Qambar Ata
Kazakh · numen · Kazakh traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Qambar Ata is the patron spirit of horses in Kazakh folk religion, the pir under whose protection the herds of a horse-breeding people are placed. His name is invoked over foaling mares, at the branding and gelding of colts, and in blessings for the multiplication of the stud; herders count him the ancestral guardian of all that pertains to the horse. He belongs to a set of tutelary ata each governing a kind of livestock, and though his figure has absorbed the coloring of a Muslim saint, his function reaches back to the pre-Islamic reverence for the spirit-protectors of the animals on which steppe life depended. Sources sometimes link or confuse him with the epic hero Qambar.
Domains
- horses herding
- livestock patronage
Powers
- guards and multiplies the horse herds
Epithets
- жылқының пірі Қамбар ата — Qambar Ata, patron of horsesQondybai, Kazakhskaya mifologiya (2005). (secondary)
Relations
- companion: Shopan AtaOne of the paired patron-spirits (pir) of the herds, invoked together for the increase of stock.Basilov, Shamanstvo u narodov Srednei Azii i Kazakhstana (1992). (secondary)
Sources
- Qambar Ata is the patron spirit (pir) of horses in Kazakh folk religion, one of the ata invoked by herders for the protection and increase of livestock.: Basilov, Shamanstvo u narodov Srednei Azii i Kazakhstana (1992). (secondary); Qondybai, Kazakhskaya mifologiya (2005). (secondary)