Many people today are interested in whether the emblem of Tartaria exists. But with this country, everything is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. Medieval people imagined that somewhere far away there are countries described in ancient myths, where mystical monsters live, people with dog heads. Geographers and cartographers of Western Europe, for example, believed in the mysterious kingdom of Presbyter John, and also believed that in the east there was a vast territory called Great Tartary. It is not surprising that so far many want to know more about this state and see a photo of the coat of arms of Tartaria.
Probably, it is there that the river of the dead originates, and the inhabitants of this particular country once announced the end of the world to the whole world. Where is this wonderful, mysterious and elusive promised land located?
General information
To begin with, the Great Tartaria is a completely scientific term used mainly by Western European scholars. From the 12th to the 19th century, they placed this state in different parts of Asia: from the Urals and Siberia to Mongolia and China.
Some cartographers believed that this is the name of the whole land, not explored by representatives of the Catholic world. And then the borders of Tartaria moved from the Caspian Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Other scholars, by contrast, linked this mysterious country with Turkestan or Mongolia.
Terminology
For the first time this toponym was found in the works of Rabbi Navarra Benjamin of Tudela, about 1173, this traveler wrote about Tartaria, calling it a Tibetan province. According to a Jewish religious leader, this country is located north of Mogulistan in the Tangut region of Turkestan. Alas, he did not compose descriptions of the symbols of the coat of arms of Tartaria.
Scientists connect the origin of the name Tartary with a mixture of two words that are completely different in origin: the ancient Greek dungeon Tartar and the name of the Tatar people. It is believed that these words were combined in the minds of the inhabitants of Western Europe because of a similar sound. The fact is that from the caravans that transported goods from China along the Great Silk Road, Europeans heard about the mysterious Tatars inhabiting the eastern lands. Since the Chinese called the Tatars almost all the peoples living in the north of the Celestial Empire, including the Mongols and the Yakuts, the concept was formed in the West that Tartaria, the country of the Tatars, is a huge empire that occupies almost all of Asia. At the same time, the Europeans did not know either the description of the coat of arms of Tartaria, or the external description of its inhabitants.
Geography and History
Tartaria was often divided into different regions related to the country that owns them, or geographic location. Thus, according to medieval cartographers, Muscovites or Russian Tatars lived in Western Siberia, Xinjiang and Mongolia were settled by the Chinese, West Turkestan (later Russian Turkestan) was known as independent Tartaria, and Manchuria - East Tartaria.
As the Russian empire expanded eastward, and most of Tartaria opened up to Europeans, this term gradually went out of use. The European regions north of the Black Sea, inhabited by Turkic peoples, were known as Little Tartaria.
The "Komulian Desert of Tartaria" was mentioned by Immanuel Kant in "Observations of the Feeling of the Beautiful and the High" as "great, far-reaching loneliness." It was this note of the great philosopher, apparently, at one time inspired the creators of the film "Desert of Tartari."
New time
Not all scientists were inclined to give this country such a huge size. Some geographers placed it in Central Asia. Thus, the Encyclopedia Britannica (Volume 3, 1773) indicates that the state of Tartaria is located south of Siberia, north of India and Persia, and west of China.
This view was also shared by the Swedish explorer Philip Johann von Stralenberg. In 1730, he published the New Geographical Description of Great Tartaria, placing it between Mongolia, Siberia and the Caspian Sea. And not a word about the emblem of Great Tartary.
East Tartaria
So once called the Manchu territories, stretching from the confluence of the Amur River with the Ussuri River to the island of Sakhalin. This area is now Primorsky Krai with Vladivostok as a regional administrative center.
These lands were once occupied by the Mohe tribes and the Jurchen people, as well as various old kingdoms, including Kore, Balkhai, Liao, and Khitan State.
According to the chronicle of the Ming Dynasty, the Tungus Veji tribes once lived on this earth. They were later united into the Manchu Qing empire with Nurhachi as their leader and founder. These lands were torn away in favor of Russia in accordance with the Beijing Treaty. And again, no information about the emblem of Tartaria.
At one time, these lands were visited by Japanese explorers, Mamiya Rinzo and others who reported on various important cities and ports, such as Hayshenwei (today Vladivostok). From these lands and the surrounding areas of Hulun (Amur Region), according to Japanese scientists of the 19th century, the ancestors of their people arrived. Other ancient cities in the region: Tetyuhe (now Dalnegorsk) and, possibly, Deleng, according to some sources, are an important commercial imperial port.
Different versions
Many Western European cartographers were guided in their works precisely by the works of the Italian Franciscan diplomat for several centuries. Some scientists considered Great Tartaria to be the mysterious expanses of Siberia. So, the Flemish scientist Abraham Ortelius in 1570 published the atlas of the world "Overview of the circle of the earth." In this edition, Tartaria was located between Moscow and the Far East.
Role in modern false history
The problem of Great Tartary in modern historiography is very vast, since this territory, according to the British Encyclopedia of 1771, is the largest state in the world! This huge state completely disappeared from all subsequent editions of the encyclopedia. Falsification of history? Everything can be!
Why then do academic historians not accept the extravagant theories of a mathematician, academician, homegrown historian Dr. Fomenko? The Russians cannot accept them, because Fomenko claims that the Tatar and Mongol invasions did not exist as such, nor did three centuries of slavery provide an extensive body of "documentary evidence" confirming his assertion.
The so-called Tatars and Mongols, according to the historian and mathematician, were the true ancestors of modern Russians living in a bilingual state with Arabic as the second official language, in which they de spoke as fluently as they did in Russian. The Old Russian state was governed by a dual structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were in fact professional armies with a tradition of life-long conscription (conscription was the so-called “blood tax”). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against regions that tried to evade taxes. Fomenko claims that the history of Russia, as we know it today, is a blatant fake, invented by many German scientists brought to Russia by the dynasty of “usurpers” Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of a coup. Fomenko insists that Ivan the Terrible is actually a cocktail of four rulers, no less. They represented two competing dynasties - legal rulers and ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made the most remarkable transition - they initially accused the young mathematician Fomenko of anti-communist dissident activity and an attempt to destroy the historical heritage of Soviet Russia. At the present time, a middle-aged mathematician is accused of “pro-communist Russian nationalism” and violation of the proud historical heritage of Great Russia. Unfortunately, Fomenko did not describe the symbol of the coat of arms of Tartaria.
In the West, the so-called new chronology of Fomenko will not be accepted, since he removes the cornerstone from the impeccable building of world history. He mocks the history of our entire civilization, destroying one after another Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century AD) and Ancient Greece and its numerous policies, which he identifies as medieval settlements of the crusaders in Greece and Ancient Egypt (the Giza pyramids dated to the 11th-15th centuries CE and named in no other way than the cemetery of the Great “Mongol Empire”). The civilization of Ancient Egypt is irrefutably attributed to the XII-XV centuries. with the help of ancient Egyptian horoscopes carved from stone. He was the first to decipher and chart all such horoscopes, confining them to medieval dates. English historians are simultaneously angry and laugh at the assumption that the history of Ancient England was a de facto Byzantine import, transplanted into English soil by a fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward English historians who consider themselves to be true connoisseurs of world history, the cover of one of Fomenko's books depicts Jesus Christ crucified on Big Ben. Successful trolling by Fomenko, but the coat of arms of Tartaria on the cover would be much more aesthetic.
Asians also got it, because in their books Fomenko completely destroyed the Ancient History of China. There is no such thing. Full point. The collection of the so-called ancient Chinese history is reliably applicable only to the XVII-XVIII centuries. According to the unfortunate historian, this is just a Hebrew story, revised and rewritten in hieroglyphs as another historical transplant, this time performed on Chinese soil by loving Jesuit hands.
Ingling sect and coat of arms of Tartaria (history and description)
According to the teachings of the Ural ingling sect, once led by an odious writer and psychic Nikolai Levashov, the Great Tartaria was a state of "Slavic Aryans, descendants of Perun and Svarog, who arrived from outer space and settled the Eurasian continent." According to Levashov’s supporters, the capital of this state was located in Omsk, which in ancient times allegedly bore the name Asgard-Iry. According to them, the emblem of Tartaria is a griffin soaring in the sky. However, there are some disagreements in this regard in the Ingling community. Some of them, for example, are convinced that the emblem of Tartaria is a basilisk.
Tartaria on Russian maps
Although you can find this state on the first Russian maps, this is due to the influence of the West European tradition. Thus, Tartaria got to the “Draft of Siberia, written in Tobolsk on the orders of Tsar Alexy Mikhailovich”, which was compiled in 1667 under the leadership of the boyar Pyotr Godunov.
Reflection in art
In the novel “Hell” by Vladimir Nabokov, Tartaria is the name of a large country on the fictional planet Antiterra. Russia is an approximate geographical analogue of Tartaria on Terra, the twin of the world of Antiterra, apparently identical to “our” Earth, but doubly fictional in the context of the novel.
In Puccini's latest opera, Turandot, the father of Calaf Timur is the ousted king of Tartaria.
In Philippe Pullman’s novels “His Dark Materials”, the main characters of Europe often express fear of the Tatars, which, apparently, applies to many Asian races, since the story goes far from Mongolia.
In William Shakespeare's Macbeth, witches add Tatars lips to their potions.
In the gothic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Dr. Frankenstein pursues a monster "among the wild places of Tartaria and Russia."
In his short work with E. Hoffmann Price “Through the Gate of the Silver Key”, Lovecraft briefly mentions Tartaria: “On their hidden heads now seemed to be tall, oddly colored miters, suggesting thoughts of nameless figures carved by a forgotten sculptor along living rocks high, forbidden mountains in Tartaria. "
The Tale of the Squire from the Canterbury Tales by Jeffrey Chaucer takes place in the royal court of Tartaria.
In Gulliver’s travels, Jonathan Swift, the main character twice mentions his travels in Tartaria.
In the poem by Walter de la Mare, “If I were the ruler of Tartaria,” this country is described as an imaginary land full of happiness.
In a short story by Washington Irving, “Rip Van Winkle,” the title character “sits on a wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy as the spear of Tartaria.”
Does the flag and coat of arms of Tartaria exist?
Since this is a historical region, and not a real state, it seems that he did not have any official symbols. Someone believes that the emblem of Tartaria is a griffin, someone sees in this role some other animal. This question is the subject of numerous speculations, and the misguided false historians (Fomenko, Nosovsky) and the ideologists of the New Age movements (Levashov, Hinevich, Trekhlebov) add fuel to the fire. Perhaps this region really had its own totem in the form of some animal distributed in Eurasian latitudes, and the real coat of arms of Tartaria is an owl. We leave these speculations to the reader's judgment. The article provides illustrations that can be attributed to the flag or emblem of Tartaria. The photos above cannot be called historically accurate. Perhaps the images on them are just fiction of the people of that time.
Nevertheless, a number of Western European directories nevertheless gave images of the symbols of the flag and coat of arms of Tartaria, which were indeed described as a canvas with the aforementioned animals.
What is Tartarus, or why was the word "Tartaria" terrifying
In Greek mythology, Tartarus is both a deity and a place in the underworld. In ancient Orphic sources and in secret schools, Tartarus is also an unlimited first creature from which Light and Cosmos are born.
In Hesiod's Greek poetry Theogony (c. 700 BC), Tartarus was the third of the original deities, following Chaos and Gaia (Earth) and before Eros, he was also the father of the monster Typhon. According to Gigin, Tartarus was a descendant of Ether and Gaia.
As for his location, Hesiod claims that the bronze anvil falling from heaven will fall nine days before it reaches the earth. The anvil will take another nine days to fall from the earth onto Tartarus. In the Iliad (circa 700 BC), Zeus claims that Tartarus is "as far below Hades as heaven is above the earth."
Although, according to Greek mythology, the kingdom of Hades is a place of death, there are also many inhabitants in Tartarus. When Kron came to power as the King of the Titans, he enclosed the one-eyed Cyclops and one hundred armed Hekatonheyrs in Tartarus and established the monster Kampe as a guard. Zeus killed Kampe and freed these prisoners to help him in conflict with the Titans. The gods of Olympus finally won. Kronos and many other titans were expelled to Tartarus, although Prometheus, Epimetheus, Metis and most of the female titans were destroyed (according to Pindar, Kronos somehow later earned the forgiveness of Zeus and was released from Tartarus to become the ruler of Elysium). Other gods could also be enclosed in Tartarus. Apollo is a prime example, although Zeus set him free. Hekatonheyrs became guards of prisoners of Tartarus. Later, when Zeus overcame the monster Typhon, he threw it into the "wide Tartarus."
Initially, this place was used only to limit the dangers to the gods of Olympus. In later mythologies, Tartarus became the place where punishment corresponds to crime. For instance:
- King Sisyphus was sent to Tartarus for the murder of guests and travelers in the castle in violation of hospitality, seduction of his own niece and much more.
- King Tantalus also ended up in Tartarus after slicing his son Palops, boiling it and serving it as food when he was invited to dine with the gods. He also stole ragweed from the gods and told people about it. Another story mentioned that he was holding on to a golden dog forged by Hephaestus and stolen by a friend of Tantalus Pandarei.
Griffin as a coat of arms
Since many people connect the history of the flag and coat of arms of Tartaria with the image of a griffin, it is worth considering what this fantastic animal is from the point of view of heraldry.
In heraldry, the fusion of a griffin with a lion and an eagle symbolizes courage and courage, and he is always attracted to powerful cruel monsters. It is used to mean strength and military courage, as well as leadership. Griffins are depicted with the back of a lion, the head of an eagle with straight ears, feathered breasts and the front legs of an eagle, including claws. These features show a combination of intelligence and power.
In British heraldry, the griffin is depicted without wings and with a short horn emerging from the forehead, like a unicorn. His body is covered with bunches of formidable spikes. The most commonly used "female" griffin with wings.
In architectural decoration, the griffin is usually presented as a four-foot beast with wings and an eagle's head with horns.
The statues that open the entrance to the City of London are sometimes mistaken for griffins, but in reality they are Tudor dragons, symbolizing the hands of the city. They are most easily distinguished from griffins by webbed rather than feathery wings.
Basilisk in heraldry
The basilisk, which has a much more ominous significance, could also be a symbol of this mysterious country, according to the descriptions of the flag and coat of arms of Tartaria.
Basilisk usually represents evil and is a symbol of death. From time to time, Christianity used the symbol of a basilisk, and, like a number of other snakes, described it as a demon or representative of the devil himself. Therefore, he was often depicted in church paintings or stone carvings as being killed or defeated by a Christian knight, to symbolize the ability to overcome evil.
Around the same time, the basilisk became incorporated into heraldry, especially in the city of Basel, Switzerland.
In alchemy, the basilisk played a dual role. On the one hand, it can represent the powerful destructive power of fire, which destroys the elements that make it possible to transform metals, on the other hand, it is a perpetuating balm created by a philosopher's stone.
Given how Tartaria was perceived in the West, the basilisk suits her much more than the griffin.