The Kyrgyz in the Work of Hungarian Traveler György Almásy

Abstract

For Hungarian explorers, the territory of Turkestan was an important object of study throughout the 19th
century. The journey of the famous traveller Arminius Vamberi to Turkestan (1861-1863) intensified the
interest in this region. Hungarian ethnographer and zoologist György Almási (1867-1933) was one of those
who travelled to the region under the influence of Vamberi. Having travelled to the Kyrgyz lands in 1900,
Almási organized a research group made up of Kyrgyz and, with this group, he studied the fauna and flora
of the region as well as conducted anthropological, ethnographic, and sociological studies of the Kyrgyz.
His work entitled Vándor-Utam Ázsıa Szıvébe (My Journey into the Heart of Asia), published after his
travels, contains a wealth of information about the geography and culture of the Kyrgyz of that period. This
information, which the traveler included in his work, is more authentic and realistic compared to other
works of the period. However, the fact that György Almási's book of trips was published in Hungarian did
not allow this work to become widely known. This paper, written using the method of comparative
analysis, aims both to introduce readers to György Almási's Vándor-Utam Ázsıa Szıvébe and the information
provided by him about the Kyrgyz, and to show how rich information can be obtained when travel books
are used as the main source.