The Temirtau Museum  opened the exhibition "Asadal - Kazakh National Home Furniture" online as part of the "Exhibit of the Month" project on March 20, 2025.

Nomadic life in the harsh conditions of the steppe and a completely natural economy forced people to produce everything they needed on their own. This is how Kazakh folk crafts were born, which independently made everything they needed for life from what was at hand. Kazakh craftsmen made magnificent home furniture from oak, birch, cedar. They decorated it with silver, precious stones, and used the horns of young cattle for decoration. Hand-made products of carpenters were distinguished by exquisite decorativeness, harmonious combination of colors, and excellent quality of workmanship. Artfully selected national patterns reflected the traditions and customs of the lives of ancestors, and also served as an encrypted message to descendants.
The works created by Kazakh masters, regardless of the era, have never lost their value. An example of a cabinet for storing food - asadal has been preserved in the funds of our museum. It consists of the words "As" and "Adal", which means "noble food". The authentic name of the cabinet itself suggests that special attention was paid to the cleanliness of the dishes as a container for food served with good and pure intentions. At night, the dishes and food were always put away in the cabinet, according to popular belief, evil spirits come to food left open. The place of the asadal in the house is the kitchen (left) side.

There are several types of asadal. The oldest type of asadal was made in the form of a bedside table and was greater in height than in width, the second type was about the height of a kebezhe, and in our museum collection an asadal in the form of a sideboard has been preserved. Asadal was made of wood, often using wood species that were resistant to moisture and pests, such as cedar, walnut or teak. Asadal has one door and a drawer. Inside, the asadal is divided into two shelves. Food was placed on the first shelf, and dishes were placed below. The decor includes: Wood carving - a popular furniture decoration technique in the Islamic world. Inlay - using mother-of-pearl, bone and metal. The patterns on the forehead of the cabinet attract attention - a drawing with a floral pattern. The front part of the asadal, which has two square sides, is decorated with a floral pattern carved on a shell and surrounded by a pattern decorated with a festive ornament. The interweaving and harmony of such diverse ornaments testifies to the high level of skill of the master. Today, there are many analogues of asadal in museums, as well as in the interiors of houses.