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What are we to make of this evidence, which we might assume illustrates facets of traditional
Central Asian culture? This page will provide some answers and additional illustrations. Our
subject here is traditional religion in Central Asia; we begin with what has been termed
"dispersed shamanism." This set of pre-Islamic traditional religious beliefs and practices has
lasted into modern times, at the same time that many of its practitioners have adopted one or
another of the "religions of the book": in the case of the Mongols--Buddhism; and in the case of
many of the related Turkic peoples of Central Asia-- Islam. As will become evident, there is a
syncretism between pre-Islamic religious tradition and Islamic norms, a fact which explains some
of the distinctive features of Central Asian Islamic practice.
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