The 'palaces' of Semipalatinsk were lama cells
Editorial contextThe town of Semipalatinsk ('seven palaces') took its name from old ruins. Humboldt, who saw them, thought they were a Buddhist establishment like Ablai-kit, whose painted cells had housed lamas. He compares the little roadside shrines of the Volga Kalmyks near Sarepta: cages on tall poles holding an idol and a few religious books.
It is probable that the Palaty whose ruins I saw at Semipalatinsk were a very similar establishment, whose cells, once covered with paintings, served as dwellings for lamas. In the steppe of the Volga Kalmyks, near Sarepta, the Moravian Brethren's colony, one finds out in the open fields cages topped by tall posts and containing, beside a Buddhist idol, a small collection of religious books.
Working translation
Original wording
Il est probable que les Palates dont j'ai vu les ruines à Semipolatinsk, étaient un établissement tout semblable dont les cellules, jadis couvertes de peintures, servaient d'habitation à des lamas. Dans la steppe des Kalmuks du Wolga, voisine de Sarepta, colonie des frères Moraves, on trouve en plein champ des cages surmontées de poteaux élevés et renfermant, près d'une idole du culte bouddhistique, une petite collection de livres religieux.
About Kalmyks (Dzungar and Volga)
Keep in mind
Humboldt saw the Semipalatinsk ruins; his identification of them as a lama monastery is his inference.
A Russian envoy guesses that ancient Russians lay under the mounds
Editorial contextContinuing the argument about the robbed mounds, Unkovsky told Darzha that in pagan times, over seven hundred years earlier, Russians had buried their dead with war-gear under great earth mounds, so perhaps some of 'our peoples' had once lived here. He blamed the digging on Kalmyks, Ostyaks or Kazakhs, and said Russian law punished grave-robbers with death. Darzha, doubtful, replied that his people had only had writing for a hundred years and could not know. A striking early example of a claim about who once lived on the steppe, made on the spot and without evidence.
Among us people are buried with their wealth, and especially in ancient times, before the Christian law, more than seven hundred years ago, they were buried with all their war-gear and great mounds of earth were heaped over them; and it may be that in ancient times some of our peoples lived in these places … [Darzha] said that among them writing began only a hundred years ago.
Working translation
Original wording
У насъ погребаются люди съ богатствомъ, а паче что въ древнія времена еще до христіанского закона, лѣтъ слишкомъ за семь сотъ погребалися со всѣмъ военнымъ уборствомъ, и насыпали на нихъ великіе бугры земли, и можетъ быть, что въ древнія времена нѣкоторые изъ нашихъ народовъ въ сихъ мѣстахъ жили … сказалъ, что у насъ де только сто лѣтъ какъ грамота началась
About Dzungars (Oirats); Russians; Kazakhs; Ostyaks
Keep in mind
Unkovsky offers this as a guess in a diplomatic sparring match, not as knowledge; he himself calls it 'perhaps'.
A wooden frontier town with Tatar minarets
Editorial contextMeyer describes the town beside the Semipalatinsk fort: all its houses, its four mosques and even its trading hall were of wood, with Kazakh yurts on the edges. The Tatars' dress, veiled women and minarets with the call to prayer gave it an 'oriental' look. A good picture of what a 'Tatar' town on the Irtysh really looked like in the 1820s.
It is fairly large, has only wooden houses, most of them small and plain, 4 wooden mosques, a trading hall likewise of wood, the very dilapidated customs buildings and, especially towards the north, many Kirghiz yurts. … The foreign dress of the many Tatars, the veiled women, the slender minarets from which the monotonous call to prayer so often rings out, give the town an oriental air.
Working translation
Original wording
Sie ist ziemlich groß, hat nur hölzerne Häuser, von denen die meisten klein und unansehnlich sind, 4 hölzerne Metschets, einen gleichfalls hölzernen Kaufhof, die sehr verfallenen Zollgebäude und, besonders nach Norden hin, viele Kirgisenjurten. … Die fremde Tracht der vielen Tataren, die verschleierten Frauen, die schlanken Minarets, von denen so oft der monotone Ruf zum Gebet erschallt, geben der Stadt einen orientalischen Anstrich.
About Tatars (Muslim Volga and Siberian Tatars), Tashkent merchants, Kazakhs, Russians
Continue in this sourceLedebour's botanical journey through the Altai and the Kazakh steppe, 18261826 · 14 passagesThe 'Seven Palaces' in the steppe
Editorial contextBell did not visit this building on the upper Irtysh, but reports what he was told: a regular brick or stone edifice of seven rooms under one roof, standing alone in the steppe. Local Tartars credited it to Tamerlane or to Genghis Khan. Its rooms were full of scrolls in the writing of the 'Tongusts, or Kalmucks' (probably meaning Tanguts, that is Tibetans, or Kalmyks); Bell bought a bundle from a soldier in Tobolsk and gave some to Sir Hans Sloane. The Tibetan or Kalmyk writing suggests a Kalmyk (Oirat) Buddhist building rather than a work of Tamerlane, and the ruin, 'Sem Palaty', later gave the city of Semipalatinsk (Semey) its name.
It is very surprising to find such a regular edifice in the middle of a desert. Some of the Tartars say it was built by Tamerlane, called by the Tartars Temyr-Ack-Sack or Lame-Temyr; others by Gingeez-Chan. The building, according to the best information I could obtain, is of brick or stone, well finished, and continues still entire. It consists of seven apartments under one roof,
About Kalmyks; local Tartar informants
Keep in mind
Hearsay: Bell never saw the building, and the Tamerlane and Genghis Khan attributions are local legend.