jomok. Today, they are known as manaschi, which is the title of the epic Manas.
21 See Liu 1990; Lang 1999: 165-189; Jumaturdu 2006 203-216.
22 Jusup Mamay was born in April 1918 Qoŋur-ölöŋ in the Qara-bulak town Akchi county,
in Kizil-suu, the Kirghiz autonomous prefecture of Xinjiang. His version consists sight parts (or
branches) of the epic Manas, and his version continue the epic into the generations (Manas, Semetey,
Seytek, Kenenim, Seyt, Asilbacha-Bekbacha, Sombilek and Qigtey).
23 Akchi is my hometown actually, and I have been there for fi eld work as much as ten times
from 1998 to 2008.
158
and representative manaschi in Kyrghyzstan in second half of 19
th
century, and was
also the teacher of some great manaschis in 20
th
century, such as Saginbay Oro-
zbak
24
from Kyrgyzstan and Eshmat Manbetjusup (1880-1963) from China (Ma-
may,1994:222). Jusupakun Apay performing the epic to the audiences in whole his
life, and later become one of the outstanding manaschi in Xinjiang Kirghiz area,
especially in Akchi county in between the end of 19
th
and the fi rst half of 20
th
cen-
tury. He could perform Manas, Semetey, Seytek, Kenenim and Seyit. All of these
have covered the “branches” from fi rst to fi fth of the Manas epic cycle. He became
popular after an epic singing competition with Saginbay Orozbak, one of the most
famous manasches from Kirghizstan, in 1917. The competition had been held in
the Karachi village Akchi county by local Bay(rich man ), Arzibi. His talent of epic
performance and the artistic form of his performance has made a great infl uence
to the later epic singers in the area. He used to have a lot of pupils in his time, and
Balway Mamay, Jusup Mamay’s elder brother, was one of the best. Balway Mamay
had written dawn his Manas variant in the fi rst half of the last century, and his manu-
scripts had became the mean source of Jusup Mamay’s eight branches (eight parts)
of Manas epic cycle later. Unfortunately, as Jusup Mamay’s saying by himself, these
manuscripts had been lost in his hand long before 1960’s. From that time on, his oral
text began to be written down by the scholars.
Iburayim Akunbek(1882-1959), was another famous manaschi in Akchi county
in the fi rst half of the last century. He was also born in the Karachi village, and was
of Jusup Mamay’s uncle. His repertory cavers all the eight branches of epic Manas
cycle, and he is particularly good at the latter fi ve branches of the epic, such as Kai-
nenim, Seyit, Asilbacha-Bekbacha, Sombilek and Chigtey. He is not very active in
performing the epic in front of the audiences, and only few people knew his talent
on performing the epic. Balway Mamay, had also written done his variant, which
including the latter fi ve branches of the epic cycle we just mentioned above. But
these materials had also unfortunately been lost. Iburayim Akunbek’s variant had
also become another main source of Jusup Mamay’s repertory. Thanks to his perfor-
mance, the Manas variant of Jusup Mamay had become one of the most complete
variant in the world today.
Balway Mamay(1892-1937), Jusup Mamay’s elder brother, born in Koŋur-ölöŋ
in Kara-bulak village of Akchi county. He belongs to the Kizil-tukum clan, Cherik
triba. His father Mamay was a rich herdsman and also farmer, and sent him to a
local religious school (Medres) for a few months, and where he learned read and
write from a Moslem mullah. It is actually from him that Jusup Mamay has learned
epic and performance. Balway has a deep affection for oral tradition of Kirghiz, es-
pecially for epic Manas, when his was young. He had traveled widely for business
to Kashgar, Aksuu ,and even to Kashmir, Osh, Samarkan and some other places in
24 Saginbay Orozbak (1867-1930): One of the particularly famous manaschi in Kiyrgyzstan last
century. His version comprises over 180,000 lines, and which is only the fi rst part of Manas epic. He
use to fl ee from war to Akchi in 1917, and stayed there for about two year.
159
central Asia, and become an avid collector of heroic epics of Kirghiz’s and other
Turkic people. He had collected whole parts of Manas-cycle for over ten years and
written done all of them. Being a manaschi himself, Balway not only perform the
epic by himself but had taught his younger brother Jusup Mamay the technique of
epic performance, and gave all manuscripts of the epics to him.
Jusup Mamay was born in April 1918, and is no doubt the most famous manas-
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