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Scientists Attempt to Unlock the Secrets of Turkic Runes in Altai

Russian scientists have started deciphering unique Turkic runic inscriptions in Altai, dating back to the VI-X centuries AD. Speaking at the International Conference “Mountain Altai - the ancestral home of the Turks,” Alexander Vasiliev, head of the Oriental History Department of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, reported that whilst some 120 such texts have been identified, a significant number has yet to be deciphered due to a lack of "keys". According to Vasilyev, problems in evaluating inscriptions arise as a result of the different graphic systems used by Turkic peoples in various historical periods. Hence, researchers face a difficult task in making these texts accessible and determining the exact nature of the archaeological objects found. Historians also note that with the emergence of Mongolian vertical writing, the influence of the Turkic writing system began to weaken. Previous attempts to decipher these texts using Iranian and Finno-Ugric languages, proved unsuccessful. Assuming that the key to understanding the inscriptions lies in one of the ancient Turkic languages, scientists are now focusing on the Chuvash language, which retains ancient features, or the Kypchak language group. The decipherment of Turkic runic inscriptions began with the discovery of the famous Orkhon-Yenisei texts in Mongolia in the 19th century. In 1893, Danish scholar Wilhelm Thomsen was the first to successfully decipher these ancient texts using analogies to ancient Turkic words such as “tengri” (sky). These inscriptions, dating from the 7th to 10th centuries, recount the lives of the Turkic kagans and their victories. In addition to the Orkhon texts, significant inscriptions have been found in the Yenisei Valley and the Altai Mountains. An international conference in Manzherok, in the Altai Republic, brought together scholars to discuss not only the problems of deciphering the Turkic script but also the formation of the Turkic civilization and the history of cultural interaction between the Turks and other peoples, including Slavic cultures.

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Laughter Amidst Ruins: Rediscovering Tajikistan’s Resilience Through Comedy and Cultural Exchange

The UN General Assembly's Human Rights Council recently condemned the government of Tajikistan for its failure to implement the recommendations of a 2019 study by UN representatives. The study focused on the unreconciled atrocities and societal wounds caused by the civil war that swept through the republic after the collapse of the Soviet Union. More than 60,000 people died in this war, and more than 250,000 fled the republic. Reading this news, I was reminded of and reflected on post-war Tajikistan, which I visited in the late summer of 2000. At that time, the country had been in a state of fragile peace for two years, and you could still feel the tension in the air. Since my visit to the country in 2000, the Tajik Civil War has been reflected on by many people in the arts. In the same year that UN researchers were raking up the old tragedy, the film Kazbat was released in Kazakhstan. This movie is a military drama about the real deaths of 17 soldiers of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan (now the National Guard), who fell into an ambush in Tajikistan on April 7, 1995. A little earlier, in 2017, Russian writer Vladimir Medvedev released the novel Zakhok, which talks about the horrors of that six-year war through the struggles of a single family, where the mother is Russian, and the children are half Tajik. My visit to this war-torn country was for a reason most wouldn’t have expected - a comedy festival. The group that I traveled with consisted of my teammates, Almaty residents, as well as people from other Kazakh, Uzbek, and Kyrgyz cities. Despite coming from all over Central Asia, we ended up in Tajikistan for the first international СVN festival (СVN - Club of the Funny and Inventive) in Central Asia. СVN is an improv and sketch comedy competition involving students that originated in Soviet times, the point of which is to satirize the surrounding reality through theatrical skits and question-based improv. Due to its satirical nature, СVN was banned for two decades during the Soviet-era. It was later revived during Perestroika, and, in the shortest possible time, became a phenomenon in all universities in Russia and across almost all of post-Soviet space. In Kazakhstan, СVN was developed immediately after the collapse of the USSR. Alma-Ata, which was the capital city back then, organized its own league, which included teams from the leading national universities of that time - Kazakh State University, Narkhoz, Almaty Institute of Transport Engineers, and Almaty State Medical Institute. I belong to the second generation of СVN players. Our task was to popularize this game throughout the republic and attract not only universities but also colleges and schools. Later, the new СVN league went beyond Kazakhstan, starting with friendly meetings with universities from Bishkek, Tashkent, and other Central Asian cities. Then, the International League of СVN, which was created and headed by Alexander Maslyakov, who passed...

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British Museum Opens Silk Roads Show – With Help from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan

The British Museum opened Silk Roads to the public on Thursday, delivering a highly anticipated exhibition about the vast, interlocking routes that connected cultures across Asia, Africa and Europe for centuries and includes ancient chess pieces and other items on loan from Uzbekistan as well as Tajikistan. The show, which runs until Feb. 23, 2025, aims to get beyond traditional notions of spices, camels and sand dunes, as well as the misconception that there was one “Silk Road” - a single pathway that ran across Central Asia, linking traders in the West with those in the East. While the Silk Roads network lasted for millennia, the British Museum is focusing on the period between AD 500 and 1,000, when contacts accelerated and religions and technology flourished across far-flung regions. “Rather than a single trade route from East to West, the Silk Roads were made up of overlapping networks linking communities across Asia, Africa and Europe, from East Asia to Britain, and from Scandinavia to Madagascar,” the museum says in its introduction to the London show. The British Museum worked with 29 national and international partners on the exhibition, which includes objects from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan that have never been on display in Britain and highlight the importance of Central Asia to the continent-sweeping saga of the Silk Roads. Uzbekistan, home to Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand and other sites associated with the ancient network, is a big player in the exhibition. It is lending “the oldest group of chess pieces ever found” and a six-meter-long wall painting from the ‘Hall of the Ambassadors’ in Afrasiab, an ancient spot in Samarkand, according to the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation. “The painting evokes the cosmopolitanism of the Sogdians from Central Asia who were great traders during this period,” the state foundation said. Saida Mirziyoyeva, a daughter of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and a senior presidential aide, attended the exhibition roll-out this week. “A must-see for anyone passionate about Silk Road history!” she said on X. The National Museum in Tajikistan, which started working with the British Museum on plans for Silk Roads in 2022, has said it is lending items “related to the Buddhist culture of the 7th and 8th centuries, found in the monuments of Ajinateppa, Kafarnihon, and Vakhsh.” Objects on display include a Buddha figurine found in Sweden; an Islamic-style map drawn for the Christian king of Sicily; a Chinese ceramic dish found in a shipwreck in Indonesia; a gilded silver cup whose components indicate links between Scotland and West Asia; a gold shoulder clasp with Indian garnets that was found at the Sutton Hoo ship burial in Suffolk; and a gold bowl found in Romania that was linked to the Avars, an originally nomadic group from the northeast Asian steppe. The exhibition is not just about physical objects. There are also stories about an African king, a Chinese princess and other characters whose lives were connected to the Silk Roads, and insights into religious encounters and the spread of...

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Almaty Uncovered: Locals Reveal Must-Visit Spots and Hidden Gems

Almaty is a city filled with history, warmth and a variety of unique places. For each resident this city is special, and each corner of it evokes their own feelings and associations. TCA spoke to Almaty residents of different ages and professions about which places they consider their favorites. Damir, 19, student programmer: “I don't have a specific favorite place in Almaty, but there is one associated with my childhood memories - the Green Bazaar. As a child, I often went there with my mother to buy fresh produce, and every trip to the market was a real adventure for me. I used to look with interest at the showcases with fruits and spices, enjoying the unique atmosphere of the place. The Green Bazaar is not just a market, but a living museum filled with aromas and sounds that I associate with my childhood.” [caption id="attachment_23549" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Shymbulak; image: Kalabaha1969[/caption] Serikzhan, 22, English teacher “My favorite place in Almaty is Shymbulak. In both winter and summer, there’s a lot to do here: skiing, hiking in the mountains, parties and events. If you want to take a break from the hustle and bustle of the city, you can just walk along the trails and enjoy the views. Shymbulak isn’t just a ski resort, but a source of many warm memories, as my family and I used to come here often, even on weekdays after school.” Amir, 27, designer and SMM specialist: “My favorite place in Almaty is a small burger shop called Kuropatka. There are always a few people there. It's not a place of high cuisine, but the prices are very affordable and the burgers are incredibly tasty. However, it's not even about the food, it's about the memories. It was the starting point of my adventures with friends who have now left Kazakhstan. Years later, our favorite meeting place remains unchanged, preserving a piece of the past.” [caption id="attachment_23548" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Botanical Gardens, Almaty; image: Dianakz[/caption] Raihan, 41, interior designer: “Almaty is my favorite city. I adore it for its green parks, quiet squares and for its unique seasons - be it crisp snow in the winter or rustling leaves in the fall. Every morning I savor the mountain views and watch sunsets drenched in a multitude of hues. This city is also known for its old Soviet modernist architecture, and the fountains in the summer lend a welcome coolness. For me, Almaty is a city of endless festivals, performances and creative meetings.” [caption id="attachment_23550" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Tamgaly-Tas; image: Mheidegger[/caption] Myktybek, 19, targetologist “Tamgaly-Tas is one of the most interesting places in the vicinity of Almaty. It’s a place with unusual rocks on which you can see ancient inscriptions, petroglyphs, and images of Buddha. The historical and cultural value of this place is huge. It connects us with ancient times and gives us a feeling of something eternal. Walking among these rocks is like traveling back in time, where every stone has its own story to...

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The First-Ever Audio Recording of Kazakh Music

It was long believed that the world's first audio recording of Kazakh music was made in 1925 during the performance of singer, Amre Kashaubaev, at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in France. However, the Berlin Museum of Visual Anthropology and Ethnology has recordings of Kazakh folk music, voices, and ritual chants, which were made in western Kazakhstan twenty years earlier. These recordings were made during the Acoustic Era, when sound waves were still recorded through analog methods. In 1857, Frenchman, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville invented the so-called phonautograph. Three years later, the world's first song was recorded. It was a French folk song, “By the Light of the Moon”. In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph. This invention could both record and playback audio and marked the start of the Acoustic Era. Later, in 1900, Carl Stumpf, a professor of psychology at the University of Berlin, established a phonogram archive in Berlin, where, at the same time, an orchestra from Thailand was touring. Stumpf recorded the Thai music, which was considered exotic to Europeans at that time. This recording became the first in the rich Ethnomusicology collection of the Ethnological Museum of Berlin. These recordings were originally discovered at the Institute of Russian Literature, also known as Pushkin House, which is part of the network that is affiliated with the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Efim Rezvan, a well-known scholar of Turkology, showed the TCA team the wax rollers - cylindrical wax containers that can be played using Edison's phonograph. The first-ever audio recordings of Kazakh music were made using these devices. The German scientist Richard Karutz recorded them in the early 20th century when he organized an expedition to the steppes of Turkestan. As a result of his expedition, he wrote a book called Among the Kirghiz and Turkmens in Mangyshlak. During his expedition, Karutz took many photos and collected audio recordings of the local peoples' art. In addition to his scientific research, Karutz pursued other goals; for instance, he wrote about the health benefits of tea, which the locals consumed in large quantities. He claimed that drinking tea in large quantities when the air temperature was over 40 degrees Celsius helped them to bear the heat. Karutz wrote that, “It is necessary for our troops to weigh the importance of tea consumption during summer maneuvers and campaigns.” Richard Karutz was born into a mercantile family. In 1886, he went to study medicine at the University of Jena 1891. Completing his studies and receiving his doctorate in 1891, he then worked as a doctor aboard a ship. Whilst on working as a surgeon on a ship, Karutz traveled to South America and West Africa. After these trips, Karutz became interested in ethnography. In 1896, he was appointed head of the ethnographic collection of the Museum of Ethnology in Lübeck. Karutz enriched the museum's collection with artifacts from his travels, and encouraged other merchants and travelers to bring items from other countries for the collection. The...

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Rejuvenating Kyrgyzstan’s Traditional Performing Arts: Razia Syrdybaeva on the Ustatshakirt Ensemble

On August 13, Kyrgyzstan’s Ustatshakirt Ensemble, a five-piece group of traditional musicians, gave its first ever performance at Edinburgh’s International Festival. Following a mesmerizing, sell- out concert, Kyrgyz author Shahsanem Murray spoke on behalf of TCA, to musicologist Razia Syrdybaeva about Ustatshakirt , its origins, aims and future plans. [caption id="attachment_23314" align="aligncenter" width="1665"] Photo: TCA Razia Syrdybaeva and the Ustatshakirt Ensemble[/caption] TCA: Razia, please tell us a little about yourself and the Ustatshakirt Ensemble. I am a musicologist, producer, and researcher of Kyrgyz culture, and hold a PhD in Philology. Twenty years ago, I established Ustatshakirt; an NGO educational organization with a mission to preserve Kyrgyzstan’s centuries-old musical heritage. The name Ustatshakrit - Ustat meaning master, and shakirt, student - embodies our aim to serve as a bridge between old masters and young musicians. Founded in 2003, with support from the Aga Khan Music Programme (AKA) the Ustatshakrit Center now has branches offering tuition in music, literature, and theatre to pupils in 41 primary & secondary schools across Kyrgyzstan. Over the past twenty years, through the development of faster and more effective methodology, we have taught over 10,000 children to play traditional Kyrgyz instruments such as the komuz and temir ooz komuz. We also provide tuition in other performing art forms including basic theater skills in our ‘dramalab’, and singing epics. The key goal of our work is to introduce children to their native music and help them appreciate and fall in love with their ancient culture. This is very important, especially in the present climate where exposed to external influences and technology, young people are increasingly moving away from their roots, their native language, and music. Attracted by modern rhythms and gadgets, they have little time and few opportunities to listen to their ancestral music. To more effectively engage both our pupils and audiences, we are constantly implementing the development of special methodological textbooks, music notation programs, etc. Authored by our teachers, musicians and prominent figures in the Arts, our now comprehensive collection of publications is used by Kyrgyzstan’s music educational institutions, from children's art schools to universities and conservatories. TCA: Concerts of traditional Kyrgyz music accompanied by excerpts from the great Manas epic are rarely performed in the UK, and especially, Scotland. What challenges did you face in securing a venue at the Edinburgh Festival? We heard about the festival several years ago. Getting to Edinburgh involved a lot of planning and expense and was only made possible thanks to the generous support of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, the Aga Khan Music Program and its director Fairouz Nishanova, and our sponsors Sir Ewan & Lady Brown together with Flure Gossart. Work on repertoires for international audiences has now been ongoing for two years, and over many months prior to playing at Edinburgh, we focused on creating a program that would embrace the rich traditions of Kyrgyzstan’s music and culture. TCA: What were your impressions of the Edinburgh audience? We were all delighted by the high...