In world culture, the poplar is above all a symbol of youth, strength and beauty. In Turkic culture, the poplar is a sacred tree. However, in the epics it is often “harbinger of death, carries mourning symbolism” (G.Z. Kamaliyeva et al.) [2, p.356].
In Kazakh culture the understanding of poplar is expressed in the myth of Baiterek (in semantic translation “poplar progenitor”, “mother poplar”). On it grow the embryos of children and cattle, and when the time comes, the souls of children fly to the world of people. At its roots there are healing springs from which rivers are born. These rivers, flowing north into the land of darkness, cold and death, take with them the souls of the dead. On the summit of Baiterek is the nest of a two-headed eagle that watches over the world and verifies the will of the gods and people of Tengri. There, in this nest, the eagle carries a sacred egg from which the world will be reborn” [1, pp. 16-17].
One of the poplar species the Kazakhs call “zheltoranğy”, which means “calling the wind”. In the past, it was considered a great sin to cut down such a poplar, and the old belief is that if the last zheltoranğy withers, the whole world will die and turn into a desert.
