Kyrgyz-Chinese Ties in the Tang Era and Their Reflection in the Epic of "Manas"

УДК 94(575.2)+94(510)+398.22 ББК 63.3(5Кир)+63.3(5Кит)4+83.014.1

Abstract

The article is devoted to topical issues of the early ethnic history of the Kyrgyz, which were covered in the Chinese chronicles of the Tang era. Historiographic data on the Kyrgyz of this period are compared with individual elements of the plot of the epic "Manas", the central theme of which is the forcible resettlement of Kyrgyz tribes from the Tien Shan and Ala-Too territories to Altai and the distant Northeastern lands. According to the epic storyline, after the birth of Manas in Altai and his election as a khan, the Kyrgyz conquered their ancestral territories from the ethnic opponents of the Kara-Kitai and Manchurians. The paper analyzes a specific situation in the epic memory of the Kyrgyz, connected with the fact that the epic "Manas" does not mention the Uighurs of the 8^th-9^th centuries of the "yaglakkar" clan, who received the name "iloge" in the Tang chronicles. But the prototype of the epic Manas was probably the real historical khan of the Kyrgyz of the beginning of the 9^th century, who was born in the Altai period, who managed to achieve independence and the strengthening of the Kyrgyz on the territory of Altai and defeated the capital of the Uyghur Kaganate, Orda Balyk. According to the author, in the name of the epic enemy of the Kyrgyz, Khan Alooke, echoes of the medieval period of history have been preserved. Key words: ethnogenesis of the ancient Kyrgyz, histori-cism of the Manas epic, Yenisei Kyrgyz, Kyrgyz in the Tien Shan, Chinese chronicles of the Tang era, Uyghur kaga-nate, Kyrgyz kaganate, epic memory, historical prototype of the Manas.