Wednesday 29 July 2015

Religions and Traditions

After a short period of silence due to well-deserved holidays (and a few problems with my computer as well), I'm happy to present at last a new post which, I hope, will arouse new role playing ideas.
As explained in the book, Nomads always kept their traditional beliefs alive, despite their conversion to foreign religions. But what may not be clear, is how strong and long lasting the remnants of the old beliefs could have been, mixed with the new Religion into a kind of singular syncretism. This offers opportunities for interesting role-playing.
Alexis Levshkin, a Russian traveler in the 19th Century, wrote a full report on the Kazaks, plenty of prejudices for our modern 21st century eyes, but also a great source of information about the life of the Nomads at this time, which was certainly not much different as centuries before. The author wrote a chapter about the faith and religion of these tribes which have converted to Islam centuries ago: it confirms how these conversions have been superficial and how the traditional beliefs, including Tengriism, resisted in a form or another.