Ashar (Kyrgyzstan)

Ashar 🇰🇬
Location: Kyrgyzstan
Definition: Community effort to solve a common or individual issue
Keywords: Kyrgyzstan – FSU – Central Asia – Mutual help – Solidarity – Reciprocity – Public service – Problem-solving – Need
Clusters: Community lock-in – Redistribution
Author: Arzuu Sheranova
Affiliation: Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
Website: Profile page on Academia

By Arzuu Sheranova, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary

The term ashar (Aşar or Öşür) has a Turkic origin and means ‘one out of ten,’ a basic tax measure which was adapted from the Islamic practice of tax collection during the Ottoman era (see Ihsanoglu 2001 p.576). The Ottomans used to collect 1/10 or 5/10 of agricultural crops as tax depending on the type of conquered lands (dry or irrigated), although taxation proportion varied in various regions of the empire (Ibid.). Today ashar is not directly related to taxation, referring to the common bearing of the cost of goods or services for those who cannot afford it. This includes material contributions such as cash or in-kind and non-material as physical labour, volunteering and fundraising.

Importantly, the ashar tradition goes back to pre-modern times. It was one of the crucial practices within the tribal system of Kyrgyz people. Due to their nomadic way of life Kyrgyz could not imagine their life outside tribes as only tribes could provide security, food, and protection to their weakest members (see Kenčiev 2014, p.9). This nomadic legacy justifies the importance of communal help in contemporary Kyrgyzstan.

The diffusion of ashar has led to the re-employing of the term in other spheres of life. The so-called metod ashara (ashar method) refers to a collective action undertaken by community members to resolve a common or individual issue. Ashar is common in rural areas where relatives and neighbours ask each other’s help to collect crops, to construct a house or building. In these cases, the person who requested ashar organizes ash, a meal for relatives and neighbours as an appreciation of their help.

Ashar is a common practice also to construct or reconstruct roads, bridges, mosques, schools, or to clean irrigation canals. Ashar to solve local social infrastructural problems is frequent in most Kyrgyz peripheries because of the deficiencies in local or state budgets. A report by the Bulan Institute for Peace Innovations in 2017 stated that buildings of 193 schools in Kyrgyzstan out of 2,222 were in a state of emergency because most of them were built relying on ashar method in the early years since independence and did not comply with technical requirements (Azattyk 2017).

Despite criticism, in the peripheries of Kyrgyzstan public infrastructures built through ashar method are omnipresent. In 2020, in the Alay region of the Osh oblast, local community members erected a playground (see KTRK 2020). In a similar way, in 2021, businessmen and residents of Kara-Zhygach village of Batken oblast constructed a road to ease their access to summer pastures (see Ala-Too 24 2021).

Ashar is a solution to the limited economic opportunities of local communities in Central Asia. The average family recurs to ashar to host weddings or funerals because their cost is increasing. As of 2016, an average wedding could cost up to USD 10,220 (Sputnik 2016) whereas in 2013 it was between USD 4,500 – 4,750 (Vechernyi Bishkek 2013). Local communities conduct lavish wedding ceremonies because of social pressure. A family that contributed to the cost of a ceremony of relatives expects a contribution from other relatives in the occurrence of their own ceremony.

In recent years ashar has become a popular way of celebrating school or university graduation anniversaries among alumni, whereas, previously graduates celebrated their own graduation at cafes. Nowadays, they also collect money to purchase school equipment such as computers or books. Other common forms of social aid among alumni include the construction of houses for families in need or sports fields and kindergartens.

A longstanding cultural tendency of helping each other today, in case of need easily translates into volunteering and fundraising at the national level. For example, during the inter-ethnic conflict in the south of Kyrgyzstan in 2010 and the Kyrgyz-Tajik border clash in May 2021, citizens from various regions of Kyrgyzstan and Kyrgyz labour migrants raised funds to send food and clothes to community members.

In 2020, when the Kyrgyz medical system had failed, community-based response to the Covid-19 pandemic was another bright example of collective action (Nastoyaschee Vremya 2020, BBC 2020). Volunteer groups of young people in Bishkek, Osh, and other regions established hotlines and chats on social media platforms (WhatsApp, Facebook, and Telegram) to provide first aid to Covid patients. These volunteer groups raised funds to assist hospitals and medical workers with protective suits and medical masks. These communal efforts were effective in fighting waves of coronavirus infection in Kyrgyzstan, so that, in 2021 the government officialised the work of these groups by listing them on the on-line platform administrated by the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic (Ministerstvo Zdravoohraneniya 2021). A last relevant example was the suggestion of members of the Kyrgyz parliament to pay off the state debt to China through ashar method (see For.kg 2020).

References

Abazov, Rafis. 2004. Historical Dictionary of Kyrgyzstan. The Scarecrow Press. Inc. Lanham, Maryland, and Oxford

Ala-Too 24. 2021. Doroga, stroyaschayasya metodom ashara [A road is being constructed by ashar method]. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=164284168798499 Accessed: 2021.10.26.

Azattyk. 2017. V Kyrgyzstane predlagayut zapretit’ stroitel’stvo shkol metodom ashara [In Kyrgyzstan they suggest to ban construction of school by ashar method]. Available at: https://rus.azattyk.org/a/28572933.html Accessed: 2021.10.26.

BBC. 2020. Kyrgyzstan: kak volontery zamenili gosudarstvo v bor’be s koronavirusom [Kyrgyzstan: how did volunteers replace the government in fighting against coronavirus]. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-53791289 Accessed: 2021.08.20.

For.kg. 2020. Kyrgyzstantsev vnov’ prizyvayut pogasit’ dolg pered Kitaem metodom ashara [Kyrgyzstanis are again called to pay off debt to China by ashar method]. Available at: https://www.for.kg/news-672911-ru.html Accessed: 2021.10.26.

Ihsanoglu, E. 2001. History of the Ottoman state, society and civilization. Vol.1 ed. Istanbul

Kenčiev, J. 2014. Sanzhyra kyrgyzskogo plemeni “Sarybagysh”. Berlin: Klaus Schwartz Verlag. Retrieved from http://www.klaus-schwarz-verlag.com/manu/14-01-10_Sandsch_kirg.pdf

KTRK. 2020. Detskiy park metodom ashara [A children playground by ashar method]. Available at: http://www.ktrk.kg/ru/news/s/43386 Accessed: 2021.10.26.

Ministerstvo Zdravoohraneniya i socialnogo razvitiya Kyrgyzskoi Respubliki. 2021. V ramkah pandemii Covid-19 zapushen elektronnyi portal dlya volonterov [Within framework Covid-19 electronic portal for volunteers was launched]. Available at: http://med.kg/ru/novosti/4712-v-ramkakh-pandemii-covid-19-zapushchen-elektronnyj-portal-dlya-volonterov.html Accessed: 2021.08.20.

Nastoyaschee Vremya. 2020. Brigady poslednei nadezhdy. Kak volontery v Kyrgyzstane spasayut umirauschih, k kotorym ne uspevaet “skoraya” [How volunteers in Kyrgyzstans are saving dying patients to whom medical aid is not reaching]. Available at: https://www.currenttime.tv/a/volunteers-kyrgyzstan-help-coronavirus/30737441.html Accessed: 2021.08.20.

Sputnik. 2016. Rashody na srednestatisticheskuyu svadbu v Kyrgyzstane - torjestvo na 200 chelovek [Expenses for an average wedding in Kyrgyzstan – a feast for 200 people]. Available at: https://sputnik.kg/ig/wedding/index.html Accessed: 2021.08.20.

Vechernyi Bishkek. 2013. Srednyaa stoimost svadeb v Kyrgyzstane. [Average cost of weddings in Kyrgyzstan]. Available at: http://www.vb.kg/doc/237908_sredniaia_stoimost_svadeb_v_kyrgyzstane.html Accessed: 2020.08.20.