Getting to know the historical and cultural heritage of the Kyrgyz

The Kyrgyz are one of the most ancient peoples of Central Asia, who acquired statehood earlier than others. For a long time there was confusion over the name of the Kyrgyz ethnos. They were called "wild stone Kyrgyz", "Kara Kyrgyz". Kazakhs during the protectorate of the Russian Empire and the first years of Soviet power (until 1925) were called "Kyrgyz". Reconstruction of Kazakh statehood in the form of autonomy within the RSFSR, which celebrated its 100th anniversary on August 26, 2020, was then named the Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

The Kyrgyz Republic has a unique natural and geographical environment: the unique salt lake Issyk-Kul, which occupies the 2nd place in the world in terms of area, fresh water reserves in the form of non-melting glaciers, and the rarest species of flora and fauna. The Kyrgyz epic "Manas", which contains more than 500,000 lines, is included in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest epic and is protected by UNESCO as a heritage of mankind. It was the Kyrgyz writer Ch. Aitmatov who introduced the concept of “mankurtism”, which means historical unconsciousness, which is now widely used, in his work “Storm stop” (“And the day lasts longer than a century”). There are about 6 million Kyrgyz in the world, 5 million of whom live in their historical homeland and about 40 thousand in Kazakhstan. The Kyrgyz are close to the Kazakh people in terms of their historical past, culture and language.

Participants of the online-interactive educational lecture hall “Halyktanu”, organized by the department “Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan”, spoke about this in detail. Lecturers Zylykha Bimakanova, Lyudmila Gryvennaya and Natalya Sheveleva shared information in 3 languages ​​about the origin of the Kyrgyz people, ancient and modern history, traditions and customs, religious beliefs, cultural and historical sights, the activities of Kyrgyz ethnocultural associations in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

External experts took part in the events remotely: Shayrkul Batyrbaeva - professor of the Kyrgyz National University named after Zh.Balasagyn, Ravshan Nazarov - deputy head of the department of modern and contemporary history of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Oleg Sinyakov - expert analyst of the Center for Public Development and Information of North Kazakhstan region, Shavkat Ismailov - Chairman of the PA "Kyrgyzstan-Astana", Manas Tashibekov - Deputy Chairman of the PA "Kyrgyz Ethnocultural Center of Almaty", Mairambek Bolturukov - "Manas", Head of the PA "Manas-Petropavlovsk" (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan).

Students showed interest and desire to learn more about the Kyrgyz - one of the ethnic groups living in Kazakhstan.