Domalak ana, the mausoleum

According to shezhire (genealogy) materials, Domalak ana was the wife of the famous Batyr Baidibek Karashauly, the ancestor of Kazakh genera of Zhetysu, i.e. Alban, Dulat and Suan. Russian researcher-orientalist and ethnographer N.A. Aristov, on the basis of information received in 1876 from Dikanbai Batyr, the bi of the genus Botpai of the Elder Zhuz, indicates that Baidibek had three wives. "From Sarybaybishe, eldest wife, the son Sary-Uysun, from the second wife, named Zerib, son Jolmambet, ... from the third wife of Baidibek, named Damalak, was the son of Jarkychak, and he had sons Abdan, Dulat and Suan". Earlier, in the records of Sh.Sh. Ualikhanov, dated 1835-1855 by academician A.Kh. Margulan, her name is recorded as Tomalak aulie, and her son's name is Jarkchak (according to other data - Jorykchi). One of the later researchers of the Kazakh folklore about Baidibek-baba and Domalak ana D. Duisenbayev wrote that her name was Nurila during her lifetime and she is the granddaughter of Maktym Agzam Kazhy, a descendant of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, who is famous in Turkestan. Nurila's father was the fearless Batyr Ali Sylan.

Nurila Ali Sylankyzy was born in 1378 in Turkestan. According to her grandfather's covenant, Maktym Agzam Kazhy Nurila married Baidibek at the age of 19 (1397). According to the folk legend, she was given the name "Dikhnat Mama" by Kara Khaidar, a Turkmen by birth. "Dikhnat Mama" in Persian means "Holy Mother". Later this name was transformed into "Domalak-ana" (literally, "round mother"). There is an opinion that she was nicknamed that way by the people because of her small stature. Thanks to her outstanding personal qualities, Domalak ana gained popularity among the people very early on. She had a discerning mind and a special gift of prophecy, many times with her wise decisions to achieve reconciliation between the opposing sides. According to legend, the whole life of Domalak ana is an embodiment of female wisdom and maternal love, an example of how to build family happiness.

According to oral history, after the death of Domalak ana, her grandson, Dulat, the second son of Jorikchi, invited the master Abdullah Sheri from Bukhara and erected a four-walled mausoleum with a dome over her grave (1456). Domalak ana Mausoleum was destroyed and rebuilt several times. In the beginning of the XX century, a new mausoleum was built on the place of the former destroyed building. The small structure resembled a rotunda in size - a cylindrical volume decorated with six shallow niches on the facade. In the southern niche of the mausoleum there was an entrance opening. Upstairs, the three-stage cornice ended with a low dome. The "Code of Monuments..." published in 1994, published a black-and-white photo and a plan of the mausoleum in a cross section. The monument was restored in 1957, but it did not stand for long. In 1996, a new white stone mausoleum was erected, specially delivered from Mangystau. The architect S. Toktamys, without abandoning the main components of the classic Central Asian cult architecture (portal, round dome and minarets), took elements of the Kazakh steppe archaic as a basis for the newly created building. Each individual fragment of the new construction as a whole gives a special originality to the building. Large decorative elements of the mausoleum, placed throughout the facade, resemble the shape of women's jewelry, earrings and pendants, which, as they say, were very fond of the wife of the famous Batyr Baidibek-baba. The 12 m high building is completed with an eight-piece dome. Two minarets are installed in front of the mausoleum.

Domalak ana Mausoleum as a unique sacral object has been preserved to this day in the historical memory of the Kazakh people. The monument is on the list of historical and cultural monuments of local importance. The object of pilgrimage and religious tourism.