In-Person
Traditional Kazakh culture displays a richness of oral literature and musical performance, all of which is directly linked to the art of the Kazakh baqsy, who were originally pre-Islamic healers, poets, and sound artists. The place of the baqsy (healer) and of their offshoots the zhyrau (epic singer) and the küyshi (sound artist) remains central to Kazakh cultural identity to this day. The presentation covers the origins and role of these figures in Kazakh culture and examines the connections between them in the context of the world view of the ancient Turkic peoples and their modern Kazakh descendants.