Manaschis are the people who recite “Manas” in a melodic chant. They take the full responsibility for transmitting, singing and incessantly bringing to completion the epic “Manas,” the centrepiece of Kyrgyz literature. At the very beginning, the folk rappers recruited into the grand army of Manas created some verses in terms of the anecdotes of war heroes they collected in the army after they retired from the army. Shortly thereafter, these verses had been prevalent among the masses. With the lapse of time, more and more folk rappers had got access to the hit and begun to engage in their respective literary creation. Almost every rapper would add new contents on the basis of his originality into the original piece. In a “rolling snowball” fashion the original legend gradually turned into a voluminous epic with millions of lines and hundreds of variations finally. The epic narrates the heroic deeds of Manas Khan, his ancestors from former eight generations and his descendants from later eight generations in terms of genealogy. Subsequently, an array of epic variations, which portrays some of the less important characters in “Manas” as their own protagonists and keeps part of
27
the original plot-line in “Manas,” was created by a number of Manaschis.
From the historical records and age-old legends, most Manaschis inferred that the original author of the epic “Manas” is Irqi Uul, one of the forty warriors of Manas. He followed Manas in fighting battles throughout the length and breadth of the steppe. Thus, he was very familiar with the glorious feats created by Manas. He is widely acknowledged as the father of all Manaschis. According to the different levels of the chant ability, the mastery of the epic’s contents and the skill of improvising poems, all the Manaschis can be grouped into three categories: “Grand Manaschis,” “Minor Manaschis” and “Intern Manaschis.”
In most cases, a Grand Manaschi can chant up to more than 100,000 lines and have a good command of three or more episodes of “Manas” in addition to other derivative works. Thanks to their superb imagination, memory and originality of literary creation, the Grand Manaschis are called the masters of Kyrgyz folk literature.Widely honored as “a contemporary Homer,” Yusup Mamai (1918～) is the only living Grand Manaschi in the world who is capable of singing the whole epic containing eight episodes from start to finish. He is the only living master who is proficient at the whole text of the voluminous epic and still carrying out further academic studies on the masterpiece. He enjoys the honorable title of “Disseminator of National-level Intangible Cultural Heritage.”
There are a large number of minor Manaschis who can only sing the first episode and second episode of “Manas.” They play an auxiliary role in inheriting, protecting and spreading the masterpiece among the masses.
The intern Manashis are scattered throughout all the Kyrgyz communities
28
currently. They often make impromptu performances at any time.
The epic “Manas” came into being as early as the 13th century. Its fundamental narrative form took shape in the 16th century. Up to now, the original often-told tale has turned into sophisticated and compelling legends which display vivid individuality of a total of sixteen khans and other characters plus nearly ten derivative epics. The constant progress of the immortal and voluminous masterpiece continues in various forms, depending on the hard work and whim of a galaxy of manaschis from different generations. And the epic itself can be considered as an immortal contribution to human beings made by the Kyrgyz Nationality.
He Jihong
29
