THE INFLUENCE OF THE KYRGYZ EPIC MENTALITY ON THEIR RELIGIOSITY

Abstract

The problems of the Kyrgyz people's religion have always been of great and controversial academic interest. In this regard, the article examines the complex issues of the belief of the Kyrgyz of the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods. In their centuries-old multilayered ethnopolitical history, Kyrgyz people professed, to a variable degree,Animism, Zoroastrism, Shamanism, Totemism, Tengrianism, and then Buddhism, Christianity etc. However, due to various circumstances, Kyrgyz people did not become convinced fire worshipers, Buddhists or Christians. Most importantly, the Kyrgyz remained “moderate” Muslims. There are many reasons for this. First of all, the long domination of nomadism, as well as the patriarchal-tribal way of life and, of course, the extremely viable forms of pre-Islamic beliefs, and the cult of ancestors and deceased, who organically intertwined, coexisted with the fundamental provisions of the Hanafi Islamic Sunnism. The most important thing is a great epic heritage, an epic worldview and a world perception of Kyrgyz people.

Such a feature is the essence of folk or traditional Islam of the Kyrgyz people. Of course, in this unique mixture, occupying a certain niche in the spiritual development of Kyrgyz people, various archaic beliefs existing at the subconscious level played an important role, as well as the uniqueness of the mentality of the Kyrgyz, which gave the Muslim faith to the Kyrgyz a very syncretic character.

It should be noted that the pre-Islamic beliefs of Kyrgyz people also make themselves felt today, although they are gradually being put on the back under the influence of the canonical Islam. There is a completely natural process of sequential absorption of the old by new ones, archaic forms of beliefs adapt and enter into a synthesis with Islam.

At the same time, during the atheistic Soviet times and the post-Soviet years of the Muslim renaissance, a certain part of the Kyrgyz society continued and continues to bow to the spirit of Manas. These features of the religious consciousness and self-awareness of the Kyrgyz are reflected in the Manas folk epic.

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