What is a Yurt?
Yurts are the traditional nomadic home from Central Asia. The yurt is a collapsible framework of wooden poles covered with felt and or canvass. The design of these ancient shelters have been kept unchanged for over one thousand years, a testament to it's practically and effectiveness. The word "Yurt" comes from the Russian word "yurta" which means dwelling or campsite. People in Mongolia refer to these shelters as "ger" which means "home" in Mongolian.From Mongolia in the east, to Turkey in the west, from the Altai Mountains in the north to Afghanistan in the south, yurts have been wide spread in central Asian for over 1000 years. Most yurt dwellers in Central Asia herd animals and move with them pasture to pasture as the grass is eaten and the seasons change. This way of life, the nomadic herding of animals, is called "pastoral nomadism". In Buddhist and Shamanic traditions the yurt in its construction represents the entire universe. Each component has a special symbolic meaning. Herodotos (480-425BC) described ger carts and felt being used by the Scythian people. |
A cart found in a 2500-year old Pazaryck grave in southern Siberia demonstrated that all of the technologies needed to build a yurt were available. "Their huts or tents are formed of rods covered with felt, and being exactly round, and nicely put together, they can gather them into one bundle and make them up as packages, which they carry along with them in their migrations, upon a sort of car with four wheels" |
