ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the reader to the pre-Islamic religion of Tengrism in Central Asia. It offers an overview of the central ideas of Tengrism, its history, contemporary political significance and symbolic place in Central Asian art and culture through cinematic works as they play out in the case of Kazakhstan. However, the chapter argues that Tengrism is less a religion and more a psychogeographical and cosmological worldview which seeks to root and reconnect Central Asian Turkic peoples with the vast natural expanse of the Eurasian steppe.
