Making Kyrgyz spaces: local history as spatial practice in Murghab (Tajikistan)

Abstract

In the past decade local scholars in Murghab, Tajikistan's easternmost district, have published several books in Kyrgyz on the history and culture of the Eastern Pamirs. In their work, the authors address the region's predominantly Kyrgyz population by emphasizing the ‘kyrgyzness’ of the Eastern Pamirs, which they refer to as Sarykol. The results of these local studies reverberate widely on the ground and have become integrated into everyday interaction. As a consequence, not only the region's history and culture, but also its territory, are perceived through an increasingly ethnicized lens. This paper seeks to explore local history as a way of appropriating space. Following Henri Lefebvre (1974), local history can be defined as an ethno-spatial practice that emphasizes ethnicity. Through an analysis of five works on local history and culture and their embedding in an ethnographic context, this article provides evidence for the significance of local studies in ‘kyrgyzizing’ space. It also demonstrates, moreover, that international non-governmental organizations, through their funding of such research, are entangled with globalized visions of culture, tradition and ethnicity.

Keywords:

• local history
• ethnicity
• spatial practice
• pilgrimage sites
• Kyrgyz
• Murghab
• Eastern Pamirs

Acknowledgements

I am sincerely grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their critical comments and suggestions for improvement. I am also deeply indebted to Madeleine Reeves, Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz, Brook Bolander, Seline Reinhardt, Sarah Werren and Ayzat Aysarakunova, discussions with whom shaped this paper's argument.

Notes

Stéphane Dudoignon's (2004) study on Khujand and the Khujand-nāma shows that such processes are not restricted to Murghab, but can be situated in a broader Tajikistani context.

The nexus between ethnicity, territory and identity has been studied on a global scale; important works for this article include Worby (1994), Matless (2001), Moore (2005) and Schlee (2008, 2010).

These data come from a 2011 census conducted by the local administration that breaks down the population of the region by household, political unit and ethnicity. In addition to ethnic Kyrgyz and Tajiks, the census mentions 11 Uzbeks and four Kazakhs.

For background, see Liu (2002, 2012), Reeves (2005), Fumagalli (2007) and Megoran (2007).

See Hatto (1990, pp. 87, 122).

The production of books on local history and culture in Murghab is largely determined by age and gender. Authority that is established through ‘being elder’ (Beyer 2010, p. 81) contributes to this, as well as the image of the male Kyrgyz elder (aksakal) who ideally represents knowledge and wisdom. However, it has to be emphasized that in Murghabi everyday life, both men and women discuss local history and culture and transmit respective knowledge. Thus, it is not the practice of constructing historical time and space as such that is gendered, but its formalization in journals and books.

The Kyrgyz word kayryk means ‘song’ or ‘tune’. It furthermore signifies a specific tune for the komuz, a stringed instrument considered part of Kyrgyz culture in Murghab.

Sarikoli belongs to the southeastern Iranian languages.

On Sarikoli Tajiks, see Olson (1998, p. 300).

The NGO Kyrgyz Ate describes the ‘Kyrgyz horse type’ as follows: ‘The horse of the Kyrgyz nomads printed his indelible mark in the epopee, the poems, the songs, the accounts of the explorers, the books of history and the texts of Old. It is the vital source of the Kyrgyz culture, which is closely related to nomadism’ (Kyrgyz horse 2012; please note that this passage been reproduced here exactly as it appears in the publication, retaining errors of grammar and style).

As noted in the previous footnote, the errors here are in the original text.

A look across the border to Kyrgyzstan shows that local studies and the search for ‘authentic’ Kyrgyz spiritual culture are closely connected to mazars, see, for instance, Aitpaeva (2007). While pilgrimage sites in Murghab are currently not the object of cultural revival activities, NGOs such as The Christensen Fund finance local study initiatives and publications on mazars in Kyrgyzstan; see Mostowlansky (2011a, pp. 295 − 299).

On the example of the northern Tajikistani city of Khujand, Stéphane Dudoignon (2004) shows that local studies serve to relocate the city ‘at the centre of the spiritual map of the Islamic world’ (p. 234) in the context of recent political developments.