Munay Batyr
Once upon a time, when the God had been creating Man out of clay breathing life into him, a particle of godly breath fell on the ground. For 9 000 years Mother Earth had been keeping this holy drop in her bowels, finally giving birth to Munay Batyr.
(The point is we do not know when Oil has originated. Despite numerous attempts to discover this throughout generations, scientists still did not come to a unanimous opinion; although based on new data retrieved by these very scientists we can tell that people became familiar with Oil as far back as 6000 B.C. So we can imagine that now Munay Batyr is in his 90th year of age, if we assume that one century for him is like one year for us…)
Once some of our ancestors said jokingly, “God’s in heaven, Munay’s on Earth, and Aday’s in the middle.” You see that Munay Batyr was placed one step lower than Aday (Man).
Well, unfortunately, Munay Batyr came into the world as a very weak, black, and ugly creature, which could not grow stronger for long time. So he had to spend all his childhood in the arms of his Mother Earth together with his only small sister accompanying him. Nevertheless, he had always been trying to be useful to people, as he understood the design of God being well aware that everything on earth was created for Man, and truly sensing particularity of Man in this world.
Little Munay Batyr was learned how to cure people, and was named Tas Mai, which in Kazakh means “rock oil” (compare to “petroleum”, which in Latin literally means “rock oil”). Then people learned that Munay Batyr can keep them warm when it is cold outside and spell away darkness giving fire. This is how he received the name Zhanar Mai (“flame oil”). They even say that Noah’s Arc has been tarred by Munay Batyr as well, and since then he was referred to as Kara Mai (“black oil”).
So in 19th century Man called on this small black boy and said:
Munay, my boy, please stand beside me. From now on you will be taking part in all my doings, works and contests. I see, your eyes twinkle! I believe that in the end you’d turn into black gold. God bless you! Happy trails!
This is how Munay Batyr started to gain strength all around. In 20th century he already was reigning over East and West, South and North – the whole world was at his feet.
Once, sitting on his throne, and having completely forgotten he was dwelling in a tiny mud hut not long ago, he even said:
Munay is under the ground, Munay is over the ground! Aday, my boy, tell to God to keep an eye on his heavens!
Everything was happening according to his will. He even wanted to get rid of his little sister as he thought that she could pretend to his throne. But his little sister, a very elusive girl, she just vanished each time Munay Batyr was trying to come closer so he could not catch her. He carried a flashlight everywhere he went since he was very afraid of his sister.
As the time passed, he grew older and wiser, and realized he was wrong trying to get rid of her. So he stopped pursuing her and made for her own house to live in.
Meanwhile, his sister, who used to live in abundance and was a very pampered little girl, sometimes strayed and even got involved in wars, since she did not want to be useful to mankind.
But in 20th century she has taken a name of “Blue Maiden” and decided to help mankind with all her best efforts. Still some people were a bit concerned about her frailty.
Since Munay Batyr was able to find a place for his sister, he decided to move on – the earth was not enough for him and he was aspiring for the sky. He became omniscient and knew what was going on in the world, and became famous around the world. He wanted to reach out for the Moon and achieved this goal. He almost reached the Sun but did not touched upon it – who knows, may be he became too old for that and did not have that strength he had before.
Now that our Munay Batyr, who once helped the whole world to grow, got old, some people start talking that Munay Batyr has done more evil than good. But he does not pay any attention to such bigmouth talk. He revels at the thought that he helped Man to advance at such short time, and this thought keeps his spirits up though he grows older with each day.
Yet the famous Batyr still rules in 21st century, rewarding people according to their works, punishing those who swell with importance and do not know the value of the black gold. Nowadays Munay Batyr together with Atom and Electricity is helping mankind in scoring new successes, since the Allah created them all to serve people.
Sherkhan Tapalov
Kyzylorda Oblast, Kumkol
Materials Management Department Employee, PKKR