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In this regard his idea is similar to the Islamic and Christian beliefs that only God’s rule should be
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375 In this regard his idea is similar to the Islamic and Christian beliefs that only God’s rule should be established on Earth to govern the people. These customs and values are still fostered among many Kyrgyz in the countryside. See my comments on Chapter 1 where I talk about the Central Asian custom o f pouring water into guests’ hands before the meal is served and receiving their blessings. In Central Asian nomadic culture, one should mount and dismount the horse from the left side o f the horse. Traditionally, women did not wear pants like men, but dresses or beldemchis and when mounting and dismounting from a horse they always made sure that their clothes under their dress is not revealed. 377 This is true. When I was growing up in the mountains with my grandparents, whenever there was a strong wind, loud thunder, lightening, or when we passed through dangerous steep passes, we prayed to God to save us saying: “Oh, kagi'lay'fn/aylanayi'n Kuday (not Allah) oziing [ki'rsi'ktardan] saktay kor!” “Oh, dear God, please save us Yourself [from any misfortunes]!” When there was a new moon, we stepped outside from yurt and bowed to the moon three times. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 3 0 It is a shame that we do not know about our own religious worldview; it is much older than Islam, which appeared only in the sixth century. The Kyrgyz achieved a lot before Islam. And on the basis of which belief and with whose support did they achieve it? Tengirchilik’s. And we are afraid to talk about Tengirchilik, which lives in our blood. M am atkerim : However, Dastan Sarigulov, very few Kyrgyz may
You are right. Very few people understand it deeply. There are people, however, who know old customs such as purifying with archa, [juniper tree leaves] smoke, and visiting mazars [shrines of saints or other holy places]. The Kyrgyz people did not fully adopt Islam either, because their life style did not permit customs like women wearing the paranja [veil].378 Among the Kyrgyz, Tengirchilik was not practiced as a religion, but rather it turned into their everyday life activities and beliefs. It is closely related to the arbak [deceased’s spirit or ancestral spirit]. This does not exist in Islam. Tengirchilik lost a lot of its customs and values, because when Attila conquered Europe, he did it with Tengirchilik. Many Europeans adopted this worldview, because they thought that Attila’s protective God was powerful. They engraved signs of Tengirchilik on their walls and named their cities and mountains Tengir. At that time Christianity was not very strong. After it became strong in the seventh to eighth centuries, all of those people, who had practiced Tengirchilik were beheaded. Today, there are people who traveled to Europe by sea and remained there, for example the Hungarians. Then Sarigulov had some interesting things to say about the relationship between the nomads and nomadic life in the mountains. How many people gave their lives and shed their blood for Islam? The Kyrgyz resisted Islam for many centuries. What was the reason for that? First of all, the root of Tengirchilik had gone too deep. Second, their nomadic life played an important role in preserving their worldview. Their enemies could conquer them, but it was impossible for them to move
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 331 constantly with their soldiers. Therefore, we must thank our mountains. We do not know the value of our mountains.379 Scientifically, mountains have a special effect. When people are tired and want to have a rest, they do not go to deserts or empty fields, but rather go to the mountains. Why? There is a physical reason for that. The gravitational and electromagnetic fields are different in the mountains. It is our nerves that make our heart beat and blood vessels transport blood throughout the body. Nerves have an electric current, which comes from our soul. For example, electromagnetic waves have an influence on our health. Some sick people feel better when they go to the mountains, first, because of the gravitational and magnetic fields, and second, because water and the mountains are alive. Each person’s blood is renewed. When that blood renewal goes wrong, some people get sick. Mountain water has a genetic memory. Genes are part of DNA, and there is no DNA in water, except the creatures which inhabit the water. Water is just hydrogen and oxygen. It remembers nothing - it has no brain to remember. It just flows from place to place because it is drawn by gravity, which is not found in dead water. And because of this genetic memory, all processes which take place in the human body function properly. It is said that if one adds one liter of mountain water onto ten liters of dead water, the live water will cleanse it all within twenty-four hours. We know that 80% of the human body consists of water. Our brains are made up of 92% water. Therefore, the Kyrgyz developed the art of chechendik, [eloquence] and tokmdliik [the traditional art of improvising oral poetry]. Tokmoluk is in our blood and no other nation in the world can compete with us.380 However, we do not value this quality of ours, which seems to have come from above. The Russians brainwashed us for a hundred years by saying that we are stupid and wild people with no culture and history. They did so because they
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 332 wanted to kill our spirit and conquer us. In the 17th century, Peter I could not defeat the Kyrgyz of the Yenisey. For about one hundred years, Tsarist Russia tried to defeat them, but could not. The Russians then realized that the Kyrgyz were brave and stubborn people, and therefore should be treated carefully. If you look at historical books from the eighteenth and l o 1 nineteenth centuries, you do not find the word Kazakh in them, but Kyrgyz. This shows that the Kyrgyz had a great influence and place in history. When Konkobayev [Kyrgyz Turkologist] went to China last year, the Chinese told him that there was a khan saray [king’s palace] about 500 km to the south of Beijing. It was built in the 12th or 14th century B.C.E. by order of a Chinese king. At that time they received many Kyrgyz envoys. The Chinese thought the Kyrgyz, who lived in the mountains, would suffer from the desert heat, so they built a palace in honor of them. Today, that palace is a museum. Everything is written there: in which year which Kyrgyz envoy came and why, what he brought as a present, and so on. So how can we say that the Chinese do not know about the Kyrgyz? It is the work of our ancestors. We, on the other hand, do not have anything to show. For one and a half centuries we have been destroying our language, customs and traditions. We even refuse to remember those ancestors. This year has been declared as the Year of Kyrgyz Statehood by UNESCO. I suggested to our politicians that they should stop their “politicking” and help develop our national heritage, by going to various regions of Kyrgyzstan, speaking about Kyrgyz history and culture, and paying respect to the spirits of our ancestors. I asked them to organize concerts of traditional music and raise the meaning of the word “nation”. But no, they do not listen. M am atekrim : Is it because the politicians do not understand Tengirchilik
That’s correct, they don’t.382 I myself haven’t understood Tengirchilik deeply enough. It is indeed our national culture and heritage, which we cannot throw away. It is not about Tengirchilik per se, but rather about our language, culture, history, genealogy, and customs. I recently understood that Kyrgyz traditional customs are indeed knowledge and education. It is a knowledge that came from real life experiences. Society and customs exist in harmony because the Kyrgyz foster the values of mutual respect, 381
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There are some Kyrgyz politicians and businessmen who value the Kyrgyz traditional customs such as horse games and oral tradition and Sarigulov works with them closely. During the ayti'sh competition, they sponsor the event by giving prizes such as a horse, car or money to the winners. However, most o f them, like ordinary people do not understand the Tengirchilik concept as deeply as the advocates or scholars do. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 333 that is, respect for the elderly as well as for the young. All of our customs are knowledge, eternal knowledge. M am atkerim : We should introduce a subject on traditional customs in schools. I prepared teaching curricula from first grade through tenth grade, and I saw a positive outcome. Among teenagers, the number of crimes decreased by 30%, because they looked at things quite differently. Tengirchilik would be a great national ideology for us if it would be carried out. M am atkerim : I think one should write about it in simple language so that
Today, a majority of the people have adopted Islam and its values of faithfulness and good manners. When the Communist regime was trying to destroy people’s iyman [faith; morality, humanity], people had to hold onto Islam. And it would be wrong to dismiss the good sides of Islam. Our people already rejected its negative sides one thousand years ago, for example, our women never wore the paranja [veil]. The reason the Kyrgyz adopted Islam is because they saw that it held similar beliefs and values. Islam integrated many aspects of Tengirchilik, which existed four thousand years ago. Before the Prophet Muhammad there were three prophets, one of whom was a woman. Why could not they spread their religion? It is because they were not diplomats or politicians, whereas the Prophet Muhammad was a very good politician. That is why he was successful. Islam did not bring any new religious teachings to us. For example, when the mullahs came to the Kyrgyz, the Kyrgyz asked the mullahs what they would teach them. Our ancestors listened to what they had to say, and realized that they already possessed all those nice qualities. People go to mosques, but do wrong things after that. Tengirchilik, on the other hand, became their lifestyle, customs, and habits. They do not have this kind of closeness or intimacy with Islam. The nomadic life and Tengirchilik fit together quite well. The nomads got rid of all the [Islamic] things that were unsuitable for their lifestyle, and adopted and preserved the things which did not contradict their existing life and beliefs. Today, two billion people practice Christianity, and one billion are Muslims. Only 10% of these people really believe in their religion. The Kyrgyz preserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 334 their great customs without any mullahs, but we do not appreciate this uluuluk [greatness], which has been transmitted from our ancestors. Recently, we [the Tengir-Ordo Foundation] received a letter from some Koreans in Korea. They wrote: You, the Kyrgyz are indeed the people who can be a good example to humankind. We do not have the same kind of tradition of respecting the elderly. We became Mankurts [person who does not remember who he or she is and who his or her parents are and to which tribe he or she belongs] You possess many good humane qualities, from which other people in the world can learn. Your wealth is your people, who preserved real traditions and customs. M am atkerim : Yes, I agree with all the things you said. However, people who live in the cities, especially the young Kyrgyz in the Chtiy Valley, have long forgotten their traditional culture.38 We cannot just talk about ideology alone, shouldn ’t we also pay attention to our economy. There is no conflict with the economy. It is incorrect to pit the two things against each other. If you went to the United Arab Emirates, you would be surprised, seeing their politics. I have been to many other countries, like Japan, China, and Iran, and I saw that these people have been preserving their national heritage without interfering with their economic development. For example, I went to Tokyo with a delegation. We were in a big hotel and we were waiting for the Japanese delegation to arrive. We sat in the lobby, and while we were waiting, we ordered tea. We were astonished, seeing those waitresses who sat on their knees while offering us tea. That is their traditional way of showing respect. Today Japan is the second most developed country after America, and it has still preserved its traditional culture. That is why you are mistaken if you say that tradition keeps people from development. On the contrary, tradition helps development. We have a clear, four thousand year old path, which our ancestors established for us, and if we just keep going on that path, we will do fine. We have many of our old traditional customs and values in our blood. So, we do not need any other ideology. We just need to be ourselves. Our tragedy is that we refuse to be Kyrgyz. If the right person came to power, our economy would go up in three years. There is no major difficulty in Kyrgyzstan. A simple example is water. Today the 383
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Kyrgyzstan has a lot o f fresh mountain water, which, if used correctly, would help to develop the country’s economy. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 335 price of one liter of water is equal to the price of one kilo of flour. In Japan, one buys two or three liters of gasoline for the price of one liter of water. We have plenty of water. There is no lack of technology, cars, and computers in the world, but clean water is a big problem. Clean water is the source of life. Human beings have invented everything one needs; however, one does not have to invent clean water. Elm ira: As you said previously, one o f the reasons that Tengirchilik has been preserved is because o f the nomadic lifestyle. For the last fifty or sixty years, however, the nomadic life has ceased to exist. People who live in cities do not know about the nomadic life, only herders know about it. How can we teach the city people about the values o f nomadic life and Tengirchilik? Life is hard in the cities and therefore, people do not value it [Tengirhilik], When their lives get a bit better, then if you tell them and explain to them about Tengirchilik on TV and radio, and write about it in newspapers and journals, they no doubt will adopt it and apply it in their live. It is already in their blood, and you just have to push their button to activate it. Elm ira: What about other peoples, like the Siberians and Mongols, who also led a nomadic life? Was Chingiz Khan’s religion Tengirchilik? Among the Central Asian nomadic peoples, the Kazakhs became sedentary two centuries ago, and the Tartars became settled three centuries ago. In the north, the Yakuts ride deer. The Central Asian nomadic people who became sedentary last were the Kyrgyz. Therefore, we preserved our national heritage the best. Yes, about Chingiz Khan. A Tatar author named Bezertinov wrote a 750-page book titled “Tengrianstvo: religiia tiurkov i mongolov”.385 1 talked to him when he visited Kyrgyzstan, and he said that Chingiz Khan was a man who truly worshipped Tengir. It was his great grandson, Borte Khan, who introduced Islam. The heads of 180 of his noyons [soldiers] and leaders were cut off because they refused to adopt Islam. Bezertinov says: “Why are we [the Turks] not successful any more? Attila and Chingiz Khan conquered the world because they believed in and lived by Tengirchilik. We adopted Islam, but we do not understand it well. We lost our faith by reciting false Quranic verses.” Their (Tatars’) 385
Bezertinov, R. N. Tengrianstvo: religiia tiurkov i mongolov (Tengrianity: Religion o f the Turks and Mongols). Kazan: SLOVO, 2004. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. goal is to revive the Hunno-Turanian [Hun Turkic] civilization and to restore the old Orkhon Turkic alphabet (from the 6th century A.D.) by publishing newspapers and journals in that alphabet. In this regard, the Tatars are far ahead of us. He says that Islam is like a chi'njir [chain] to us. We cannot get rid of it unless we come to Tengirchilik. Last year I met some Japanese people who came to Kyrgyzstan. I asked them why they came to Kyrgyzstan, and they said that they were searching for their roots. We went looking for our roots in Turkey and then we went to the Uzbeks they said. They were not close to us. We came to Kyrgyzstan a year ago and we found our roots. We must learn Kyrgyz in order to reach the end of that root, they said. The man who accompanied them spoke mostly Russian, and I told them that they should go to At-Bash'f [a mountainous region in northern Kyrgyzstan] and other regions to learn Kyrgyz. They also said that we were the same people because we share similar instruments, customs and grammar. So, among Central Asians, the Japanese feel closest to the Kyrgyz. M am atkerim : Is there a next world [narki dtiynd] in Tengirchilik? Islam and Christianity emphasize the horror in the next world, whereas, in Tengirchilik there is no such thing. The dead person turns into an arbak [spirit]. One pays for all his wrongdoings in this world. The peculiarity of Tengirchilik lies in this. The nomad suffers not in the next world but in this world. There is the next world in Tengirchilik where the spirits of ancestors or deceased relatives go, but there is no such a thing called a Hell [tozok]. M am atkerim : Among the Muslims, there are five pillars[besh pariz] that
Dogmatism and rituals bring religion to destruction. There is no dogma in Tengirchilik. For thousands of years it did not order people to do this or that ritual. There is no need for them. A person should first believe in them before carrying them out. The concepts of arbak [deceased’s spirit], jan [soul], ubal [misfortune] soop [good merit], and the blessing “Tengir koldosun!” “May Tengir protect!” should be transmitted naturally from the mother’s milk. M am atkerim : Yes, you are raising the idea o f Tengirchilik. However,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 337 praise themselves and the Christians themselves, should one use force in order to bring one idea to the others? I did not give the answer to this question, but Time did. Islam is fourteen hundred years old and is also losing its strength. Life itself is rejecting these religions. Tengirchilik has survived until today by being integrated into other religions. In other words, it has been in existence for about four thousand years because it is best suited for our life. The Kyrgyz survived because of Tengirchilik, and it will help them to develop in the future. For example, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, why can’t all of these religions save the humans’ faith? They could not. Life seems to reject their ideas, whereas, Tengirchilik seems to come back, because human beings are in need of it. Not because it is the religion of the Kyrgyz, but because there is need for eco-centrism and iyman [faith], humanity. Today there is a lot of wasting. Our ancestors used to pick up every tiny piece of bread from the ground and eat it, because if they did not, it would be ubal [misfortune]. We have a saying, “El karagan betim jer karap kalbasin,” “I don’t want my face (head), which looks up at other faces, now looking down at the ground!”386 These ideas are greater concepts than the Constitution. Elmira: No matter what we say about Tengirchilik, a strong Islamic
Islam is not getting strong. Yes, a lot of mosques are being built, but they are empty most of the time. I said to one mullah: “You are building Allah’s house, mosques, but they remain empty. You should find Allah in people’s hearts.” Many people do not believe in Islam. Ten or twenty people are nothing. It is not the sign of Islamic development. The majority of Kyrgyz will not go after it. They will follow Tengirchilik.
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