Kirgiz epic ‘Manas’ highlighted at China Photography Festival

Photo: Courtesy of China Photographers Association

 
A new photo exhibition kicked off at the China Photography Festival on Sunday in Central China’s Henan Province. The exhibition is based around the Kirgiz Epic of Manas, with an introduction of this ancient intangible cultural heritage and also photos of cultural inheritors in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. 

With more than 230,000 lines, the Epic of Manas is one of the longest epic poems in the world and 18 times longer than Homer's Odyssey. The epic’s eight episodes tell the story of eight generations of the family of the hero Manas, totaling 20 million words in the Kirgiz language.

Consisting of myths, folktales, customs and idioms of the Kirgiz ethnic group, the extensive epic is considered an “encyclopedia” of Kirgiz ethnic culture. It has been passed down orally since as early as the 16th century. Due to its rich content, the performance of the epic can take a tremendous amount of time.

The photographs in the exhibition allow people to find inner peace, visitors said.