TRIBES AND CLANS

The name «Kyrgyz» is one of the oldest recorded ethnic names in Asia — dating to back to Chinese official records in the second century B. C., when the ancestors of the current Kyrgyz people lived on the banks of the Yenesi river in Siberia. They migrated to their current mountainous homeland sometime between the tenth and fifteenth centuries (A. D.), either to escape warring enemies, or as part of the invading Mongol hordes. Early Russians confused the Kazakhs and the Kyrgyz calling them Kyrgyz and Kara Kyrgyz, to distinguish between the nomads of the steppes (the Kazakhs) and those of the mountains (the present day Kyrgyz).

Traditionally the Kyrgyz stem from Forty Tribes. As in the West, citing numbers (like forty) can imply an exactitude which they don«t really merit, and some numbers have mystical qualities. The number forty occurs frequently throughout Kyrgyz folklore: Manas, the legendary hero, was accompanied by forty companions; newborn babies kept at home and are shown to family and friends only after forty days; the family gather to remember newly deceased relatives forty days after death; and the Kyrgyz trace the origin of the forty tribes to a legend forty girls (»Kirk kyz«in Kyrgyz).

There are several versions of this legend … but perhaps the most picturesque has the daughters from several clans ending a war by dressing alike and asking their warring fathers, husbands, and brothers to tell them apart. When they fail to do so, the girls point out that they all one people and should not be fighting amongst themselves. Another version tells of forty girls who survived a raid by their enemies who then protected by a lone yellow dog on the banks of a deserted river. A third version has the forty girls meeting a band of thirty youths in the mountains of the Ferghana valley. Yet another version has the girls transformed into stone to avoid the incorrect, improper attention of inspectors of a local warlord — and their spirits watched over the people,

Wether the number forty is meant to be taken literally, or simply as a synoym for «many» or «numerous» — tribes and clans in Kyrgyzstan have retained much of their importance. The Kyrgyz in Afghanistan still practice an ancient form of local government, (recognized by the former Afghan government before the days of the Taliban), in which the Khan exerts influence and rules his people as if in a private feudal kingdom. In elections held in 2001, many observers noted that people tended to vote along clan lines — rather than according to party. Even in simple things, in relationships and business affairs, in everday life — there is a reliance on helping «kith and kin».

In the museum in Osh, there is an interesting exhibit — a map dating from 1953 that shows the different Kyrgyz tribes and clans. Although in modern society there is much more mobility than in the past, there are distinct geographical distribution between the various clans. In the North are the Tagai, (which includes the Bugu — the largest clan; the Sary Bagysh clan from which President Akaev hails and the Solto from around Bishkek) and in the South the Ich Kilik (which includes the Adigine from the Osh region). The Central and Naryn regions contain other clans (such as the Sayak — some claim that these are amongst the most ethnically pure Kyrgyz as they hail from a remote region) and today the term Kara Kyrgyz («Black Kyrgyz») is sometimes used to refer to the various clans from the border areas with China and Tajikistan.

Also, in Orgochor — a small village on the road leading from Karakolround the Southern side of Lake Issyk Kul, there is a small museum with a collection relating to clan ties and local family trees.

The Northern clans are basically more Russified, whilst those in the South are more observant Muslims. There are distinct dialects and other cultural differences — a trained eye can tell from the patterning of a Shyrdak, or a bridle, if it was made in Issyk Kul, At Bashi or Osh. Horses were branded with clan marks — for example: a crescent for the Solto or an adze for the Sayak.