Kazakhstan Explored:

Revisiting the Expeditions of Chokan Valikhanov in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

By Paul Michael Taylor

Footsteps

Read about the life of Chokan Valikhanov, who is now known as the "Father of Modern Kazakh historiography and ethnography".
View Footsteps

Expeditions

Learn about Chokan Valikhanov's explorations and his scientific research.
View Expeditions

Image Gallery

View original sketches, photos, and maps that reflect the historical contributions of Chokan Valikhanov.
View Gallery

About this Project

Chokan Valikhanov (1835-1865) is often regarded as the “father of Kazakh historiography and ethnography” and sometimes even called “the first Kazakh scholar.” The Ethnological branch of the Kazakh Academy of Sciences is named after him. Educated in the Russian language, he worked for the Russian empire and became a member of the Russian Geographical Society and an officer in the Russian army, all the while continuing his research and his scientific expeditions studying the cultural history of the Kazakhs and other Turkic peoples of Central Asia.

Valikhanov’s descriptive ethnographies, and the subjects he found interesting (including shamanism, nomadism, the ways that Islam became interwoven with indigenous Inner Asian religious values, and the nature of social changes in the face of globalization) are surprisingly modern. Valikhanov compiled early accounts of the oral epics sung by nomadic peoples of Central Asia, such as the epic “Manas” and other sung poetry of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan – the subject of continuing intense study by ethnomusicologists and historians today. Today, many of Valikhanov’s expedition records and his scientific papers on the history and culture of Kazakhstan remain untranslated and unavailable to a wider international audience. This online publication, within the CiviConnect Digital Editions, begins a new period of partnership with CiviConnect in the study of these source materials and the production of digital editions as a means of disseminating knowledge.

This publication is based upon an earlier one that was produced by this author in 2010, the 175th anniversary year of Chokan Valikhanov’s birth, and launched during the April 2010 visit to Washington, D.C., of Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, as part of a wide-ranging series of activities called the “Washington Kazakhstan 2010 Festival,”1 as described in many press reports and in subsequent papers published in 20132 and 2015.3 These activities were generously supported by Chevron, and within the Smithsonian represented a cooperative effort bringing together the Smithsonian’s Office of Policy and Analysis (OP&A), in conjunction with the Smithsonian’s Asian Cultural History Program (ACHP) and the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO).

This new Asian Cultural History Program publication with CiviConnect builds on our prior collaborations with museums and scholarly institutions of Kazakhstan. That cooperative effort derived from the series of exchanges and seminars that began in 2005 thanks to an “International Partnership Among Museums” (IPAM) grant from the American Association of Museums, awarded to the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution) and the Kasteyev State Museum of Fine Arts (Almaty, Kazakhstan), continuing to the present as represented by our recent join publication resulting from an October 2019 symposium held in Washington with scholars from both organizations, about “Kazakhstan’s Crafts and Creative Economy.”4

I want to express my thanks to the Canadian nonprofit CiviConnect, for its expert handling of this online publication in their CiviConnect Digital Editions series. CiviConnect team members are listed in the CiviConnect colophon at the end of this publication’s Bibliography. For their generous support of the earlier publications and fieldwork on which this present publication was based, I sincerely thank Chevron, along with the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Embassy in Nur-Sultan and its Consulate in Almaty, Kazakhstan. At the Smithsonian, special thanks to all past staff, volunteers, interns, and contractors associated with our Kazakhstan projects(including C. Neves, S. Grauberger, J. Koller, T. Johnson, W. Smith, A. Grode, and original 2010 web designer Michael Tuttle), and especially to our current researchers Dr. Robert Pontsioen and Matthew Arnold, for their help with the present publication.
1 Idrissov, Erlan, and Paul Michael Taylor. Washington Kazakhstan 2010 Festival: April 15-December 31, 2010. Washington, D.C.: Asian Cultural History Program and Office of Policy and Analysis, Smithsonian Institution.

2 “Exploring the Scientific and Artistic Legacy of Chokan Valikhanov (1835-1865), in Partnership with Kazakhstan’s Museums.” Pp. 25-32 in: K.K. Abyev (ed.) Materials of the International Scientific Conference “Khan Abylai and Political Independence of Kazakhstan” dedicated to the 300th Anniversary of Abylai Khan, October 5 [2013]. = Abylai khanning 300 zhildyghina arnalghan "Abylai khan zhene Qazaqstannyng memlekettik teuelcizdigi" Khalyqaralyq ghylymi-praktikalyq konferentsiia Materialdary, 5 Qazan. = Materialy Mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii "Khan Abylai i gosudarstvennaiz nezavisimost' Kazakhstana" posviashennoi 300-letiyu Abylai khana, 5 Oktiabria. Kokshetau, Kazakhstan: Kokshetau State University. [issued 2014, conference date October 5, 2013; Proceedings dated 2013].

3 “Current Research about the Ethnography of Chokan Valikhanov, and about Turkic or Central Asian Cultural History and Cultural Memories, at the Asian Cultural History Program of the Smithsonian Institution.” Pp. 284-288 in: Kazakhting uly ghalymy, tarikhshy, etnograf, saiakhatshy zhene aghartushy Sh. Ualikhanovtyng 180 zhyldygyna arnalghan “Shokan Okulary-19” Khalykaralik ghylymi-tezhiribelik konferentsiia: Materialdary, 17-18 seuir = Materiali: Mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii “Ualikhanovskie Chteniia—19”, posviashchennoi 180-letiyu velikogo kazakhskogo uchyonogo, istorika, etnografa, pusteshestvennika i prosvetntelia Sh. Ualikhanova, 17-18 aprelia. (Tom 1.) A.A. Abzhapparov, editor. Kokshetau, Kazakhstan: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Kokshetau State University.

4 Taylor, Paul Michael, and Gulmira Shalabayeva (editors), Kazakhstan’s Crafts and Creative Economy: Proceedings of an International Symposium. Almaty, Kazakhstan: A. Kasteyev State Museum of Arts, in association with the Asian Cultural History Program, Smithsonian Institution. [ISBN: 978-601-7090-31-9]
Suggested citation format:
Taylor, Paul Michael.
2022 Kazakhstan Explored: Revisiting the Expeditions of Chokan Valikhanov inthe Mid-Nineteenth Century. CiviConnect Digital Editions.  [website address].  

A PDF version of this publication is available and can be viewed or downloaded here

Photo credits and captions for the photographs found in this online publication are available in the PDF version.