Aigine’s mission:

• Study and preservation of natural and cultural legacy and diversity in Kyrgyzstan;
• Investigate unknown aspects of cultural and natural phenomena;
• Seek points of rapprochement and interconnection among esoteric knowledge and science, nature and culture, traditions and innovations, West and East, and other experiences often seen as oppositions.

The strategic goal of the Aigine research centre is to use traditional knowledge for the spiritual, economic and social development of Kyrgyzstan.

Since its first activities, the Aigine cultural research centre has sought to bring people together not on the basis of formal criteria (education or social status), but on the basis of their spiritual experience and knowledge.  This principle allows to form new social connections and collaborations.  The goal in forging such new linkages and groups is the search for methods of improving life, and for identifying sources for spiritual, economic and social development.

Aigine does not idealize traditionalism or romanticize it, but rather seeks to find within it the potential for improving life for the better.  Aigine contends that it is precisely in the inter-connections and inter-dependencies of the traditional and non-traditional, the material and the immaterial, science and religion, east and west that enormous potential for transformative change is contained.  For this reason, fundamental to our organization’s mission is the development of collaborations between spheres that are typically regarded as oppositional or even mutually exclusive.

Spheres of activities

The focus and directions of Aigine’s activities follow from its mission:

• Participatory action research
• Education
• Protection and maintenance of cultural and biological diversity

Participatory action research

The key approach consists of research oriented towards solving problems, collaboration with and backing up of holders of traditional knowledge.

The research activities of Aigine are based on the principles of anthropology and participatory action research (PAR).  The focus of study is less upon academia than on social needs, less upon the opinion of scholars than on  inhabitants who transmit ancient knowledge.  These include guardians and pilgrims to sacred sites, healers, those who recite epics, those with expert knowledge of plants, animals, and other village intellectuals.

Aigine is guided by the following rule: that the research must bring positive changes in the field (region, sphere) where it is conducted.  For instance, Aigine not only notes down narratives associated with sacred sites and traditional knowledge, but together with local specialists and elders works to reinforce ancient traditions and to adapt them to the solution of issues facing contemporary society.

Research themes

Sacred sites

At the centre of Aigine’s activities are sacred sites and the varied complex knowledge and problems associated with them.  In 2002, Gulnara Aitpaeva and colleagues first discussed the basic group of ideas, and possible steps towards working in this direction.  On the basis of these discussions there emerged a strategic project, according to which all of the regions of the country would be researched during the course of the following 5-7 years.  At the start of 2005 The Christensen Fund supported a project for studying sacred sites in Talas region.  Since then Aigine has been actively working in this direction.  A host of rich empirical material has been gathered relating to the phenomenon of sacred sites in Talas and Issyk-Kul regions.  In the current year, 2009, Aigine began studying sacred sites and traditional knowledge in Jalal-Abat region.

Biological diversity

Aigine is working towards the study and protection of biological diversity in sacred sites and nearby territories.  This work is based on the premise that sacred sites have particular characteristics that allow for a particular richness and diversity of flora and fauna.  Aigine initiates projects for the study, protection and maintaining of the biodiversity of sacred sites.

Musulmanchylyk and Kyrgyzchylyk

Both of these concepts have been the object of our attention in sacred sites between 2005 and 2008, during which time we met and spoke with diverse kinds of visitors to these sites.  It emerged such sacred places, and the ancient pilgrimage traditions associated with them are the object of intense and often deep arguments amongst people concerning which form of Islam “ought” to be practiced in the country.  Sacred sites are one of the most vibrant points of focus for the spiritual and religious life of society.

Transpersonal psychology

Kyrgyzchylyk, understood as a complex of diverse forms of local knowledge and practices, is both powerfully manifest and developing in sacred places.  In the interests of protecting the carriers of kyrgyzchylyk, on the one hand, and studying the possibilities for utilizing this complex in order to improve life, on the other, Aigine is developing collaborations with institutes and organizations which work in similar directions. Theories and conceptions of transpersonal psychology carry enormous scientific and spiritual potential for the explanation and positive development of kyrgyzchylyk. In this respect, Aigine initiated a seminar on transpersonal psychology in the summer of 2008 and plans to continue activity in this direction.

Resilience

Another important focus of Aigine is the study of ways of life and adaptation of the local population to the changing condition of the surrounding environment.  We have a specific interest in climate change and issues of survival in difficult conditions of life.  Thus, in 2008 some basic questions and pilot interviews were conducted on the theme of kaatchylyk – that is, the ways by which the local population survived extreme privation periods (Talas and Issyk-Kul oblasts). We are looking for the techniques by which society was able to survive on its own initiative, through this the existing potential of society to overcome crises, and methods to activate and strengthen its resilience.  This direction of Aigine is important in the context of the strategic tasks  - to use traditional knowledge in the interests of spiritual, economic and social development.

Other themes

It is important to note that the interests and activities of Aigine also extend beyond the field of traditional knowledge and practices.  Thus, Aigine has participated in projects exploring gender equality in the NGO sector in Kyrgyzstan and the role of the mass media in the political life of the country.  Another focus of Aigine’s work are questions associated with the protection and development of ethnic diversity and identity.

Education

School education

One of Aigine’s strategic tasks is its contribution to the reform of education in the country.  Specifically, we work to integrate topics concerning cultural heritage and traditional knowledge into the contemporary education.  The rich cultural heritage associated with sacred places, together with the historical experience of the country’s population in surviving periods of extreme privation, contains within it immense educational potential. Aigine is working to identify paths and methods to introduce this material into the school curriculum.

Higher education

A different approach is the development of anthropology in the country and the region.  Thus, many members of Aigine have made their own contribution to the development of the anthropology programme in one of the central universities in the country, and the organization includes among its staff several of the department’s graduates.  At the current time Aigine is involved in a major project for the development of anthropology in the post-Soviet space.  Moreover, by involving students and teachers from regional universities in fieldwork, Aigine is also playing a crucial role in transmitting knowledge about anthropological approaches at the regional level.  Aigine conducts training and seminars for members of its work groups in

Protection and maintenance of cultural and biological diversity

The protection of sacred sites

Beginning with fieldwork in Talas in 2005, Aigine made its goal to monitor the condition of sacred sites from the perspective of their juridical  status.  In Kyrgyzstan only two sacred sites are under state protection, and even then, this is not as sacred sites but as memorials of history and culture.  These are the Manas-Ordo complex in Tals and the Sulaiman Mountain in Osh.  All the remaining sacred sites, and thus all the people whose livelihoods are associated with these sacred places, are not protected by the law.  Aigine is working to provide legal protection for these sacred sites.

Contribution to the preservation and development of pilgrimage tradition

For Aigine, making practical contributions to the protection and development of traditions and life principles is of fundamental importance. Between 2006 and 2009 we initiated a project to improve the conditions of life in pilgrimage sites and to protect sacred sites.  In 2005-6 in Talas a whole series of activities were undertaken to support the initiatives of local communities: these included building a fence, cleaning springs, and fundamental repairs to ritual buildings.  In the summer of 2008, a ritual building was constructed in Akbash-Ata, a sacred site in Issyk-Kul oblast’ that is an important centre of ritual activity, both for the Kyrgyz and for the population of Sart-Kalmaks.

The development of networks linking the carriers of traditional spiritual knowledge

Local healers, dervishes, reciters of epics, guardians of sacred sites, and pilgrims who have been visiting sacred sites for decades – these are all people for whom sacred sites play a crucial role in their lives.  Working with these people, the vast majority of lacking complete secondary school education has demonstrated their mature civic position regarding their cultural heritage.  In vigorous discussions about the relationship and inter-relation between the traditional and non-traditional, kyrgyzschylyk and musulmanchylyk, in their concern to protect sacred sites, they maintain well-balanced ideas and perspectives.  However, the opinions of such people are rarely heard in national forums and in public places.  From this perspective they are located unambiguously in a marginal position.  Aigine works to develop informal networks which can enable such people to work together.  Such networks, linking the carriers of traditional spiritual knowledge at regional and international levels, could help to identify and resolve collective problems.  The most powerful resource here could prove to be this unique knowledge, and the people who have it.