Abstract

A group of people, who have been trying to promote and practice Tengrism since the independence of Kyrgyzstan, are marginalized due to their attempts to maintain their national and religious identity. The proponents of Tengrism have been trying to revive and revitalize Tengrism in a new, modified way, and they are divided into several groups, depending on their concepts of Tengrism. Since there is not much information about Tengrism, its rituals, practices, etc., people follow and adopt different concepts and practices. Overall, the concept and practices are vague, even among practitioners and supporters, leading to different debates and discussions. People who practice Tengrism have a small community, which is divided into several subgroups based on their shared ideas on Tengrism. They cannot come up with a general conceptualization and understanding of Tengrism. They understand Tengrism in different ways. This research will contribute to categorizing the conceptualization and practices of Tengrism in Kyrgyzstan. The main purpose of the research is to find out their understanding and perception of Tengrism and analyze why different groups understand and interpret Tengrism in different way and they cannot come up with a general perception of Tengrism. The research is focused on the community of Tengrism with ethnographic research methods to understand and analyze their perception of their worldview, with qualitative data collection. I chose ethnographic research methods to conduct an in-depth and detailed study of each subgroup of Tengrism and to provide a holistic understanding of their belief in general.