Kipchak branch
Kyrgyz
A mountain-pastoral Turk people of the Tian Shan, keepers of the Manas epic, one of the longest oral epics in the world.
Kyrgyzdar / Kırgızlar
Kyrgyz history can be traced back to at least the 1st century BCE. Their early homeland was probably in the upper Yenisei valley of southern Siberia, from where in 840 the Kyrgyz overthrew the Uyghur state in Mongolia. Over the following centuries Kyrgyz groups came to live in the high pastures of the Tian Shan, today’s Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyz culture is centred on seasonal mountain pastoralism and a great oral tradition. The epic of Manas, recited by specialist storytellers (manaschy), and its sequels Semetey and Seytek are at the heart of Kyrgyz identity. The novelist Chingiz Aitmatov, known internationally for works such as Jamila, brought Kyrgyz themes to world literature.
A small Kyrgyz community of the Afghan Pamirs left Afghanistan in 1978 and was resettled in eastern Türkiye in 1982, where its descendants live today, notably in the Van region.
- Language
- Kyrgyz, a Kipchak Turk language written in Cyrillic
- Branch
- Kipchak
- Homeland
- Kyrgyzstan and the Tian Shan and Pamir-Alay mountains
- Also living in
- China (East Turkestan), Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Türkiye and Russia
Key dates
840
The Yenisei Kyrgyz overthrow the Uyghur state in Mongolia.
1876
Russia annexes the Khanate of Kokand; the Kyrgyz lands become part of the Russian Empire.
1916
An uprising against tsarist rule, triggered by labour conscription, is harshly suppressed.
1936
The Kirgiz Soviet Socialist Republic is created as a union republic.
31 August 1991
Kyrgyzstan declares its independence.
Heritage
- The Kyrgyz epic trilogy: Manas, Semetey, Seytek (UNESCO, 2013), and the Art of Akyns, Kyrgyz epic tellers (UNESCO, 2008)
- Ala-kiyiz and Shyrdak, art of Kyrgyz traditional felt carpets, on UNESCO’s Urgent Safeguarding List (2012)
- Kok boru, the traditional horse game (UNESCO, 2017), and the Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain in Osh, a UNESCO World Heritage site (2009)
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “History of Kyrgyzstan”
- M. N. Shahrani, The Kirghiz and Wakhi of Afghanistan: Adaptation to Closed Frontiers (University of Washington Press, 1979)