Lyuli or
Luli [lju`li:] are a subgroup of the
Dom peopleThe Dom of the Middle East are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group. Some authors relate them to the Domba people of India.They have a rich oral tradition and express their culture and history through music, poetry and dance...
living in
Central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
, primarily
TajikistanTajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east...
,
UzbekistanUzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
and
KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, it is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east....
.
Lyuli speak a Lyuli dialect of the
Domari languageDomari is an Indo-Aryan language, spoken by the Dom people across the Middle East, mainly in Iran and Egypt, but significant numbers of speakers are also found in India where they are known as Domba....
.
The Lyuli practice
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
. They have a clan organization (the Lyuli word for
clanA clan is a group of people united by kinship and descent, which is defined by actual or perceived descent from a common ancestor. Even if actual lineage patterns are unknown, clan members may nonetheless recognize a founding member or apical ancestor...
is
tupar). Division into sub-clans is also practiced. The Lyuli
communityIn biological terms, a community is a group of interacting organisms sharing an environment.In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks, and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of...
is extremely closed towards non-Lyuli..
Traditional occupations: crafts, including jewelry, cattle trading, mendicancy and music.
There are many names for the Lyuli: Jughi, Multani or Luli.
Lyuli or
Luli [lju`li:] are a subgroup of the
Dom peopleThe Dom of the Middle East are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group. Some authors relate them to the Domba people of India.They have a rich oral tradition and express their culture and history through music, poetry and dance...
living in
Central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
, primarily
TajikistanTajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east...
,
UzbekistanUzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
and
KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, it is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east....
.
Lyuli speak a Lyuli dialect of the
Domari languageDomari is an Indo-Aryan language, spoken by the Dom people across the Middle East, mainly in Iran and Egypt, but significant numbers of speakers are also found in India where they are known as Domba....
.
The Lyuli practice
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
. They have a clan organization (the Lyuli word for
clanA clan is a group of people united by kinship and descent, which is defined by actual or perceived descent from a common ancestor. Even if actual lineage patterns are unknown, clan members may nonetheless recognize a founding member or apical ancestor...
is
tupar). Division into sub-clans is also practiced. The Lyuli
communityIn biological terms, a community is a group of interacting organisms sharing an environment.In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks, and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of...
is extremely closed towards non-Lyuli..
Traditional occupations: crafts, including jewelry, cattle trading, mendicancy and music.
Name
There are many names for the Lyuli: Jughi, Multani or Luli. However, they refer to themselves as
Mugat or
Mughat , which means "fire-worshipper", as well as
Ghurbat (Arabic: غربات), which means "lonely". All of these words are derived from Arabic. The term
Multani signifies a person who originates from the city of
Multanis a city in the Punjab Province of Pakistan and capital of Multan District. It is located in the southern part of the province. Multan District has a population of over 3.8 million—according to 1998 census—and the city itself is the sixth largest within the boundaries of Pakistan...
(in modern-day Pakistan), because some of the Lyuli emigrated from Multan around 1380 CE. According to Professor Khol Nazarov, the ancestors of the Lyuli belonged to a caste of singers, musicians and dancers. Faced with hardship in their homeland, they were forced to leave, and dispersed worldwide.
Lyuli in Kyrgyzstan
The Lyuli live in the south of Kyrgyzstan, in
Osh ProvinceOsh Province is a province of Kyrgyzstan. Its capital is Osh. It is bounded by Jalal-Abad Province, Naryn Province, Xinjiang, China, Tajikistan, Batken Province and Uzbekistan.-Geography and Population:...
. Their
living standardStandard of living is generally measured by standards such as real income per person and poverty rate. Other measures such as access and quality of health care, income growth inequality and educational standards are also used. Examples are access to certain goods , or measures of health such as...
is extremely low due to discrimination. Many children are devoid of
educationEducation in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual...
in their
mother tongueA first language is the language a human being learns from birth...
and many Lyuli have no documents. Lyuli society is working towards improvement of their living standards and preservation of their
cultureCulture is a term that has different meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
.
Lyuli in Russia
In the beginning of the 1990s, Lyuli started
migratingUrbanization is the physical growth of urban areas from rural areas as a result of population immigration to an existing urban area. Effects include change in density and administration services. While the exact definition and population size of urbanized areas varies amongdifferent countries,...
into
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n cities, placing especially near
railway stationsA railway station, train station, railroad station, or station yard is a facility at which passengers may board and alight from trains, and/or where rail-transported freight may be loaded or unloaded. Historically, the term depot has also been employed in North America...
and
marketA market is any one of a variety of different systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby persons trade, and goods and services are exchanged, forming part of the economy. It is an arrangement that allows buyers and sellers to exchange things...
s. At first,
RussiansThe Russian people are an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
mistakenly identified them as Tajik refugees, ethnically Tajiks and
UzbeksThe Uzbeks are a Turkic-speaking people in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China...
, due to their
dressA feature of nearly all modern human societies is the wearing of clothing or clothes, a category encompassing a wide variety of materials that cover the body....
in traditional
OrientalThe Orient is a term which means "the East". It is a traditional designation for anything belonging to the Orient or Far East. In English it is a metonym describing Eastern Asia. It was also used to indicate the eastern direction in historical astronomy as the adjective Oriental.- Derivation :The...
robeA robe is a loose-fitting outer garment. A robe is distinguished from a cape or cloak by the fact that it usually has sleeves. The English word robe is borrowed from French...
s. Russian Roma emphasize that the Lyuli are a population distinct from them. However, Russians consider the Lyuli to be Gypsies, because of the resemblance with the Roma. They are a frequent target of Russian far right skinheads.
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