THE PHENOMENON OF THE EPIC PEOPLE IN THE 21 CENTURY

In this article the author reveals the features of the Kyrgyz epic of Manas heritage and contribution of the Kyrgyz people in the epic treasury of the world culture. In this context it should be noted that in developing their national epic of Manas, supplementing and improving it from age to age, preserving and cherishing it orally, as a living spiritual masterpiece for centuries, the Kyrgyz people have shown a phenomenal poetic talent and deserve deep study, and are worthy of evaluation for their contribution to the epic heritage of civilization in general.In ,addition to the Grand epic of Manas, Kyrgyz people created a whole gallery of other epics, the small Kyrgyz epics, there are about 30, and the epic of Manas has more than 80 variations. Also, the Kyrgyz heritage has over 1,000 various myths, legends, and stories. The author emphasizes that the reason for this phenomenon is that in the 21 century, despite the bygone epic times,the Kyrgyz people remain the ethnic group with the epic mentality. In other words, history, philosophy, thinking, culture, worldview, lifestyle, life, nature and even religious beliefs of the Kyrgyz people to some extent remain the way they were in the era of the creation and development of the epics. All of these epic features of the Kyrgyz people are largely due to important factors such as the epic space, epic time, epic language, and epic storytelling (manaschylyk). The Kyrgyz, not obeying the generally accepted canons of the world civilization, culture and literature, extend the era of the full existence of their national epic, and,alongside it, the epicness of today. Therefore, the epic of Manas is the phenomenon of global civilization not only by its size, content and variability, but also an absolute record for the duration of the process of emergence, formation and development of the epic in time.

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