Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates the extent to which elements of pre-Islamic Tengrianic spiritual beliefs combined with variants of Sunni Islam underpin environmentally-based oppositions to extractive industries in postsocialist Kyrgyzstan.

Paper long abstract:

This paper investigates the extent to which spiritual concerns underpin environmentally-based oppositions to extractive industries in postsocialist Kyrgyzstan. Although this sector is widely considered an essential component of national economic development, a series of violent conflicts during 2011 and 2012 underscored the dissatisfaction with which many Kyrgyzstani citizens have come to regard large-scale natural resource extraction projects there. These conflicts have included a coup attempt in the capital city during 2012, along with several attacks on mining camps that resulted in the destruction of mineral exploration infrastructure between March, 2011, and November, 2012. In contrast to the environmentally-based criticisms which tend to dominate explanations of indigenous opposition movements, I explore the moral frameworks and spiritual worldviews evident in everyday perceptions of the extractive industry's impacts. In particular, I investigate the region's curious syncretic spiritual heritage in which elements of pre-Islamic Tengrianic spiritual beliefs are commonly combined with variants of Sunni Islam, both of which have been resurgent in the post-atheist faith renaissance which swept across the post-Soviet world since the perestroika era.