Central Asian gypsies-lyuli. Lyuli - unrecognized gypsies of Central Asia

Self-name: mugat. Gypsies of the Samarkand and Surkhandarya regions sometimes call themselves Multoni (the ethnonym comes from the name of the city in northwestern Pakistan, Multan). Ethnographic group of the gypsy people. Settled mainly in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Language: Tajik, supplemented with a few words gypsy language Roma. Believers: Sunni Muslims.

Central Asian Gypsies in Uzbekistan:

1926 3,710

1979 12,581

1989 16,397

2000 5,000

Appearance time is average Asian gypsies on the territory of the region is not exactly known, but the advance from India along different directions took place in the first century AD. e.

The legends of the gypsies of Samarkand are recorded, telling that already in the era of Temur they settled in the city in a separate quarter.

Based on the records of Babur (XVI century), the version of scientists of our time that the Central Asian gypsies came from India is indirectly confirmed. In particular, one of the types of folk performances, walking on stilts, described by him, may have been brought from India to Central Asia by the gypsies.

The Indian origin of the ancestors of the Gypsies gives the custom to make a tattoo on the forehead is common among the Gypsies living in the south of Uzbekistan.

The long stay of the Gypsies in the Central Asian region is evidenced, first of all, by such facts as their use of the Tajik language as a spoken language, since their native Gypsy has long been forgotten. There is too much in common in the costume, jewelry, folk theater and religions of gypsies and local ethnic groups.

In the XIX - early XX century. Central Asian gypsies were divided into two ethnic groups: Mazani (Mazang) and Lyuli.

Mazani lived mainly in the Samarkand region, and settled in the city itself only at the end 19th century. Until that time they lived in Bukhara. In the third quarter of the XIX century. about 200 Mazani lived in two villages located near Samarkand. The main occupation is agriculture. In addition, the representatives of the tribe were engaged in petty trade in the cities and villages of the region, with the exception of Khiva. Their women were distinguished by their prettiness and special grace.

In addition to Samarkand, the Mazani lived in Tashkent and Kokand. According to Kokand ethnographer Pulatjon Kayumov, local gypsies were called ogachi.

One of the most compact groups of mazani (about 500 people) was discovered by the ethnographer Kh. Kh. Nazarov in the middle of the last century in the Namangan district of the Andijan region.

A large settlement of Central Asian gypsies was registered in the vicinity of Shakhrisabz. By oral communication famous art critic L. Avdeyeva, one of the gypsies of the Shakhrisabz camp even organized a choir. During a visit to a gypsy family, scientists recorded a hitherto unrecorded research literature the custom of seizing dishes from the house in which foreigners were treated. This and other gypsy traditions testify to their superficial Islamization.

Lyuli most of all fit the concept of Central Asian gypsies. IN late XIX V. Samarkand and its nearby areas, there were about 500 Lyuli gypsies. Here were their long stays. Most for years they roamed in separate camps, from 10 to 20 tents in each. In winter, they rented houses or outbuildings from local residents. Main occupation: breeding, sale and exchange of horses, woodworking crafts (manufacturing of wooden spoons, cups, various household utensils). They practiced divination, folk medicine. Lovers of begging and stealing, even despite the wealth. One of the main occupations of the Gypsies, horse breeding, had access to the manufacture of sieves and other products using horse hair. That is why it was Lyuli artisans who were engaged in the manufacture of hair chachvans.

Gypsies who came out of this tribe, but previously lived in the north-eastern part of Gissar, along the Yagnob River and in other regions of Tajikistan, were called dzhugi (dzhuchi) by the local population. Dzhugs were able to manufacture not only wooden spoons, troughs, tanks, but also to produce agricultural implements - pitchforks, shovels, rims, hubs. Women sewed skullcaps and belts, men made pewter rings. There is information that in early XIX V. Gypsies (ethnographic group unknown) lived in the vicinity of Karshi.

Gypsies are divided among themselves on a territorial basis:

Tashkent, Bukhara, Samarkand, etc.

In the XIX - XX centuries. all Central Asian gypsies who lived on the territory of modern Uzbekistan were called lyuli by the surrounding population.

So now the gypsies themselves call themselves. All of them are Muslim, but they do not have mullahs. Nevertheless, Muslim religious laws were honored in public.

The artist V. V. Vereshchagin was attracted ethnic type Lyuli, but no one wanted to pose, age-old prejudices, the prohibition to portray living beings, affected. The master nevertheless made several portraits, including a local gypsy and an Afghan.

Mazani and Jugi married only girls from their tribe, and they try to observe this custom even today. Early marriages. Gypsy women did not wear a veil. But some women from the Mazani sometimes wore a robe with false sleeves and slightly covered their faces.

Different religions are the main difference between European Roma and Central Asian Lyuli gypsies.

In the past, Central Asian gypsies acted as a traveling circus with the participation of palvans and trainers with tamed bears. In the bazaars one could meet gypsies lovers of cock and quail fights.

Equestrian competitions are now popular. Dancers and singers often perform at the wedding toi of their fellow tribesmen or at a campfire. Theatrical art almost forgotten.

Common features are the similarity of the mentalities of the two ethnographic groups,

as well as household arrangements. For example, the calico tents of Lyuli gypsies are very close to the tents of European gypsies.

The population of the Turkestan region, both indigenous and alien, patiently and with understanding treated the semi-nomadic people deprived of their rights, who were in a constantly distressed situation. Perhaps the only right that was granted to the Mazani and Lyuli in the past was to collect ears of wheat and other cereals after the harvest.

At the end of the 20s. of the last century, an attempt was made in the region to somehow streamline information about them. The number of Central Asian Gypsies living in Uzbekistan was established: 1918 males and 1792 females. According to many ethnographers, this figure is greatly underestimated. Probably, part of the gypsy population was attributed to others, and part, on a linguistic basis, to Tajiks. All interviewed Gypsies were fluent, in addition to Tajik, Uzbek and partly Russian.

In 1926, the government developed a set of measures to improve the way of life and way of life of the culturally backward gypsy ethnic group.

The Gypsy population began to be actively recruited for temporary and permanent work as salvage collectors. The local authorities in Shakhrikhan, Margelan and other cities provided the most distinguished Gypsies with premises for housing and did their best to help them settle down.

In 1929, the first collective farm of Central Asian gypsies was created in Uzbekistan. In 1934, 20 gypsy households were resettled and equipped in the Verkhnechirchik district, 40 in Shakhrisabz, and 20 in Kanimekh.

By the middle of 1937, 13 gypsy collective farms had already been created in Uzbekistan, covering 324 cotton-garden farms.

The most advanced collective farm in the republic was located in the Lyuli quarter adjoining the outskirts of Kokand. In 1928, an agricultural artel of 10 farms was created here. In 1935, a third of the population of the quarter was employed on the collective farm, part worked as workers. The rest led a traditional nomadic lifestyle and only in winter period returned to their mahalla. There was a school for lyuli for 20 places in the mahalla. Both children and adults studied. Opened a gypsy club. In 1936 it was already

a solid collective farm, uniting 35 farms. Collective farmers had cows, sheep, and heifers were distributed to the poor. Many built good houses.

The Gypsy-Uzbek collective farm in the vicinity of Margelan was also among the foremost. In 1937, he united 22 farms. The Gypsies adopted the experience of the indigenous agricultural population, and good neighborly relations were established between them.

At the same time, in places where there were gypsy settlements, handicraft artels were opened (in Kokand, Sherabad and Bukhara regions). An artel for the manufacture of toys worked successfully in Tashkent.

In Samarkand, gypsies worked at the silk-winding and candy factories, at the flour factory; in Andijan and Asaka - at cotton ginning plants. In 1934, three gypsies were attracted to the Tashkent agricultural plant. In the prewar period, the gypsy diaspora of Uzbekistan had its own cadres of tractor drivers, drivers, blacksmiths, and accountants. There was also an intelligentsia. If at first teachers (mostly men) completed pedagogical courses, then later school teachers

gypsy nationality They also had a teacher's degree. Classes in primary school Roma schools were held in their native (Tajik) language. In 1938, several Central Asian gypsies already had a higher education.

Gypsy representatives were elected to the boards of collective farms and city councils. In a decree of August 27, 1933, the city councils were ordered to involve Central Asian gypsies in the production, educational establishments and promote to leadership positions. Several people's courts and investigative districts were created in the republic specifically to conduct Lyuli cases.

The curtailment since 1938 of the national policy towards national minorities for the majority of gypsy collective farms turned out to be disastrous. Most of the gypsy collective farms, poorly provided with equipment, disintegrated. In the post-war period, the process of settling of the Gypsies is again activated, as in countryside as well as in cities.

The decree of 1956 on the settlement of the Gypsies hastened the attachment of the Central Asian Lyuli to permanent places of residence.

By this time, a significant part of the local Gypsies, who received secondary and even higher education, had a good profession and permanent work, during the execution of documents they recorded themselves as Uzbeks. And this is no coincidence. As the ethnographer Ya. R. Vinnikov notes, in areas of ethnically mixed population in the 60s. traced the processes of ethnic merging of small national groups. So, in the Samarkand and Bukhara regions, the gypsies (lyuli) gradually dissolved in the surrounding Uzbek population.

And yet, despite all the measures taken by the state and frank attempts by the gypsies themselves to stop, the tradition of wandering for at least a few months a year or, finally, just temporarily getting away from worldly worries, living without burdening oneself with anything, at some part ethnographic group does not die.

In the 60s. Tashkent gypsies often set up tent towns near the water near Keles or along the railway line from Tashkent station to Sary-Agach.

According to the population census, in 1959 there were 3,000 Central Asian Gypsies in the cities of Uzbekistan, and in 1979, 6,000. Most of them called Tajik their native language, about 20% - Uzbek.

Along with this, they used the secret language of Lafz and Mugat. In the 90s. Samarkand daubs for the summer season were annually camped in 1215 families near Bishkek, in the village of Maevka. The tents are solid, inside are imported sleeping bags and foam mattresses. The tabor was led by an aksakal. Under him there was a council of several authoritative gypsies. Men, as a rule, rested. Women, the true breadwinners of the family, went to the city, guessed and begged.

Natural sharpness helped the Lyuli gypsies in perestroika time to quickly orient themselves, get their own business. There are a number of well-known Roma businessmen in the republic. The poor went to Utilsyre. Those who have horses are mainly engaged in collecting glass containers and rags.

In Tashkent, Lyuli gypsies are mainly settled in the old city and on the Sputnik, Sergeli, Kuilyuk, Vodnik massifs. Children attend Uzbek language schools.

In the Yangiyul district of the Tashkent region, Muslim gypsies live, whom the local population calls Crimean. Perhaps this is a group of gypsies evicted from the Crimea during the Second World War.

The area on the outskirts of the city of Yangiyul, where representatives of this ethnographic group live, was called Nakhalovka. And besides, there is a group of gypsies in the area, who are called Turkish gypsies.

Gypsies are also known cultural figures of Uzbekistan. According to Academician A.P. Kayumov, in the mid-30s. 20th century in the Kokand theater, the beautiful actress Kanizakhon of gypsy origin performed.

Based on the materials of the collection: "Ethnic Atlas of Uzbekistan".

Among the population Central Asia these gypsies are known as "lyuli", "jugi" and "mazang". The gypsies themselves claim that the name "lyuli" was given to them by the Uzbek population, and "dzhugi" - by the Tajik. As a self-name, these groups of gypsies put forward the ethnonym "mugat".

There are no sharp ethnographic differences between the gypsies, who are traditionally assigned the names "lyuli" and "dzhugi". Most Asian Gypsies are bilingual and speak Uzbek and Tajik, but Tajik is the main language in their everyday life. But on anthropological type they differ sharply from the surrounding population and have the closest analogies among the peoples of India.

They are Muslims by religion. They bury the dead in a Muslim way, pray, fast, and observe the rite of circumcision. For most of the gypsies, the main source of livelihood was begging, which was done only by women.
Among other gypsies, Lyuli enjoy contempt, because they do not know how to "neither lead a horse, nor a passer-by be beautifully robbed."

The history of the Central Asian gypsies is devoted to the work of the senior researcher of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergey Abashin "Central Asian bohemia".

Modern gypsies, including Lyuli, are from India. This is indicated, for example, by dark color skin and dravidoid facial features (dravids - ancient population India). Reclusion, adherence to professions or occupations that are despised by the rest, are reminiscent of the features of the Indian castes.

The group of Central Asian gypsies throughout history was not completely isolated and continued to be replenished with new immigrants from India. Thus, many Lyuli legends are connected with the era of the Central Asian ruler Timur (XIV century), or Tamerlane, who made campaigns against India. Perhaps part of the Gypsies ended up in Central Asia as a result of these campaigns. Since that time they are often mentioned in written sources. Persian poet Hafiz Sherozi in one of his poems spoke of Lyuli as cheerful and charming people. Babur, a descendant of Timur and the founder of the Mughal Empire, himself a native of Central Asia, listing the names of his musicians playing at cheerful drunken revels, mentioned among them Lyuli named Ramazan.

The gypsies could also include new members from among the local population, similar to the gypsies in their way of life and profession. Unlike caste Indian society Medieval Muslim society was organized according to the handicraft and guild principle. The workshops were very similar to castes, they had their own self-government, their charter, their rituals and strictly adhered to endogamy, i.e. marriages took place only within their own community. Sources testify that the gypsies were part of the Banu Sasan workshop, which included magicians, fakirs, animal trainers, beggars who presented themselves as cripples, tightrope walkers, etc. This workshop was known throughout the Middle and Near East.

This is one of the legends that can be heard from the current old people from among the unusual Lyuli group living in Central Asia. It attempts to explain not only the origin of the word lyuli itself, which has no translation from any language, but also to emphasize the isolation of the group, despised by the surrounding population.

Lyuli people permanently residing in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - ancient people, true to his law, with a mysterious spiritual culture, a secret language - from year to year he is engaged in fishing on the territory of Russia. The main occupation of this people is begging.

In the summer people sleep under open sky- on a no-man's land among railroad tracks, on wastelands, in winter - outside the city, in tents. They are driven by the police, and the townspeople, for the most part, prefer not to notice the beggars. Some consider them Tajiks, others - Uzbeks, others - Gypsies. Lyuli, as a rule, does not have any documents. Even those who fled the civil war in Tajikistan and settled in Russia do not have official status. Luli did not take into account the census. How many of them temporarily, in the summer (like many Lyuli from Uzbekistan), or permanently reside in Russian cities and forests, is unknown. Formally, such people do not exist.

But who are these "lyuli" - as if without flesh and blood, like shadows surrounding us?

Central Asian bohemia

Once upon a time there were poor parents, they had a son Liu and a daughter Li. Once a conqueror came to the country, the parents fled and lost their children in the confusion. The orphaned Liu and Li went to look for them - each chose his own path. A few years later they met and, not recognizing each other, got married. When the truth was revealed, the mullah cursed them, and since then this curse has haunted their descendants, who are called "lyuli". This is one of the legends that can be heard from the current old people from among the unusual group of "lyuli" living in Central Asia. It attempts to explain not only the origin of the word "lyuli", which has no translation from any language, but also to emphasize the isolation of the group, despised by the surrounding population.

A story with a sad ending, of course, is fabulous. Russian travelers and scientists who conducted research in Central Asia and found a striking resemblance of Lyuli to European gypsies proposed a more scientific hypothesis. Central Asian gypsies (like gypsies in general) are natives of India who once belonged to one of the lower castes Hindu society. Specialists, in particular, noticed that in the “Shahnameh” of the medieval Persian writer Ferdowsi, one of the legends speaks of the migration from India to Persia of 12,000 “luri” artists, sent as a gift to the Persian ruler from the Sassanid clan Bahram Gur in the 5th century. AD Scientists hypothesized that the name "luri" or "lyuli" is associated with the name of the city Arur, or Al-rur, the capital of the ancient rajas of Sindh, one of the regions of northwestern India. A group of artists took root in a new place and, having retained their isolation and professional specialization, turned from a caste into a kind of ethnic group Gypsy. The Lyuli of Persia and Central Asia became the descendants of immigrants from Sind. In the Persian dictionary, the word "lyuli" still means "people involved in dancing and singing."

However, this scientific hypothesis looks too straightforward and simplified. Of course, most likely modern gypsies, including Lyuli, in his own way ancient root are from India. This is indicated by many different indirect evidence, for example, darker skin color and dravidoid facial features (the Dravidians are an ancient, pre-Aryan population of India). Reclusion, adherence to professions or occupations that are despised by the rest, are reminiscent of the features of the Indian castes. Some scholars have also drawn attention to the custom (Hindu in origin?) of tattooing on the forehead, cheeks and hands, which for a long time was preserved among the gypsies living in the vicinity of the city of Karshi in Central Asia.

Of course, the group of Central Asian gypsies throughout history was not completely isolated and continued to be replenished with new immigrants from India. Thus, many Lyuli legends are connected with the era of the Central Asian ruler Timur (XIV century), or Tamerlane, who made campaigns against India. Perhaps part of the Gypsies ended up in Central Asia as a result of these campaigns. Since that time they are often mentioned in written sources. The Persian poet Hafiz Sherozi in one of his poems spoke of Lyuli as cheerful and charming people. Babur, a descendant of Timur and the founder of the Mughal Empire, himself a native of Central Asia, listing the names of his musicians playing at cheerful drunken revels, mentioned among them Lyuli named Ramazan.

The gypsies could also include new members from among the local population, similar to the gypsies in their way of life and profession. In contrast to the caste Indian society, the medieval Muslim society was organized according to the handicraft and guild principle. The workshops were very similar to castes, they had their own self-government, their charter, their rituals and strictly adhered to endogamy, i.e. marriages took place only within their own community. Sources testify that the gypsies were part of the Banu Sasan workshop, which included magicians, fakirs, animal trainers, beggars who presented themselves as cripples, tightrope walkers, etc. This workshop was known throughout the Middle and Near East.

In this regard, another detail is interesting, which brought the Gypsies closer to other marginal groups. The gypsies had and in some places continue to maintain their own “secret” slang language - “Lavzi Mugat” or “Arabcha”, i.e. “in Arabic” (the gypsies themselves in their legends often call themselves relatives - cousins - of the Arabs, whom they look like with their dark appearance and nomadic lifestyle). To be more precise, it is not so much a "secret" language as a "secret" dictionary, i.e. borrowed from other languages and modified vocabulary that denotes some objects, concepts and actions. Most Lyuli are still bilingual, i.e. they speak Iranian (Tajik) and Turkic (Uzbek) languages. The language spoken in everyday life is Tajik, although today some groups of Roma in Uzbekistan speak predominantly Uzbek. Gypsies use "secret" words in their speech instead of commonly used Tajik and Turkic words, so that others cannot understand what is being said. The gypsy slang consists of 50% of the same vocabulary that was in the “secret language” (abdol-tili) of the Central Asian guild of the Maddakhs and Qalandars, i.e. wandering and mendicant Sufi dervishes and professional storytellers of various kinds of stories.

Liuli, therefore, always existed within a wider circle of people who were engaged in a similar craft, adopting from them and passing on to them many elements of culture. In other words, there has always been a gypsy and "gypsy-like" environment in which it is difficult to single out the actual "gypsies". A distinctive feature of this environment was not some specific "gypsy", but marginality, alienation from the bulk of the surrounding population due to a special type of occupation, lifestyle, appearance, etc. As one of the first researchers of the Central Asian gypsies, A.I. Vilkins, wrote in 1879, “... Lyuli has nothing behind him; he is a stranger everywhere ... ". The Central Asian population, bearing in mind precisely these marginal features, united such groups most often under the same name "lyuli". The European (or Russian) view, accustomed to "their" gypsies, tried to see in this environment "real" gypsies and "fake" ones. In any case, if one can speak of the Central Asian Lyuli gypsies as single group, then it was united and united only by the interpretations of marginality inherent in a given historical moment in a given society.

A more detailed acquaintance with the Central Asian gypsies shows that this group, which is usually considered as a single group and indiscriminately referred to as "lyuli", in fact consists of several different groups. They differ in names, ways of life and, most importantly, they themselves oppose each other.

The most numerous of these groups are local gypsies who have lived in Central Asia for a long time. They call themselves "mugat" (Arabic plural from "mug" - fire-worshipper, pagan), sometimes "gurbat" (translated from Arabic - "foreignness, loneliness, rootlessness"). The surrounding population, if they are Uzbeks, calls them "lyuli", if they are Tajiks (especially in the southern regions of Central Asia, where the word "lyuli" is not used) - "dzhugi" (in some Indian languages - "beggar, hermit"). In some areas, groups of roaming gypsies are called “multoni” (apparently, after the name of the Sindh city of Multan), sedentary groups are called “kosib”, i.e. craftsman.

It is the lyuli / jugi that are most similar to those gypsies who are well known to the inhabitants of Europe and Russia. Traditionally, they led a wandering lifestyle, wandering in camps ( stupid, tupar) from 5-6 to 10-20 tents, stopping near villages and living in one place for 3-5 days. The summer tent was an ordinary shade canopy, which was held on one pole. winter tent ( veil) consisted of a calico cloth thrown over 2-3 vertical poles, the edges of the cloth were strengthened on the ground with pegs. For heating, a fire was laid out in a tent in a small recess closer to the exit. Food was cooked in a cauldron outside the tent, eating mainly sorghum stew, which was boiled with bones or pieces of meat, and cakes. Household items - felt mats, blankets, wooden utensils - were adapted for migrations. Every family had a horse.

In winter, these “true children of nature,” as they put it in the 19th century, often rented houses or outbuildings from the inhabitants of some village. In many Central Asian cities there were entire neighborhoods or suburban settlements that were formed from such wintering. There were also villages - for example, Multani-kishlak in the vicinity of Samarkand - where up to 200 gypsy families gathered for the winter. Gradually, they turned into places of permanent residence for many Lyuli/Jugi.

The main occupation of male gypsies in the northern regions of Central Asia was the breeding and trade of horses, they also made various products from horsehair, primarily chachvan(nets that covered the faces of Central Asian Muslim women). In some places they kept greyhounds and traded their puppies. In addition, lyuli/dzhugi specialized in woodworking crafts - the manufacture of wooden spoons, cups, and other small household utensils. Once in the past, the gypsies were also engaged in the sale of slaves and the manufacture of local vodka - booze which constituted an important source of income. In the southern regions of Central Asia, men were jewelers, making bracelets, rings, earrings, etc., sometimes repairing metal and wooden utensils.

Gypsy women were engaged in small grocery trade - they sold perfumes, threads, needles, etc., as well as handicrafts of their husbands. They, or rather some of them, were engaged in divination on a mirror and a cup of water, divination - they predicted the future, determined the place where lost things could be, etc. Among them were those who were engaged in healing (in particular, bloodletting), and the population willingly went to them for treatment. Gypsy women did not engage in traditional activities for Central Asian women - they did not weave, did not spin, did not bake bread. In some camps, women sewed skullcaps and belts. Their main occupation was professional begging. Lyuli/Jugi even had a custom bag(or khurjin, i.e. sum), when during a wedding an old woman put a bag on the bride’s shoulder and the bride took an oath to support her husband by collecting alms. In summer and especially in winter, taking their children with them, women went around collecting alms with khurjins and long staffs ( aso), which drove away the dogs. Gypsies were also "famous" for petty theft. Some men were also engaged in professional begging and healing.

Begging, which singled out Lyuli, was a profession and did not at all speak of material prosperity. In general, the gypsies lived in poverty, had no housing, ate poorly, rarely changed their clothes (by the way, the clothes of the gypsies were Central Asian in type, but differed in brighter and more unusual colors, the presence a large number decorations). However, there were wealthy families among them. Memories have been preserved of the brothers Suyar and Suyun Mirshakarov, who lived in the village of Burganly near Samarkand at the beginning of the 19th century. They had a lot of land and livestock.

The tabor usually consisted of kindred families. It was headed by a council of old people and an elected foreman - aksakal from among the authoritative and wealthy, not necessarily the most senior, persons. The council resolved issues of quarrel and peace, migrations, assistance to members of the camp, etc. The foreman, whose name the camp usually bore, received a letter from the official authorities label and was responsible for collecting taxes. All members of the camp held various festivities and rituals together, helped each other if necessary, women reportedly sewed new tents.

Lyuli / Jugi are considered Sunni Muslims, they perform all the necessary rituals (to which all the gypsies of the district were invited in the past) - circumcision, Muslim funerals, reading a prayer - nikoh at weddings. More religious were the settled gypsies, less religious were the vagrants. However, the adherence of the Gypsies to Islam was always rather superficial, and the surrounding population did not consider them Muslims at all, telling all sorts of fables about them. Already in the XIX century. Lyuli/Jugi begged for alms from the Russians, making the sign of the cross and repeating "For Christ's sake!".

Marriages were concluded, as a rule, inside the camp; a girl was rarely given to the side. They got married early - at 12-15 years old. Polygamy was common among the Lyuli/Juga. Women, in comparison with the surrounding Muslim women, were more free, did not wear veil And chachvan often ran away from their families. At feasts, men and women celebrated together, women were not shy about strangers, did not hide from them, freely joined in men's conversation, which Central Asian etiquette categorically forbids. Families had many children, but infant mortality was high. From childhood, boys and girls were accustomed to the gypsy nomadic and begging life.

The main thing that distinguished the Central Asian lyuli/jugi from European gypsies was the absence of the hereditary craft of artists. Professionally gypsies in the XIX-XX centuries. they were not engaged in stilting, nor in public dancing and singing, were neither artists nor acrobats, although singers, musicians and dancers - men and boys - were often found among them. In the more distant past, the Central Asian gypsies, apparently, were professional artists, as many written sources say. It was these occupations that were preserved among the gypsies of Persia, Transcaucasia, and Asia Minor. It is possible that the persecution of these crafts by Muslim orthodox people in Central Asia in the 18th-19th centuries led to the loss of such professions among the Central Asian Lyuli / Jughi. However, this still remains a mystery and may be related to the origin of the Central Asian gypsies: it is possible that some of them come from the lower Indian castes, who did not practice the profession of singers and dancers, but were exclusively engaged in begging, petty trade and crafts.

Lyuli/Jugs differed by place of residence: Bukhara, Samarkand, Kokand, Tashkent, Hissar, etc. Each such group had its own local characteristics, sometimes very significant, and did not mix with others.

In addition to the actual "gypsies", i.e. lyuli / dzhugi, several "gypsy-like" groups lived in Central Asia. Although they themselves in every possible way deny their kinship with the Lyuli / Dzhugi and do not maintain any relations with them, including marital relations (like others, they are contemptuous of the Lyuli / Dzhugi), the local population, and after him the Europeans, confuse them with lyuli / jughi because of the great similarity in lifestyle and appearance.

One of these “gypsy-like” groups is “tavoktarosh”. This name is translated as “masters for making dishes” (in the southern regions of Central Asia, this group is called “sogutarosh” - masters for making bowls). In the past, they led a semi-sedentary lifestyle, which was associated with their main occupation - woodworking craft, in which both men and women participated. In summer, tavoktaroshi moved closer to the rivers, where willow grows, which served them as raw material for making dishes and spoons. In winter, they moved closer to the villages, where there were bazaars, settled in free houses. As a rule, several related families roamed together and had certain camping sites and traditional ties with the locals.

A group of Kashgar gypsies who lived in Xinjiang and the Ferghana Valley, who were called “aga”, are close to the Tavoktaros. They, in turn, were divided into "povon" and "ayakchi". The first were engaged in copper jewelry - they made rings, earrings, bracelets, as well as small-scale trade in threads, needles, mirrors, etc. Women traded candy and chewing resin, but not in bazaars, but peddling. The second were specialists in the manufacture of wooden utensils: men made cups, handles for shovels and lenoks for saddles, wooden galoshes on three legs, sewed collars and other items of horse harness from leather from walnut wood; women from this clan wove baskets and bodies for carts from willow and turangula branches. Their way of life was semi-sedentary, they lived in huts, but they also had stationary adobe housing. The women did not wear the veil. They entered into marriages only within their own group, preferred cousin marriages, marriages between povons and ayakchi were strictly forbidden. They, like the Tavoktaroshi, denied the kinship attributed to them with the Lyuli.

Another “gypsy-like” group is “mazang” (according to one version, this word means “black, dark-faced” from the Tajik dialect, according to another - “ascetic, dervish”). Unlike all other Gypsies, the Mazang led a sedentary lifestyle, engaged in agriculture and petty trade, they did not know any crafts - neither jewelry nor woodworking. What united them in the eyes of the local population with lyuli / jugi is the tradition of women's grocery peddling, when women (often elderly) went from house to house in a wide district - even into the mountains - and offered their goods - paints, textiles, perfumes, dishes etc. This led to another feature of them - a certain freedom of women who, in front of strangers, did not cover their faces and enjoyed a "bad" reputation. At the same time, women did not beg and did not guess. The group adhered to strict endogamy and did not intermarry with Lyuli/Jugi. Mazang lived mainly in the Samarkand region and in the city of Samarkand.

Finally, a number of different groups live in the south of Central Asia, which are also perceived by the surrounding population as gypsies. They are sometimes called “black lyuli” (kara-lyuli), “monkey lyuli” (maimun-lyuli), Afghan or Indian lyuli / jugi (“augan-lyuli / jugi”, “industoni lyuli / jugi”). Many of them appeared in Central Asia only in the 18th-19th centuries. and came from Afghanistan or India. There are a lot of these groups: scientists call "Chistoni", "Kavoli", "Parya", "Baluchi", etc. All of them speak the Tajik language, the Parya group speaks one of the Indo-Aryan dialects. Each of them had its own specific lifestyle and professional specialization, many wandered, lived in huts, were engaged in petty trade and did not refuse alms, were famous for stealing or some other trait. "Baluchi", for example, in the XIX century. wandered throughout Central Asia: men performed with trained bears, monkeys, goats; women were begging and selling cosmetics, including scented soaps of their own making. Women were also famous for their ability to make a drug from crushed beetles and flowers, the use of which by pregnant women allegedly helped to form the sex of the unborn child.

Afghan and Indian Lyuli deny their kinship with each other and even often hide their origin, fearing ridicule and isolation. Outwardly, they are much darker than their Central Asian real or imaginary "brothers". However, as the well-known linguist I.M. Oransky writes, “... the legitimacy of uniting all such groups, often having nothing in common either in origin or language, under a single term, as well as the legitimacy of using the term “Central Asian gypsies” , can by no means be considered proven ... ".

The isolation and professional specialization of all the listed groups of gypsies and "gypsy-like" communities have been steadily preserved over a long historical period. Only in the XX century. an attempt was made to destroy the existing cultural barriers and stereotypes, to integrate marginal communities into the bulk of the Central Asian population. This attempt was only partially successful.

IN Soviet time the authorities took various measures to tie the gypsies to permanent place residence, find them a job, arrange their children in school, create a stratum of intelligentsia from among the gypsies. In 1925, the All-Russian Union of Gypsies was created, which also included Central Asian Gypsies. A gypsy communist, Mizrab Makhmudov, was elected a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Uzbek SSR. During " cultural revolution”, when Central Asian women were urged to throw off the veil, the slogan “removing the turban” by gypsy women was put forward. However, as they wrote at that time, "... It was not enough to remove the turban from the gypsy, it was necessary to give her the opportunity to raise funds by honest labor ...".

In the 1920-30s. Gypsy collective farms and artels were created in Central Asia. In 1929, the first gypsy agricultural artel was created in Uzbekistan. During the period of collectivization, the first gypsy collective farms appeared - "Imeni Makhmudov" (in Ferghana) and "Yangi Turmush" (in the Tashkent region). By the end of the 1930s, not without administrative coercion, already 13 collective farms were created, the members of which were predominantly gypsies. True, in 1938, when national policy support for minorities was curtailed, many of these collective farms disintegrated. Gypsies were also organized into handicraft artels, attracted to work in factories and plants. In 1928, the first gypsy artel for collecting scrap was created in Samarkand, called "Mekhnatkash lyuli" (Labor gypsies), in which 61 gypsies worked, the leader was Mirzonazar Makhmanazarov. Artels of woodworkers existed in Kokand, in Bukhara, an artel for the manufacture of toys - in Tashkent. Gypsy collective farms and craft artels also existed in Tajikistan. Schools were opened on collective farms, and several Roma received higher education.

IN hard years During the war, many gypsy families returned to a semi-nomadic lifestyle and begging. But after the decree of 1956 on the settlement of the Gypsies, the process of "attaching" them to the land intensified again. At the same time, upon receiving passports, they were everywhere recorded as Uzbeks and Tajiks. Many of them have a dual self-consciousness: they consider themselves Tajiks or, more rarely, Uzbeks, but they remember their gypsy origin. Some groups of gypsies call themselves "Kashgaris" (Uighurs) or Arabs. The "Gypsy-like" groups of Tavoktaroshi and Mazang assimilated especially quickly. Many gypsy communities have become “invisible”: for example, a gypsy team for weaving baskets was created at the Andijan factory of art products, the products of which were shown at exhibitions, however, as an “Uzbek” traditional craft.

Despite all the changes, a significant part of the gypsies, nevertheless, still moved around, lived in tents, however, lingering for a long time in one place, somewhere on the outskirts of the village. Even settled and assimilated gypsies usually live separately from the rest of the population and work in separate brigades. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991 and the formation of independent states, which was accompanied by a sharp deterioration in the socio-economic situation, the process of returning the Gypsies to their former, traditional way of life intensified. This was especially noticeable in Tajikistan, where in 1992-1997. raged Civil War. She forced many gypsies, as well as many Tajiks and Uzbeks, to leave their homeland and go to Russia.

No one has ever accurately calculated the number of gypsies in Central Asia, and it is impossible to calculate it, since many gypsies pretend to be representatives of other nationalities. According to the 1926 census, there were 3710 of them in Uzbekistan, somewhat less in Tajikistan. According to the 1989 census, there were about 25,000 Central Asian Gypsies. Their real number has always been at least twice as large.

What has been said about the Central Asian gypsies cannot be considered exhaustive or sufficient. complete information about this group. Not everything in the history of the Central Asian gypsies, as well as in their culture, way of life, relationships, is known to specialists. The remaining isolation of their way of life does not allow researchers to penetrate deeply into many areas of their life, to correctly understand the differences between different gypsy and "gypsy-like" groups from each other. As the ethnographer B.Kh. Karmysheva wrote, “... the issues of their origin, their relationship to each other cannot be considered resolved ...”.

Sergey Nikolaevich Abashin
Candidate of Historical Sciences,
Senior Researcher
Department of Ethnography of Central Asia
Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology
Russian Academy of Sciences

Literature about Central Asian Gypsies:

Vilkins A.I. Central Asian bohemia // Anthropological exhibition of 1879. T.3. Part 1. M., 1879. S. 434-461;

Nazarov Kh.Kh. Modern ethnic development of the Central Asian gypsies (lyuli) // ethnic processes among the national groups of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. M., 1980;

Oransky I.M. On the term "mazang" in Central Asia // Countries and peoples of the East. Issue 10. M., 1971. S.202-207;

Oransky I.M. Tajik speakers ethnographic groups Hissar Valley (Central Asia). Ethnolinguistic research. M., 1983;

Snesarev G.P. Central Asian Gypsies // Brief messages Institute of Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. T-34. 1960. S.24-29;

Snesarev G.P., Troitskaya A.L. Central Asian Gypsies // Peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. T.2. M., 1963. S.597-609.

Lera Yanysheva about Lyuli gypsies.

Our gypsies believe that Lyuli are Uzbeks or Tajiks. They are annoyed that Russians see gypsies in Lyuli. And really - what is gypsy about them? They roam in camps from city to city. They live in tents... The fact that their women and children are begging on the streets is not a reason to classify them as gypsies. IN last resort the metropolitan "Roma" will agree that the Lyuli are a gypsy-like group. And in general, a real gypsy, in their understanding, must certainly have respectable housing (preferably on Rublyovka) and a foreign car of the latest model (preferably a Bentley, although a Marin and Beha will also do). Every gypsy child must graduate from an elite university in order to subsequently engage in serious commerce. Here's a guy you can easily recognize as your own!

I'm kidding, of course.

But visitors from the east, indeed, are ashamed. One hundred reasons will be found to dismiss a possible relationship.

You can often hear that Lyuli do not speak Gypsy.

Well, they don't say.

But after all, many Ukrainian “servis” know at most a dozen gypsy words ... Some of our artists perform folk songs on stage, memorizing the text by ear. With the same success, one could learn Japanese, Hungarian things, or songs of Australian aborigines. But they sing in broken gypsy! And no one doubts the nationality of such artists.

I sometimes hear about Lyuli and such a phrase: “What are you? They are not our God's people!" In response to this quivering religious whisper, I always want to ask: “But the “Crimeas” are also Muslims. Are you friends with these gypsies? Are you inviting? And at the same time, do not consider them purebred Tatars!

Probably, the point is still that our gypsies from Lyuli have a great cultural gap. Some have adapted for centuries to life in the Slavic environment, while others, until recently, roamed exclusively in Central Asia. That's why we don't understand each other.

To be honest, my husband and I also thought that Lyuli were Tajiks. And they were firmly convinced of this until they found themselves in a campsite. Then it turned out that they call themselves “mugats” in their own language, and when speaking in Russian, they call themselves gypsies. It turned out that their women are good guessers. And even - scary to say - they know how to remove damage and the evil eye. They only do it in their own country. And close to them, their life turned out to be completely gypsy, only not modern, but the same as it was a hundred years ago.

Further more. Several Mugat families settled in a barrack in a village near Moscow. And since it is not far from us, it became possible to often visit each other. So we were surprised to learn that in the eastern camp there are our colleagues - artists. At home, they used to play in a restaurant (just like we do in Moscow). Their repertoire is extensive. Well, we were certainly ready for the fact that they sing Uzbek and Tajik songs. But in their performance, songs from Indian films sounded quite good too. A Russian patriotic melody turned out to be a complete surprise, which sounded very specific, although it awakened a deep feeling of love for the motherland in the soul.

A little, however, pumped up the tools. Somewhere an old accordion was obtained (in literally old, because someone had thrown it out a long time ago - and not much has passed since that “miscarriage” less years ten). And the oriental tambourine (doira) was replaced by a basin, in which until recently something was washed, because it still retained traces of moisture and washing powder.

We stayed up late that day. Although the Lyuli visitors had to get up early. Women - to beg in the markets, and men - to dig trenches.

(Total 12 photos)

1. Central Asian gypsies (like gypsies in general) are Indians who once belonged to one of the lower castes of Hindu society.

2. Specialists, in particular, noticed that in the “Shahnameh” of the medieval Persian writer Firdousi, one of the legends speaks of the migration from India to Persia of 12 thousand “luri” artists, sent as a gift to the Persian ruler from the Sassanid clan, Bahram Gur in V V. AD

3. Scientists hypothesized that the name "luri" or "lyuli" is associated with the name of the city Arur, or Al-rur, the capital of the ancient rajas of Sindh, one of the regions of northwestern India.

4. A group of artists took root in a new place and, having retained their isolation and professional specialization, turned from a caste into a kind of ethnic group of gypsies.

5. The Lyuli of Persia and Central Asia became the descendants of people from Sind. In the Persian dictionary, the word "lyuli" still means "people involved in dancing and singing."

8. Lyuli / Jugi are considered Sunni Muslims, they perform all the necessary rituals (to which all the gypsies of the district were invited in the past) - circumcision, Muslim funerals, reading the nikoh prayer at weddings (by the way, photography of weddings is not accepted here).

9. More religious were the settled Gypsies, less religious were the vagrants.

11. The most numerous of these groups are local gypsies who have been living in Central Asia for a long time.

12. They call themselves "mugat" (Arabic plural from "mug" - fire-worshipper, pagan), sometimes "gurbat" (translated from Arabic - "foreignness, loneliness, rootlessness"). The surrounding population, if they are Uzbeks, calls them "lyuli", if they are Tajiks (especially in the southern regions of Central Asia, where the word "lyuli" is not used) - "dzhugi" (in some Indian languages - "beggar, hermit"). In some areas, groups of roaming gypsies are called “multoni” (apparently, after the name of the Sindh city of Multan), sedentary groups are called “kosib”, i.e. craftsman.