Attractions / 27.08.2023

Chinese legend about a magical lake. Legends and myths of ancient China. The myth of the god Fusi, who taught people to fish

There are a great many lakes in Altai, they are shrouded in secrets and various myths.

The Legend of Lake Akkem

Swans have never been seen in the white silence of the Katunsky squirrels. You can see the mountain beauty Belukha. But anyone who wants this must first stop at Lake Akkem. A gloomy, dark-colored lake, muddy water, lifeless rocky shores, not a blade of grass around, not a living creature of any kind. But hunters and climbers who wandered into those places more than once saw mountain gray geese on the shore, and in the very pre-winter, already in the first snow - it is not clear how and why they appear on the shore of Akkem. Perhaps such a strange phenomenon gave rise to perhaps the most beautiful legend of the Altai Mountains...

A flock of swans was flying high in the sky. The shot rang out suddenly. A beautiful young female with her wing broken by a stone fell down. With a heartbreaking, sorrowful “ak” (in the swan language this means danger), the mighty, handsome leader led the flock away from this place in flight. He could not fall next to his wounded friend and thereby destroy the flock. One tear rolled out of the swan's eyes and fell into the valley, turning into a sad gray lake.

“Ak-ak-ak” - the alarming polyphony of a flock of swan filled the valley above the lake. “Whom-whom-whom,” the leader shouted sharply, which meant: “Up, forward, on the wing.” During the flight, he could not even turn around to see his friend again; even this elusive movement could throw the flock off course. That’s why he didn’t see how a male swan from his flock quietly landed on the shore of the lake next to her.

Time passed. It brought the world light and darkness, joy and sorrow, meetings and partings, love and hatred. The wise swan leader saw a lot of this in his difficult life and destiny. There was no test in his life that he could not endure with honor, while remaining as strong as in his youth. Great, one and only Love and Devotion to her protected him, gave life meaning and nourished him with strength. He did not lose hope of finding the lake and his Love, who, due to the evil will of people, got into trouble.

One day this is exactly what happened. The familiar lake was approaching like happiness. The leader could not stand it and, forgetting to warn the flock, quickly rushed down to the lake, where his girlfriend should be waiting for him, the one and only, the first and last... A sheaf of fire from the shot covered him already at the ground. The swan fell on the shore of the lake in front of a pair of fat gray geese. However, one moment was enough for the swan to recognize a gentle white friend in the fat, clumsy goose. “Whom” - “up” - the swan wanted to shout to his abandoned flock and did not have time. “Whom-whom-whom,” his dead eyes silently shouted, they looked at the goose. “Ak-ak,” the swans shouted desperately, having lost their leader. Fiery streaks of shots snatched one after another the white beauties from the randomly rushing flock. The living ones flew away never to return to this lake. Their desperate cry “ak” combined with the cry “kem” of the leader and forever remained in the name of Lake Akkem, the lake in which great Love is buried and Betrayal lives. Gray geese appear in the pre-winter period, after the first snow. In the morning twilight they can be seen on the shore. Covered with white snow, from a distance they subtly resemble swans.

The Legend of Karakol Lakes

A long time ago, the monster Karakul lived in Altai. When the monster walked, the noise of its shell was like thunder, its breath covered Altai with fog. When he appeared, not a single living soul made itself known; no one breathing was visible. Rivers and waters splashed over their banks. The taiga and mountains, shaking, crumbled into black placers. Karakul haunted all living things. The hero Buchai endured Karakul’s treachery for a long time and decided to fight him. It took a long time to travel. Beyond the seven taigas, beyond the seven steppes, he saw a mountain as black as soot. At the end of a soot-black mountain, five round lakes can be seen. Then Buchai asks his argamak (horse) Temichi: “What kind of unusual place is this?” The horse answers: “An extraordinary mountain is Karakul. The five lakes are his eyes, nostrils, and mouth. Black Mountain is his nose. If black fog appears in front of a mountain, it is his breath.”

Many kilometers away, Karakul smelled Buchaya, stood up, growled, and could be heard throughout the entire area. Yes, he immediately lay down, struck by Buchai’s well-aimed arrow. So it lies like a black mountain in Altai. At the foot of this mountain there are five lakes left - the Karakol Lakes. This is all that remains of the Karakul monster.

The Legend of the Salt Lake

There are many lakes in our region, including salty and bitter-salty ones. Where did salt lakes come from?

In ancient times, when none of the lakes were salty, people lived on the shore of one. There was no bridge across the lake, and they were forced to go around the lake for salt. There lived one giant among the people. He did not harm anyone, but because of his enormous height, everyone was afraid of him. The giant decided to do good to people so that they would not be afraid of him. He sat down on one bank and crossed his legs over the other. And people walked along his feet for salt. When they went back, the giant was bitten by an ant. The giant jerked his leg and the people fell into the lake. The salt they carried in their hands crumbled and dissolved in the lake. Since then, the lake became salty, and from it other lakes in the surrounding area became salty. There are many of them in the steppe zone of our region.

About Kolyvan Lake

The hero Kolyvan walked for a long time through the steppe. But rocks loomed in the distance, I approached them - under them was a huge niche made of granite, as if a giant’s ladle was filled with water. The lake, therefore, met the unknown on the way. Kolyvan thought: “By the way. You can take a break and take a better look at new places.” I didn’t immediately see the river: it was in a hurry, gurgling, running towards the lake. He named her Kolyvanka. Then he climbed the mountain, sat close to the rock, began tossing stones in his hand and examining them. Granite sparkles with specks, but not every stone is to Kolyvan’s liking; many stones are already overgrown with moss. The hero began to clean the stones, tore off the moss, remembered how overseas masters of stone crafts conjured over the same ones, he had seen a lot in his lifetime in foreign lands. He picked up two blocks, began to grind one against the other, smoothing out corners and all sorts of rough spots. Then he caught a rain cloud, squeezed it in his heroic five - it rained down, the stone shone after the water? Kolyvan corrected it a little, and before his eyes the miracle stone bowl shone. Okay, it worked. No worse than overseas masters. So from then on they began to call the lake Kolyvansky, and the art of stone cutting spread the glory of Altai far and wide.

About Swan Lake

Nobody remembers in what years this happened. A strong hurricane arose in the mountains. A hurricane so strong that it splashed out lakes, turned back rivers, and destroyed rocks; A hurricane splashed the beautiful lake Kolyukon - Swan Lake, along with the swans swimming there, to the very tops of the mountains. The flock quickly flew up, fleeing death; The young swan did not have time to take off and, hitting a rock, crashed, only the white feathers began to swirl in the water. The friend grabbed his feather in her beak and began to circle over the lake in the place where the swan crashed.

The next morning the hurricane died down, only a lone swan circled over the lake with a feather in its beak. Finally she became exhausted, fell into the lake and drowned. The wind carried her friend's feather to the shore. It fell. In the place where this happened, a clean, transparent key emerged from the ground. The spring again filled the dry hollow of the dry lake bottom with water. And it splashed as before. And the moan of the swan’s friend over the lake, they say, can still be heard, especially in windy weather.

Lake of Mountain Spirits Deny-Der

From generation to generation, the Oirots (Altaians) pass on terrible legends about a lake of unearthly beauty that actually exists in the Altai Mountains. Here is one of them...

The beauty of the lake has long attracted people. They searched for the lake for years, but could not find it. The old people said: the souls of evil people who caused suffering during their lives were carried away far into the mountains into some lake. The one who finds this lake can defeat the spirits, but if he searches for a long time, he may be late and die himself.

The strongest and most beautiful young man Taryn went in search of the lake. Finally, he found this lake. This place is in the Katunsky ridge, at its eastern end. This is a deep gorge between the Chuisky and Katunsky squirrels. Forty kilometers up the Argut from its mouth. The river Yuneur comes out to the right downstream. This place is noticeable because the Argut gives a crooked river here and the mouth of the Yuneur opens into a wide flat place. From the mouth of the Yuneur, the young man went up the Argut on the left bank, about five or six kilometers. On the right along the way there was a small river - a key. This river is small, but the valley is wide and deep, it goes into the Katunsky ridge. Taryn walked along this valley. The place is dry. The larches are large and spreading. When he had already risen high, he saw a large, steep rapid, and from it a small waterfall, and at this point the valley turns to the right. At the bottom of the valley, flat and wide, Taryn saw several lakes. There were five of them, they lay in a chain: one after another. The distance between them is: sometimes about half a mile, sometimes about a mile. All five lakes were of unearthly beauty, but the last, fifth, pulled the young man to itself like a magnet.

Taryn approached him. On the opposite shore, cliffs of jagged mountains with rocky ribs in purple and fawn hues fell straight into the lake. The mountains descended like a giant staircase straight into the lake. The water smelled of a kind of detachment and coldness. Taryn peered intensely into the lake. At the foot of the mountain a greenish cloud rose, emitting a faint light. And in those places where the rays of the sun penetrated from behind the white peaks of the ridge, long, human-like, blue-green shadows rose above the water, above the stones on the shore, taking on an ominous appearance.

Taryn’s hands trembled, his knees buckled, and the blue-green huge human figures either stood still, then quickly moved and melted into the air. The young man looked at the unprecedented sight with a feeling of oppressive fear. Suddenly he felt a surge of strength. Grabbing the sword, he rushed into the water, trying to hit the ghosts with it. But suddenly I felt terrible weakness. It was as if the snow peaks surrounding the lake pressed on his head with monstrous force. An eerie dance of light rays began in his eyes. But Taryn was irresistibly drawn to the mountain on the opposite shore, where he imagined hundreds of evil spirits. Still, gasping for breath, the young man reached that mountain.

But as soon as he did this, everything disappeared. With a depressed soul, gloomy, barely moving his legs, Taryn went to the camp, away from this fatal place. The strong young man died at the very nearest yurt. Many other hunters tried to follow his path to the terrible lake. But then, inevitably, one of them was ill for a long time, incredibly suffering from suffocation, and someone forever lost their former strength and courage. Since then, the bad fame about Deny-Der has spread widely, and people have almost stopped visiting it. There are no animals or birds there, and on the left bank, where the spirits gather, not even friend grass grows.

The Altai artist G. Choros-Gurkin was the first to find and draw this magical lake in 1909. His paintings provide an excellent opportunity to get to know the Altai Mountains better.

Lake of Mountain Spirits Deny-Der. Drawing by G. Choros-Gurkin.

Leifeng Pagoda was built in 977 (Northern Song time) by King Tian Hongchu in honor of the birth of his son. Under the pagoda there was a repository of Buddhist relics: a silver pagoda of Indian emperor Ayu, a figurine of Shakyamuni Buddha seated on a lotus, in turn standing on the head of a dragon, and a rare wood-carved sutra. Old photos of these relics are now displayed inside the pagoda, but it is not said where they went.

Photo 1 was taken from a boat on Lake Xihu (West Lake). Trees that look like naked Christmas trees near Moscow, eaten by a beetle, are not Christmas trees at all. This is a two-row swamp cypress or taxodium that sheds its needles in the winter. Found this out thanks to kmaal

The beautiful and one of the most famous Chinese love legends, “The White Snake,” is closely associated with the Leifeng Pagoda.

There is an escalator attached to Leifeng Tower for those who are too lazy to walk up.