Shanyraq was installed with a wooden pole with a fork in the upper part, called “Baqan”. It is a part of the birth and wedding ritual. Kazakh women lean on this pole during childbirth. It was believed that the goddess Umay descended from heaven on the baqan to help the woman in labor. It is also used in wedding rituals – “baqan salmdyq” (a gift to women to open the felt cover of the wedding yurt). There are a number of prohibitions related to the sacrality of the baqan: It must not be held horizontally, and one must not step over it (there is no wealth, one loses its potency), etc.
Baqan is a semantic projection of the world tree, the symbolism of Baiterek with all its sacred meanings.
N.Zh. Shakhanova sees in baqan the symbolism of “transition” and also considers baqan as a “bearer of fertility”, the embodiment of male potency, masculinity [9, p.28-29]. Baqan is connected with the idea of life-death, past-present, reflects the unity of generations, fertility, procreation, etc. (Probably, this can explain the fact that baqan became a graphic tamga symbol in the form of the letter V of one of the most numerous Kazakh genera – Naiman).
