Kultegin was a Göktürk military commander whose 8th-century memorial complex, discovered in Mongolia's Khöshöö Tsaidam valley, produced one of the earliest known inscriptions in the Old Turkic runic script. The bilingual stele — carved in both Old Turkic and Chinese — remains a primary source for Göktürk history and provided the basis for modern decipherment of the runic alphabet. Kazakhstan's investment in commemorating figures from the broader Turkic world accelerated sharply after 1991, part of a deliberate effort to construct a pre-Soviet national historical identity.
Kultegin was a Göktürk military commander whose 8th-century memorial complex, discovered in Mongolia's Khöshöö Tsaidam valley, produced one of the earliest known inscriptions in the Old Turkic runic script. The bilingual stele — carved in both Old Turkic and Chinese — remains a primary source for Göktürk history and provided the basis for modern decipherment of the runic alphabet. Kazakhstan's investment in commemorating figures from the broader Turkic world accelerated sharply after 1991, part of a deliberate effort to construct a pre-Soviet national historical identity.