The study of folk geographical representations allows us to uncover the features of the formation of pre-scientific knowledge, its very structure, forms of accumulation and transmission, methods of use, as well as the common traits and differences from scientific knowledge. In this context, the role of practice as a source and criterion of the value of knowledge becomes particularly evident.
The peculiarity of pre-scientific knowledge lies in the fact that even in its early, undeveloped stage, it acquires traits of relative stability and completeness. Empirical observation went hand in hand with the first attempts to explain various phenomena. Explanation, as is known, is one of the functions of science. However, pre-scientific thinking lacks the rigor and proof of scientific thinking, often mistaking the accidental for the necessary, and sometimes even proposing fantastic explanations. Interestingly, the aesthetic criterion in pre-scientific thinking also plays a role as a criterion of reliability. In a rather peculiar form, this first criterion has returned to science, particularly in mathematical theories, in the form of a pursuit of beauty and elegance.
Pre-scientific knowledge was not a completely random and disorganized collection of information. It already contained elements of systematization and explanation, the first attempts to organize facts and generalize them. However, alongside remarkably accurate and profound observations, it also includes many completely false judgments, where precise knowledge coexists with myth and even outright superstition.
The surrounding space was one of the most important sources of knowledge for the nomadic Kyrgyz — born travelers. It is no coincidence that in their songs, legends, fairy tales, and epics, a large number of geographical terms, names of various countries, rivers, lakes, and other toponyms are used. When hunters wandered around lakes, in mountains, gorges, or along the banks of mountain rivers in search of better game, and herders moved their herds from the plains to the summer pastures and back, they remembered the distinctive features of these places and gave them apt names.
The Kyrgyz people, like any other, tried to explain the natural processes they observed, the characteristics and physical-geographical nature of the places where they lived, for example, the causes of lake formation, which is reflected in a number of legends.
It is known that in certain places along the northern and southern shores of Lake Issyk-Kul, the remains of ancient settlements submerged in water have been preserved to this day. Sometimes, when the lake is agitated, bricks, pots, and other items from the city that remains beneath the azure waters are found on its shore.
Geographers and archaeologists using modern scientific research methods have proven that the shoreline of the lake has changed over time.
A multitude of legends, fairy tales, and songs about Issyk-Kul were created by the ancient inhabitants of the Issyk-Kul basin, which testifies to their immense interest in the lake and their search for explanations of its origin.
The epics "Manas" and "Kozhozhash" are rich in geographical information. Here is how the natural scenery is described in "Kozhozhash," when the main character of the epic, the famous Mergenchi — a hunter, wishing to catch the wild goat Sur echki, overcomes mountains, rivers, and lakes, each of which has a name:
Kayran Mergen Kozhozhash,
Karmaiyn dep echkin,
Eerdey kayky kek beles
Edkeyip echki kachty emi,
Kara-Choku, Shalpyldak,
Katarı menen bastı emi,
* * *
Kayrylyp kachyp
Sur echki Choi Chychkan menen Korumga,
Kachyp kelet kyrkalap
Ohotnik Kozhozhash
Mechtal poymat kozu.
No ona vsegda
Besledno skryvalas ot nego.
V poiskakh kozy proshel on Kara-Choku,
Shylpyldak i t. d
The description of the terrain in oral folk art still corresponds to reality today. Transmitted from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation, the people have accurately preserved the names of the terrain, geographical terminology, and so on.
The representations of nomadic Kyrgyz about the ancient world are vividly, colorfully, and broadly articulated in the epic "Manas." From the content of the epic, it is evident that at that time, mythological representations of the Earth prevailed among the Kyrgyz. In a passage of the epic, where a messenger calls the people to the memorial service for Kekotai, the geography of the places is described:
Anzhi yan dy,
Kokondy Chakyryp ashka kalalyk,
Kazakh, kyrgyz, kalmakty,
Kadyrlaylyk arbakty.
Iz Andizhana i Kokanda
Priglasili na pominki Kazakhov, kyrgyzov, kalmykov,
Daby pochtit pamyat usopshogo
In the lines provided and even throughout the text, it is narrated that the path of the messenger passed through a vast territory (Andijan, Kokand, Badakhshan, Tashkent, Karkyra), and that even at that time, the area adjacent to the ethnic territory of the Kyrgyz was widely known.
In another excerpt about the conspiratorial khans, geographical names of objects located on the border between Kyrgyzstan and Dzungaria (Kashgaria) are given:
Namuttun chelun sydyryp,
Katmyrdyn boyun kydyryp.
Zheti kun bugun bolgony
Zherkenge kirip kongony.
Put layal cherez step Namut,
Vdol Katmyra, chiy berek krut.
I nedelyu ikh dliny beg,
I v Zherkene ikh zhdal nochleg.
The mentioned localities have retained their names to this day. The Kyrgyz living here call them Namut, Kytmyr, Zherken, and so on. The routes listed in the epic, along which Manas's troops moved in the "Great Campaign," testify to the Kyrgyz's knowledge of the regions beyond the Tian Shan.
Cherez gory perevaliv,
Odoleli razliv Ili.
I vot reka techet —
Irtysh, gde polnoch svetla.
Byl dostignut uzhe Orkhon
I vetrami produvayemyy Shakshak.
These and similar excerpts testify that early versions of the epic contain traditions, legends, and names of localities that currently fall within Southern Siberia, Altai, and Northern Mongolia.
The description of geographical objects in the epics is quite accurate. For example, the names of geographical objects in the epic located in Dzungaria, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, their locations and approximate distances between them are close to reality. This indicates that most of the events discussed in the Kyrgyz epic are largely echoes of real historical events, wars, and upheavals that occurred in the distant past of Central Asian peoples.
The Kyrgyz have known Mongolia (Mogol), Gissar in Tajikistan (Ysar), India (Indostan), Afghanistan (Oogon), Iran (Eren), China (Chalmychyn or Dzungaria), Kangai (the name of a mountain in Western Mongolia), Altai (Alty-Ay), the cities of Xinjiang (Altyn Shaar), Europe (Baran), and other countries and territories since time immemorial.
The Kyrgyz obtained information about these countries from traders, travelers, and so on. The fact that the Great Silk Road passed through the territories of the Kyrgyz was of great significance. (UNESCO has appealed to the government of the republic with a request to "Consider the possibility of traveling along the 'Great Silk Road.' One of the routes has already been traversed by expeditions of biologists, architects, economists, sociologists, mathematicians, and ethnographers from Kyrgyzstan. Valuable information for science, environmental protection, etc., has been collected. On October 22, 1989, an international expedition arrived. In ancient Osh, Uzgen, and other places in the republic, they learned about the life of today's Kyrgyz, their way of life, and culture).
One branch of it passed through Osh, Alai, and Pamir to the Middle East and Afghanistan. Another went from the Issyk-Kul basin through the Juu-Ku pass to Ala-Bel, Kara-Sai, Baltyr-Beshik, Yshyk, then through the Bedel pass to Kashgaria. A third branch crossed the territory of Kyrgyzstan along the Naryn through At-Bashi, Tash-Revat, Chatyr-Kul, and the Torugart pass.
According to the beliefs of the ancient Kyrgyz, on the western edge of the earth lay the land of Arabia, and to the east — Manzhy (Manchuria), beyond these lands, the earth ended. At that time, the Kyrgyz had no concept of the spherical shape of the Earth.