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- This expression has strong meaning in Kyrgyz culture. When parents teach their children, they always
- Uluttuk dodlot—jasgtardin jan duynosundd. Kirgizstan jashtarinin birinchi ilimiy jiyinimn emgekterinin
- Conference of the Youth of Kyrgyzstan). Bishkek: Tengir-Ordo Foundation, 2003.
- Abdulaziz ibn Abdukerim, “Kak vybirat’ religiyu” (How To Chose a Religion), in newspaper Islam madaniyati, February 2, 2002.
- Tengirchilik, p. 13. 391 DeWeese, Devin. Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde. Baba Ttikles and Conversion
- Excerpt from the interview with Choyun Omuraliev used in this Chapter.
- Karamanuli, pp. 14-15.
- Ibid., p. 26.
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How is Tengirchilik Viewed? We have now seen the new national ideology that is being posed, partly in response to Islamic fundamentalism, by Kyrgyz intellectuals; but we need also to find out who is listening, who are the targets of their writings and how are these people 386
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 338 responding to the attempts to promote this new ideology? We learned that Hizb-ut-Tahrir fundamentalist group is attracting one particular segment of the population in Kyrgyzstan: unemployed, young and middle aged men and women with little or no higher education. But there are still many people with different family, economic, educational, and professional backgrounds who do not buy into any foreign religious ideas. Despite the fact that HT is still active in Kyrgyzstan and the number of its followers is increasing, majority of people in the country strongly oppose to the idea or utopia of re-establishing an Islamic caliphate, state. Among such people are most Kyrgyz intellectuals, scholars, and university professors and students majoring in Central Asian history and culture, Turcology or Kyrgyz philology. Dastan Sarygulov’s Tengir-Ordo Foundation and Tengirchilik ideas find support among this segment of population. Unlike the HT followers, the older generation of intellectuals knows and understands the relationship between Islam and native beliefs. Like Omiiraliev and Sarigulov, they see a great value in the nomadic cultural heritage, particularly the oral literature, which has been preserved by the elderly, poets, and epic singers for many centuries. The Kyrgyz advocates of the Tengirhilik have been organizing student conferences and round table discussions at universities in major cities of Kyrgyzstan. In 2003, the Foundation invited me participate at the first scholarly conference of the Youth of Kyrgyzstan in Bishkek. The title of the conference was “Uluttuk dbolot—jashtardi'n jan duynosiindo,” “[The Place] of National Heritage in the Inner World of the Youth.” Many bright university students, primarily ethnic Kyrgyz, from different parts of Kyrgyzstan presented papers on Kyrgyz history, religious beliefs, language, i.e., the Old Turkic language, traditional customs, music, oral literature, traditional games, material culture, and the problems of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
339 globalization and westernization.387 The paper by an ethnic Russian female student on “On traditional Kyrgyz Handicraft” won the best paper award. On the opening day of the Conference, together with other distinguished intellectuals and writers, I was also asked to talk about the Kyrgyz language and culture taught in the United States. I also served as one of the “judges” to evaluate students’ presentations. The papers were quite rich in content, but not “scholarly” in terms of the approach and methodology. All students spoke passionately and showed genuine concern for the current status of Kyrgyz language and culture and proposed some suggestions how to preserve and develop national heritage and still be able to advance in the age of globalization. In other words, Tengirchilik is not a narrow religious concept, but rather a broad philosophical worldview, which has become an integral part of everyday life among the Altaic Turks, including the Kyrgyz. However, Kyrgyz Muslim clergy, especially those who foster fundamentalist Islamic ideas, do not understand or do not even want to understand the concept of Tengirchilik, because Islam does not recognize any other deity accept Allah. Through the newspaper Islam madaniyat'i [Islamic Culture], local Muslim clergy try to educate modem Kyrgyz about “real Islam.” In his controversial article titled “How to Chose a Religion?”388 Abdulaziz ibn Abdulkerim, local Muslim scholar, mocks the idea of Tengirchilik:
into existence, what kind of prophet brought it, nor how to save and educate people according to tengirism. Its followers are spreading this religion without even knowing what is sinful and good for their god. 387
388
Abdulaziz ibn Abdulkerim, “Dindi kanday tandoo kerek?” (How Should One choose the Religion?” Islam Madaniyat'i (Islamic Culture), Bishkek, February 2, 2002. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 34 0 Sometimes they call tengir the sky, sometimes^ high mountains, sometimes Manas, and sometimes God himself. A religion such as Tengir is beneficial for thieves, criminals, bribers, and for other rotten people, because it does not require any responsibility for their wrongdoings. How can arbaks, [spirits] persecute a briber or liar? Here is an examples of the weakness of tengirism: several years ago, when the secret services could not catch Jaysangbayev, one of the main leaders said: “I will leave him to the spirit of Manas!” What?! Do you think the spirits of our ancestors will catch the criminal?! Also, Tengirism is good for lazy and irresponsible people. They do not have to wash themselves, get up for morning prayer, visit the mosques or other objects of worship; in other words they do not have to do anything. This suits many people, who want to do anything they want to and no one forbids their actions. The Tengirists cannot prove where the ideas of morality come from. There is no doubt that our ancestors possessed vast numbers of human moral qualities. However, where in Tengirism does one find a system, rules, words and expressions which exist in other big religions, such as akiykat [justice], aram [forbidden], adal [permitted], sabir [tolerance], iyman [faith], and so on. The Tengirists foster ten commandments, which they themselves do not know; which things are first and which are secondary; they do not know how and by what means to stop crime among the people. All these attest to the fact that it is an archaic thing which has gone from the line of religion, similar to an old car with an old engine and parts which can only be used for a museum. Yes, dear gentlemen, leave this religion for history and the museum.389 Advocates of Tengirchilik are very well aware of their ideas’ perception among the Muslim religious community. They simply ignore their opinions. So far, there seems to be no room for the two groups to accept each other’s ideas. Meantime, Kyrgyz intellectuals continue their search for a national ideology, which would be based on Kyrgyz traditional democratic values inherited from their nomadic past. According to one of the prominent Kyrgyz scholar A. Akmataliev, professor and the Rector of the Nari'n State University, northern Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyzstan must have a national ideology. He states that it would be ideal if the national ideology was created by 389
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 341 the civil society and was adopted or spread naturally among the people. However, “at this historical period of transformation,” notes Akmataliev, “the state should take the initiative of proposing the ideology” for the people. He believes that the country will not develop without a system of values, which would in turn bring the society into chaos. Like many Kyrgyz intellectuals, he opposes the western model of democracy, which, “under the guise of liberalism” or ideas of human rights, is destroying traditional local values. He further notes that for fifteen years the Kyrgyz was not able to choose their own way of socio-economic development and this resulted in confusion and chaos. As examples, he gives the controversial nature of national holidays, which are being celebrated in Kyrgyzstan. They are: a)
Communist holidays: March 8 (International Women’s Day), February 23 (Military Day) May 1 (International Workers’ Day) May 9 (Victory Day, WWII) and November 7 (1917 October Revolution Day) b)
Religious holidays: Kurman Ait (Festival of Sacrifice), Orozo Ait (Feast after the holy month of Ramadan), Christmas (Christian) c) Independence Day: August 31, Constitution Day: May 5; d) Eastern/Persian culture: March 21, Nooruz (New Year) e)
Western culture: December 31 (New Year) and Christmas Akmataliev is right that these holidays contradict each other. It is noted that the Russians in Russia and Uzbeks in Uzbekistan constitute the main ethnic group of the country. And since the Kyrgyz are the titular nation in Kyrgyzstan, the country’s ideology should be based on the values of Kyrgyz people. This is the first time that the Kyrgyz was able to achieve their independence, notes the author, and “they have a great responsibility to preserve their statehood. Secondly, the Kyrgyz are in a vulnerable position in terms of its political due to migration, gene pool, demographic inclination.” Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
342 In sum, both groups, secular minded intellectuals and Muslim clergy, are concerned about the socio-economic problems that the country is facing since the Soviet collapse. Both are holding strongly to their own principles and beliefs, which are exclusive in nature, especially Islam. Many ordinary people are just going with the flow of time and changes, but advocates of Tengirchilik such as Omuraliev believe that “for now most Kyrgyz are not ready to embrace the idea of Tengirchilik, but the “future generations will definitely return to this issue.”390 Conclusion My research finding also showed that this ancient worldview or religion, whatever it maybe called, did not survive as a separate religious dogma or teaching written in holy books, but turned into people’s lifestyle. For this reason, one hesitates to call it a “world religion” which is something that has a separate or independent existence. The fact that there is no Turkic native word for “religion” is a proof for that. Today all Turkic peoples use the Arabic word “din” for religion. Devin DeWeese makes an excellent point in regard to this issue: This absence of indigenous terminology is, however, hardly a sign that conceptions and practices immediately recognizable as “religious” are unimportant or poorly developed among such peoples; on the contrary, it is most often a sign that these “religious” conceptions and practices are so intimately linked with all aspects of life—that is, with all aspects of what being human is considered by those peoples to mean—that life is inconceivable without them, leaving no rationale for a separate taxonomy devoted to “religion” as such.391 390
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 343 However, the Central Asian intellectuals seemed to have found a native term to characterize the native/pre-Islamic religious worldview of the Turkic peoples:
rather trying to systematize those existing “religious conceptions” and values, which are difficult to separate from everyday life, human relationships and activities. Or as Omuraliev stated: “Now, when you look at our literature, songs, proverbs, and customs, they all seem to stand separately. However, when you look deeper, there is a big stem, which unites them all. All of these things seem to circle around that stem. As soon as they O Q 7 hold on to that stem, they make up a whole system. That stem is Tengirchilik.” In other words, they only created the term “Tengirchilik” out of the ancient Turkic word “Tangri” (Sky, God), not its teachings and values. The concept of Tengirchilik grew as a response to the growing influence of foreign religious ideas such as Islam and Christianity, which try to undermine the value of local beliefs and practices. In other words, Kyrgyz intellectuals are counteracting against the wrong assumption that the Kyrgyz did not have set of religious beliefs or “institutionalized” religious practices and rules such as in Islam and Christianity. Many people would agree with Omuraliev who notes, today the process of Arabization is taking place under the disguise of Islam, especially when it comes to naming new bom babies. For example, in my Ogotur clan’s genealogy booklet, all the personal male names up until the 19th century were exclusively of Kyrgyz/Turkic origin. Later, with the adoption of Islam, it became a tradition to ask a mullah to name a child. And they usually gave them Muslim, i.e., Arabic names. My own great grandfather’s name is Kochiimkul 392
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 344 (Kyrgyz name) and grandfather’s name is Kochkorbay (Kyrgyz name), but my father’s is Mamatkerim, which is a Kyrgyz pronunciation of Muhammad Karim (Holy). His younger brother who was bom after him was named Abdikerim, which is pronounced as Abdu(l) Karim (Holy) in Arabic. Both of their names were given by an Uzbek mullah, because my grandparents were living in Uzbekistan at that time. It became a common practice among the Kyrgyz for example to name their children Jumabay (male name), Jumagiil or Jumakan for girls if they are bom on Friday (Juma), which is considered a holy day. The Kyrgyz/Turkic bay or bek which are attached to the end of male personal names were also replaced with Ali. So, Turgunbay/Turgunbek became Turgunali, Omiirbay/Omurbek became Omiirali, Mi'rzabay/M'frzabek became MYrzali. Now, all Kyrgyz who joined HT, including my classmates, are naming their sons and daughters with names from the Quran such as Abu Bakr, Abu Talib, Ismail, Abdul Aziz, etc. As Karamanuli notes correctly the major difference of Tengirchilik from other world or prophetic religions is that there is “no prophet or saint and no holy book containing God’s words, because it has been transmitted from generation to the other in the form of traditional customs and social values.”393 Tengir (God) is the “Great Force” which treats everybody equal and shows compassion and care to everyone equally. Unlike other scripture religions, “it is not a guard (karaul) who controls your each step and movement.”394 Like Sarigulov, Karamanuli also pointed out, that in the Tengir worldview there are no concepts of the other world, Judgment Day, Heaven and Hell.395 It is the worldview of all the Turkic peoples starting from the Scythians (Sak), Huns, and 393
394
Ibid., p. 17. 395
Op.cit. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 345 various Turkic tribes in the Turkic khanates, who from ancient times worshipped Tengir (Sky) as God, venerated arbak, (the spirit of a deceased ancestor, parents, or well-known person) and considered Sky (Kok/Asman) as their Mother, Earth (Jer) as their Father.396 It is also important to note that the nomadic Kazakhs and Kyrgyz highly valued the power of a well spoken Soz (Word). Omuraliev tells an interesting story in his book about the value of a well-spoken or wise word. The story’s short summary is as follows: In the past, Kyrgyz leaders and wise men got together in a summer pasture where they engaged in a conversation about what is eternal and what is not eternal in this world. Some young men said that the mountains and rocks are eternal, they do not die. Then an oluya [saint] among them named Sart ake said: “A mullah’s [learned man’s] letter does not die; a wise man’s words and name do not die, everything other than these two dies.” The other men asked Sart ake to explain how the mountains and the earth are not eternal. He said: “O.K. Listen carefully with your two ears. Where there is growth/life there is death.” Then he elaborated his point in wise poetic words: Askar toonun olgonii— Bashi'n munar chalgan'f. Asmanda bulut olgonii— Asha albay toonu kalgan'i. Ay menen Kiindiin olgonii— Engkeyip bari'p batkani. Ayding bettin olgonii— Muz bolup tashtay katkan'f. Kara Jerdin olgonii— Kar astinda kalgan'i. Olbdgondo emne olboyt? Moldonun jazgan kati olboyt da, Jakshinin sozii, at'i olboyt.3 7 396
397
Ibid., pp. 265-267. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 346 The mighty mountain dies When gloom covers its peak. The cloud in the sky dies When it can’t cross over the mountains. The Moon and the Sun die When they settle down. The moon-like face dies When it freezes like rock. The Black Earth dies Beneath heavy snow. What doesn’t die then? A learned man’s writing doesn’t die, A wise man’s word and name don’t die. Like many Kyrgyz intellectuals, I also got to experience the nomadic life of my ancestors and learned a great wisdom expressed in the oral tradition. And I am convinced to say that oral tradition is a more appropriate and just as legitimate expression of religiosity/ideology among the Kyrgyz. As has been mentioned earlier, national ideologies emerge at particular historical times of transformation. Modem Kyrgyz are not alone in this nation building process; their experience of national awakening is shared with other nation states of post-colonial or post-Communist period such as Eastern Europeans and with some of the minority peoples of China such as the Yi. Native intellectuals genuinely think that it is their sacred duty or mission, as educated and learned men and women of their respected societies, to preserve and promote the ancient cultural heritage of their people. In a way, it is a struggle of smaller nations and minority peoples to survive through the current age of globalization and modernization or within superpower hegemonies without losing the essence of their identity and language. In his letter that he wrote to me when I was Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
347 studying in America, my Kyrgyz Professor Sulayman Kay'fpov stated: “it is difficult to be a member of a small country like Kyrgyzstan.” Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. |
