Authors

Discussion

Religious practices have morphed through movement. Many scholars might point to Islam’s transformations along the Silk Road, bringing about variations in belief and practice today. While many studies of Islam have had scholarship that relies on the sedentary gaze to reference, Tengrism, the Turko-Mongolic religion practiced by nomads in Central Asia, has seen less attention due to the religion’s highly mobile nature and sparse references in the written record. This additionally layered by Tengrism relying on oral traditions to maintain traditions. The forced sedentarization of nomads by the Soviet Union compounds this problem, as religious practices themselves–particularly those which reflected nomadic roots–were suppressed by the state and largely written out of history. A tension between nomadic and sedentary identities thus arose. Since independence, as a means of reshaping identity, many Kazakhs and Kyrgyz returned to celebrating their nomadic roots while continuing to live sedentary lives. On the other hand, some think Tengrism opposes modern Kazakh society and view it as islamophobic.

I argue that Tengrism’s mobile beliefs being translated into sedentary life is a process of reclaiming identity. Further, sedentarization has directly affected Tengrism’s practice and modern manifestations in both Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Whilst mobility shapes and changes religion across borders and regions, sedentarism can have a similar effect, changing and shaping religious practices that so heavily relied on nomadic life into practices for sedentary life and its combined relationship with Islam. I evidence my claims via survey data collected during my masters, discourse analysis, and use of primary sources.