The Role of Pilgrimage in the Formation of a Religious Identity (on the Basis of the Kazakh Culture)

Abstract

This paper discusses the role of pilgrimage in the modern Kazakh culture. Studies of the individual religious experience of modern Kazakhs allow researchers to distinguish at least two basic points of view on the tradition of making pilgrimages to sacral places. Thus, representatives of official Islamic institutions often condemn the practice of pilgrimage, wheras common people see no contradiction between the tradition of visiting holy places and the norms of Islam. Moreover, they consider themselves ‘true Muslims’ while admitting the specificity of Islam in Kazakhstan and referring to the long-standing custom of ancestors. The inclusion of the ‘new’ objects of pilgrimage related to the names of national heroes into the general context of the worshiped objects suggests that the traditional notions of sanctity remain still topical at present and form the religious consciousness of the modern Kazakhs. The cult of saints is officially recognized as part of the national culture and constitutes, along with other ethnical and historical symbols of the present-day Kazakhstan, a particular direction of the state cultural politics. The positioning of religious objects in the historical context allows for a compromise of its kind between the views of those who stand up for the Islamization of the ritual sphere and the traditionalists fighting for the preservation of the ethnic specifics of the Kazakh culture. On the basis of the conducted research, the author concludes that, notwithstanding the official prohibitions and disapproval of pilgrimage by the adherents of the Islamization of the Kazakh culture, pilgrimage remains an integral part of the modern religious life of Kazakhstan and has distinct links with the national and religious identity.

Keywords:

Islam, pilgrimage, individual religious experience, religious identity, Kazakhstan, Central Asia