Bakhyt Yezhenkhan: "There are thousands of documents related to the Kazakh land in the Chinese archives"
With the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan A. Bakhyt Ezhenkhan, an Orientalist scientist and doctor of historical sciences from Nanjing University of the People's Republic of China, specially came to participate in the conference entitled "Historical archaeological heritage of Abay region: the first research results" held jointly by the Institute of Archeology named after Margulan and Shakarim University.
The scientist, who met with the students of the university studying history and archeology, presented his research on the topic of Kazakh-Chinese relations during the Abylaikhan era and shared interesting new data. He also expressed his opinion as a scientist, pointing out that world scientists make different assumptions about the borders of the Qin Empire, the territory of Manchuria, the Kazakh land, and political and social terms.
On this occasion, I had a chance to have a small interview with Bakhyt Ezhenkhan himself.
-Please tell us more about the topic you are referring to today's conference. How long have you been researching data in Chinese archives in general?
-First of all, I came to Atazhurt in 1994. And the following large-scale researches were made possible within the framework of the state program "Cultural Heritage" after about ten years. That is, in 2004, I was working at the Institute of Oriental Studies. As a result of state-level support, we started to study Manchu data in a timely manner. The study of Chinese history was just beginning. And now there is a scientific competition between different scientists of the world. Nevertheless, we are also conducting our own analysis. Between 2004 and 2008, we published about ten volumes of scientific works. And my two-volume study entitled "Kazakh-Qin relations during the era of Abylai Khan" (Semei: Shakarim University, 2025), which was presented at this conference, can be said to be the result of my work in the last 15 years. It contains new documents that were not known in the previous country.
- Mention virgin documents...
-For example, a 207-page study was included in the document "Notebook about Kazakhs in the peak era". It tells about the 16 ambassadorial missions of the Kazakh country from 1761 to 1783. We have read and familiarized with thousands of documents within this topic. We also analyzed documents in the Chagatai and Kalmyk languages. Among them there are also pictorial documents such as ancient maps and miniatures. Also, here I am focusing on the Kazakh-Chinese diplomatic relations during the era of Abylaikhan. Abylai Khan's letter to the Qin Empire was previously written in Chinese. It is said that the Kazakh people were vassals and paid tribute to the Qing Empire. And if we study the original in the Kalmyk language, it turns out to be completely different. Abylai Khan explained the territory and territorial extent of the Kazakh land to the Qing king and told him about the need to recognize it. In one of his letters written in 1761, "like some people, we do not move and move. Again, this is our familiarity. We will not leave him anywhere." I am including my research in this book. I am very grateful to the leadership of Shakarim University and my scientific colleagues who showed interest in its publication.
Press service of Shakarim University
