Three Guyums...

I do not know how the jars or vessels that you see on this picture are called in English.

What you see is called “seheng” in Azerbaijani and also “guyum” in Sheki.

I am touching a linguistic subject here. The thing is that Sheki has a dialect which is very distinctive; many words are pronounced differently or have unique substitutes. It is the same case with these words…

Copper made guyums (I will stick to the dialect since I am from Sheki :) were used in the past to carry water from the springs home. They are very heavy (when empty (!) they weight between 5-10 kg) but very gracefully looking if I may say so. Women would hang them on their shoulder or even put it on their shoulder and bring the water home…young men would hide and watch young girls going to spring and elegantly carrying water in guyums. We have many folklore songs and poems on this romantic theme…

This is the photo of a fountain called “Three Guyums” located at “Gyshlag” area of Sheki. “Gyshlag” means a place to spend the winter. It comes from the past…As Gyshlag area is not high on the mountain but at its bottom it was warmer to spend the winter there i.e. at the bottom of the mountain…therefore people did so and called the area “gyshlag”.

The ornament that you might notice on guyums is called “buta” which means the universe…you can come across this ornament in many oriental works…buta is widely used in carpet weaving and in general in all arts in Azerbaijan…

You can see some posters in the background…market economy :)…I don’t like this mixture but I guess this is the demand of the reality…