After Manas, My Kyrgyz, Your Chingiz

J A N U A R Y F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 9 6 After Manas, My Kyrgyz, Your Chingiz Written by Alva Robinson Photographed by Seitek Moldokasymov 14 Orientalism’s Equestrian Eye Written by Lucien de Guise Schooled in Russian literature and steeped in Kyrgyz nomadic oral traditions—especially the 1,000-year-old hero-epic Manas—Chingiz Aitmatov was also seared by Stalinist purges that took his father’s life and threatened the very foundations of Kyrgyz culture. Through more than 30 literary works, translated into more than 170 languages, as well as films and theater, he became credited with raising the profile of his country and, with it, the cause of cultural preservation throughout Central Asia and even—by the 1990s—independence. To his country, which designated 2018 “The Year of Chingiz Aitmatov,” he remains Chingiz ata (respected father). Online CLASSROOM GUIDE Orientalist artists—generally 19th-century European and American painters of Arabworld subjects—are often criticized for stereotyping. But one subject they painted with fidelity continues to win universal respect: horses. 2 FIRSTLOOK 4 FLAVORS We distribute AramcoWorld in print and online to increase cross-cultural understanding by broadening knowledge of the histories, cultures and geography of the Arab and Muslim worlds and their global connections. aramcoworld.com January/February 2019 Vol. 70, No. 1 Front Cover: In Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan, the desk of Chingiz Aitmatov stands on display at the Aitmatov House Museum. Photo courtesy of the Aitmatov International Foundation. Back Cover: This pair of Syro-Phoenician ivory panels, whose original purpose is unknown, were among hundreds “of considerable beauty and interest” discovered by British archeologist Austen Henry Layard in the 1840s at Nimrud, near modern Mosul, Iraq. Photo by Arthur P. Clark. 14: THE WALLACE COLLECTION (DETAIL); 20: TOM VERDE; 26: BRIDGEMAN IMAGES; 34: LISZT COLLECTION / BRIDGEMAN IMAGES (TOP); IVY CLOSE IMAGES / ALAMY (LOWER) 20 Cairo’s House of Knowledge 26 Written by Tom Verde Some were found at the bottoms of wells. Some were scattered about palace rooms. Thousands of exquisitely carved works of ivory, all produced nearly 3,000 years ago in and around what is now Iraq, make up one of the most beautiful and enigmatic legacies of Assyria. Written by Graham Chandler Shortly after the founding of Cairo, Egypt, in 969 CE, its ruler started a research center whose legacies—particularly in optics and astronomy—helped shape the world we know today. 38 REVIEWS Affairs: Abdulrahman A. Bayounis | | | President and | CEO: | | | David Dorr’s Window East Written by Matthew Teller Like other “Grand Tour” travelers of the 1850s, David Dorr visited Europe, Egypt and Palestine. But unlike others, Dorr did not travel freely. His book, A Colored Man Round the World, is the only known account of travel to the Middle East by an American slave. | | Director, Public Assistant Editors: Arthur P. Clark, Alva Circulation: Melissa Altman Print Design: Graphic Engine Design Studio Design: eSiteful Corporation Basil A. Abul-Hamayel Editor: Richard Doughty Digital Media Editor: Johnny Hanson Marilyn Radler 34 40 EXHIBITIONS Publisher: Aramco Services Company Robinson The Age of Ivory | Administration: Printer: RR Donnelley / Wetmore | Web Tablet Design and Mobile App: Herring Design Subscriptions: www.aramcoworld.com | Editorial: editor@aramcoservices.com Mail: AramcoWorld, Post Office Box 2106, Houston, Texas 77252-2106 USA ISSN :1530-5821 Saudi Aramco and Aramco are trademarks of the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, a leading, globally integrated energy and chemicals company. After Manas, My Kyrgyz, Your Chingiz W R I T T E N BY A LVA R O B I N S O N P H O T O G R A P H E D BY S E I T E K M O L D O K A S Y M OV The path to the universe starts from the village. In Kyrgyzstan’s northwestern province of Talas, bordering Kazakhstan, lies a village along an unpaved road. At its entrance a sign reads in Kyrgyz: “The path to the universe starts from the village.” Just above it appears a silhouette portrait of its famous native son and author of the saying. Adjacent to it, an oversized inkwell and quill pen welcome visitors to Sheker, “the village of Chingiz.” Known among Central Asian Turks as Chingiz ata (respected father), Chingiz Aitmatov was a literary giant who published more than 30 works that have been translated into more than 170 languages. A cultural icon who raised the global profile of his country, he was also a diplomat who helped usher in a new era of independence. From his hometown of Sheker, two mountains tower within view. The taller, sharper one the Kyrgyz honor with the name Manas Ata, after the Kyrgyz hero who lived more than a millennium ago. Locals say Manas used to ride horseback up that mountain and, from its peak, survey the area for approaching enemies. “I am always excited when, approaching Sheker, I see the blue-white snows of the Manas sparkling with patches of sunlight at that inaccessible height,” Aitmatov wrote in 1975 of his early life experiences. “If you cut yourself off from 6 AramcoWorld Viewed from Sheker, hometown to Chingiz Aitmatov, the peak of Manas Ata, right, rises 4,483 meters in the Alatoo range of the Tien Shan Mountains, separating Kyrgyzstan from its neighbor to the north, Kazakhstan. It is named for the Kyrgyz hero Manas, who is said to have united the 40 Kyrgyz tribes a millennium ago. everything and gaze for a time at this mountaintop, into the sky, then time loses its meaning.” Cascading from the mountain, the Kürküröö River, “a white-foamed pale blue,” surges through fields in the broad, flat valley, feeding life into flora and fauna. “At midnight, I would awaken in the tent from the river’s terrible heaving and see the stars of the blue, calm night peeping,” Aitmatov wrote. Locals say Sheker proclaims itself at the Kürküröö’s headwaters. The river, they say, interweaves the natural world and a thousand years of history that is expressed through oral lore—poetry, songs, speeches, folktales and proverbs—all legacies of nomadic heritage. “The legacy of folk wisdom, so too the bridging together of generations” depend on such oral traditions, Aitmatov explained. “Elders used to sternly ask young boys to recite the names of their seven forefathers,” he continued. In this way, each generation became “compelled to remember and not diminish the integrity of those who have lived and passed before us.” Tracing his own ancestral line, Aitmatov paid homage to his own: “My father, Törökul; Törökul’s father, Aitmat; Aitmat’s father, Kimbildi; Kimbildi’s father, Konchujok—as far back as Sheker himself.” Törökul, who was born in 1903, grew up schooled in Muslim maktabs and studied Russian. In October 1917, eleven years before Aitmatov was born, the Bolshevik Revolution erupted in Moscow. “The Bolshevik appeal was infectious,” writes Jeff Lilley, author of the recent biography on the late author, Have the Mountains Fallen? Having endured colonialization under Russian tsars, Kyrgyz tribes, like others in the vast region, “believed they had been quite literally saved from extinction,” Lilley continues. Törökul demonstrated energy for the changes the revolution appeared to promise. Moscow relished such young enthusiasts who over the next decade paved the way for newspapers, schools, theaters and clubs of various sorts, all “positive contributions of Soviet communism,” Lilley adds. In 1928 Törökul’s wife, Nagima, bore Chingiz, the first of what would be four children. By that time the land reforms known as collectivization had begun to threaten the very existence of nomadic life, including that of the Kyrgyz, whose history, nature and livelihood depended on their relationship to the land. Törökul, who believed in the egalitarian ideals of the revolution, aided the transition to the new economy. Higher-ups took notice and in 1934 appointed him second secretary of the Kirghiz Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Father, I know not where you lie buried, therefore, I dedicate this to you. —Mother Earth (1963) Yet politics followed him. Party officials soon labeled Törökul, too, an “enemy of the people.” He implored Nagima to save herself and the children by going back to Sheker, where they could take refuge in the mountains. Nagima was at a loss. According to 81-year-old Roza Aitmatov, Chingiz’s youngest sister, Törökul tried to reassure Nagima. “First, I’m not guilty. Second, I am well-enough known to the Kyrgyz,” he said, and he promised Nagima he would join them as soon as the situation calmed. The next day Törökul watched as they boarded the train. Chingiz, then just eight years old, “never forgot the look in his eyes,” says Eldar Aitmatov, the youngest of Chingiz’s three sons and president of the Chingiz Aitmatov International Foundation, based in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. “When the train moved, his father ran till the last moment, until he could run no more. That was the most tragic moment in [Chingiz’s] life.” Törökul was arrested on December 1, 1937. He joined more than 12 million across the Soviet Union—936,750 in Kirghizia alone—who were persecuted that year. It would not be until 20 years later that Nagima would receive an official notice of her husband’s execution on November 5, 1938, and his posthumous rehabilitation. But Nagima had “lived through the course of many long years with transparently deceptive hopes that Törökul would return.… My poor Mama—what did she not go through!” Aitmatov wrote. It would be decades until, in 1991, a tip led officials to an undiscovered mass grave on the outskirts of what is now AZAMAT SADYKOV Not long afterward, in Moscow, Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin and the Council of People’s Commissars (the heads of each republic) began attacks on “enemies of the people”—mostly landowners, merchants, nobles, business owners, clergy, monks, members of the political opposition and their kin. Törökul began expressing his doubts, calling people who had been arrested “true patriots of their people.” His record of accomplishment prevented party leaders from doing more than removing him from his post and sent him, with his family—by then including Chingiz’s younger siblings Ilgiz and Lyutsia—to Moscow, to pursue higher education, outside of politics. On the outskirts of Sheker, “the village of Chingiz,” a welcome sign pays homage to its most famous son, who passed away a decade ago at age 79. At its base, words of the writer remind visitors that “the path to the universe starts from the village.” January/February 2019 7 Right: Roza Aitmatov, 81, and youngest sister of Chingiz Aitmatov, discusses family history with Gulnara Jamasheva of the Kyrgyz Academy of Sciences in a room of the Frunze Restaurant in Bishkek recently dedicated to the late author. In 2007 Roza published Tarïxïtïn aktay baraktarï (The white pages of history), detailing the tragedy that befell her father, Törökul Aitmatov, top left, during the Stalinist purges, a history also shown far right at the museum of Ata Beyit (Graves of Our Fathers). Above, center: Nagima Aitmatov, mother of Chingiz and Roza, who for two decades, "lived ... with transparently deceptive hopes that Törökul would return." Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan and then called Frunze. In it lay 137 victims. Found inside the shirt pocket of one, a letter of condemnation riddled with three bullet holes; on it the name Törökul Aitmatov. Trains in these parts went from east to west, and from west to east. —The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years (1980) On August 31, 1937, after five days of travel from Moscow, Nagima and the children arrived at Maimak Station in Sheker, the very stretch of railway Nagima’s husband and father-inlaw helped construct nearly three decades before. Roza, who was born only months before the family’s departure from Moscow, recalls their story. “Nagima carried one of the girls, leading the second daughter, with her sons barely carrying the luggage,” she says. As kin to an accused “enemy of the state,” the family was a social pariah. In Sheker, Törökul’s mother, Ayïmkan apa (respected mother) and his sister, Aunt Karagïz, became their support. They were “like one and the same grandmother in two persons, the old and the young,” Aitmatov wrote in appreciation. Roza calls Ayïmkan apa the “fountain well of all motivation,” the one who introduced young Chingiz to Kyrgyz nomadic culture. Although it was traditional for the eldest boys to spend their formative years living with their grandparents, Törökul and Nagima had insisted on modern schooling, 8 AramcoWorld so in summers Ayïmkan apa took Chingiz to the jailoo (summer pastures). From there, she taught her grandson to dress in chapans (traditional robes), drink kymys (fermented horse milk), ride horses, and listen to Manaschis, reciters of the epic Manas. “I saw real nomad camping, which disappeared when life became settled … an exhibition of the best harnesses, finest adornments, best riding horses … performances of improvising women singers,” Aitmatov detailed in a 1972 autobiography. Aitmatov credits Ayïmkan apa for his love for his first language, Kyrgyz, and the richness of nomadic literary heritage. Among the children in Sheker, she became a “treasure house of fairy tales, old songs and all kinds of true and invented stories,” Aitmatov wrote. Aunt Karagïz, like her mother, was also a storyteller, and even after exhausting all her tales, she turned to dreams to entertain the children. Aitmatov was so fond of her stories that when she napped for even a few minutes, he would wake her and entreat her to describe what she had seen. Together with her husband, Aunt Karagïz “shared with us everything they had—bread, fuel, potatoes and even warm clothes,” Aitmatov wrote. More importantly, she taught the TOP AND OPPOSITE, TOP LEFT AND CENTER: AITMATOV HOUSE FOUNDATION children never to shy from menThough I may use tioning their father’s name, “withthe pen as a sword, out lowering our heads, looking I will never abandon straight into people’s eyes.” the pen for the sword. Within a couple of years, —Ode to the Grand Spirit World War II broke out. Prisoners (2008) of the state and large numbers of Central Asians were among Aitmatov tried his hand at transthe first sent to the front lines. lating and authoring short artiIn 1941 German forces invaded cles, and in 1952, he wrote short Soviet territory, and Aitmatov stories for various Russian recalled witnessing “soldiers newspapers. Lilley calls these marching to war … the women forays into writing “formulaic, who sobbed and whispered portraying progressive changes something when the men’s names under communism, such as the were called out; the farewells at mechanization of agriculture railway stations.” and the rise of a communistThe war consumed everyinspired generation.” body. Those left behind toiled That same year, Soviet paron the land. Mules and oxen tisans began a cultural offenwere “driven by boys and solsive against the Kyrgyz’s diers’ wives, black with sunburn, central oral epic of Manas, wearing faded clothes, their bare claiming it countered the feet calloused from the stony tenets of socialist realism. Aitmatov's more than 50 years as a writer, diplomat and roads,” he wrote. Aunt Karagïz It was part of a broad camhumanitarian were shaped by the death of his father, openly cursed Stalin for dragging paign to Sovietize Turkic peoTörökul, who once cautioned a fellow political prisoner about his son: Chingiz is “a very sensitive and responsive the country to war, and for the ples throughout Central Asia lad—especially to unfairness in life.” first time Aitmatov, saw beyond by eliminating national heroic youthful imagination. “Poverty epics. In the Caucasus, Azeand hunger in our midst, how all our produce and manpower ris suffered attacks on their hero, Dede Korkut; Kazakhs, were being fed into the war,” he wrote. Koblandi Batir; the Nogais, Er-Sain; Turkmens, Korkut Ata; Impoverished and with few prospects for further study, Uzbeks, Alpamïsh, and more. Each epic became accused of Aitmatov quit school and found work as the village secre“religious fanaticism” and “brutal hatred,” writes cultural tary. He soon also served other positions: teacher, tax colanthropologist Nienke van der Heide of Leiden University. lector, accounting clerk and wartime courier. The last role Supporters across the USSR, however, responded in swift weighed heavily on the teenager. Almost daily he carried news defense of Manas. Party officials forced a conference of to families of the deaths of husbands, fathers and sons. These some 300 scholars to convene at the Academy of Sciences announcements used to be given “with due dignity by whiteof Kirghizia, in Frunze. bearded aksakals [elders],” he wrote, but now it devastated Eldar Aitmatov, 39 and the youngest son of Chingiz Aitmatov, Aitmatov each time he had to bear witness to “the sorrow of reflects on his father at the Chingiz Aitmatov House Museum in people dear to me.” Bishkek, where he serves as director. The museum, which opened in 2014, conserves the late author’s manuscripts, photographs, Such experiences ultimately forged his literary career. His awards and other personal belongings. first novella, Face to Face, which he published at age 29, in 1957, tells a story about the moral regression of a wartime deserter. Though some Kyrgyz deemed it an affront to their national reputation, Aitmatov stood by the work “as a truthful interpretation of the situation … between two authorities: the government and the individual.” Yet writing did not come at once after the war. In 1947, Aitmatov enrolled at the Dzhambul Animal Veterinary Technical School in Kazakhstan. Afterward, he moved to Frunze to work at the Kirghizian Scientific Research Institute of Agriculture, where he wrote two scientific articles. Proximity to the natural world by way of nomadic upbringing and these years studying animal husbandry also influenced his writings, which tended to explore symbiotic relationships between humans and animals. January/February 2019 9 Left: In October 1986 Aitmatov convened 18 influential friends from around the world to meet Soviet Politboro General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev for what became the Issyk-Kul Forum, during which informal discussions focused on global challenges of ecology, peace and cultural understanding. Center : Aitmatov, at right, with Gorbachev, for whom Aitmatov was both a friend and advisor. Lower: After his 1958 novella Jamila was smuggled out of the Soviet Union and translated into French, Aitmatov became a global figure known for his broad humanitarianism and defense of local cultures. The hall “was packed to the brim,” Aitmatov recalled. “People hung from the door handles, even standing in the street to hear something.” From the doorway, Aitmatov peered in. Sitting at the stage next to the first secretary of the Committee Central was Mukhtar Auezov, a Kazakh historian well regarded for his research on Manas. One by one, speakers assailed the heritage epic. “Privileged” and “pan-Turkism” they charged. “It seemed that at any moment we were going to lose our beloved epic,” 10 AramcoWorld Aitmatov lamented. Then Auezov rose from his seat, and he fearlessly defended Manas for nothing less than its intense cultural power. “To take this epic away from the life of its people is like cutting out the tongue of our whole folk,” Auezov said, according to Aitmatov. Hundreds of Kyrgyz, overcome by the courage of one man from Kazakhstan speaking out to save their cultural treasure, erupted in applause. The event left a lasting impression on Aitmatov to carry on the same struggle to preserve Manas and, with it, the cultural dignity of his people. Thirty years later he would serve as chief editor of his country’s first printed edition of the Manas recitation, based on recordings made by Auezov. By 1953, with the death of Stalin, Aitmatov’s attitude toward him and the system became more critical. Joseph Mozur, author of Parables from the Past: The Prose Fiction of Chingiz Aitmatov, notes, “Although Stalin was ultimately responsible for the deaths of his father and uncles,” Aitmatov struggled with that truth. The same year Aitmatov published his first literary work in Kyrgyz, “Ak Jaan” (White rain). His ability to compose in both Russian and Kyrgyz was a credit to his parents’ dedication to nurturing bilingualism. Years later Aitmatov would admit that writing first in Russian was “in my interests to do so; books get published and disseminated faster.” In 1956, with the ascent of First Secretary Nikita Kruschev and de-Stalinization, Aitmatov formally joined the Communist Party, which, along with his first steps in writing, paved the way for a welcomed membership into the Writer’s Union of the USSR and his enrollment at the Gorky Literary Institute in Moscow. Over the next two years, Aitmatov expanded his knowledge of other literary traditions and refined his skills in original literature. The same year he graduated, he also published what became his most remembered novella, Jamila, a love story that captures the tragedy of war. The book so moved French poet Louis Aragon that he sneaked it back home to translate it into French, thus giving Aitmatov his first international audience. The work catapulted Aitmatov into so much popularity that by 1960 Uzbekistan National Writer Muhammad Ali Akhmedov remembered, “We students from Central Asia, of course, would not leave his side for a moment.” Aitmatov followed up his success in 1963 with a compilation of stories in Tales of the Mountains and Steppes, which included Jamila, in addition to Duishen and Farewell, Gyulsary! The former, with its focus on the struggle TOP AND OPPOSITE (3): AITMATOV HOUSE FOUNDATION around a reunion between tradition of four classmates, and progress, was their wives and adapted to film a former schoola few years later, teacher. One by thus introducing one, through recolAitmatov to cinlections, they grapematic audiences ple with the shame and paving the of having turned way for a career their backs against as a movie proa friend who had ducer and screenattempted to defy writer that culStalin. minated with the Two years later, Berlinale Camera A shelf at the Chingiz Aimatov House Museum holds a collection of the author’s more in 1975, through a award at the Berthan 30 works, which have been translated into more than 170 languages. cultural-exchange lin International program sponsored Film Festival in by the US Department of State, The Ascent of Mount Fuji 1996. The latter story, however, reproaches the Soviet system for the spiritual degradation of its people, and its endopened in Washington, D.C. The New York Times lauded ing challenges readers to question unfulfilled promises: “Had Aitmatov as “unquestionably on the side of the angels.” The he not done what he had for the sake of the collective farm? Washington Post praised the play’s universality as “quite But had it actually been necessary?” a revelation,” with characters “all too familiar.” The play Aitmatov received his greatest acclaim for the compilation continued to garner attention in the US, and by 1978, PBS when, in 1963, he became the second recipient from Central Asia aired a live performance. to win the Lenin State Prize in Literature, after Auezov. “Dignity The play’s US debut also coincided with a Soviet-sponwas restored to the Aitmatov family,” he recalled. Other Kyrsored, 25-day, multicity tour of the US, with Aitmatov playgyz, meanwhile, felt “the Kirghizian folk have once again shown, ing the role of the USSR’s special envoy. The trip ended with a through Chingiz, that we are a worthy people.” A resulting televised viewing of the joint Soyuz-Apollo mission alongside trip to Europe proved “the author had suddenly become a US novelist Kurt Vonnegut. The two did not share the same non-Russian writer of all-union stature,” asserts Mozur. views: Aitmatov emphasized the “very important aspect of In 1970 Aitmatov published The White Ship, a story the moral and ethical relations between our two countries,” infused with Kyrgyz oral literary traditions that dramatizes and Vonnegut tied the event to ideas of “adversaries” and the brutality of a society without a moral compass. The sui“greater strength.” Aitmatov cautioned his fellow writer, “If cide of its seven-year-old protagonist, who refuses to particone is to seek a source of strength in confrontation alone, ipate in society’s decay, so rattled Soviet critics for its lack one should maintain a boxing stance all the time.” of an optimistic endYears later Aitmaing that they censored tov would recall the the work and forced episode with Tajikia rewrite. Aitmatov stan National Writer KAZAKHSTAN argued, “Through the Akbar Turson: “I Almaty death of the hero … the really wanted, before spiritual moral superia multimillion-person Dzhambul ority remains.… Such audience, to think Karakol Lake Issyk-Kul is the power of artistic aloud about the most Bishkek conception.” monstrous of crises Sheker The reproach hardly against man: incitKYRGYZSTAN impeded Aitmatov’s ing hatred between success. Three years nations.” Jalal-Abad later in Moscow, AitFive years later UZBEKISTAN matov debuted his first Aitmatov published play, The Ascent of his first full-fledged Osh Mount Fuji, “the most novel, The Day Lasts provocative and talkedMore than a Hundred CHINA about drama in MosYears. Its themes capcow,” The New York tures the spiritual Times wrote. Set in bonds connecting TAJIKISTAN 1942, the play revolves human memory to January/February 2019 11 Soviet Politburo General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. The Issyk-Kul Forum, as they called it, was a discussion of ways to prevent a nuclear war, spearhead an ecological campaign and present “national and global aspects of cultures in present-day conflicts,” Aitmatov wrote. Gorbachev, who viewed Aitmatov as both a friend and advisor, addressed the participants and called its declaration “a tremendous document confirming the results of the new way of thinking.” He further praised its significance and vowed to pursue a system “using openness and democracy”—one of his first articulations of what became his signature policies of glasnost and perestroika, or openness and reconstruction. With this, Aitmatov used his platform on behalf of other fellow Central Asians. In one notable instance in 1989, certain elites from On December 12, 2017, on the 89th anniversary of Aitmatov’s birthday, Kyrgyzstan Uzbekistan ignited national outrage after falannounced 2018 as “The Year of Chingiz Aitmatov.” Displays like this one, in Bishsifying cotton production numbers, with the kek, the capital, decorated streets, halls and other public places to commemorate the 90th anniversary of his birth and to honor his legacy. result that Russians turned on both Uzbeks and other Central Asians. Aitmatov responded by criticizing the condemnation of Uzbeks, as they were the universalism. Through metaphor based on the legendary Turkic ones “most adversely affected by corruption.” So thankful mankurt—one who is forced to forget his identity—the novel were the Uzbeks for his loyalty that Islom Karimov, the late also sheds light on the consequences of Stalinism and Soviet president of Uzbekistan, appointed him as the first president thought control. He continued to inspire readers to question, of a Central Asian Turkic union. reason and hold onto faith: “We are drawn there by the thirst During the same period in 1989, the Congress of People’s for knowledge and by Man’s ancient dream of finding other Deputies singled out Aitmatov from as many as 2,500 memintelligent beings in other worlds.” bers to “place the Soviet leader’s name in nomination of Aitmatov’s next major work, The Place of the Skull, pubChairman of the USSR Supreme Soviet,” says political scienlished in 1986, became a cult sensation across the USSR. The story unfolds in two separate plots, raising concerns about tist Eugene Huskey of Stetson University in Florida. Then, ecological threats on the one hand and campaigns against reli- upon the establishment of the Congress, in front of millions gion on the other. One of its proof television viewers, Aitmatov tagonists, Avdii Kallistratov, is a the societies of Sweden, After independence in 1991, declared monk-turned-journalist, and through Norway, Finland, Spain and the him, Aitmatov demonstrates the forhe declined suggestions he Netherlands “something we [Soviets] titude of belief and the spirit of good can only dream about.” Despite should serve as president. over evil. The work was a first on such statements—or perhaps many levels: For starters, Kallistrabecause of them—in February 1990 tov is unlike any of Aitmatov’s other heroes. He is both RusGorbachev appointed Aitmatov as a part of a 10-member sian and Christian, neither Kyrgyz nor Kazakh; yet the story Presidential Council. manages to incorporate both Central Asian and Islamic alleGlasnost and perestroika, however, had unintended ramgories. It is also notable for being the book that capitalized— ifications. Nationalistic sentiment flared into rage, which for the first time in Soviet history—the word God. Finally, the grew into interethnic conflict. One of the most violent epistory brought to the forefront the issue of drug abuse—heresodes occurred between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in June 1990 in tofore an unspoken problem in the Soviet Union. Kyrgystan’s southern city of Osh. Aitmatov immediately flew The work drew much criticism, to which Aitmatov counfrom Moscow to calm both sides and remind them of their tered that his critics kept “a blind eye to all that came before common heritage. “We are fraternal nations. Our roots are in human culture … [and] religious teachings.” the same, they are joined in our Turkic family,” he said. For Four months after the book’s publication, in October this, many Uzbeks still credit Aitmatov for having helped to 1986, Aitmatov initiated a meeting in Kirghizia’s northeaststop the conflict, says his son, Eldar. ern province of Issyk-Kul among 18 creative figures includGlasnost and perestroika also took much of the blame ing American playwright Arthur Miller, French Nobel Laurefor the eventual downfall of the Soviet Union, but Aitmatov ate Claude Simon, English actor and writer Peter Ustinov, and praised its outcome. “For the West this period signified the end 12 AramcoWorld AITMATOV HOUSE FOUNDATION; OPPOSITE: AZAMAT SADYKOV of the Cold War and the reunification of Germany; for the USSR it meant the division without bloodshed of the Soviet imperium into independence,” Aitmatov said. Even before the Soviet breakup, however, Aitmatov had tired of political life. He yearned for the time to write again, and Gorbachev appointed him ambassador to Luxembourg. This marked the beginning of his official diplomatic career for the Soviet Union, then for Russia and, finally, for Kyrgyzstan, which became independent in 1991. Although many Kyrgyz encouraged him to become president, he declined. Many, Eldar says, felt that with his time away in Europe, “he left them.” Aitmatov, however, understood that his role for his people was to continue telling his truth through his writing. His next book, The Mark of Cassandra, focuses on space travel and cloning. It was published in 1995, the same year he began serving as an in-absentia member of Kyrgyzstan’s parliament. In 2008 Aitmatov published his last work, Toolor An architectural rendering shows the future home of the Chingiz Kulaganda (When the mountains collapse). At the same Aitmatov International Foundation, for which his son Eldar serves as time, other Turkic nations nominated him for the Nobel president. An internationally supported project, the center will include a school, a museum, and most importantly, it will also “keep alive Peace Prize. In May of that year, while in Tataristan, Russia, he suddenly fell critically ill. Gorbachev arranged Aitmatov’s philosophy,” Eldar says. for Eldar to accompany his father to Germany for treatment. Eldar recalls that from the airport en route to the hosorganized his 75th-birthday celebration, and when he was pital, the paramedics recognized Aitmatov. “They knew him. leaving his post in Belgium, it was the Kazakh Embassy who They knew exactly his works,” Eldar says. Aitmatov passed made the main event.” Now seven nations, including Luxaway nearly a month later, on June 10, 2018, at age 79. embourg, have commemorated him by naming major thoroughfares in his honor. Eldar, too, has taken it upon himself to carry the mantle of his father’s message. With plans for the Chingiz Aitmatov A person does not die while he is remembered. International Foundation to open an internationally funded —Farewell, Gyulsary! (1963) state-of-the-art cultural center in Bishkek that will include a school and museum, Eldar’s goal is to connect the next generOn December 12, 2017, on the 89th anniversary of Aitmatov’s ation with his father. birth, Kyrgyzstan announced 2018 “The Year of Chingiz Ait“He belongs to every Kyrgyz, and every Kyrgyz should matov.” This, Eldar maintains, represented a national opportuknow him,” says Eldar. nity after a decade of political and economic instability. “Time has passed, [and] people look at it differently now—from a different perspective, and now they really understand whom they Alva Robinson is an assistant editor at AramcoWorld. He holds a master’s degree in Turkic Literary Studies from the lost.” The celebrations involved every region of the country. University of Washington, and he taught English for four “Even the medical college is doing some events—people not years at International Alatoo University in Bishkek, Kyreven linked to literature or culture,” says Eldar. gystan. He is also the founding editor of the Journal of CenOne Kyrgyz writer once declared Aitmatov “an outstandtral and Inner Asian Dialogue. Seitek Moldokasymov is a freelance photographer based in Kyrgyzstan who specialing author of the 20th century thanks to his truthful depiction izes in nature and landscape. His work has been published of Kyrgyz life as it evolved under socialist conditions.” Aitmain tourism-related websites, calendars and periodicals. This tov’s message, however, was not only for his Kyrgyz. “Aitmais his second contribution to AramcoWorld. tov’s highest calling was and will forever be as Kyrgyzstan’s cultural ambassador to the world,” says Huskey. Indeed, this Acknowledgment The author is grateful to Azamat Sadykov, translator and degree cansentiment is shared by the Kyrgyz, too, as shown in a 2008 didate in marketing and communications, for his professional contributribute by Kyrgyz poet-singer Elmirbek Imanliev to the late tions in planning, interpretation and transcription. author: “After Manas, My Kyrgyz, / Your Chingiz was your pride. / We used to say he was a world saga.” Related articles at aramcoworld.com Aitmatov was a cultural bridge to unity for all of Central Snow leopards: J/F18 Asia—and for everyone beyond affected by the hardships Kyrgyz cinema: S/O16 of the 20th century. “They all considered him their own, a Manas: M/J 97 part of their culture,” Eldar says. “It was the Russians who Kygyzstan: J/A 95 January/February 2019 13