The Spirit of Ma'at — August 2009 — What is a Kurgan, and Why Does it Matter? By Carol Hiltner

Western scientists, intrigued by Earth processes that are inexplicable in the scientific paradigm, have historically made a practice globally of dismantling sacred places that indigenous people claim are the bodily organs of a living Earth. Not surprisingly, we haven't found life in the ruins we've made, because life is not found by taking things apart.

But with the electronic revolution, science can explore with much more sophistication and at least somewhat less damage. They are not yet finding life, as they define it, but they are definitely finding something. They are also discovering, if they look, what a mess they have made.

About 2,500 years ago, stone mounds called kurgans were built all across Central Asia. Ancient Altai wisdom holds that these kurgans balance the energy of the Earth. In the heart of the Altai, Tekpenek Mountain is a place that the local people call the "umbilicus of the Earth."

"A [natural] ring structure [shown in brown]
of rocks containing magnetite, which has
an octahedral crystal lattice, forms a magnetic
ring around Tekpenek Mountain in the center
of Altai Republic. Kurgan burial places of the Bashadar.

They believe that Cosmic energy feeds the living Earth at that place, and that the kurgans there have the particular function of channeling the Cosmic energy into the Earth. The Bashadar kurgans, dubbed the "Tsarist" kurgans because they yielded so many gold artifacts when excavated, form a semi-circle around Tekpenek.

The rocks that make up the kurgans are not especially distinctive in appearance, but they contain magnetite. In an undisturbed kurgan, each stone is magnetically oriented to enhance the specific magnetic function of the site. This function, according to Altai lore, is to channel Cosmic energy-food for the living Earth-into the planetary body.

In the mid-20th Century, Russian archeologists excavated many kurgans, finding complex structures underneath that frequently included preserved bodies and considerable gold. They concluded that these were burial mounds, and took the gold and mummies to Moscow museums, leaving rubble and holes in the ground.

The radioactive background around a kurgan has a distinctive spike in the
center of the structure (on the left edge of the chart. The width of this
chart is 500 meters. The amount of radioactivity is well below levels that
are considered dangerous.

Altai lore claims that the bodies serve as crystals, with a function similar to a quartz crystal in a radio-tuned to a certain frequency; to adjust the "life force" arriving in that place, and funneling it into the planet. However, the electromagnetic energy that quartz crystals attune is a pale offspring of the "life force" transmuted by these 2,500-year-old human crystals. And gold, as all computer scientists know, is a 100% conductor.

Altai is well known all over Russia and Asia for this "life force." For millennia, pilgrims have gone there for healing.

At this moment, an explosion of tourism and commercial/industrial development is taking place in Altai, drawn by this healing energy, but completely oblivious to the importance of the geophysical structures, not only to the health of Altai, but for the whole planet.

The red ring on the left is the enhanced magnetic field of an unexcavated
kurgan. On the right, an excavated kurgan has been reduced to "rubbish."

Indigenous Altai elders are now working urgently to strengthen their culture, which was violently suppressed during the Soviet period.

The most difficult issue is Russian federal land privatization, which, especially in Altai, seems to have been designed to strip away indigenous traditional lands. Furthermore, sacred sites are undefined in Russian land law, so they cannot be directly protected. The best way to protect them now appears to be through indigenous ownership of traditional agricultural lands, which will hopefully give local village administrations some influence over sales and use of land currently owned by various levels of government.

However, the window of opportunity for indigenous Altai people to claim ownership of their traditional agricultural lands closes in December 2009. International help is necessary to protect Altai kurgans and other sacred sites for the health of the whole planet.

Carol Hiltner, (Carol@AltaiBooks.com), is founder of Altai Books, www.AltaiBooks.com, which publishes books about Spirit-inspired routes to human sustainability on Earth, and Altai Mir University, www.AltaiMir.org, which brings people together to access peace by creating a knowledge bridge between ancient wisdom and today's world, focusing on the unique cultural/spiritual heritage of the Altai Republic in southern Siberia. She is a prolific visionary artist and author of several books, including two Altai Chronicles: Tablets of Light and Out of Time, as well as many articles for Spirit of Ma'at.

Email: info@AltaiMir.org

Danil Mamyev is an internationally respected authority on the protection/preservation of sacred lands. He is currently Director of Nature Parks for Altai Republic. He is founder of the Tengri School of Spiritual Ecology, and initiator of Uch Enmek Nature Park in the sacred Karakol Valley in Onguday Region of Altai Republic, Russia.