The Khan with Donkey Ears: An Issyk-Kul Legend

Of all the legends about the birth of Issyk-Kul, this is the one Kyrgyz grandmothers like to tell best. There are many versions — the khan is called Iskander, or Janibek, or has no name at all — but the secret is always the same.

The khan’s secret

Long ago, where the lake lies now, there was a rich city ruled by a cruel khan. He always wore a tall, splendid turban, and he had a strange habit: whenever a barber came to shave his head, the barber was put to death the same day. Nobody knew why. One by one, the young men of the city were called to the palace, and none came back.

At last the turn came to the only son of a poor widow. All night the mother lay awake, thinking how to save him. Before dawn she baked flatbreads, kneading the dough with her own milk, wrapped them in a cloth and gave them to her son.

When you have finished, ask the khan to eat one of my breads, and eat the other yourself.

The young man went to the palace, took off the khan’s turban — and almost dropped his razor. The khan had the long ears of a donkey. (In one version he has two horns instead, like the great conqueror Iskander, Alexander the Great, in Eastern tales.)

When the shaving was done, the young man offered the khan his mother’s bread. The khan ate it. ‘Now you cannot kill me,’ said the young man. ‘My mother kneaded this bread with her own milk. You and I have shared her milk — we are milk brothers.’ By the old custom, a man could not harm his milk brother. The furious khan let him go, but made him swear never to tell a living soul.

A secret too heavy to keep

The young man kept his word, but the secret grew in him until his belly swelled and he could not sleep. In some versions he goes back to the khan, who tells him to whisper it into a deep well. In others he tells only his mother, and she — unable to bear it either — leans over the well in the morning and whispers into the clear water:

Our khan has donkey ears.

The well began to roar. The water rose, spilled over the edge and rushed through the streets. It swept away the palace, the khan, the city and the whole valley, and kept on rising until the mountains held a sea. That sea is Issyk-Kul — and some say that on windy days you can still hear the water whispering the khan’s secret.

A story that travelled the Silk Road

If this sounds familiar, it should: the ancient Greeks told the same story about King Midas, whose barber whispered the secret of his donkey ears into a hole in the ground. The tale travelled along the Silk Road and settled by the lake, mixing with the Kyrgyz custom of milk kinship — a bond that is still respected today.

Visit

Hear the lake for yourself on a trip around Issyk-Kul. Read also: The sunken city of Issyk-Kul. More legends and places: the Kyrgyzstan travel guide.