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Bilge Tonyukuk
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The last information about the great statesman
of Gok-Turks was in 725. He must be dead after this date. From the time of the
preparations of the independency war of Gok-Turks, at the time of Ilteriş, Kapagan and
Bilge, "wise and strategists Khan Tonyukuk, who had the titles of "Boyla Baga
Apa Tarkan", was in the service of the state for 46 years, he was never met with the
unsuccessfulness, and he was the first in the organization of the army, economy, and court
system of the kingdom. Even in the Chinese sources his abilities were mentioned, and some
evidence showing his effects on the khans as being the "Ayguçi", and at the
same time, how he closely followed and evaluated that period's religious tendencies in the
point of view of the Turkish Nation, were indicated. Khan Bilge, as it was the same in
China, wanted to surround the Turkish country by the city walls, and to construct the
castles. -
- Tonyukuk
objected: "Those should not be done. We are a nation that pass the time in the watery
and grassy steppes. Our life style always keeps us in the exercise of war. The number of
Gok-Turks is not even %1 of the Chinese people. Our success come from our living style. In
our powerful periods we led the armies, and do the attacks. If we are weak, we withdraw to
the steppes and fight. If we stay in the castles and city walls, Tsng's armies surround
us, and invade our country…". Another opinion of Bilge was to spread the religion
and the philosophy of Buddhists and Taoists among the Turks by building the temples.
Tonyukuk used to say: "Both of them weaken the person's feeling of domination and
power. The way of having power and to be the warrior is not that.
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- This is not
suitable for us. If we want the Turkish nation survive, we should not give places to such
practices, and such temples". As the source (T'ang-shu) adds, the "deeper
meaning" in those recommendations was understood well in the capital of Gok-Turks.
Today the western researchers called Tonyukuk as "Bismark of Gok-Turks".
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