It consists of bold and wide vowels. In short, both stone-pounding and the sign of satiety are expressed with these (known) words. It is important for us that the “honey” sound is “thick and broad” and resembles sounds expressing fullness and firmness.

The repetition of words used to reinforce meaning often indicates that the action occurred more than once. For example, the “tama tama” sound is an indication that the water dripping action is repeated at least two or more times. The “ringing” sound coming from the gem or the “rotting” sound coming from the water mite should be like this. These can be reproduced.

The “Balbal” reflection is also an indication that the action that gives the “bal” sound and the reflection sound are repeated more than once. Balbal is just like Toqtoq. The large hammer made of wood, called “Tokmak” in Turkish, was born and used from this reflection sound. This object was named for the work of “hitting and beating”.

The word “sculpture”, which we use to avoid saying “sculpture” in Arabic, is a word of Turkish origin created in Turkey Turkish:
Sculpture: Stone, bronze, copper, clay, plaster, etc. A work that is carved from materials and poured into molds or shaped by kneading and firing. Sculpture, status.

– TDK, Turkish Dictionary p 1091
Carved: carved, chipped / Carved: engraving, sculpture, sculpture – Tarama Sözlüğü p. 262 [xııı, xıx century]
Sculpt: To saw or cut the outer part of something with a sharp tool in order to give it the desired shape. Yont-[u] A suffix that makes a noun from a verb. (Çat-ı, Çiz-i, Sür-ü, Yet-i) Sculpture: Sculpture – TTTSKBS p 1160
Almost all Turkish dialects have come to use the foreign words “sculpture and statuya”.

Sculpture Dialects: Taş Hın – Statuya [Bashkir], Taş sin – Statuya [Tatar], Heykel – Yontu [Turkey][Az][Turkmen][Uyghur], Aykel – Estelik [Kyrgyz], Müsın [Kazakh] – TDK, Dictionary of Turkish Dialects
The words “sin, sın, hın” in the sculpture dialects are Turkish. It means both “figure, stature” and “burial, tomb”.

(Sin, “Burial, Grave” TDK Turkish Dictionary, Tarama Sözlüğü 1971)(Sin, “Endam”, “Grave” DLT, p. 489) Kaşgarlı says that sleeping in a burial with a long hide may cause the grave to be called “sin”. The fact that they are preceded by the word “stone” may mean “a statue” in the sense of “tall and handsome stone”, but it also means that “the grave is made of stone”. Therefore, it may also refer to “gravestone”.

If so, “gravestone” may be equated with “statue” by some branches of the Turks. It may be a result of the person-made stones also being burial stones. “If you need a lesson,
“Come and see these sins”
-Yunus Emre
In particular, the deep-rooted word “Bediz” is intended to mean sculpture. These thoughts are vague and not clear. Bediz means “Beze – Embellishment”. It means “ornament”. It is to decorate.

It is attributed to the fact that it is an application that Turks perform on stone as well as on leather, felt, fabric, textiles and paper. It is clear that the word Bediz covers the works of “painting, decoration and embroidery”. Bediz craftsmanship also includes the work of drawing pictures on flat rocks or walls, as well as the decoration and visual beauty of our bengut stones. The people of Kashgar call Bedizlig “a fancy house”. (DLT p. 179) Home is a waste of time.

In other words, it is adorned and decorated. Yusuf Has Hacib, on the other hand, says in his Kutadgu Bilig, “…bedizlig ebin (decorated house), …bediz teg tening (your skin like an ornament), …bedizlig sarıng (your decorated palace), …yer munça bediz (so many ornaments on the ground), …bediz teh özi (your essence like an ornament)” and there are more. As explained in our Orkun Benggütaşlar, the earliest source on bediz, bediz makers are mostly brought from China and work to make the “bediz” on Benggütaş.

Bitigists also write “the words in their hearts”. (Kül Tigin b11-12, k13, kd1, BK k13, gb1) Moreover, even if all benggüstone was formed, benggüstone is not a statue. They are called and planted as benggütaş (eternal stone) and bitig stone (written stone) by our ancestors. (KT g11-12-13, k13, kd1, BK k8,k15)

At the top left, from top to bottom, it says “Turkish Bodun”. In other words, “Turkish Nation – Nation”. / From Tontukuk Benggüstone
On the association of Bediz – Meringue and the meaning of Ornament:
Ornamental Dialects: Bediz, Embellishment. Süs [Turkey] [Az] Bizek [Tatar] [Bashkir] Bezek [Uyghur] [Uzbek] Bezendirüv [Kazakh] – TDK, Dictionary of Turkish Dialects
Bezek: ornament / Bezegen: very decorated place / bezekçi: decorator – Tarama Dictionary p. 43
Bediz: Ornament. Relief. Statue?

– TTTSBKS p 125
Ornament: To adorn, embellish, embellish. A motif, carving, etc. used to decorate the surface of a work of art. – TDK Turkish Dictionary p. 2189

Pillared hill piece of Bilge Tengri Uygur Kagan Benggütaş. Stonemasonry is an occupation that began in very early periods. The practice of Turks drawing bez, tamga and striking on the rocks goes back a long way. Our knowledge of rock and stone dates back much further than that of iron, steel and gold craftsmanship, in which we also have great skills. There are many examples of Turkish sculptures.

It is unthinkable that this whole sculpting business does not have a name in our language. This name may be either a forgotten name or a name that has survived to the present day. It may also be included in other words as a root word. I think this word is “Balbal” and it contains all these possibilities. The word balbal is a word that we do not use today, its root sound lives in many of our words and is frequently mentioned in our ancestors’ calls to us.

In my opinion, the “honey” sound is a sound used in the “sculpt” action. The sound “honey” is given to the action performed to shape the stone, to carve it, to break it, to disintegrate it, in short, to create a sculpture, statue or statue. Since this process is repetition, it goes into a reduplication to reinforce the meaning and the word “balbal” emerges. The resulting work is called “balbal”.

Have the traces of our word Balbal, which was forgotten a long time ago and was replaced by new local and foreign names, but was re-read and thought about with the Orkun Benggütas, disappeared today? No! Its sound and meaning are clearly evident in all Turkish dialects. Especially as a name for the objects on which we perform the action of cutting, carving and hitting. AX,
“Axe: Cutting wood, splitting, carving, etc.

“Iron tool used in work.” – tdk 247
“Baldu [Ottoman Turkish] Balta [Turkish Turkish]: To cut, split, carve” – ts 35
Balta Dialects: Balta [TT] [Az] [Bashkir] [Kazakh] [Kyrgyz] [Uzbek] [Tatar] Palta [Turkmen] [Uyghur] Maltese [Altaic] – tdk tls
“Balta, Baldu, Baldı, Palta, Paldu, Malta: Balta” – Altay Turkish dictionary 132
So, how is “ÇEKIÇ” called in other Turkish dialects?

“Balka: Hammer” – Kyrgyz dictionary 84
Hammer Dialects: “Balga [Kazakh] Balka [Kyrgyz] Balga [Uzbek] Balka [Uyghur] – TDK TLS
(Based on all this, there is a possibility that the word “Sledgehammer”, which TDK considers as Greek and which is said to have come into our language from Greek, is also related to Turkish.)
In this context, Balbal; It is a synonym of the words “sculpture, sculpture” and is directly Turkish.

This word, which is a doubling of the sound resulting from an action, is one of the earliest words used in the meaning of “sculpture” in our language. It is wrong to say that this deep-rooted word that comes from our lives is a word of foreign origin. So, it would not be wrong to call all these original “sculpture” works made by the Turks balbal.

It would not be wrong to call our unlimited number of various and elaborate burial capital stones, which we can also refer to as “sintaş”, our person-built sculptures on burials, also called “taş – daşbaba”, our burial sculptures such as Aries and Horses, which we can also call “koçtaş and attaş”, and our memorial sculptures depicting Kagan and Katun, as “balbal”, and to generalize and equate the word balbal to “sculpture” by keeping it above all other nomenclatures.

For example, “Taşbaba balbalı, Koçtaş balbalı, Bilge Kagan balbalı, person balbalı, enemy person balbalı, etc.” As we can say, we can call our person-built burial stones both balbal (sculpture) and “stone father”. As our ancestors said, “For their own wisdom” Es bar Tarkan Balbalı (statue). Again, like our ancestors saying “I erected a balbal (statue)” of the Kırkız Kagan “for the enemy”.

One of the Adana Taşbaba Balbals. / Visual shooting: Kürşad BAYTOK
Besides all these, balbals continue to appear in today’s burial sites. It shows itself from countless burial stones that are separate and meaningful from each other, to those with human structures. It is natural to encounter Taşbaba balbals everywhere on earth where Turks reached and lost their lives. Anatolia is no different from this.

Turkish balbals, which have been erected since ancient times and even today, are indicators of a culture that will not be destroyed and the Nation of that culture that will exist forever. Since all these burial – tombstones are carved for the burial area, they present the person’s name, fame, image – picture, words from his mouth and many other values depending on belief, they are all benggütaş (eternal stones) in a sense.

All of these were done by those who loved the burial in order to keep it alive forever and not to forget it, and they should be given the necessary value, first of all, by their own Nation. (I will talk about Anatolian Balbals with my source images in another article.)

Kürşad BAYTOK

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