Abstract:
This article focuses on the project Sacred Geography of Kazakhstan, launched in 2017 in Kazakhstan as part
of the nationwide program Ruqani Zhangyru (Modernization of Spirituality). The officially stated goal of the
project is to cultivate a sense of patriotism in the country’s residents related to places and geographic sites
that are important for the historical memory of independent Kazakhstan. The authors assume that the real
goal of the project is national territorialization, or recoding of the semantics of space, by selecting, codifying,
and articulating some symbols and practices, while leveling and “forgetting” others. The analysis, which is
based on expert interviews and official documents, shows that this postcolonial process fits into the tendency
toward ethnonationalization of Kazakhstan, in which discourse on the civil nation continues to be
reproduced at the official level, while real activity is more focused on reinforcing the idea of Kazakhstan
as the state of the Kazakh nation. The institutionalization of organizing and recoding the sacred landscape
involves a wide variety of groups and actors. These factors may explain the success of the project in
comparison to other projects being implemented under the Ruqani Zhangyru program.
