History lessons

The north slope of the Talas Alatau above Kara-Buura. The glacier is behind the second ridge.

Thirty-five years ago tonight, a lake under the Sary-Say glacier broke through its moraine. In the morning the herding village of Sary-Say, about 700 people, was under the mud. The newspaper of that time wrote "a flood at a remote brigade" and forty-one dead.

The village doctor, Toktokan Ergesh kyzy, was at a calving camp that night. She came down and wrote the names she could get from the survivors, for weeks. In 1989 a newspaper printed her list. It has about three hundred names.

For the 7th class this term: why do we study this in a history lesson, not only in geography? Because a number written in a hurry is also a source, and the list of a doctor is also a source. We compare the two. The survivors raised a cross on the mud in 1990. This year, for the first time, they could hold a prayer there with arrangements by the UN people.