Izzettin Ekinci, Wikicommons
The Bingöl Mountains are a vast and largely impregnable range of
mountains in eastern Turkey, in what was once part of Armenia. The area has
long been revered as sacred and both folklore and archaeology have revealed its
importance in the dawn of Middle Eastern civilisation.
Bingöl translates as the Turkish for ‘Land of a Thousand
Lakes’, referring to the countless springs which form on the mountain slopes
which feed pools and streams which eventually become some of the great rivers
across Turkey and the Middle East, including the Tigris and Euphrates. In both
a practical and a spiritual sense, the mountains were the source of life for
the region.
The area has been ruled by many cultures
over the past five thousand years, including the Hittites, Persians, Romans and
Byzantines and its name has changed many times, but all reflect the same meaning.
The Persian name of Mingöl translates as ‘heavenly waters’. In Classical times
it was known as Abus Mons, or ‘Father Mountain’, and in Armenian tradition it is
considered the Mountain of Life, akin to the World Mountain or cosmic axis in
many mountainous cultures. The more recent historical name of Çapakҫur, meaning ‘River of
Heaven’, is said to have been given by Alexander the Great. He made a long
journey to drink the healing waters after suffering a long and incurable
illness, and was miraculously cured, although he didn’t quite gain the immortality
he had been hoping for.
The Bingöl region in Kurdish folklore is associated with the
Peri, a race of beautiful, pale-skinned, superhuman entities whose stories are
widespread across Turkey, and were probably once linked to the ancient Gods of
the region, although local belief states that unlike other beings in myth, the
Peri were genuine living people. The legends of the Peri formed the basis for
the Irin and the Anunnaki in Broken Skies, and Mingöl is the home of the
spirit-walkers, who live in the inhospitable mountains and are feared even by
the most powerful people on the plains.
As I’ve said in Broken Skies, mountains
have long been linked to spiritual ordeals and spiritual gain. The trainee lamas
of Tibet, for example, were once taken to a snow-bound mountain and wrapped in
a soaking wet sheet. They weren’t allowed to move until they had dried it using
only their body heat, staving off hypothermia using will alone. The enforced physical
and mental hardship of constant cold, danger, altitude sickness and lack of oxygen
is said to force the body and mind into new ways of existence, the reason for
the spiritual gifts the holy people of both ancient and modern times.
An old monastery near Bingöl.
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