Exile, Diaspora, and Agency in Inner Asian Folk Narratives

Research Questions and Goals Within my upcoming three blog posts, my aim is to present two narratives of exile present in folk oral traditions in Inner Asia. After discussing the Urkun in my previous post, I realized that I had largely forgotten the issue of individual agency within such significant historical circumstances. To rectify this […]

Continue reading


The Urkun and Kyrgyz-Russian Race Relations

On August 7th of this year, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of approximately 30 people gathered in Bishkek to commemorate the 104th anniversary of the Urkun with readings from the Quran.1 Despite the dangers currently associated with public gatherings, many people in Kyrgyzstan clearly feel a strong sense of importance in […]

Continue reading