Figure 1. Rysbek Jumabaev, Kyrgyz epic teller.

This essay explores my field experience researching the Kyrgyz epic Manas through the prism of creative documentary. As a researcher and filmmaker, I approach my field material from two complementary perspectives. Being a bearer of Kyrgyz culture and a representative of Western academia, I found it essential to highlight some aspects of contemporary epic performance art that are often overlooked in scholarly texts. This oversight occurs because written texts sometimes fail to fully capture the sensory experience of the epic performances. To address this, I employ creative short documentaries as a method of inquiry, which helps me understand the essence of modern epic storytellers. This approach allows me to convey the insights I've gained from my childhood experiences with epic storytellers in Kyrgyzstan through audiovisual images. Below, I detail my field experience and describe how I took a creative approach to researching my topic for the first time.  

Figure 2. Rysbek herding a flock of sheep.

The Manas epic is the largest example of the oral tradition of the Kyrgyz people, which is also considered the most voluminous epic in the world with over half a million song lines. The epic tells the story of the life and deeds of the Kyrgyz folk hero Manas, his son Semetey, and grandson Seitek. According to the epic, Manas united various nomadic tribes and created a nation. The trilogy describes Kyrgyz culture, customs, traditions, and ancient nomadic worldview. The epic is performed by specialized epic storytellers known as manaschy, without the accompaniment of musical instruments. The performance takes place in the form of recitation, with body movements, facial expressions, and hand gestures.

Figure 3. Rysbek herding a flock of sheep.

The epic storytellers specially receive initiation through the visionary dream into the sacred world of the epic, where the spirits of ancestors, including the spirit of the main hero Мanas, bless the future epic storyteller and give him the gift or power of manaschy (Levin 2019, Reichl 1992, 2016, Bakchiev 2017). In this way the epic is performed as a living, oral story that has a complex impact on contemporary listeners, shaping their sense of collective identity (Turner 2009). The manaschy acts as a link between the sacred world and the secular world, who is chosen by the ancestral spirits (Gennep 1960). Such storytelling art is also supported by the traditional “master-apprentice” school, in which the future manaschys learn from established master epic storytellers. Therefore, the manaschy of the epic has a special social and spiritual status in Kyrgyz society (Bakchiev 2017, Orozobekova 2014). Onordun tuu chokusu – manas aituu,this common expression in Kyrgyz culture, means that telling the epic Manas occupies the highest place among all folk arts. It is believed that storytelling is considered a complex art in which a person must have improvisatory talent, a bright timbre of voice, belonging to the line of apprenticeship and most importantly the gift that is given in dreams by the spiritual world of the epic.

Figure 4. Darkhan village where Rysbek lives.

This ethnographic research was conducted between 2019 and 2023 in the village of Darkhan, Kyrgyzstan, which is home to the renowned manaschy, Rysbek Jumabaev. Rysbek has dedicated over 40 years to the art of reciting the epic. He began his storytelling journey at the age of 10 and has since devoted his entire life to the mission of sharing the story of Manas with the community. Rysbek's life has been incredibly challenging. He emphasizes that the path of a manaschy is not an easy one and involves enduring a series of rigorous tests.

Figure 5. Rysbek performing the epic.

Although the path of a manaschy is not a financially lucrative one, Rysbek possesses a certain power and strength of the epic storyteller, which elevates and gives him a certain social position among his audience. Rysbek argues that a true manaschy must mesmerize his listener, take him into the world of the epic, give a true spiritual experience, and only then does the performance attain its highest value—namely the transformation of consciousness. In other words, Rysbek, like many chynygy or true manaschys, believes that the telling of an epic is done in order to create conditions for the generation of high spiritual experiences. Spiritual experience among local listeners is usually considered to be mental and physiological healing, visioning the future, and receiving blessings from the performance process itself.  The consequence of this experience is that each listener has their own individualized experience, depending on their inner preparation and intentions.

Figure 6. Lake Issyk-Kul.

In 2021, I began creating short documentaries. The COVID-19 pandemic brought the loss of many remarkable individuals I knew, including some of the few remaining guardians of traditional knowledge. Their passing deeply affected me, and I felt compelled to create a short film that honors these rare people, aiming to highlight their existence and inspire younger generations to engage with their work. By “guardians of traditional knowledge,” I refer to the epic storytellers, folk craftsmen, healers, herders, and others who are actively revitalizing local traditional knowledge in their lives. Since then, my primary tool for this ethnographic journey has been the video camera. This short film captures my experiences in reflective ethnography, as I sought to convey the atmosphere and rhythm of what I felt and understood during my fieldwork in a condensed format.

The following is a short description in order to show how my field experience took place, how I constructed the narrative through the chosen visuals and atmosphere, and why I did so. I set up a meeting with Rysbek to shoot an ethnographic film for late November 2021. I prefer to call this field trip an encounter. In general, November suited Rysbek’s character very well. Another season, such as summer, would probably not be quite in tune with the narrator’s inner world, as my film’s central figure is already of age and has a long life and professional experience, who is alone but not lonely, mostly silent, thoughtful—internally mature and having attained a certain level of spiritual development. I had to catch the perfect coincidence of circumstances to maximize the image of the manaschy, to show the details of his mood and look, which played an important role. Otherwise, the film would have lost its life-giving force. I rejected the format of strict documentary and excessive staged artistic play in advance. I chose a very short format because it provides complexity due to the time limitation, beyond which one can discover more space and freedom through creative search and compress field material to visual symbolisms in these short time frames.

Figure 7. Lake Issyk-Kul.

On the appointed day we arrived in the village of Rysbek, which is located on the southern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul. From the equipment we took the most minimal set, except for the camera tripod, camera microphone, small light, and reflector—for this shooting we needed maximum mobility, lightness, and speed. Besides, large equipment and a film crew of several people would spoil the atmosphere of our “confidential” encounter, in which I wanted to capture the moment of merging the epic storyteller with the sacred world of the epic. Rysbek met us cordially, and it felt like he had been waiting for us for a long time. We went straight into his house for evening tea. His house was old and simple, built of clay bricks during the Soviet era. The house was heated by a stove inside one of the rooms where he usually slept.

Figure 8. During the filming of the documentary.

I was an insider who had several brief and lengthy encounters with the manaschy before I began my visual ethnography. It was essential for me to navigate the multi-layered task of seeing as a filmmaker while also understanding as an ethnographer the broader context of what was happening.

Figure 9. During the filming of the documentary.

At times, I gained insights from the images captured by the camera, while at other times, my understanding came directly from my own observations. This duality provided me with a unique range of sensations and experiences that enriched my understanding of the material from multiple perspectives and angles.

Figure 10. Manaschy with his listeners.

As both an ethnographer and a filmmaker, I explore the moment of a manaschy’s transition from one state to another. I examine how this transition occurs and the circumstances surrounding it, all from my unique perspective. However, I also allow the audience the freedom to interpret the visuals in their own way.

Figure 11. Portrait of manaschy.

While I could simply describe this process in a straightforward text, doing so would diminish the poetry and symbolism of the moment—elements that are crucial for conveying the consciousness experienced during the telling of the epic here and now.

Bakchiev, Talantaaly. 2017. “Teoreticheskiy Podhod k Issledovaniu Skazitelskogo Isskustva Manaschy” [Theoretical Approach to the Study of Manaschi Storytelling Art.] Bulletin of M. K. Ammosov. North-Eastern Federal University: Series of Epic Studies, 1 (5): 5-19.

Gennep, Arnold van. 1960. The Rites of Passage. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 

Levin, Theodore Craig, and Valentina Süzükei. 2019. Where Rivers and Mountains Sing: Sound, Music, and Nomadism in Tuva and Beyond. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. 

Orozbekova, Jyldyz. 2003. “Manaschylyk Onordun Taryhyi Osup Onuguu Jolu” [Historical Development of the Manas Epic Storytelling.] PhD Dissertation, National Academy of Sciences. Bishkek: Biyiktik.

Reichl, Karl. 1992. Turkic Oral Epic Poetry: Traditions, Forms, Narrative Structure. New York: Garland.

Reichl, Karl. 2016. “Oral Epics into the Twenty-First Century: The Case of the Kyrgyz Epic Manas.” The Journal of American Folklore 129 (513): 327–44. 

Turner, Victor Witter, and Roger D. Abrahams. 2009. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. New York: Aldine Transaction.