Yurt

Yurt

A circular tent-like dwelling, usually movable, used by nations of northern and central Asia; constructed of skins stretched over a wooden framework.

Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture Copyright © 2012, 2002, 1998 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Yurt

 

a portable dwelling among Turkic and Mongol nomads in Central and Middle Asia and Southern Siberia. The yurt is a domed tent supported by latticed wooden walls and covered with felt. The dome, which is formed by poles, is conical among the Mongols and Buriats and hemispherical among the Kazakhs, Kirghiz, and Turkmens. The hearth is located at the center of the yurt; the area by the entrance is set aside for guests. Utensils are kept in the women’s half, and harness gear in the men’s. With the transition of the nomadic peoples to a settled way of life, the yurt has come to be used in transhumant stock raising or as a temporary summer dwelling.

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Yurt

 

among Turkic peoples, a domain, home, residence, country, or land. Up to the second half of the 14th century, the term yurt referred to the territory traveled by a nomadic tribe. In the late 14th and early 15th centuries, it designated both the place in the khan’s headquarters occupied by a feudal lord and the location of the headquarters of a feudal lord or khan. Such scholars as Rashid ad-Din also applied the term to the position of a unit in a battle formation. In Russian sources, the territories of states that arose after the collapse of the Mongol Empire and the Golden Horde are called yurts (iurty); examples are the Siberian Yurt and the Crimean Yurt.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

yurt

A circular tent-like dwelling used in northern Asia; can be readily dismantled, moved, and reassembled at another site; primarily constructed of a felt-like material and/or skins that are stretched over a wood framework.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.