The forefathers of the modern Kyrgyz lived on the upper reaches of the Yenisey River in present-day Siberia. The origin of the Kyrgyz is still a matter of some debate. Based on common burial customs, animist traditions and herding practices, it is believed that the Kyrgyz originated in Siberia. Kyrgyz is one of the oldest ethnic names in Asia.
It was first recorded in the 2nd century B. Some Kyrgyz will tell you that it was their Siberian ancestors crossed the Bering land bridge to become the first native Americans. The Kyrgyz are believed to have descended from nomadic tribes, the "Yenisey Kyrgyz," from the Yenisey River area in central Siberia. Their homeland is an Ireland-size chunk of land, covered by steppe and mountains, in the upper Yenisey River Basin near present-day Krasnoyarsk, They occupied this region between the 6th and 12th centuries, and are believed to have begun speaking a Turkic language around the 9th century.
They established ties with the Tang Dynasty A. In , the Kyrgyz defeated the Uighar tribes and occupied their lands in what is now northwestern Mongolia. The Kyrgyz in turn were driven off these lands by the Khitan the 10th century. The Kyrgyz are one of the least Russified of all the groups in Central Asia.
This is because they have remained fairly isolated in the mountains and there was little in Kyrgyzstan that was really valuable to the Russians or Soviets. Kyrgyz are of Mongolian, Turkish and mixed Asian origin. Descendants of tribes that originated in Siberia and migrated to what is now Kyrgyzstan between the 10th and 15th centuries, they stayed close to their nomadic roots.
Kazakhs and Kyrgyz are close relatives. The Kyrgyz, however, have a longer and more coherent history than the Kazakhs. The ethnic identity of the Kyrgyz has been strongly linked to their language and to ethnic traditions, both of which have been guarded with particular zeal once independence provided an opportunity to make national policy on these matters. Less formally, the Kyrgyz people have maintained with unusual single-mindedness many elements of social structure and a sense of their common past.
The name Kyrgyz derives from the Turkic kyrk plus yz , a combination meaning "forty clans. The idea of a Kyrgyz nation was fostered under Soviet rule. Kyrgyz traditions, national dress, and art were defined as distinct from their neighbors. Today people will name the Kyrgyz national hat kalpak , instrument komuz , sport uulak , house boz-ui , drink koumisss , and foods.
Stalin then intentionally drew borders inconsistent with the traditional locations of ethnic populations, leaving large numbers of ethnic Uzbeks and Turkmen within Kyrgyzstan's borders. This was supposed to maintain a level of interethnic tension in the area, so that these closely related groups would not rise up against him.
The Kyrgyz also have retained a strong sense of cultural tradition. Figures from the Soviet census show that Kyrgyz males were the least likely of the men of any Soviet nationality to marry outside their people only 6. Moreover, although the degree of such changes is difficult to measure, Kyrgyz "mixed" marriages seem uncommonly likely to assimilate in the direction of a Kyrgyz identity, with the non-Kyrgyz spouse learning the Kyrgyz language and the children assuming the Kyrgyz nationality.
Even ordinary citizens are thoroughly familiar with the Kyrgyz oral epic, Manas , a poem of several hundred thousand lines many versions are recited telling of the eponymous Kyrgyz hero's struggles against invaders from the east. Many places and things in Kyrgyzstan, including the main airport, bear the name of this ancient hero, the one-thousandth anniversary of whose mythical adventures were cause for great national celebration in According to the census, the following ethnic groups were present in Kyrgyzstan: 65 percent Kyrgyz, 14 percent Uzbek, 13 percent Russian, 1 percent Dungan ethnic Chinese Muslim , 1 percent Tatar, 1 percent Uyghur, and 1 percent Ukrainian.
Substantial numbers of Tajik refugees entered the country in the s. In the early s, about 15, Russians left the country annually. The Uzbek minority is concentrated around the southwestern city of Osh, and the Russian population is concentrated in Bishkek and adjacent Chu Province. In the population of Kyrgyzstan was estimated at 4. In the late s the population was 52 percent Kyrgyz, 22 percent Russian, 13 percent Uzbek, 3 percent Ukrainian and 2 percent German.
The rest of the population was composed of about eighty other nationalities. Of some potential political significance are the Uygurs. That group numbers only about 36, in Kyrgyzstan, but about , live in neighboring Kazakstan. The Uygurs are also the majority population in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China, whose population is about 15 million, located to the northeast of Kyrgyzstan.
In November , the Uygurs in Kyrgyzstan attempted to form a party calling for establishment of an independent Uygurstan that also would include the Chinese-controlled Uygur territory.
The Ministry of Justice denied the group legal registration. Kyrgyz are found in sizable numbers in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Russia, China, Afghanistan and other parts of theformer Soviet Union as well as Kyrgyzstan. Between and , a significant number of non-Kyrgyz citizens left the republic, although no census was taken in the early s to quantify the resulting balances among ethnic groups. A considerable portion of this exodus consisted of Germans repatriating to Germany, more than 8, of whom left in alone.
According to reports, more than 30, Russians left the Bishkek area in the early s, presumably for destinations outside Kyrgyzstan. In and , refugees from the civil war in Tajikistan moved into southern Kyrgyzstan. In about 64, Kyrgyz were living in Tajikistan, and about , were living in Uzbekistan.
Reliable estimates of how many of these people subsequently returned to Kyrgyzstan have not been available. The Fergana Valley, which eastern Kyrgyzstan shares with Central Asian neighbors Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, is one of the most densely populated and agriculturally most heavily exploited regions in Central Asia.
As such, it has been the point of bitter contention among the three adjoining states, both before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Members of the various ethnic groups who have inhabited the valley for centuries have managed to get along largely because they occupy slightly different economic niches. The sedentary Uzbeks and Tajiks traditionally have farmed lower-lying irrigated land while the nomadic Kyrgyz have herded in the mountains.
However, the potential for ethnic conflict is ever present. Because the borders of the three countries zigzag without evident regard for the nationality of the people living in the valley, many residents harbor strong irredentist feelings, believing that they should more properly be citizens of a different country. Few Europeans live in the Fergana Valley, but about , Uzbeks, almost the entire population of that people in Kyrgyzstan, reside there in crowded proximity with about 1.
The population of Kyrgyzstan is divided among three main groups: the indigenous Kyrgyz, the Russians who remained after the end of the Soviet Union, and a large and concentrated Uzbek population. Topography divides the population into two main segments, the north and the south. Each has differing cultural and economic patterns and different predominant ethnic groups. Because of the country's mountainous terrain, population tends to be concentrated in relatively small areas in the north and south, each of which contains about two million people.
About two-thirds of the total population live in the Fergana, Talas, and Chu valleys. As might be expected, imbalances in population distribution lead to extreme contrasts in how people live and work. In the north, the Chu Valley, site of Bishkek, the capital, is the major economic center, producing about 45 percent of the nation's gross national product GNP.
The Chu Valley also is where most of the country's Europeans live, mainly because of economic opportunities. The ancestors of today's Russian and German population began to move into the fertile valley to farm at the end of the nineteenth century.
There was a subsequent influx of Russians during World War II, when industrial resources and personnel were moved en masse out of European Russia to prevent their capture by the invading Germans. Brezhnev, a deliberate development policy brought another in-migration. Bishkek is slightly more than 50 percent Kyrgyz, and the rest of the valley retains approximately that ethnic ratio. In the mids, observers expected that balance to change quickly, however, as Europeans continued to move out while rural Kyrgyz moved in, settling in the numerous shantytowns springing up around Bishkek.
The direct distance from Bishkek in the far north to Osh in the southwest is slightly more than kilometers, but the mountain road connecting those cities requires a drive of more than ten hours in summer conditions; in winter the high mountain passes are often closed.
In the Soviet period, most travel between north and south was by airplane, but fuel shortages that began after independence have greatly limited the number of flights, increasing a tendency toward separation of north and south. The separation of the north and the south is clearly visible in the cultural mores of the two regions, although both are dominated by ethnic Kyrgyz.
Society in the Fergana Valley is much more traditional than in the Chu Valley, and the practice of Islam is more pervasive. The people of the Chu Valley are closely integrated with Kazakstan Bishkek is but four hours by car from Almaty, the capital of Kazakstan. The people of the south are more oriented, by location and by culture, to Uzbekistan, Iran, Afghanistan, and the other Muslim countries to the south.
Geographical isolation also has meant that the northern and southern Kyrgyz have developed fairly distinct lifestyles. Kyrgyz is related to Nogay Tatar, Karakalpak, and Kazakh. Till the 20th century, Kyrgyz was written using the Latin script.
However, Stalin mandated the replacement of Arabic with the Cyrillic script in Kyrgyzstan has 3,, native Kyrgyz speakers and , second-language speakers.
Uzbek is a Turkic language that is primarily spoken by the population of Uzbekistan. The language is also popular in Kyrgyzstan where it is spoken by about , native speakers and 97, second-language speakers. English, French, and German are spoken by small populations of Kyrgyzstan, primarily as a second language. English is spoken by 28,, French by and German by only 10 individuals residing in the country as a second language.
Musicians playing traditional Kyrgyz music. Oishimaya Sen Nag April 25 in Society. Any attempt by a foreigner to speak Kyrgyz will be greatly appreciated. In deference to the Russian population of Kyrgyzstan, Russian is also protected under law.
Kyrgyz is written using an adapted Cyrillic script similar to Russian. Meanwhile, most people can speak Russian, and do so, especially in the north.
English is widely spoken by those involved in tourism. Uzbek, Kazakh, Tajik, Korean and various other regional languages and dialects are also spoken. Introducing Kyrgyzstan. Plan your trip. Travel to Kyrgyzstan Where to stay.
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