Mount Tukhmanuk is one of the highest peaks of Tsaghkunyats mountain range, with the height of 2761 m.
Origin of the Name
From the second half of the 19th century many monuments called “Tukh Manuk” were discovered in the territory of Historical Armenia.
“You will barely find any place which doesn’t have “Tukh Manuks”, even in the cities you can find them”, Garegin Srvandztyan wrote.
But Tukh Manuks have never been a material for study.
From the architectural point of view Tukh Manuks were something like chapels and sometimes even cemeteries.
There is no common opinion about the origin of these monuments. Some connect them with pagan beliefs, the others think that those are medieval sanctuaries.
The Worship of Tukh Manuk
Khachkunts connects the worship of these monuments with water. According to him in many palaces the water source has considered to be sacred and the waters of these Tukh Manuks cured many diseases.
Таking into consideration the opinions of other authors, Acharyan considered Tukh Manuks as a medieval phenomenon.
“In different dialects”, says Acharyan, “Tukh Manuk means a grave of new appeared unknown saint, and on that grave people built a little house as a place of pilgrimage”.
Tukh Manuks were worshiped mainly by women, especially older ones. There is no any evidence that in Tukh Manuks served peasants. This is one of the proofs that these kind of monuments do not have a Christian origin.
It is interesting that there is no any saint with the name of Tukh Manuk in the list of national and international saints. Instead you can meet the name of Tukh Manuk in many curses as it is some kind of a devil spirit.
According to Garegin Srvandztyan Turks also have worshiped Tukh Manuks. They think that he is a Kurdish child who died after adopting Christianity and became a Saint.
Tukh Manuk as a Place of Pilgrimage
Among Armenians there are also secondary sacred places where they light candles and say prayers. For example there are some kind of waters, where people with fever go swimming in order to heal. There are also some trees on branches of which people tie a piece of their clothes or a bunch of hair, make a wish and believe that it will come true. All this kind of secondary holy sites were also called Tukh Manuk.
In Van there used to be a well which was located near the St. Nshan church, inside a chapel and was also called Tukh Manuk.
From all these facts mentioned above we can guess that while talking about Tukh Manuks we should consider the whole Tukh Manuk phenomenon, not only the name.
So we can see that Tukh Manuk has left its trail in villages, rivers, mountains and fortresses.
We can’t exactly say how the name of Mount Tukhmanuk is connected with many sacred places mentioned above. We’re not even sure whether it is now a place of pilgrimage or not.
But nevertheless the name of the mountain isn’t by chance and maybe the mountain also used to be a sacred place in the past.
Hiking and Trekking in Armenia
