Talantaaly Bakchiev (born 1971) is a manaschi (a reciter of the Kyrgyz epic ''

Epic of Manas The ''Epic of Manas'' is a lengthy and traditional epic poem of the Kyrgyz people of East and Central Asia. Versions of the poem which date to the 19th century contain historical events of the 8th century, though Kyrgyz tradition holds it to be ...

''), representative of the 'middle generation' (born in the Soviet period, career in the independence period), and academic. He was president of the “Manas” and Chingiz Aitmatov National Academy. In becoming a manaschi, he stated that Sayakbay Karalaev had appeared in his calling dream, and that Shaabai Azizov was his mentor. He has performed, formerly while holding a whip, in Kyrgyzstan and in Yakutsk. He is notable for having 'concocted an episode describing the memorial feast for Manas' and performed it at the National Manaschi Competition in Bishkek in 1999, and later defended the narrative from critical judges deeming it an invention by publishing his own variant (''Manastin ashi'') and discovering a predecessor, Tinibek, had performed a similar episode. Recordings of his oral performances of episodes of the epos have been made available online by the Aigine Cultural Research Center, and the Open Society Archives. Transcriptions of the latter, audiovisual recordings made at the

American University of Central Asia The American University of Central Asia (AUCA) (; ), formerly the Kyrgyz-American School and the American University in Kyrgyzstan, is a liberal arts university located in Bishkek, the capital of the Kyrgyz Republic. History AUCA began its exis ...

of variant performances narrating the birth of Manas, have been studied to reveal his in-performance composition methods that are similar to those described by

Milman Parry Milman Parry (June 23, 1902 – December 3, 1935) was an American Classicist whose theories on the origin of Homer's works have revolutionized Homeric studies to such a fundamental degree that he has been described as the " Darwin of Homeri ...

as Oral-formulaic composition. He has published episodes from the epos: a narrative concerning the memorial feast of the titular character Manas (''Manastin ashi''), and a narrative concerned with his companion, Almanbet (''Almambettin jomogu''). These have been analyzed in comparison with his texts produced in performance. He authored an academic thesis on the subject of Kyrgyz epics, and the first manaschi to produce a textbook on the subject.

References

{{reflist Living people Manaschis 1971 births